Alfalfa question...

[SilkieTime]

Can't hay cause impacked crop?

 

[chicken sweety]

Yes I believe that Alfalfa hay can compact in the crop just like tough grass can. What teeth? Only grit and a crop for breaking down food.

 

[thedeacon]

alfalfa also comes in pellets. Small enough to eat. Although they are good protien, there is nothing like a real bale of alfalfa hay. There is a difference in hays. Some is brome, a grass. this does not compare with alfalfa.

 

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

The leaves of the alfalfa is where all the nutrition is and what the chickens want to eat. A bale or loose gleaned hay is best. I had gleaned a lot of loose alfalfa hay last year and it was great to have for them.

Cubes can be crushed and fed dry, or soaked, wrung out and fed. Be aware that cubes have a lot of rough stems in them, which might be good for rumaniants like cattle, but your birds will pick through and leave them.

A bag of cubes is easy to store, I will give it that.

 

[Organics North]

Alfalfa = dark egg yolks...

My birds eat whole grains and alfalfa... No impacted crop here... Plenty of grit is the simple answer..

ON

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
The alfalfa pellets I feed my birds are pure alfalfa, nothing else. They won't eat a lot of them relative to the grain in their feeder, but they'll eat enough to get the job done. They work better for me than the range cubes or baled hay. Much less waste.

 

[shaft0463]

I feed a lot of soaked alfalfa cubes and/or pellets to my horses (none of them get bagged feed because one is sensitive to soy). I've tried feeding the cubes or pellets to the chickens, in different ways, but the layers seem to only really like it if it's ground up with some corn and a bit of cat food. Rice bran is also good to add. The cat food and rice bran help to keep the dust down, and the corn makes it more appealing to them. I also use some mixed bird seed or black oil sunflower seeds, ground. Keep oats out of them blender though

I have done soaked pellets, and they won't touch them. Same for the cubes, soaked or dry.

The meaties however will eat soaked pellets with rice bran mixed in. But then they will eat anything that doesn't eat them first.

 

[Boo-Boo's Mama]

I feed alfalfa pellets in a hot mash every morning. I mix in various things such at homemade yogurt

(thanks for the recipe!), hot water, Flock Raiser, crushed red pepper, cooked pinto beans or black-eyed peas, leftovers from the frig, eggs that have cracks or been pecked, rolled oats if too much liquid, crushed eggshells when I have them and other days I add some oystershell (have one or two who do not use the free choice), overripe bananas, etc.

They love it and lick the dish clean!