Growing my own chicken feed

[Country Parson]

I have a fairly large garden plot (40x120ft), which would easily be doubled (or made even larger yet) Of the current plot, I'll use about half of it for vegetables. I am planning on growing as much chicken & geese feed as I can for the winter. I have about 10 hens, 4 pilgrim geese, and 3 muscovy ducks, and I'll geese next winter I'll have about the same amount (maybe a few more Muscovies).

The current plan is to grow various root crops for winter storage & feed. This will include turnips, mangels, & rutabagas.

The BIG question is what type of grain I should grow. I've planned to set aside a 15ftx120ft section of the garden for spring Wheat. But I'm wondering what other grains I should grow (FYI, I live in central/west Ohio, west of Columbus).

Currently I am also considering the following:

Millet
Milo
Oats

I do plan on growing buckwheat and possibly even cowpeas---as well as clover (but these will be more for 'in-season' feeding).

Does anyone have any experience with growing your own grains on a smaller scale? Any advice in terms of how much I should grow or what kinds of grains would be wise?

 

[Moabite]

Black oil sunflowers are easy to grow.

 

[Country Parson]

I forgot to mention I do plan on putting in at least one 40ft row of sunflowers. I got about 20 heads this Fall from a friend that just grew them for fun. The hens seem to love them. I don't even bother getting the seeds out of the head---the chickens do all the work for me. Not sure how much this is making a dent in my feed bill, but the hens are having fun.

 

[sammileah]

i did cowpeas, sunflowers, amerathus (sp?), and dent corn (ok i don't grow it i collect it). i also freeze any extra veggies that won't get eaten in time during the summer. during canning season half the by products go in freezer for later.

 

[Country Parson]

sammileah, tell me about your cowpeas. How much did you grow? How did you grow them? What were the harvest results? How did you make use of them as feed?

 

[HeritageHens]

Have you looked at the book "Home Grown Whole Grains ?" I have the book but haven't read it yet. You might find some good ideas in there. You could see if your local library has a copy.

 

[fl_deb]

Go for sprouting your seeds to maximise nutrient value to birds. there is a current thread going on

Best of luck!

 

[BarredBuff]

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7467

Here is a very good thread from a BYC sister site. It covers alot of options for poultry feeding. Hope this helps...

 

[the-bird-man]

millet it very easy to grow. you can also just buy a bag of bird seed mix and spread it on the ground then just rake in. you can also grow corn and let it dry in the sun. i do not think the other stuff would be too hard to grow. you can also make a hoop house and grow stuff year round, they are easy to make and protect some plants very well

 

[headworm]

I simply get a bag of scratch mix, mix in some peas and any other seeds I have on hand and plant that. I harvest the tops with a sickle when I want to feed the chooks. Hope that helps.