Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[Beekissed]

Lot's of hides...this can be in the form of piles of brush, small hoops with tarps, strategically placed pallets up on blocks or just letting the pasture get really high and mowing it in strips so the birds are never really far from some cover. This will also give good cover for bugs and such.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Now that we have the seed and it is 9 zillion degrees outside, they are putting the final touches on prepping the field. They have tilled it until it looks like a smooth sheet of chocolate buttercream frosting. Then they will roll it to compact it a bit. Then harrow it (sp?). Then seed it. I'm not sure when all those next steps will happen ... I'm hoping at least some of them will happen this afternoon.

It got down to 39 this morning.
It must be nice to have a fresh seed bed. Especially with someone else doing the work.
I don't bother, I just broadcast seed 2 or 3 times in spring before rains. Then again each time I move chickens out of a pen.
I seed heavily in the fall too. Alfalfa, winter peas, turnips, radish, grain rye, barley, oats.

How much boss can the chickens have regularly in addition to their feed? I don't want to over due it. But we bought a 25 lb. bag to grow for fodder.

All things in moderation. Growing it into fodder may cut down on the fat content.

Finally!!! Now your free range project can get off the ground, you will save on money, your land will benefit from the birds, they will benefit from the clean and healthy soils and the natural food.....it's a win/win/win...well..it's just win infinity because it's symbiotic, isn't it?

Are you gonna get a LGD or a burro for their free range time there? A burro is less maintenance, though it most likely will not deter hawks.

Now that things are finally greening up, the FF is going a lot farther. I was up to five - 5 gallon buckets fermenting. I cut back to 4 yesterday. Once I'm able to rotate pastures better, I may be able to cut back to 3.

His whole chicken thing makes an awesome excuse to get a burrow, doesn't it???

There will be a lot of open space, and we have to a of hawks, so the wheels are spinning about what to do about it!

I occasionally lose a meatie to hawks but never lost a hen with a Pene rooster with each flock. I do have a lot of cover nearby in each pen and in the free range. The roosters make the call, hens head for cover, roosters stand their ground.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Gotta love those roosters!!!

I have noticed that with my SS the one rooster is not enough to cover 7 hens that cruise all over, and spread out . That rooster really needs a side kick to help out. THey have been expanding their territroy this year, and I often find one hen by herself far from a lookout . . . . in coyote territory . . . .

 

[chickadoodles]

Thanks CC! I need to find some other grains to use as well.

 

[Leahs Mom]

How much boss can the chickens have regularly in addition to their feed? I don't want to over due it. But we bought a 25 lb. bag to grow for fodder.

@chickadoodles




Quote: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Nutrition-Sunflower_seeds.html

 

[LindaB220]

@chickadoodles

Great to know. I just bought 25 lbs yesterday along with layer pellets. I'm bumping the 7 wk olds up from starter.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

7 weeks is too young to start layer feed. 13 weeks on 4% calcium without producing eggs shells is a problem.

Last paragraph
http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/chicken_gout.html
Last paragraph
http://www.agbiosecurity.ca/healthy...m and Vitamin D3 problems in laying birds.pdf

http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/64/12/2300.abstract

Graphic photos of urolithiasis.
http://nhjy.hzau.edu.cn/kech/synkx/dong/2bao/UrolithiasisChina.pdf

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/02/calcium-mixed-flocks-vs-mixed-feeds.html

 

[chickadoodles]

@chickadoodles

Thank you Leahs Mom! I appreciate your help.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Love BOSS, correction GIRLS love BOSS!!

To put this in clearer context, the 30% of the diet is referring to a ration that is balanced using this amt of sunflower seed in the original formulation; to add BOSS and make it 30% in addition to a commercial pellet is likely to throw a number of nutrients out of wack. I would limit the use to the level of scratch at 5-10%.

Anyone grow sunflowers for the chickens?? THis morning I heard sunflower was on sale-- 50# for 25$, still not sure I heard it right! lol

 

[centrarchid]

We have tried. Acreage required is too high to support our needs and we do not have proper shelling equipment. Another problem is goldfinches start harvesting before seed ripe.