Minnows, chicken gardens, grains...

[bluewithflowers]

We will (hopefully) be acquiring fifteen 8-week-old chickens this weekend!

It's been a few years since I've had hens... And would like to supplement their diets with as many free things as possible! I'm expecting them to go to town on our yard which is lightly forested - covered in rotting logs and leaves, etc. So in the summer they'll have tons of little bugs and grubs to chow down on, which I will enjoy as they'll eat less feed.

They'll have all the peels, garden cast-offs and apples they can handle, and I also started 500 mealworms, hoping to have a good supply for them by winter.

I'm looking into feeding the birds whole grain, if it makes more economical and nutritional sense to get grain from a nearly-local organic farm than driving farther into the city to get commercial layer feed, and I can probably grow some in the summer too. So I was wondering...

1. Can they eat grain instead of layer feed, and is there some grains that are better than others for hens? Should they have a mix, or one kind, does it need to be crunched up... I read that corn can overheat them in the summer, but would be good for the wintertime here in Canada - ?

2. Does anyone grow their own chicken food? Obviously grains, but what about other things from the garden... An out-of-the way cabbage patch or kale or other greens... Is it worth it to grow a chicken garden for root veggies or some other long-keeping veg to feed in the winter?

and

3. We are near a small lake and I'd like to trap minnows for them. Is this a good idea, will it benefit them nutritionally, should I process them somehow first..? How much minnows can a chicken eat? Has anyone feed minnows to their hens on a regular basis? Would the eggs taste fishy?

Thanks for any input/advice/stories/redirection..!

 

[lazy gardener]

For approximately the same price you'd pay for a bag of whole grain, you can buy a bag of balanced chicken feed that will meet their nutritional needs. They will get a lot of benefit from free ranging, and you can further cut your feed bill and improve their nutrition by fermenting their feed. Grain is not going to provide the blend of amino acids that they need for optimal health. While they will get some protein on free range, there's no telling how soon of if they will exhaust that supply. There's a FAQ FF article (written by TikkiJane) in my signature.