ground hay

[bucky52]

i have seen ground up hay in bags at our local tractor supply.just wondering if anyone has fed this to chickens.my girls love greens i have been buying lettuce.but its getting pricey.

 

[allpeepedout]

Have not fed that but suppose partly its value would depend on how stemmy vs. how much edible foliage. Chopped alfalfa hay would be good. I do feed regular leafy alfalfa hay for horses or soaked alfalfa pellets. There is no waste on the pellets and a good value at $12 per 50 lbs. Fairly high in protein relative to other greens.

 

[Papakeith]

I throw my hens a couple of flakes of hay a week. They love it.

 

[Me & Jack]

I never thought of giving hay to me chickens -- I really like the idea of alfalfa pellets since they're smaller. Wish I knew how to make silage out of grass cuttings 'cause with four acres to mow I'd be set for life!

 

[Me & Jack]

I'm not a pirate -- that was supposed to be my chickens, not "me chickens"!

 

[allpeepedout]

Me & Jack :

I never thought of giving hay to me chickens -- I really like the idea of alfalfa pellets since they're smaller. Wish I knew how to make silage out of grass cuttings 'cause with four acres to mow I'd be set for life!

Many people say they feed clippings, while others warn against them becoming cropbound. I have large areas of lawn that are mostly Dutch White Clover, so I hand pick bunches for my little gang every chance I can or rake up those areas after mowing. Maybe you can convert some of that four acres to a legume that you could hit with a composting mower and feed...? Getting rid of some of my burdensome lawn was part of my incentive for getting chickens, but I don't have my fence built to give them more lawn yet. Tractoring is the other way to go.​

 

[DFCottage]

A company called Triple Crown makes horse feed, and one of the items they put out is a lovely bag of chopped alfalfa forage. This difference between alfalfa hay/chopped forage/alfalfa cubes vs. the pellets is (At least for horses) the fiber value. I feel alfalfa hay to my off the track thoroughbreds because of its high calcium content.. it helps to soothe their ulcer-prone stomachs (think maalox hay!) The pellets are a great buy, and certainly have nutritional value, but the hay/cubes/chopped hay will give them more of that great fiber content. That said, I certainly won't hesitate to give my chickens alfalfa pellets. If I give them hay, I make sure to cut it up in 1-2" pieces (WORK). A heavy bale of alfalfa hay in my area is around $10 (contains usually 7-10 'flakes', about 70 pounds). Chopped alfalfa hay in the bags made by TC is around $18 for 50 pounds. Cubes run about $15 and need to be soaked before feeding, and pellets run around $12-13 and should be soaked as well.