What kind of corn to grow for chicken feed?

[EurekaSouth]

Well, that's my question, in a nutshell - or a pecan shell as it would be around here. We have 5 acres, and I'm putting in a good-size garden - veggies for us and corn for the chickens - and we'll be getting about 20-30 chickens - to start with. We'll have Barred Rocks, Buff Orpingtons, RIRs, Auracaunas, Silkies, and probably some Banties. Right now, my hubby and friends are in the process of building the coop - -

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

I grow sweet white and yellow corn the chickens love it.

 

[SunChick]

how much would you have to plant to feed them? I wonder if I can grow corn in FL

 

[silkiechicken]

Personally I'd just plant all the food you want for yourself and the chickens will be fine eating left overs and cuttings from what you don't eat. If you really want to grow corn for them to eat in a dried scratch kind of way, you would need to find some of those hard corn seeds, like picking out the corn seeds from hamster food

 

[keljonma]

Our birds forage all day and some would stay out all night too, if the weather is decent. So we give a small treat at night to get the flock back into the hen house.

Well, last summer a friend gave us 12+ dozen ears of their surplus sweet corn. 154 ears of corn is a lot of shucking!

I canned corn and blanched and froze whole ears.

I blanched some then cut the ears into thirds and froze them.

I heated them up and gave each bird their own little ear of corn during the winter when they went into the hen house at night.

I cut some kernels off cobs and dried the corn in my oven overnight. Not only can this be used in cooking for your family, you can use it as a treat to get the birds into the hen house at night during the winter.

Out of the 12+ dozen ears of sweet corn, about half went to the flock this winter when we were consistently well below zero with the wind chills. It helped keep them warm during long cold winter nights.

 

[Freebie]

wow, I think I will try to grow them some corn this summer. What else is good to grow for them?

 

[keljonma]

Aside from the "goodies" they eat while foraging our two acres, our flock is fed a vegetarian diet; vegetarian layer feed or certified organic vegetarian layer feed being their main source of required nutrients. They have free-choice access to grit and oyster shell.

For treats, our flock loves greens (veggie tops), kale, swiss chard, lettuces, red and green cabbage (they especially love the red), brussel sprouts, green beans, carrots, corn, tomatoes and all types of summer and winter squash. They go crazy for fruit like cranberries, blueberries, plums, apples, grapes and peaches. We also give them chopped hard cooked eggs, buttermilk, fat-free plain yogurt w/active cultures, low-fat or fat-free, low sodium cottage cheese and provide organic grains (rolled oats, barley, wheat) and fancy scratch, sunflower and flax seeds.

I usually chop the cranberries in the blender as we had one pullet suffer some breathing difficulties after a large piece got lodged in the back of her mouth. Don't feed apple seeds, too many can be toxic.

Most of the vegetables and some of the fruits come from our organic gardens, as did some of the wheat and sunflower seeds, as well as the corn I mentioned previously

You can plant an extra plant or an extra row of your favorite veggies for your flock.

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

Our chickens compete with our dogs for the figs that drop from the fig tree and the blackberries from the vines and they eat the pine nuts that fall like they were cereal they are always on the look out for those natural treats. We will share with them from our garden mainly squash leaves, corn and tomatoes.