At what age BOSS?

[Tomhusker]

Was wondering at what age I can treat the young 'uns to some BOSS?

 

[Tomhusker]

Bueller........ Bueller.........

 

[Downshifting]

Quote:
Uh...don't laugh too much at the total newbie here....but what is BOSS?

 

[Wizbop]

BOSS=Black Oil Sunflower Seed
Now, someone else will have to answer the "when" question. Seems like we started offering it to our girls at 10 weeks. I don't know if that is the norm or not, though.

 

[Peppermint]

And why Black oil sunflower seeds? Why not the plain unsalted ones?

 

[felidaet]

Gray Stripe sunflower seeds have a much harder shell and are hard for the birds to digest. These are the ones that humans usually eat. You will notice that general bird seed always contains BOSS rather than Gray Stripe. I tried feeding some gray stripe seeds to be birds last year (fresh picked from the garden) and they were not very interested. The BOSS seeds they went crazy over. I would pick 2 or 3 flower heads and place them in the run (with 17 pullets). The would pick all of the seeds out of the head in an amazingly short time. No need for you to remove the seeds from the head. They are more than capable. I would give them the seed heads about 3 times a week. Within a couple of weeks their feathers were shiny and soft.

I grew BOSS seeds just for the chickens last year. I believe I grew 3 20' rows. I planted more than twice that this year. I may have to replant them though. We had a very wet May and now June is setting records for rainfall. We have another storm heading this way on Wed. Seeds are rotting in the ground. If they do germinate they only grow a primary set of leaves and then quit growing (due to cool temperatures). Eventually slugs, birds, and wild rabbits eat the seedlings. It is a difficult gardening year for people in Western Oregon and Western Washington this year. Some people have not even gotten their gardens tilled yet.

 

[Peppermint]

Got it, thanks!

 

[allieloveschickens]

We had a sunflower pop up in our garden this year, we just harvested the head, I have to wait until my girls are older to give them the seeds but we planted quite a few around so hopefully we will have a good crop going! I think the original somehow came over from our neighbors yard- she is a very nice lady, grows lots of cactus and sunflowers. What are the benefits of BOSS?

 

[pkw]

Don't feel bad, I had no idea was BOSS was either. You never know unless you ask.

 

[Tomhusker]

Quote:
Because I have a huge bag of Black oil Sunflower Seeds that I bought to feed to wild birds, and I never gave it to them....