Chicken Food Tower

[Phaedra Geiermann]

In fact I was reading the article about the best treats for chicken, and suddenly an idea came into my mind. I have bought such hardware cloth (not sure if it is called so in English) originally for making a simple support between raised beds for beans and cucumbers. But, anyway it ends up with such a wire compost bin, but quite high, 1.2m.

I cleaned the run and put the mixture of soil, poo, whatever they scratched and left on the ground together, added the grass seeds then piled them up.

mixed grass seeds with whatever they scratched and left before adding them in the compost tower

Then, well, i have really a lot of vegetable seeds, i means, why not push this idea a bit further?

radish, coriander, different kind of brassica family veggies, carrots, herbs...

pea - they should not directly eat raw beans, i know, but the leaves and flowers, tendrils will be nice! (i can accept only pea pods left for us, haha)

Well, can't wait to keep developing this idea forward!

Did anyone try similar ideas? It would be great for hearing your experience. I believe it can provide them both food and fun

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

okay, i do keep working on it, many ideas, also find some old stuffs and give them new purposes, first, the roosting bar (it's something from previous house owner, i guess it's a part of broom?) The towers are quite stable as the materials inside is quite a lot and wet

Then, added a roof (which is originally used last year for a temporary protection for tomatoes, but now we have a greenhouse.

okay, veggies and grass planted, and girls have now a place to hang out when it rains , and leads the rain water going to the planting towers at two sides.

I will keep updating this one, really excited! Earlier this year I mixed wild flower seeds with compost and created several wild flower boarders, which are awesome. Now I can't wait to see how a food tower can look like!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I would like to share with you about my wild flower patch, which is an important element of this idea. To attract more pollinators, I bought some mixed flowers seeds last year, but the performance was bad because, directly sawing them to the ground is almost a gamble, even I did that during rainy day.

This year I thought about the seed bomb idea, so I mixed the seeds with compost first

and applied a 5cm layer directly on the ground

covered with whatever chicken scratched and their poo as an insulation layer (from low temperature in early spring, said March, and birds), also keeps the moisture as possible.

It worked. Compared with what I did last year, this year so many successfully germinated.

And they grow well. The first wave is in fact the Brassica campestris with yellow flowers, those purple flowers are the second wave - Phacelia (phacelia, scorpionweed, heliotrope)

Then I tried few more patches, these two are slower planted, so Brassica campestris are still blossoming when I took the photos.

Now is the third wave flowers coming for the wild flower patches - sun flowers, borage/star flowers, to give them proper space to grow, I pulled all the Brassica campestris (yellow flower ones) and gave them to the chickens for food+fun.

Therefore, I am really excited about the idea to make it vertical

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

07.24 Update

We have some rain today, and the seedlings looks energetic.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

07.20 Update

As I harvested some potatoes planted in a big pot, now I have some used compost that I can add into the food tower.

This time I only sprinkled grass seed on the egde, becose the center part will be difficult for them to access to light for germination.

Basically I use (A) the mixture of chicken poo, whatever they scractched and left on the ground, vegetable stems that they can't consume for the lower part of the tower, from the middle, i put three different materials, layer by layer

(A) mentioned above
(B) grass clipping or some green material --> to increase the internal moisture
(C) recycled compost+soil after harvest veggies planted in the pots

green material: grass clipping

green material: potato leaves and stems

It basically follows the general direction piling materials up for compost, and grass seeds are sprinkled between each layer.

When some gaps appear (as it's not tightly packed, after sometime it will sink anyway), we can always use the seed bomb (just mix grass seed, soil amd some water) and insert those small balls into the tower.

For me, the entire idea is based on nothing-to-lose and fun

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

07.28 Update

We had some rain again last evening, the growth is so far so good.

The grass grows very well and gives the tower a green & fluffy look. However, I will suggest to use grass seed only in the middle layer, because, hahaha, how come can our hens fly and enjoy this

Well, grass in the middle and outer ring, the most top area should be kept for vegetable only, lesson learned.

In their eyes, the tower might look like this and the grass is too far away

This one is mainly for wildflowers, but it contains good amount of green manure (majorly
Oilseed radish), they grow very quickly, and our hens love them

Much earlier I sowed these wildflower seeds directly into soil, and the oilseed radish can be easily recognized. They are a safe choice to plant also outside the run (in a distance which they can reach but can't destroy too soon)

The carrot top, garlics are growing for sure.

Garlic is here! And it's funny to see them grow upward.

To be honest, these towers also gave me some additional pleasure to watch the seedlings grow

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

It works! At least it looks fun

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Your towers should help keep the flock from getting bore

Yes, today they have more fun!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Following.

I suspect some of those seeds (corn, for instance) won't do well in that structure or might crowd others out, but definitely curious as to how it works out. The coriander/cilantro should do well on top, the brassicas will be hit or miss in my experience - but definitely interested in the climbing/trailing options. Oh, if you can get it cheap, would you try fenugreek??? In appearance, it looks a lot like coriander as it grows, but its one of the few good plant sources for lysine, so if the tower is a good way of growing it, I'd definitely do something like this on my property.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

07.15 Quick update as there is no internet signal and electricity, we are outside now.

I guess it works as quite a lot are germinated now.