Eat with chickens

[Sally PB]

I just learned from the news yesterday, due to the dramatically increasing of the fertilizer price, some farmers decided to give up planting corns and choose soybeans. Don't know, but many things might change a lot with this crisis.

I think you are right again. The winds of change are blowin' hard.

As gardeners and chicken keepers, we might be better prepared to withstand the storm.

 

[RoyalChick]

I save the small crumbles and dust that are in the bottom of the chickens' bowls in a separate container. Then I use this for "chickie snack." I wet it down as @Ascholten does, and put any kitchen/garden scraps on top. Chickie snack is usually in the late afternoon, so I guess I could say I feed them twice a day, as I put out fresh dry food every morning. Very little of their feed gets wasted.

I use whey if I have it (leftover from making yogurt), and sometimes kombucha with extra scobys I have.

The way prices are going on everything, I may save my coffee grounds in a separate compost container and give the chickens everything else, unless there's something icky that they shouldn't have. I don't like avocados (shame on me) and I'll be saving citrus peels for kindling now that I've heard about how great they are.

We throw out bread more than I'd like to see. I'm GF, and there are extra buns or heels left over that DH won't and I can't eat. I haven't been giving them to the chickens except about 1x a month, as a really special treat, and then 1 heel torn into bits for the 7 of them.

If you dry the coffee grounds they are perfectly safe as bedding in the coop. Smells nice! I use deep bedding so a lot of dry stuff gets chucked in.

 

[_lilcristi_]

Chickens are amazing for reducing food waste in your household. I compost IN my chicken run, so pile and flock don’t compete for organics.

The USDA estimates that each American generates about one pound of food waste per day.

What sort of set updo you have to have in order to composite in the run?

 

[Ascholten]

I'd be wary of the avacado's, I hear they have caffeine in them. Also, they are very fattening too, delicious but not one of the better foods out there health wise.

coffee grounds make good bedding and GREAT compost for blueberries and acid lovers. I go through a lot of coffee so get a lot of grounds and spread them around. I actually have one 'tea cup' I call them. I have 2 IBC totes which are full of compost tea, one's more acidic, the other basic, for whichever plants like what. For the neutral, I mix em and just give the vitamins. The grounds run off goes into the low one.

Prices are going to get stupid here real fast. With the gas thing, people think petroleum and they only think about gasoline, but probably 60 percent of EVERYTHING you own / use / wear / eat / has some sort of petroleum product in it. This includes medicines.

If you were thinking of stocking up on feeder birds, or going 'off grid' now is the time, to get hot on it.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Two types of feeds I am using currently and will order bulk soon. The quality is quite convincing, and my hens are not picky. Sometimes when I can't stay home and make them breakfast, my daughter just gave them these feeds, the hens still finish everything.

Major feedView attachment 3016992Supplement Feed, I used them for the fermented feed
View attachment 3016993
Oyster Shells
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I just received some dried black soldier fly larvae from a local supplier - the quality is just impressive, super clean!
View attachment 3016997

One thing I have learned about storing 'feed' that is grains especially, in bulk, ... they grow, come alive after a few months. All the weevils, bugs, beetles and other stuff that naturally is in that to begin with, sprouts, gets born, hatches, etc etc and you have a lot of tiny crawlies.

From a chicken perspective, this is not a bad thing but it does tend to crap out the grain, makes it cake, go funky etc. So, just some food for thought, on storing that kind of food for any lengths of time.

Aaron

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

I'd be wary of the avacado's, I hear they have caffeine in them. Also, they are very fattening too, delicious but not one of the better foods out there health wise.

The good news on the caffeine front is that avocados don't have it. They are high in fat, as you said. All things in moderation!

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

What sort of set updo you have to have in order to composite in the run?

There are lots of different approaches...from having a lot of carbon on the ground (straw, hay, wood chips, leaves, etc.) and throwing your food waste in and letting the chickens eat what they want and mix the rest in. In most cases, that's enough.

If you're looking at more volume than that, you can either set up areas to move the compost through (like Edible Acres does), or have larger piles like I do. Or probably any combination of the three, and probably other options too.

 

[Ascholten]

If you are going to throw food for the chickens to compost for you, works wonders IF you do it properly. Be careful, you don't want to dump 50 lbs of slop in there and expect they will take care of it. Be careful of runny foods, juicy fruits, stuff like that, because not only do chickens like it, but so do rats, and other nasties you do NOT want. If it's getting all moldy funky and nasty, go in moderation.

Aaron

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Here is one pic of my hay bale compost setup, and one of the now empty pallet composter which will start receiving materials as soon as the bales are full.

 

[Anime2lover]

BSFL - Black Soldier Fly Larvae

You said you had some in one of the bowls and I was wondering if you fed them to your chickens once they reach their pupal stage.

I guess letting the chicken safe mulch attract and hatch fly larvae would make a great way to get free chicken treats. But it's really gross.