Dandelions

[LDev]

I had to google a picture of chickweed to see what it was....yes, we have it and yes, my chickens like to eat it.

We also have some other type of weed they LOVE even more. It's sort of a vine but doesn't have tendrils. It has leaves that are about 1/2 " x 1/4". It has a scratchy almost Velcro feel to it and develops tiny white flowers. I'll have to take a picture to see if anyone can identify it. So far, it's my girls favorite.

That looks like what we call Sticky weed mine love that

 

[LittleBits]

I wanna plant a clover bed also...on purpose, I do have alot of clover mixed in in a big 20 by 20 area, but I want all clover!!

And I looked at our lawn the other day and thought: "I wish we had some grass!"

Really, we have so much clover and hardly any grass around here - we're not much into lawn care, except to mow it!

 

[redrstr29]

lol who would of thought it would work out for us,......

 

[Westwind]

My chickens never met a weed they didn't like. I pick "salad" for them every morning from stuff growing around my back yard, They know what I'm doing and start squawking.

 

[Horsea]

My tiny flock, I'm happy to report, will actually eat comfrey leaves.

What an invader of the garden this is!

 

[PrimroseMom1]

What is comfrey weed?

 

[Garilyn Bardash]

What is comfrey weed?

https://www.google.com/search?q=com...NDojk9ASx6oGQBQ&ved=0CC8QsAQ&biw=1066&bih=520 I've heard that it is good to make tea out of too.

 

[redrstr29]

My hens just tried wild VETCH they lovvvved it

 

[clay]

The reason I dont fed meat to my birds is because I worry that some little scrap will get missed and picked up later. This makes me think of botulism. I dont want my birds to die of that, so i give them high protein foods like bean sprouts and baked beans. I bake the beans myself, canned stuff is loaded with sodium, and dried beans are cheaper. I feed it to them outside the run too to make sure nothing is picked up inside the coop later to make them sick.

Well, thank you - I wouldn't have thought of that - but you are right - meat gets old, fast, even when it's cooked. I don't routinely give them anything like that, just an occasional scrap that would normally go in the "garden pot"! They eat a little thing pretty quick, so I'm pretty sure there isn't anything left over from it.

Would they eat the bean, uncooked?

AFAIK, chickens are scavengers and like other carrion eaters, are pretty much immune to most of the stuff that would make us sick. Ever see them on the farm, merrily picking through cow and horse dung and compost heaps? Mine routinely eat mice, frogs, and even the little birds that fall from the nests in the trees in spring. They dig through the dog poo. We always give ours the old and moldy stuff from the fridge and its never hurt them a bit.

And don't worry about grapes; dogs and cats, like us are mammalia, yet have different food tolerances. Chickens are aves, a totally different class, a whole different animal, if you will.

And, I've never worried about some plant or mushroom being poisonous to them; they've been foraging fields and farms for millennia without people worrying that they might eat the wrong thing.

When can chicks eat this or that and what grit do they need and when? I let mama hen worry about it. She seems to think they are okay as soon as they're able to follow her around the yard. The chicks we've let a broody raise are always healthier and happier than the ones we raise in a brooder.

So, take it easy folks. These are, after all, the descendants of the dinosaurs that survived the great extinction, the toughest of the tough.

 

[Sommalincolne Bantie Roo]

Hi from across the pond. I cant say ive seen my chucks go mad for dandelions. I'll have to give that ago but if l can't find any then l know they have eaten them all!
Brace yourselves if you have meal worms, sweetcorn, yogurt, porridge balls (only in winter)
and cooked pasta........they love it that much l could teach them todo party tricks haha love em!!