Pea vines?

[KenK]

I broke off a handful of pea vines from the garden just now and threw them in the run. Little initial interest. Will report back this afternoon about whether they ate them and/or how many dead chickens I have.

 

[Medicine Man]

They'll eat 'em (I expect...mine do), and peas are pretty good for them if you happen to have any still on the vine.

 

[Denninmi]

Those don't look like pea vines to me. My chickens LOVE pea foliage, but then, they eat pretty much anything that won't eat them first. Are you sure that's what they are?

For that matter, I like to use tender pea shoots in salads myself.

 

[KenK]

Quote:
Absolutely sure. Vigna unguiculata (cowpeas or southern peas) not Pisum sativum.

 

[KenK]

My little flock gave a resounding thumbs down to the pea vines. They have free access to their commercial feed at all times so obviously they aren't hungry. Still, they will demolish the sunflower sprouts I grow for them or a bug bit tomato.

I did a little googling this afternoon, seems cowpeas are of some interest as poultry feed. Particularly in Africa. One hard to read research paper was on feeding the hulls. Will investigate that further cause the chickens dang sure aren't getting my peas.

 

[KenK]

This is a link to a report done by a university in Nigeria.

According to them, cowpea hulls soaked for three days, dried and then milled result in a feed that is 16.71 % crude protein and has metabolisable energy of 2,785 kcal/kg. Wonder how to mill pea hulls at home?

http://ejfa.info/article/view/4893/2473

 

[Mitzie windham]

I broke off a handful of pea vines from the garden just now and threw them in the run. Little initial interest. Will report back this afternoon about whether they ate them and/or how many dead chickens I have.

I put the pea vines in my pen too took them out as soon as I found out that they should not eat them, hope ccthey don’t die