Kikiriki
Songster
What is a prolific weed that you and your chickens can share? Purslane! I spent my day doing research on breaks from the garden. Here is what I found:
Purslane is very nutritious and adds omega 3 fatty acids to eggs: you and the chickens can eat leaves, stems, and flowers.
Chickens fed purslane did lose weight, but had improved egg production, and ate less food.
Purslane has high oxylates: the anti-nutrient that also has some anti cancer properties. It is 1/100th of the composition, which is pretty high: if you are prone to kidney stones, it is recommended that you avoid foods high in oxylates which includes many leafy greens: cabbage, broccoli, spinach, moringa, and more.
Chicken egg shells did lose calcium with oxylic acid added to hens diet. If you start feeding purslane, you may want to increase their calcium supplement.
Conversley, others report that the raw vegetable form oxylic acid typically binds just with the calcium in the plant once it is eaten, and that it does so more in the gut than in the bloodstream where it will cause kidney stones, or other problems like joint inflammation. They said it was more likely to be problematic after the chemical composition was altered by cooking.
Purslane is also found (along with mulberry leaf and an asian variety of wormwood 'artemisia capillaris' which had the best effect) to suppress the growth of virus including newcastle and avian flu in embryos of hens fed dried matter.
Purslane affects lactic acid in the body and a study with rats fed purslane in a liquid form found that the more purslane they ate, they less they suffered exercise induced fatigue and the longer they could perform.
Oxylates in purslane and spinach were reduced by increasing ammonium to ammonia ratio in hydroponic systems.
Very basic: Nitrate is NO3, NH2 is nitrite, NH3 is ammonia, NH4 is ammonium. Please look this up if you are into the chemistry as I left out a lot!
You can create ammonium from chicken poop by mixing in a solution of water and vinegar (or other acids). The nitrates mixed with water form ammonia. The vinegar being an acid lends a hydrogen atom and forms ammonium. You can do an experiment: mix some poo with just water and you will smell ammonia. Mix some with water and add a little splash of vingear at a time, stirring: in this you will soon not smell the vinegar, and you will possibly only faintly detect any ammonia. If you smell any ammonia, add a dash more vinegar. If you smell vinegar, add a bit more chicken poop.
Composting chicken poop results in very poor usuable nitrogen because it is lost as ammonia gas, or is in a pile that is not acidic enough to create ammonium. Fresh poop creates more ammonium than dry poop because the N is lost rapidly.
An experiment with wood vinegar and chicken manure found the 1part vinegar to 300 parts water mixed with chicken manure and tilled into soil significantly increased the yeild of rice without increasing foliage. Nitrogen typically increases foliage while decreasing yield.
I gathered lots of Purslane from around the yard, so I will do an experiment. I will have four areas: sandy unenriched soil, enriched soil (a bagged organic from compost), and both of these with identical feeding from my vinegar chicken poo and water mixture. They all get full sun. I will not be able to test for oxylates, but I will report on growth, flowering, and flavor. I will also test whether the chickens show a preference for any of the test plants.
I am going to wait a day for the plants to settle in from transplanting: i have sandy soil and they pulled out very easily with minimal root breakage. They will reroot from broken stems. They seed prolificly and seeds can remain viable for 40 years!
Purslane is very nutritious and adds omega 3 fatty acids to eggs: you and the chickens can eat leaves, stems, and flowers.
Chickens fed purslane did lose weight, but had improved egg production, and ate less food.
Purslane has high oxylates: the anti-nutrient that also has some anti cancer properties. It is 1/100th of the composition, which is pretty high: if you are prone to kidney stones, it is recommended that you avoid foods high in oxylates which includes many leafy greens: cabbage, broccoli, spinach, moringa, and more.
Chicken egg shells did lose calcium with oxylic acid added to hens diet. If you start feeding purslane, you may want to increase their calcium supplement.
Conversley, others report that the raw vegetable form oxylic acid typically binds just with the calcium in the plant once it is eaten, and that it does so more in the gut than in the bloodstream where it will cause kidney stones, or other problems like joint inflammation. They said it was more likely to be problematic after the chemical composition was altered by cooking.
Purslane is also found (along with mulberry leaf and an asian variety of wormwood 'artemisia capillaris' which had the best effect) to suppress the growth of virus including newcastle and avian flu in embryos of hens fed dried matter.
Purslane affects lactic acid in the body and a study with rats fed purslane in a liquid form found that the more purslane they ate, they less they suffered exercise induced fatigue and the longer they could perform.
Oxylates in purslane and spinach were reduced by increasing ammonium to ammonia ratio in hydroponic systems.
Very basic: Nitrate is NO3, NH2 is nitrite, NH3 is ammonia, NH4 is ammonium. Please look this up if you are into the chemistry as I left out a lot!
You can create ammonium from chicken poop by mixing in a solution of water and vinegar (or other acids). The nitrates mixed with water form ammonia. The vinegar being an acid lends a hydrogen atom and forms ammonium. You can do an experiment: mix some poo with just water and you will smell ammonia. Mix some with water and add a little splash of vingear at a time, stirring: in this you will soon not smell the vinegar, and you will possibly only faintly detect any ammonia. If you smell any ammonia, add a dash more vinegar. If you smell vinegar, add a bit more chicken poop.
Composting chicken poop results in very poor usuable nitrogen because it is lost as ammonia gas, or is in a pile that is not acidic enough to create ammonium. Fresh poop creates more ammonium than dry poop because the N is lost rapidly.
An experiment with wood vinegar and chicken manure found the 1part vinegar to 300 parts water mixed with chicken manure and tilled into soil significantly increased the yeild of rice without increasing foliage. Nitrogen typically increases foliage while decreasing yield.
I gathered lots of Purslane from around the yard, so I will do an experiment. I will have four areas: sandy unenriched soil, enriched soil (a bagged organic from compost), and both of these with identical feeding from my vinegar chicken poo and water mixture. They all get full sun. I will not be able to test for oxylates, but I will report on growth, flowering, and flavor. I will also test whether the chickens show a preference for any of the test plants.
I am going to wait a day for the plants to settle in from transplanting: i have sandy soil and they pulled out very easily with minimal root breakage. They will reroot from broken stems. They seed prolificly and seeds can remain viable for 40 years!
