What do you grow to feed the chickens??

[CluckerCottage]

We have basically the same as you, but I have collard greens, sun flowers and herbs growing that I share with the girls. They love em!

which herbs do your girls like best?
we grew catnip last year and they really enjoyed it, even though it was meant for my 3 spoiled rotten housecats!
also, we have been thinking about doing some black oil sunflowers as a winter supplement for our flock of 36.
I heard that if you mix a half teaspoon of Borax into a gallon of water and feed it to your plants mid-summer (when the buds are forming), you'll have stronger stems, more blooms and more seeds!
sounds reasonable since Borax is a mineral. anyone ever heard of that?

 

[jessschlles4]

I have tons of mint and even though they don't eat it they seem to love rolling around in it. They like to pick at the chives and the sage. Honestly their favorite treat is cabbage and or collards.

 

[beginnergirl]

Anyone grow chia seeds? I planted a cover crop for the girls. They did demolish my raspberry bushes. They LOVE the leaves. LOL ... but they were not planted for the girls.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm starting some red flint corn, red broom sorghum, Autumn mix sunflowers, planting a couple of pole bean tee-pees between the chicken run, tree line and garden in an area that is nasty heavy clay rocky soil. Hope the stuff grows to provide aerial predator protection, improve the soil, and keep it from being over run by trash plants.

 

[BruceAZ]

I gave my chickens tomatoes that i'm growing. I have some kales growing but not big enough yet.

lettuce will give them diarrhea so avoid those

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Love the borax suggestion...didnt know it was helpful. I have a section of garden that is rather stripped of nutrients and I m in the long process of improving all the nutrients. Didnt know about borax---thanks for the share!!

 

[Arielle]

I'm starting some red flint corn, red broom sorghum, Autumn mix sunflowers, planting a couple of pole bean tee-pees between the chicken run, tree line and garden in an area that is nasty heavy clay rocky soil. Hope the stuff grows to provide aerial predator protection, improve the soil, and keep it from being over run by trash plants.

You are a working machine!!!!! Love your thinking.... love you try new ideas and new plants....... all soil benefigts form adding compost material, just seems to take longer with clay type soils. At one time we used the bread wracks from the commerical bakery to remove the rocks by dumping a couple shovelfulls on it and shaking it then put stones in a 5 gal pail.l slow work but it does work. FOr your soil, it might be a few more years til a shovel will dig into the once clay soil..... given time the soil will improve drastically. Good luck!!!

 

[BruceAZ]

they are eating my watermelon and melon plants..

my garden was a failure..

110+ heat and chickens worst combination for a garden!

 

[Foristers]

I am planting wheat and rye over the winter for next spring's feed mix. I will do soybeans and other types of beans next spring to boost the protein for the chicks that will hatch around July/August of next year. All of this will be GMO free.

I have a question for those of you growing herbs to feed your chickens: Don't the strong herbs flavor the eggs that they lay? What has been your experience?

 

[mushypea]

Specifically for chickens I have lettuce, sunflowers and sugar snap peas. They eat the whole pea plant roots and all!
But they will happily eat pretty much any garden scraps, especially anything edible by humans, but maybe not the favourite parts (like beet tops, overgrown cucumbers popping from seeds, pumpkin seeds).