Duckweed the new protein for chickens? Grown even in winter for green food !

[karlamaria]

I have been on a quest for a while on finding no soy foods none Gmo etc. and have had a heck of a time! But I did come across an article and was floored, it says that duck weed is 40/50 % protein and chickens love it. It replaces the protein in the chicken food and is very healthy.
Well being a person who has raised fish ,any many years, Duck weed always took over and I was forever scooping cup fills out every day in my tanks. Well it got me to thinking, why not do tanks just for the duckweed ? It's so fast growing it's not funny, and with in a short time your scooping tons out of your tank or ponds. It's easy to grow over the winter hence they have green foods to keep eggs bright yellow, no soy beans if you can harvest enough and they love it and it's good for them.
Here is one article on it... And have any of you given your chickens small fish? It says if you do fish tanks with this stuff you can grow small fish in it and feed your chickens the fish.

http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Duckweed_as_chicken_feed/

 

[Tivona]

30 to 50% protein! Wow. I had been thinking of trying to grow some this summer just for greens as food for my ducks. I will be looking into growing some this summer if possible. Thanks for letting us know.

 

[Talks2Chickens]

Interesting! I want to research more.
-I also give my girls live fish. When my and my boys go fishing, we save some minnows for the chicks. They go crazy for them.
Now they can nibble on something other than my garden veggies!

 

[NYboy]

My goldfish love duckweed. They eat it as soon as it goes in their tank.

 

[FireTigeris]

how will you keeps mosquitoes out of the duckweed tanks, I can get find for growing mosquitoes (if someone complains).

 

[jomoncon]

how will you keeps mosquitoes out of the duckweed tanks, I can get find for growing mosquitoes (if someone complains).

2 easy ways to control mosquitoes. A few goldfish or some mosquito dunks or pellets.

 

[FireTigeris]

ah- ok.

 

[ElizabethAz]

If you live in a warm place (like I do here in Arizona) mosquito control is easy!

Mosquito Dunks and Pellets are by far the most effective.

Or you can add goldfish--but if you don't like goldfish you can also use OTHER fish species too. I have had alot of success with 'tropical' ponds. EXCELLENT fish choices for a tropical-mosquito-control set-up are :Tilapia, Bettas, Gourami, Mollies, Platties, Golden Killiefish, American Flag Killiefish, Mosquito fish, guppies, Dianos,.. In the case of the predatory fish (Gourami, Betta, Killiefish) you will want to get a deep container, and keep the water level at least 8 inches from the top--why? Because these fish spend almost all their time at the surface looking for pupating larvae and they will jump out of the water to catch bugs, and may end up jumping out onto the ground...Also if you think its going to freeze, or temps may drop below 60 degrees, you will have to pull your tropicals inside, or they will die--most aquarium fish are wild caught from the Amazon or south India where there is no such thing as a below 60 degree temperature--very few are farmed (bred for pet trade) so be responsible when selecting your fish...don't choose tetras or 'strange' looking fish because they look cool--alot of common aquarium fish are going extinct in the wild so please make sure you choose a hearty species that can reproduce in captivity---these fish are commercially grown like the ones I listed above.

If you choose to use fish just remember you can't just ignore the quality of the water.. Fish are trapped in the water container, when it gets dirty they can't just choose to move to a cleaner place-- keeping the water clean will also help prevent green Algae blooms that will suffocate your fish, or hair algae that will grow over and strangle the duck weed. Algae blooms occur when the water quality is compromised--usually due to too many disolved solids (i.e Fish waste) in the water for the algae to feed on, OR when there is too much sun, and not enough duckweed at the surface to block it out.. It helps if you place your grow ponds in shady areas where they can receive morning and evening sun. And a little bit of bird netting will keep your local birds from eatting your fish

Kids love tropical ponds, and seeing cute little guppies and a bright red gourami swimming around--its like an outdoor aquarium! And you may even get carried away and, add cattails and pink flowering water lilies ---Or if you have a large enough container/pond for Tilapia its fun to have your own mini fish farm. But having fish is like having any other animal, they shouldn't get neglected just because you intend to feed them to chickens, or use them soley as bug control. You are what you eat..you treat your chickens well so they provide you with healthy food to eat--treat your chickens food well so they provide you with healthy chickens.

 

[FireTigeris]

I'm in FL and my yard has no end of shade ...

Sounds good, I'd be happy with feeder goldfish, as the herons around here are good about fishing...


How do those chemicals work are they safe for humans and birds?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

How do those chemicals work are they safe for humans and birds?

They are made from an extract of the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensus Israelensis and are completely harmless to most everything, except mosquitoes (Dipterans), gnats and some flies. Pretty awesome stuff, really.