Feeding chickens alfalfa

[Cheryl1948]

I read online somewhere (maybe a post on BYC) about someone who gives their chickens a big bale of alfalfa to nibble on. I haven't found big alfalfa bales, but I did find the little bales at Southern States that are for guinea pigs and other small animals. I gave one to my girls and they LOVED it. Anyone find any problems with that?

 

[colburg]

There's no problems with that. Only thing I can think of is supplementing with other chicken food during the winter when fresh bugs and grass are in short supply.

Alfalfa hay is what I'm using for one of my nests right now. One word of caution with that though. A horse won't know that the nest is not her food and will destroy the nest box to get every bit of that hay.

 

[realsis]

I do the same for my girls. I buy the rabbit squares of alfalfa and soak them soo they break up easily and mix it with my girls mash. I've been doing this for about two years now with the alfalfa and the girls love it. At first I started with the bales but went to the rabbit cubes. Very easy and gives them greens in winter. It's never hurt my girls that I know of. They really love it.i do make sure it's broken up very finely be cause I don't want any impacted crops. But I think it's just fine to supplement alfalfa.

 

[Cheryl1948]

Thanks friends. My girls do get lots of other food. They get the Layena feed daily. I alternate different treats during the week; fruits w/ yogurt, fresh vegies, mealworms, turkey, scratch, etc. Today they got 100 crickets.....what a party!!!

Realsis, I did consider the impacted crop problem and wondered about that. I will look for the rabbit cubes.

Colburg, horses not a problem; don't have any!

 

[cafarmgirl]

If you want to do it cheaper then buying those little bagged bales in the pet store just buy a regular, three string bale of alfalfa at a feed store and toss a flake in the run once in a while. I do this all the time and have never had any issue with impacted crops. They scratch it all apart and eat all the leaves, leaving the stems behind.