Medicinal and Herbal Hay

[CluckyJay]

Oky-dokies I am getting the seed order ready for my own mix of hay, yay!

We have the grassy part already growing, now I am after the flowery stuff. What we are buying is alfalfa, bachelor's buttons, chicory, and a few other things. I am going to use goldenrod too.

If you were planting herbal hay, what would you add? This is mainly for my goats and future rabbits, but I am sure the chickens will eat it up, too, lol.


I've gotta keep the price down a bit, too.

lol

On a side note, we are feeding Chaffhaye and they/I LOVE IT. I am working on my own formula now.

 

[peepacheep]

I have had rabbits for over 10 years and can grow their fresh greens for almost 9 months out of the year. They are well designed for digesting grass hay. Orchard and timothy are the 2 grasses I grow for them. Chicory and dandelions are other perennial plants that I give in small amounts. I started with red and green varieties of endive, radichio, and Italian 'dandelion' greens, (Territorial Seed Co). Over the years they have cross pollinated into a blend of their own that grows well here. Parsley and celery are a couple of others I always plant for them but again these are given in small amounts to so not to risk a case of bloat. Happy gardening!

 

[CluckyJay]

I need to put that celery back on my list then. Man the price is ticking up, LOL.Oh well, we'll eat it too!!!

 

[peepacheep]

The gophers play havoc with my parsley roots in late August. They pull the entire plants into their tunnels. For some reason they do not bother the celery plants. Celery is a biennial and reseeds seeds fairly well. If I can keep the slugs at bay with the nontoxic slug bait during the wet part of spring the celery has an excellent chance of growing for 2 years. I have dried the leaves for winter soups and rabbit treats. The tough seed stalks give the rabbits some serious chew toys. 18 plants or so is more than enough for both the rabbits and us. Plantain is another plant I feed our rabbits, It grows as a weed in the lawn but dies back when we hit the peak of the dry season. To keep it growing into fall I have a small patch of it on a soaker hose in the garden. That might be another option for for 'free' greens for your rabbits.

 

[CluckyJay]

Yeah buddy! We have a lot of plantain and I feed it to the goats/chickens. I am about to place my order now. I have the stuff to build a solar dehydrator so I can really put up a lot of good stuff this year. I am also planting pink banana squash for winter storage.

We don't have rabbits yet but I figured its best to get this stuff going before we venture in that direction. Gotta grow it in order to feed it! LOL

 

[Ole and Lena]

Many conservation agencies will give away native prairie seed or wildlife forage seed or at least sell it at a very reasonable price. Will contain lots of interesting flowering herbs and grasses not found in your everyday hay pasture.