HOW TO FEED YOUR CHICKENS if there is no scratch or pellets?

[centrarchid]

I have the acreage needed to easily support about a dozen free-range chickens. In addition to locations that support more insects naturally, compost heaps can help a lot. This time of year we are even using lights at night to attract flying insects to pens holding chicks and juveniles. At the barn I have three largish tanks that produce more duckweed than 10 chickens can eat for almost 6 months of the year. I'm thinking about putting out pheromones for Japanese Beetles to bring them into range during the day.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have the acreage needed to easily support about a dozen free-range chickens. In addition to locations that support more insects naturally, compost heaps can help a lot. This time of year we are even using lights at night to attract flying insects to pens holding chicks and juveniles. At the barn I have three largish tanks that produce more duckweed than 10 chickens can eat for almost 6 months of the year. I'm thinking about putting out pheromones for Japanese Beetles to bring them into range during the day.

Love the idea of growing duckweed in a trough....

 

[Alagirl]

I have the acreage needed to easily support about a dozen free-range chickens. In addition to locations that support more insects naturally, compost heaps can help a lot. This time of year we are even using lights at night to attract flying insects to pens holding chicks and juveniles. At the barn I have three largish tanks that produce more duckweed than 10 chickens can eat for almost 6 months of the year. I'm thinking about putting out pheromones for Japanese Beetles to bring them into range during the day.

I am not sure if anything actually eats Japanese beetles. I am sure the neighbors will love you for drawing them away from their land.

 

[TooCheep]

I am not sure if anything actually eats Japanese beetles. I am sure the neighbors will love you for drawing them away from their land.

My chickens happily eat Japanese beetles. I don't know how many they get naturally, but I collect the beetles for them every year.

The Japanese beetles tend to congregate on a few of my fruit trees and berry bushes. I take a container with some water and simply knock the beetles into the container. The beetles primary self defense is to drop down off the plant and then fly away, so I simply place the container under them and they often end up jumping into the container on their own. When I collect enough, I let the chickens play "bobbing for beetles".

 

[centrarchid]

My approach

More details in thread below.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...es-to-pens-of-chickens.1256756/#post-20164846


Process below is a little more controlled.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...low-cost-bio-attractor.1258075/#post-20185033

 

[Krugerrand]

Amazing. I went looking for more info and found this:
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/japanese-beetle-trap-zmaz06jjzsto/

I'm not sure I'd want to attract more to the yard. But I'll be all about knocking them off the rasberries and serving them up to the chickens.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

@TooCheep thanks for showing me this thread. Just so all you know i walked into my local feed store yesterday and there was 5 bags of layer feed and 1 bag of chick feed. So i went through this thread and found alot of options to feeding my chickens.

 

[Ilovemychicks08]

Does one of these look ok?


19 cups split peas
14 cups hard red wheat
12 cups of barley
8 cups of oats
1/2 cup of kelp
1/2 cup of diatomaceous earth food grade
Add ins
Fish meal
Black oil sunflower seeds
Alfalfa
Meat scraps
Leafy greens
flax seeds
Duckweed

 

[TooCheep]

@U_Stormcrow ?

 

[Tinypahomestead]

Out of curiosity, where did you get those seeds from? And is there any difference in seeds for planting and seeds for birds/eating?

I grabbed a handful of seeds from my MIL'S bag she gets to feed the birds with. Everyone came up. Sprouting stuff sold for eating is often cheaper than buying it from seed places.