Well, for starters I would not be keeping chickens under those circumstances. It's hardly ideal for the birds on a good day.
For my situation, I live in the suburbs and while I have about 1/8th of an acre for them to range in it's not enough to feed them and a big chunk is taken up by gardens.
Every food scrap daily would go to the chickens before it goes into the compost to utilize every calorie. Normally I try to keep food scraps to a certain amount but that would no longer be the case. I have a big supply of oyster shell so I would be relying on that for calcium. I probably have a years worth cause a little goes a long way and I can feed back egg shells.
Then it's mostly a matter of meeting calories and while I could forage some weeds those leafy greens alone won't cut it.
So the first thing I'd do is make a new garden bed asap and fill it with high producing, high nutrition, hardy and vertical plants just for the birds. I'm thinking green beans and peas, corn, and spinach, maybe kale. You can plant those together in the same bed to get a lot of calories in a small space. I'd get that rolling now while I still had feed. I'd be using my heirloom plant seeds I have saved from previous years to do this and they could renew themselves by saving seeds. By utilizing the space vertically and cultivating the land I can get more out of it than I could by letting the chickens forage.
I have a healthy earthworm population in my compost and would then take advantage of that to make a worm farm too. A few sheets of scrap plywood, screws and a drill and anything the chickens didn't eat could go in there for the earthworms. Then the earthworms feed the birds. For me that earthworm farming would look like used rabbit bedding to feed them mostly. The worms here love that stuff and the chickens can't eat it.
I would also probably start taking daily walks to empty properties in my neighborhood and picking weeds. I would focus on high calorie weeds - wild berries, dandelions, clover and grass seed heads.
I'm not certain how long the flock could carry on like that but especially if I was feeding the eggs back to them I think I could get through until winter with ease. It doesn't hurt that I have 2+ months of animal feed at any time anyhow.
Once winter hits I have no idea. I would probably start trapping or hunting and doing fodder indoors. If I plan right I could have storage carrots to feed out. By the time we have no active animal food facilities in the winter I presume the local municipality will be struggling to enforce our local laws about firearms and bows so hunting and trapping will be viable. Real talk I'd probably be feeding me and my dogs that way too.
For my situation, I live in the suburbs and while I have about 1/8th of an acre for them to range in it's not enough to feed them and a big chunk is taken up by gardens.
Every food scrap daily would go to the chickens before it goes into the compost to utilize every calorie. Normally I try to keep food scraps to a certain amount but that would no longer be the case. I have a big supply of oyster shell so I would be relying on that for calcium. I probably have a years worth cause a little goes a long way and I can feed back egg shells.
Then it's mostly a matter of meeting calories and while I could forage some weeds those leafy greens alone won't cut it.
So the first thing I'd do is make a new garden bed asap and fill it with high producing, high nutrition, hardy and vertical plants just for the birds. I'm thinking green beans and peas, corn, and spinach, maybe kale. You can plant those together in the same bed to get a lot of calories in a small space. I'd get that rolling now while I still had feed. I'd be using my heirloom plant seeds I have saved from previous years to do this and they could renew themselves by saving seeds. By utilizing the space vertically and cultivating the land I can get more out of it than I could by letting the chickens forage.
I have a healthy earthworm population in my compost and would then take advantage of that to make a worm farm too. A few sheets of scrap plywood, screws and a drill and anything the chickens didn't eat could go in there for the earthworms. Then the earthworms feed the birds. For me that earthworm farming would look like used rabbit bedding to feed them mostly. The worms here love that stuff and the chickens can't eat it.
I would also probably start taking daily walks to empty properties in my neighborhood and picking weeds. I would focus on high calorie weeds - wild berries, dandelions, clover and grass seed heads.
I'm not certain how long the flock could carry on like that but especially if I was feeding the eggs back to them I think I could get through until winter with ease. It doesn't hurt that I have 2+ months of animal feed at any time anyhow.
Once winter hits I have no idea. I would probably start trapping or hunting and doing fodder indoors. If I plan right I could have storage carrots to feed out. By the time we have no active animal food facilities in the winter I presume the local municipality will be struggling to enforce our local laws about firearms and bows so hunting and trapping will be viable. Real talk I'd probably be feeding me and my dogs that way too.
