BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[Arielle]

Quote: I like how you think George. I touch all the grasses, and then try to pull them. I found one type that is fairly stiff and impossible to harvest by hand. A scissor is required, and cut into short pieces for the chickens to eat.

THe study was from NORTH korea?? I'm not surprised the birds didn't survive on white rice!! That stuff should be eliminated from all diets. Seems only pandas are adapted to bamboo ... . to survive on it they are generally slow moving animals and the longer intestine helps remove more nutrients, or increases the number of microbes in the gut. Eating only one food definitely has drastic effects. Cool study.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: LOL, I don't see any plant as a "weed" anymore. That word has left my vocab. lol If someone will eat it whether rabbit, chicken, sheep or horses, it is FOOD.

I have yet to find a good method of IDing plants-- suggestions??

 

[Arielle]

Quote: We tried digging a trench for potatos last year. Digging a 12 by 5 foot trench 10 inches deep was nearly impossible. My son tried another method: using a big pot. Much easier. Rethinking how to make a much larger "pot" to grow next year. Sand hill sells sweet potato slips and has a good write up on growing them.

I can get whole oats from one supplier. At feed prices. I did it as an experiment and found an answer. Apparently oats need more sunlight than where I seeded.

Interesting commentary on the AMaranth. THis one was high on my list to try as the leaves are also edible. Can immature seeds be eaten? OR do you think if the birds could harvest for themselves??? THough perhaps many of the seed clusters are too high for the chickens to reach and why the songbirds partake.

I didn't realize millet is such a short season crop. Interesting!! I wonder if it will reseed itself?

 

[gjensen]

I like how you think George. I touch all the grasses, and then try to pull them. I found one type that is fairly stiff and impossible to harvest by hand. A scissor is required, and cut into short pieces for the chickens to eat.

THe study was from NORTH korea?? I'm not surprised the birds didn't survive on white rice!! That stuff should be eliminated from all diets. Seems only pandas are adapted to bamboo ... . to survive on it they are generally slow moving animals and the longer intestine helps remove more nutrients, or increases the number of microbes in the gut. Eating only one food definitely has drastic effects. Cool study.

LOL. Did I say North Korea? No, not North Korea. It was South Korea. I do not think I have heard anything from N. Korea. LOL. I would be interested to know about their poultry though.

 

[gjensen]

We tried digging a trench for potatos last year. Digging a 12 by 5 foot trench 10 inches deep was nearly impossible. My son tried another method: using a big pot. Much easier. Rethinking how to make a much larger "pot" to grow next year. Sand hill sells sweet potato slips and has a good write up on growing them.

I can get whole oats from one supplier. At feed prices. I did it as an experiment and found an answer. Apparently oats need more sunlight than where I seeded.

Interesting commentary on the AMaranth. THis one was high on my list to try as the leaves are also edible. Can immature seeds be eaten? OR do you think if the birds could harvest for themselves??? THough perhaps many of the seed clusters are too high for the chickens to reach and why the songbirds partake.

I didn't realize millet is such a short season crop. Interesting!! I wonder if it will reseed itself?

If I was where you were, and wanted to grow potatoes, I would grow them in towers. Don't you have rocky soil?

Oats make a good palatable grass when young and tender. It tolerates being cut. It would not be a bad cool season grass. If you can get seed cheap.

That is the thing with planting stuff. It has to be worth the cost. It is easy to pay too much in time, labor, and money. For me anyways.

Don't discount Amaranth on my account. You might feel differently. They are beautiful plants. I grew them with sunflowers, and decided that the sunflowers were worth the effort.

I have tilled and planted bags of sunflower seeds.

They sell deer forage mixes here. Our deer season runs from August, into January. At the end of the season, we can find these mixes on clearance. There is still enough time to get into the ground, and get a good stand before it gets hot and kills it. These mixes have been helpful to have and cut and carry greens to the breeding pens.

I learned years ago, that tilling and liming a section in the pasture was helpful. The tilling up the sod would bring weed seeds up to the surface. I would let the birds in once there was a stand. There would also be more insects etc. in this stand. They would rummage through the stand of weeds more than the rest.

For many years, I had some crocodiles (yes they ate chicken) in a greenhouse. I experimented with growing tomatoes in buckets of sand and a planting mix. I would use the croc's pond water as fertilizer and water. Eventually, I figured out that I needed more light. I did finally have them well started and used these plants "to extend the season". I would feed the tomatoes to the chickens. I was concerned about Salmonella. I thought I had something. I was thinking about raising breeder fish like this. Tilapia.
Once the internet became the norm, I realized others were already doing it. It was not as interesting to me then. The fun was figuring it out.

When I started playing with chickens etc. the internet was not the norm. Poultry books was hard to find. Very few was raising them. I had to figure out much the hard way, but the fun was in figuring it out. Now we have a lot at our finger tips.

I enjoyed playing around. Every winter I would dream up something new to try. There are a lot of possibilities. It amazes me how creative people can be.

Now my health is different. I will have to figure out new things eventually. I do some reminiscing because I enjoyed trying things. That is why I talk about creating a line of utility bantams. Too big to show, but too small to show. There are a lot of utilitarian advantages to the smaller birds.
I cannot imagine not tinkering with something.

A lot of things I talk about are things that I have done, but some are not things I am doing now. I am adapting and changing.

I have some time, I guess. I have some boys home to help. I am trying to double time it with these Catalanas, and try to get a few to pick up on them. I picture needing to change though. The good thing about miniatures is I can still tinker. I can do the same things, just on a smaller scale.

 

[RedRidge]

 On the other hand, our birds are not cows, sheep, rabbits, or horses. They are not high fiber animals. They are not ruminants. They are seed eaters. Sheep or cows do not require the amount of energy that our birds do. Our bird's heart rates are in excess of 250 beats per minute. They have very high respiration rates. They require a lot of energy to maintain this super high metabolism. They are more than anything, seed eaters. They need more energy (seeds) than any other thing.

 Cows are not big seed eaters. They are great converters of high fiber, low protein grass into flesh. They have comparatively low metabolisms and are equipped to get the most out of little. They are not made to process high energy feeds (corn), like a chicken is. It used to put on fat, because people like marbled beef. Not because it is best for the cows.

I was going to say, "Wait a minute!", but then I got what your saying. 

The organic, no-grain dairy guys don't graze short, lush grass because it's too rich and digestible.  They prefer taller, more fibrous grass.  Some of the high production dairy herds add a pound or two of straw to the ration to slow rate of passage.  Adding straw can also help with some health problems. 

Uh no! We milk both cattle and sheep. Our forage is ONLY grazed between 4 and 8". Never more than 8 and never less than 4. It's all about genetics.
I tell people all the time, we don't raise cattle, sheep, poultry and rabbit. We simply raise forage and use the animals to convert that forage to meat, milk and eggs. ;-)

 

[DesertChic]

Our chickens prefer to go for what most people would call weeds but are actually edible, and sometimes used as cover crops. They don't go after true grazing grasses like you find at the feed store to seed over pastures for larger livestock. They prefer things like dandelion, dock, henbit, clover, sow thistle, various small wild flowers, purslane - things we have growing wild in our pasture. I actually learned to ID some of these things in my research on edible weeds for people. They also enjoy the things I grow extra in the garden for them like spinach, arugula, lettuce. They aren't very fond of mustard or collard greens though.

Have you tried feeding them kale? It grows extremely well in winter months and my flock absolutely loves it. I offer mine most of the greens you listed above except henbit, which I've never heard of, and offer the excess kale from my garden simultaneously. They always devour the kale first. I'm also growing them (and us) some true comfrey, English plantain, white yarrow and lambs quarters. I might try growing some nettles for them this year as I've been told the chickens usually love it, and it's good for people too. I'm just not looking forward to those stinging spines.

Luckily my chickens also seem to love the nasty nut grass that grows in our tired desert soil. Now that the winter rains have stimulated its growth here I'm going to be pasturing the chickens in various sections of my yard for their benefit and mine.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

LOL, I don't see any plant as a "weed" anymore. That word has left my vocab. lol If someone will eat it whether rabbit, chicken, sheep or horses, it is FOOD.

I have yet to find a good method of IDing plants-- suggestions??

A weed is simply a "plant out of place" as my horticulture professor used to say.

We grow kale year round. We harvest seed from a bed ever couple of years and that keeps us going. The seed has amazing viability life so storage is easy. The birds love it! It's is not as high in calcium as chard, but I never seem to have calcium problems as we range our flocks.

My breeding pens are seeded with grasses, kale, dandelion of course and clover. Next to the breeding pens is an area that grows an amazing amount of chickweed. I can rotate letting the birds out and they really appreciate it.

We are lucky to live in an area that is organically focused. We have an amazing feed available here, non pelletized that is all local grains. Peck and Scratch is the name. you can get it corn free, corn and soy free, but I always leave the corn in. My hens love it and feed is supplemental, so I feel the corn is a treat. Of course we only use GMO free certified feed.

Anyone else willing to chime in on my question about what traits you cull for when growing for egg production?

 

[LindaB220]

Quote:
Arielle, you can't get much smaller than me. I'm starting with one Blosl White Rock pair and a XW trio. Two pens right now. Later I will add another pen to make a combo of the two strains. Blosl for the silver gene and fab feathering and the XW for the shape. Win win. Per Fred. On another note, life does get in the way and I'm having to put all egg and chick buys on hold for a couple of months so I can have the XX##& knee surgery that I've been running from. Get it out of the way. I'll have it done probably around the last of Feb. sigh

 

[bnjrob]

LOL, I don't see any plant as a "weed" anymore. That word has left my vocab. lol If someone will eat it whether rabbit, chicken, sheep or horses, it is FOOD.

I have yet to find a good method of IDing plants-- suggestions??

I've got some older books on herbs with pictures, since a good number of edible weeds are also considered medicinal. I have the Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs and there is supposed to be a new edition that is supposed to be even better. Other places I've gleaned info from, for free, is Mother Earth News and Extension websites and a site that is specific for foraging in TX but may have some of the same plants you have up there - http://www.foragingtexas.com/

Some books that I don't have but have been recommended to me for plant IDs are *Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods from Dirt to Plate* by John Kallas, and *Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide To Over 200 Natural Foods* by Thomas Elias/Peter Dykeman

If you were to do a search for *foraging* and *New England* or *Massachusetts*, you will probably find some good sites with photos for plant IDing. Also *edible weeds* usually gets you some good hits for sites with photos and descriptions.