Feed Black Sunflower????

[gritsar]

Quote:
Yep, I have a field of sunflowers planned for spring; as well as a small plot for millet.
In the meantime my chickens will have to settle for the store bought ones.

 

[Akane]

oh yea black oil sunflowers grow like weeds. I had them all over the place the winter I fed them to the horses. Whatever got spilled in the stalls covered my manure pile in sunflowers the next spring. Then random ones popped up from manure left in the pasture. We mow the pasture so most of those were killed but plenty grew along the fencelines. They spread for another year or 2 despite not feeding the horses anymore sunflower seeds and now seem to have been taken over by the animals. I'm planning a 10x20' sunflower patch plus whatever I don't use of my 100x50' garden this year.

 

[me&thegals]

I'm super lucky to be able to get them at our local farm store (Farm and Fleet) for $16 per 50-lb bag. I also organic garden next to a conventional field, so at that price I'm going to plant a huge buffer swath between the 2 and feed lots of them to the chickens next winter, leaving the rest for the wild birds and to reseed.

 

[dakotasnake]

i get 50# bags of BOSS at the feed store for about $10 and give a little at a time.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

They're a source of methionine, an amino acid that chickens need to grow feathers, that's quite limited in most sources of vegetable protein. I like to feed them during molting and it seems to help, especially with the newer vegetarian feeds.

I wouldn't feed whole sunflower seeds to little chicks. You want them to be older, with larger, stronger crops. I do eventually feed chicks small amounts of finely chopped, hulled sunflower seeds, as I gradually introduce them to new foods. They also get really small grit, then.

Adults eat the whole seed in the shell. Ok, and they also still get treats of the hulled sometimes, because they are spoiled. It's a fantastic bribe if I need to call them back to the run in the middle of the day. With a big yard of yummy plants and bugs, I like to have something completely irresistible in my snack baggie!

 

[tressiah]

My Girls get them as a treat, and even with this ungodly cold weather, I am still getting more than a dozen eggs/day. fresh water & regular feed as well. they also get the occasional fruit & vegetable treat.

 

[cmom]

My birds get unhulled sunflower seeds daily. I also grow sunflowers for them.