Growing chicken food

[chickmashnoon]

Anybody here ever grow grain or tubers to supplement chicken feed over the winter? I don't have a full farm, but it would be nice to have good stuff to suplement. What is healthy for them, cheap, and fairly easy to grow? And does anyone have any experience on the amount needed to make it worthwhile? I will probably only overwinter 6-8 chickens.


Thanks!

 

[ima57boomer]

There is a mealworm farm thread on this site, and I would never in my wildest dreams have imagined that I would actually consider growing worms, but I'm thinking about it. I live on a farm, with a very large yard, way out in the boonies, so I don't have close neighbors to think about. I am planting everything I can think of here and there in the yard to supplement the chickens' store-bought food. I need to get the pumpkins and squash planted, but I have many other veggies out there that we'll share with them. They love all kinds of berries, too.

 

[chickmashnoon]

thanks for the reply. So, squash are good for them and I assume corn but that is pretty easy to buy. Not sure if I am brave enough to "grow" mealworms but thanks for the info- I'll take a peek at the thread. If I dehydrate berries or apples is that something I can add to their feed to brighten up their winter? I don't really have the area to grow lots of grain for them, but anything high in nurtrients that they can eat and that will store well would be nice. And that preferably doesn't take up too much of my little 1/2 acre.


On second thought . . .
It does make those mealworms sound like a good idea.

 

[capayvalleychick]

I have thought about doing that, but never really done it, other than giving them excess veggies from the garden. I grew triticale & oats as a cover crop in an area about 20x50 last winter, ended up letting the pigs eat it, but it also could have been harvested for the chickens. It was very easy to grow but the labor of harvesting & threshing it into grain would have taken time.
I'm planting sunflowers, quinoa, millet & soybeans for them this summer. Alfalfa is easy to grow, which I have done, also.
Oh, and I have been raising mealworms for a couple years. They are a great treat, especially for chicks, but I can't produce enough of them to be an actual feed source for as many chickens as I have. They go dormant when it's cold and don't reproduce in the winter months.

There is an organic farm nearby that grows all their own chicken feed.

Kim