Duckweed

[Kezzie]

I have just read an article the other day on feeding duckweed to chickens. Apparently, it is about 30% protein, and it replicates itself every 24 hours (doubles in size). It supposedly can replace up to 40% of a chicken's diet. Does anyone have any experience doing this?

 

[Clay in MS]

I wondered about this also. I was told I had duckweed in my pond. Looks like green sesame seeds floating on top of the water. If so, I've got alot of chick feed.

 

[Akane]

Should work fine. I was using duck weed in aquariums to keep algae down and provide areas of dimmer light for the fish I was breeding. I scooped out the extra about twice weekly and fed it to my guinea pigs. It's entirely edible and good vegetable matter for any herbivores or omnivores.

 

[Kezzie]

I just snared some yesterday from one of our local ponds and set it up in my little turtle kids' pool. I put in the old water from the chickens when I clean out their waterer every morning. Apparently, the duckweed loves nitrogen and ammonia and the fouled water certainly has lots of that. Yesterday, it started with enough duckweed to cover less than a quarter of the pool and now it covers more than 3/4 of it. It grows like crazy!

By tomorrow morning, I'll have enough to harvest some and see if the chickens like it. I hope so- this looks promising. I'll try to get some pics later.

And I'd love to hear from anyone else doing this.

 

[Kezzie]

Okay, here's an update:

It is growing in my tiny pond relatively well. I think I have to monitor pH better to give it the right growing conditions. I harvest half of the pond when the duckweed has covered it. It gives me about 3 cups of plant matter that the chickens ADORE!! I have never seen them go crazy over any other "treat" like that. It's looking like a promising experiment...