alfa alfa. Is it popular in your country?

[united]

Do you feed it to chicken? How much?

 

[SteveH]

alfa alfa. Is it popular in your country?

It took me a minute to realize the typo

. Years ago our chickens followed our livestock and had access to alfalfa in the pasture and could pick up dropped leaves where it was fed as hay . Its available in pellets and cubes but I've never heard of anyone useing it in those forms for chickens . I did read here at BYC that somebody offered their meaties a flake of alfalfa hay to eat free choice and claimed it enhanced the flavor of the meat . This winter I figure to offer mine a flake of hay to add green to their diet when nothing is growing here in the midwest .​

 

[dancingbear]

I have given alfalfa pellets to chickens in the winter, when greens were scarce, and they seemed to like them. Made the yolks of their eggs nice and orange again! But most years, there's a fair amount of green forage year-round, where I am.

 

[petrelline]

In the winter when greens are hard to come by I soak compressed alfafa cubes in water until they expand, and then mix that with some oats and flax with a little yogurt as a treat for my layers. They are nuts for it, but it is probably more the oats and yogurt that make it tasty rather than the alfalfa.

My husband thinks I am completely nuts about this whole strategy and calls this "spoiling the chickens."

It hadn't occurred to me to just feed them alfalfa pellets -- the ones I've seen are pretty large.

 

[KatyTheChickenLady]

we have 40 acresof it across the street. the girls love it when I go pick it fresh for them.

 

[Frogdogtimestwo]

I feed it to my turkeys and chickens for an occasional treat since they do not free range. They LOVE it, I just take a half a flake and give them the hay and they devour it, not even the stems are left at our place. It is high in protein so I do not give a lot, probably 2-3 times a month. I tried alfalfa pellets and they hated them dry or soaked. Just make sure they are adults and they have grit for breaking it down and I think its fine, I have been doing for 2 years without issue.
*edited to add that I use a half a flake per 4 birds and they munch most of the day.

 

[CARS]

Alfalfa is very, very common around here. The problem is finding "small squares" of it. Almost everyone around here that still bales it either has round bales or large squares.

I toss about a bale a month to the hens during the winter. What they don't eat is still "greens" for my compost pile. They scratch it in with the wood shavings.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Florida is a long ways from alfalfa country so we have to import it here, but I do use alfalfa pellets in my grain feeders. Only a small amount, but it helps when the pasture is poor.

 

[Dora'smom]

I tried it as an experiment this past winter. I bought a bale of alfalfa, and just set it in the center of the run so they could stand on it, eat it, etc. After awhile I cut the top strand on the bale and fluffed it out a little so it was more interesting again, and we just recently cut the lower band and pulled it apart for them. It was pretty decent entertainment and a great supplement for their feed.