Does anyone grow anything in thier garden strictkly for their Chickens

[daisy_dukers]

Are there any fruits or veggies chickens should NOT eat.

I will be putting in a large garden next year and I am debating on setting aside a portion for my future chickens. I will probably sun dry as much of the produce as possible.

I am thinking plants like soybeans(edamame),turnips etc.

I also have access to a sweet red beta grape than has seeds that I have dried previously....

Do chickens like raisons?
What about mushrooms as I picked 35 gallons this year and could have picked 300. We dry these.

 

[MissPrissy]

I give the leftovers from the garden to the chickens. I prefer to use the best for the family and what's left goes to chickens and goats. They also get all of the table scraps. They don't know the difference.

 

[arwmommy]

We grow a line of sunflowers on the edge of the fence. Different heights, different colors--- it was DH's idea and was one of the best garden improvements we have ever done! It brought in bees to polinate the garden, and was beautiful to see looking out the windows of the house! When they lost their petals, we let them dry, cut them down and saved the seed heads. We now have a big pile of them that will probably last us into the middle of the winter! Every day or two I throw one into the run and it occupies the girls for a while! (I never throw it in our backyard, in case they miss a seed or two, I would hate to have sunflowers trying to come up in the lawn!)

It has been a great thing for us, and our girls!

 

[daisy_dukers]

I like the sunflower seed idea, I grew sunflowers this year (25 russian giants,25 Russian giants) and just fed the seedheads to the squirels and birds. So if I grew 100 plants I could give them a cut up head every second day for 6 months.

What about potatoes or even things like apples....Do they like dry apples?

Do they like cucumbers? Or sugar beets?

I am planning on planting feed corn regardless and drying it as I know they like corn.

Don't worry I will be buying proper feed for the bulk of thier diet, but this way I have an excuse to make 3 gardens rather than 1....And a reason for planting 10x the amount of veggies we could eat/freeze/can.

I am planning on starting an indoor garden at the new house(much like my old house) and can pump out lettus, and other leafy greans like mad. Are chickens into lettus, kale, etc?
I read that spinach is not advisable due to the tannins...


As you may guess Gardening is a rather large hobby of mine, hopefully soon chickens will be on the list.

PS My wife is only allowing me 6-8 hens....of course she never mentioned roosters

 

[dlhunicorn]

...chickweed

 

[devora]

Quote:
Chickens dig green veggies. Spinach is great for them.
We have six girls and I think it's a great number to start w/. You can really get to know them individually. Well, it's not like we have long talks, but I can tell the diff btwn our leghorn's cocky "I don't care what you think" attitude and our barred rocks' "Oh, please love me a little more" needs.

Good luck w/ it all!

PS: Chickweed, too funny!

 

[bantymum]

Hi, mine have sunflowers of different varieties, tomatoes and lettuce and spinach!!!

 

[Barnyard Dawg]

We feed our chickens the overgrown zucchini. We steam it and they gobble it down. They also get some tomatoes, and we grow amaranth for them.

 

[Buff Hooligans]

I found that the carrots I sowed as an afterthought to my garden became one of their favorite treats - the greens that is, not the actual carrots. We got to keep those.

 

[Lunachick]

Mine ate my 2 collard plants, and they loved the strawberry plants! Now I'm letting them pick away at what ever is left of my tomato plants.

I found out one thing tho, they don't eat rhododendren, thank goodness, I have to have some plants growing back there!