Chicken Food Tower

[N F C]

Glad the chickens are letting you enjoy some of the tower greens

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Glad the chickens are letting you enjoy some of the tower greens

The tower greens are in my territory, not theirs, haha, otherwise I can get nothing They are very protective for their own properties

 

[RoyalChick]

08.19 Update for Tower No.5

Although Tower No.5 has mainly grass on the side, big girls still like it.

View attachment 2803878

Update for VP-1

First harvest of VP-1, which all seedlings are transplanted on August 3rd. As brassicas are much like salat greens, they can be harvested from outer leaves and the new ones will keep growing, also peas need to be pinched for generating more shoots.

View attachment 2803883

View attachment 2803884

Not bad at all, about 110g, nice amount for adding into a noodle soup, or fried rice.
View attachment 2803886

My guess is you get fewer slugs growing them in a tower.

 

[N F C]

The tower greens are in my territory, not theirs, haha, otherwise I can get nothing They are very protective for their own properties

Glad to hear you have them protected in your territory...I wouldn't want to count on my chickens to share anything.

 

[Smashlee83]

I love this idea and have some hardware cloth and some chicken seeds on hand. What are you using for soil? Our soil is very clay heavy so I'm wondering if I need to use compost to sow seeds or I can use the pine bedding in the coop directly. I imagine not?

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

My guess is you get fewer slugs growing them in a tower.

I believe so, especially there is no place for them to hide. I did find some slugs hided in my raised bed (which is made by wood), so next project will be gradually replacing the wooden raised beds into metal ones.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I love this idea and have some hardware cloth and some chicken seeds on hand. What are you using for soil? Our soil is very clay heavy so I'm wondering if I need to use compost to sow seeds or I can use the pine bedding in the coop directly. I imagine not?

The soil for such food tower for chicken, we don't need to worry too much. As long as grass and weeds can grow, it's qualified. Because my initial idea is just to use my extra veggie seeds and grass seeds (we bought a 10kg ...don't know till when we can finish that )

You can use whatever you have at hand, I recycled some old potted soil, chicken manure (poo+their bedding), some green waste from garden, you can easily pile it up with what you have. What chickens often forage do not need special soil to grow

 

[Smashlee83]

The soil for such food tower for chicken, we don't need to worry too much. As long as grass and weeds can grow, it's qualified. Because my initial idea is just to use my extra veggie seeds and grass seeds (we bought a 10kg ...don't know till when we can finish that )

You can use whatever you have at hand, I recycled some old potted soil, chicken manure (poo+their bedding), some green waste from garden, you can easily pile it up with what you have. What chickens often forage do not need special soil to grow

I'm going to give it a try soon. I've got an over abundance of seeds myself. Might try this out in my Sulcata habitat since my chickens seem to hang out there anyway. A little treat for everyone.

 

[lauraschicks]

I wonder if hugelkulter would work in such a food tower to provide the water. Even if it doesn't work as well as putting the log horizontally, it might buffer the moisture enough to let you water it at reasonable intervals.

I would think at minimum layering mulch, especially with leaves in it, with the compost and dirt would provide a Hugelkultur aspect. Then if you put a center core of big wood chips/branches with maybe bottom foot protected from draining so the wood absorbs any water that comes in...I will probably try that next to see if it works. Sorry apparently I'm thinking out loud again

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I would think at minimum layering mulch, especially with leaves in it, with the compost and dirt would provide a Hugelkultur aspect. Then if you put a center core of big wood chips/branches with maybe bottom foot protected from draining so the wood absorbs any water that comes in...I will probably try that next to see if it works. Sorry apparently I'm thinking out loud again

leaves, grass clipping, whatever chicken can't consume fully (like the hard stem of vegetable), melon peel, chicken manure, and etc - i did mention in earlier post that these will be helpful as they contain more moisture and good for facilitating bacterial decompostion.

Putting big wood chips/branches in the center is a good idea, as long as it didn't occupy too much volume. The food tower for chicken is to recycle the garden waste and create a vertical foraging alternative. Besides what are planted on the top and most upper 10% surface, all other will be quickly consumed by chicken as micro greens.

However, it's a good strategy to improve the production performance of a vertical planter for leafy greens (not for chicken).