Can Chickens Eat Alfalfa Hay?

[barkinghills]

I have seen Barnevelder chicks for sale from a number of the large mail-order hatcheries, as well as from show breeders. I don't think they are hard to find.

 

[CESpeed]

I do this too. My "lawn" is the same coastal bermuda/clover/rye mix that grows in my pastures. The birds love it, and I always make sure it's finely chopped so they don't have issues with crop binding. I also give them plain yogurt on the days they get the clippings. It helps with the "interesting" poo.

I like this idea a lot. Does it look like a regular lawn?

 

[Organic Farm]

oh ok thanks, it must just be the silver laced barnevelders that you can't get here in the us, those are my favorite, the others are pretty too though.

 

[tednbren]

They make Chaffhaye in Dell City, TX. It's great to feed. I use it to feed my horse. In Dell City, you have to buy a pallet which is 40 bags at $9.00 per bag. I can feed my horse for almost 4 months. Here is a website for more info. www.chaffhaye.com

 

[tednbren]

I commented on Chaffhaye. Website www.chaffhaye.com. They make it in Dell City, TX. You have to buy a pallet which has 40 bags at $9.00 a bag. Good deal I thought. I feed it to my horse and it lasts him almost 4 months. (one pallet) The website gives more information on it.

 

[susienoe]

Can I ask a question of you seasoned poultry owners? I had included alfalfa as an ingredient in my homemade feed. I was unsure of what kind to buy so I got pellets. I am also including field peas, but I read that they need to be ground, so I bought a grinder and ran the peas and some of the alfalfa pellets through the grinder last night. I just can't tell from all of the impacted chicken stories here if this is going to be better or worse for the chickens. I believe they are horse pellets, I put them through a grain mill on a course grind. Thanks!

 

[marmca]

Evening All,
I have fed my birds alfalfa cubes made from chaf from out west. It's not their first choice, as they have choice of corn, wheat, millet, or layer but if available they eat it. I'm not always allowing them out to free range in the yard, so I thought the alfalfa would give them some greens while in their coop. cubes were about the same price as a second cutting bale and weight was 50lbs, feed store had plenty so...

My question is about Peanut Vine Hay and it's nutritive value.
Round bales are available, I have not been able to 'look' at it, First question of me was if for goats, donkey/horse or cattle, he was concerned about "sand belly" and wanted to know what type or creature it would be used for.
Since my girls are pretty good about spreading their food and picking usable foliage, sand was least of my concerns. Is this wrong?
Thanks to others on this thread, I have learned that impacted crop is more of a concern.
Perrenial Peanut hay is supposed to be good substitute for Alfalfa but this will be Peanut Vine hay. I've found some literature (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/an255) that says it is high in Ash 8 to 16% and
Neutral Detergent Fiber is 32 - 38
Anyone able to remark on this? Or know where I can find micro nutrients that chickens, Pheasant need for optimal health?
Thanks in advance

 

[Percheron chick]

I wouldn't buy peanut vine hay for chickens. I have never seen a comprehensive analysis done on it but....

It's a vine. In the baling and drying process most of the leaves, which contain most of the nutrients, shatter. They fall off the vine and stay on the ground. The vines are too large for the chickens to do much with other than spread them around and play with them. (not that's that bad).. Your ADF and NDF values are also the higher hay values and not the fresh cut ones. ADF will be closer to 35-45% and the NDF will be 45-55%. Meaning that there is less digestible energy and more non digestible fiber. Ash value at 8% is fine (hays are typically 10%) but reading between the lines, how much of that is just plain old dirt? Is the ash really 5% meaning it has low mineral content? 16% tells me there was a lot of dirt in the sample. Chickens eat dirt so that's not a problem but you're not proving it as a source of dirt and grit. A round bale is going to run #400-1000 depending upon the baler. Do you have other livestock to share the bale with? You still have to be concerned about spoilage. If you are forking off #20 at a time, it will last you years. Handling big rounds is a PIA unless you have the equipment to pick them up and move them around too. In the end, you are going to end up just raking it all up and throwing it on the compost pile.

To the first part of your post:
Alfalfa cubes and pellets are made from lesser quality hay than typical bales are. It's over mature hay (hay cut after the bloom stage), hay that got rained on so it was flipped and dried a 2nd or 3rd time causing extensive leaf shatter leaving you with mostly just the stem or hay that doesn't have the time to cure properly so it's chopped and sent through a drier (more leaf shatter). Test this by soaking a few cubes. Break them up with your hands. What you do end up with? Mostly 2-4" stalks of alfalfa sticks? That contains most of the fiber (NDF) so you aren't getting much of anything out of it. Chickens want the alfalfa leaves. That's where the good stuff is going to be. I would buy the leafiest, smallest stemmed bale I could find, 2nd should be fine but 3-4 is usually higher quality, and give that to them. You can either give them a flake at a time or give them the whole bale (don't cut the strings) and they will spend hours working on the bale. If the hay cubes and the bale are the same price, you are getting more bang for the buck with the bale.

 

[marmca]

Thank you Percheron chick. Very Informative. I was too eager for the later cuttings of Alfalfa, and seemed like a good alternative at the time. If cubes are not soaked can break them apart like a biscuit, some goes to powdery dry flakes the color of kelp. They do devour it when I run low on grains and need to make a feed run. Other times they seem to not know what it is.

 

[Percheron chick]

The dried flaky stuff is the leaves. Leaves should be about 50% in a bale of hay. You can tell how little there is in the cubes.