Chicken Food Tower

[RoyalChick]

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.

View attachment 2766732

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
View attachment 2766735
green material: potato leaves and stems
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It basically follows the general direction piling materials up for compost, and grass seeds are sprinkled between each layer.
View attachment 2766737
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.
View attachment 2766739

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

I love this idea and it is fun to see it working. I think I will try something similar.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[Show Sebright]

Onions, chives, and garlic are not "deadly" to chickens in small quantities, and most chickens won't eat enough of any of those to hurt themselves. (Of course there will be one chicken in someone's flock that eats enough to cause a problem, but MOST chickens will not.)

Yeh my girls keep try to get to them. My yard has a poisonous said and all the girls what to do it go over there.

 

[micstrachan]

This is so very clever! Well done! Those look like the cages I make for my tomato plants (though I use the 8-foot stuff). I secure them to a metal stake with zip ties.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Hay, I always get the green onions and the chives mixed up but one is deadly to chickens. Maybe look it up before planting.

I don't think any of them is deadly to chickens, do you have a source for this information? Thanks a lot.

 

[Ascholten]

Right now, id imagine your biggest problem is going to be keeping the chickens out of it until it CAN start to grow, because once they find seeds in there, it's all over

Aaron

 

[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]

Right now, id imagine your biggest problem is going to be keeping the chickens out of it until it CAN start to grow, because once they find seeds in there, it's all over

Aaron

They do find that, but so far they are not motivated enough to jump high all the time for those seedlings. The ones in lower deck are of course will become food soon, but, well, that's one of the purposes

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

The real problem is, I can't wait to try this vertical planting idea in my own vegetable patch!

I will do some minor changes for applying this for planting vegetables, but the seedlings are ready. The first batch will be peas (for shoots), the pea seedlings with their root ball will be inserted into the tower.

They will stay in the bottom layer and take the advantage of some support from the wire itself when necessary. My target is shoots much more than pods or peas.

 

[Kennas_Kritters]

Oh look! Something new to try for my babies! Great idea! Thanks for posting this! Nice and simple. I'll be trying this very soon! Mine will be for all kinds of birds (emu, peahen, chickens, ducks, turkeys, guineas).

 

[Ascholten]

That hardware cloth has like 2 or inch squares, which might be a bit big for some folks, the dirt falls thru too quick. This idea would also work great using chicken wire, smaller holes, hold the stuff in better that is smaller stuff. Just saying
Aaron