Bamboo leaves as food....

[ErnieBerley]

Does your black bamboo top kill in the winter there?

That looks like home. Spent many years in that area. Used to live in Sandy Mush.

When it gets below 0, the leaves will die and get yellow/brown, then fall. A few years ago we had 0 degrees for a week and it completely defoliated. But then in spring, new leaves form - until then it was a graveyard of sticks...lol. Snakes don't like crawling in the leaves either.

 

[ErnieBerley]

Good to know. I have done bamboo in my yard and thought it would be great for them to hang out on. They ate the little numbs and seemed to really like them. I'll have to get more for them to eat and was thinking of gathering the dead leaves to use for there nest. They seem to really like that too.

I'm telling you the chickens LOVE pulling the leaves off the bamboo branches and munching down. I also will grind it up and use as a food additive, especially for growing chicks. It gets their microbiome set right.

 

[ErnieBerley]

You would be amazed at the setup I have to capture rain water and to store it so I can grow squash, herbs, and other veggies. I also use tricks such as cultivating the soil, planting the seeds, then covering the area with rocks to trap soil moisture. I would grow the bamboo in this manner.

bamboo is really hardy and it will steal the moisture from anything it can find. It's a grass, grows really shallow, so once started it grows like weeds unless you get clumping bamboo like Blue Bamboo.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

I'm telling you the chickens LOVE pulling the leaves off the bamboo branches and munching down. I also will grind it up and use as a food additive, especially for growing chicks. It gets their microbiome set right.

Do they do this only when the leaves are young, or all year long?

 

[ErnieBerley]

Do they do this only when the leaves are young, or all year long?

All year long - and even when the leaves are dying/dead on the branches, they'll eat them. OF course i'd rather they eat live ones, but they like them "dead or alive"

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

All year long - and even when the leaves are dying/dead on the branches, they'll eat them. OF course i'd rather they eat live ones, but they like them "dead or alive"

Do you like starve them or something? My chickens have no interest in bamboo leaves. What breed(s) do you have?

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Is this what yours do?

 

[ThreeOfSeven]

All year long - and even when the leaves are dying/dead on the branches, they'll eat them. OF course i'd rather they eat live ones, but they like them "dead or alive"

We have bamboo on the island. Years ago, a bunch of homeowners, maybe landscapers too, thought it would make a nice privacy screen. Still does, but it's tough to control. Anyhow, does this mean I don't have to wait to grab some to see if my girls like it? We're in the dead of winter, so there aren't any nice fresh green shoots available.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Huh, I cut up some Nigra Henon leaves and put them in with their food... and one's eating the stuff! Yay!

 

[Chullicken]

I looked up the nutritional components of bamboo shoots, the new growth, not older leaves, and boy was I surprised! The stuff is remarkably nutritious.

"The main nutrients in bamboo shoots are protein, carbohydrates, amino acids, minerals, fat, sugar, fiber, and inorganic salts. The shoots have a good profile of minerals, consisting mainly of potassium (K), calcium (Ca), manganese, zinc, chromium, copper, iron (Fe), plus lower amounts of phosphorus (P), and selenium (Shi and Yang 1992; Nirmala and others 2007). Fresh shoots are a good source of thiamine, niacin, vitamin A, vitamin B6, and vitamin E (Visuphaka 1985; Xia 1989; Shi and Yang 1992). They are rich in protein, containing between 1.49 and 4.04 (average 2.65 g) per 100 g of fresh bamboo shoots. They contain 17 amino acids, 8 of which are essential for the human body (Qiu 1992; Ferreira and others 1995). Tyrosine amounts to 57% to 67% of the total amino acid content (Kozukue and others 1999). Fat content is comparatively low (0.26% to 0.94%) and the shoots contain important essential fatty acids. The total sugar content, 2.5% on average, is lower than that of other vegetables." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1541-4337.2011.00147.x