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I hope I was at least correct that the actual number was closer to 30 than 300. :D

Somewhat of an egg-zageration on the 30, but far fewer than today. And thank you...it's a lot of work but we're enjoying our little farm setup. And I feel we're proof that you can feed chickens with waste streams!

It’s worth noting that even the birds of the early 20th century weren’t the birds of today…laying closer to 30 eggs per year, not 300…so different nutritional needs. That being said, we could do much more to leverage waste streams to feed chickens. The last 80 years or so have been very...

Yeah…you could use extra/cheap/old seed, save seeds from your garden crops, or even leverage weed seeds I’d imagine.

I was turning some compost today, and despite it being late October in the northeast, I was happy to see that some of the whole corn I’ve been tossing onto the pile to help motivate the flock to scratch had sprouted. As I was uncovering sprouted corn and worms, the flock was happily jumping in...

I grow mint around the perimeter of my run. The chickens don’t eat it, but I figure it may help keep odors and flys in check. To help keep the spread in check, I cut it back and use the clippings in my coop and nest boxes when I’m cleaning my coop.

Container grown, huh? One of the cool things about comfrey is that it’s got a long tap root, so can bring nutrients from down deep back to the surface (for feeding livestock or composting / green mulching). But hey, if it does well In a container too…all the better! it grows really fast. Even...

Ah, ok…that’s Karl Hammer with the Vermont Compost company. He runs the compost business and the chickens and eggs are side bonus/business. I think he also breeds some rare donkey/mules for cart pulling.

I grew a dozen comfrey plants this year and ordered 18 more cuttings this fall. It grows amazingly fast and I must be lucky because my flock will eat it.

I’m pretty sure you’re referencing Edible Acres. He does some interesting stuff with compost, sprouts….and creates a ton of compost from his flock.

Thanks for posting @Kiki - that’s a pretty chicken friendly list…meat, seafood, eggs, wheat.

I’ve been seeding my former goat pen with cover crop type seeds (actually found a poultry mix) and letting them in periodically to enjoy. Then I shut them out for a few weeks to let things grow back.

It’s like “pick your own” operations for people food. Pay more, contribute labor, enjoy. A chicken may enjoy the worm or bug they dig up/catch more just like people enjoy getting their hands dirty!

That's a good point. Depending on how many chickens you have, the last one to go may even put on a few ounces while "walking around". Reminds me of my dad....he's slowly cutting down some oaks at his house for firewood, but only cutting what he needs for 1-2 years. He figures that at 75, he...

If you time it right, if you have X chickens, you can get chicken dinner for X days and fresh eggs for breakfast for X-1 days. :D