Does anyone have a chicken garden?

[Vata Raven]

For small grains I just weed the area, broadcast the seeds, lighly rake them into the ground and water. I've never tried it with beans. Just things like millet, wheat, buckwheat, alfalfa, etc.

Ooohhh, you're germinating them like people do for a garden.

Do you do that because the chickens like the young sprouts more than the fully grown plant? I read that they like eating the young grass-like stuff.

 

[Vata Raven]

It does not to seem to matter how high the grass is. It takes the chickens about the same amount of time and effort to ruin it. For every sprout they eat another twenty are stomped into the ground.

And, yes, the taller it grows the coarser it becomes. When the sprout is less than about 3 inches tall it may still have the seed attached when they pull it up. I don't know how much nutrition is left in there but they eat it.

The redeeming factor is that it comes up so quick. If company is coming, you can turn bare chicken run ground into a beautiful green carpet in about a week.

The denser you sow the seed the quicker and better it will look. The amount of seed is not a big deal with something cheap like millet (wild bird seed) or hard red wheat from the feed store. Good sprouting alfalfa seed is more expensive for us so I have to think twice about it.

Sprinkle some water every day.

Ah, thank you so much.

Our Rural King and Tractor supply don't have much, unless you just mean the this stuff?

Your chickens eat millet? I keep reading that nearly every bird avoids eating that. Oh, but it's sprouted, so it'll be different from the seed itself.

Do you think the cheap corn would sprout?

 

[LaylaJane]

How does one do that on a larger scale? Say if I wanted to sprout a 20 pound bag of pinto beans from Walmart.

I use gutters with chicken wire over them to raise my microgreens... I just have 3 rows, planted at intervals so that I always have fresh salad. I'm planning to do the same in the run for my flock. I got the 10 ft gutters on fb marketplace for about $5. They were used, but vinyl so they just needed cleaned up and drain holes added. Manure mix and NO fertilizer... They sprout in about 4 days and are ready to eat in 15.

 

[Aunt Angus]

I use gutters with chicken wire over them to raise my microgreens... I just have 3 rows, planted at intervals so that I always have fresh salad. I'm planning to do the same in the run for my flock. I got the 10 ft gutters on fb marketplace for about $5. They were used, but vinyl so they just needed cleaned up and drain holes added. Manure mix and NO fertilizer... They sprout in about 4 days and are ready to eat in 15.

This is pretty much the same thing I do with grazing boxes. I used old lumber from around the property to make 2x2 frames, filled those with compost, sprinkled a chicken-specific seed mix in there, and covered the frame with hardware cloth. The seed mix sprouts in just a few days and grows enough for the chickens to eat after about 2 weeks.

I really like the idea of gutters. Easy to relocate. My grazing boxes are stationary.

 

[Vata Raven]

Our free ranging chickens are deprived and seem to pick up all the tiny white millet seeds when broadcast on the ground.

Guess if anything is hungry enough, they'll eat anything.

 

[mcdze]

oh theyll get into the garden trust me, why i keep an electric wire at ankle level lol .. its simple enough just to water a spot in the yard and theyll pick the fresh grass shoots daily .. but garden extras theyll love are any greens, collards, mustard, turnip radish etc, just pick some keaves and throw them to them .. cherry tomatoes are another good one, several indeterminate plants will be loaded with buckets you cant keep up with, theyll be waiting every time you go in the garden to be tossed a couple of handfuls .. and more than once theyce stripped a pepper plant clean of leaves, dont know why they like those, must be something to it i should try some lol ...

 

[Geena]

How does one do that on a larger scale? Say if I wanted to sprout a 20 pound bag of pinto beans from Walmart.

I wouldn't sprout pinto beans, they need to be cooked in order to be edible, even for chickens. Wild bird seed sprouts quickly and easily and they LOVE it.

 

[Vata Raven]

I wouldn't sprout pinto beans, they need to be cooked in order to be edible, even for chickens. Wild bird seed sprouts quickly and easily and they LOVE it.

Thanks for the heads up. I figured sprouting them might be different. Oh well.

I can't cook beans with an overnight soak (they stay hard even after cooking them for 6 hours), but I do pressure can them, and they love eating those beans.

 

[Vata Raven]

Our free ranging chickens are deprived and seem to pick up all the tiny white millet seeds when broadcast on the ground.

I looked at RK today, and I had to look at the bird seed. They did have a blend that was mostly millet. It was $14 for 18 pounds.

Do you think birds prefer millet over milo because of the seed size?

 

[Mr Spot]

Here's a crop that might interest you.

https://hancockseed.com/products/hancocks-killer-clover-mix

I was just looking at this you posted so I went to the web site and just now ordered a 5lb. bag of the killer clover, I'll let you know how it does. Thanks for the link. : )