Post your ideas: Growing food for chickens

[old97s]

CARS,
That is such a coincidence that you're from Comfrey and you commented on planting comfrey for your chickens. A few days ago I e-mailed a bird farm and asked if they know of any plants other than clover that chickens like to eat. Just today I received a response and they said that chickens like to eat comfrey. I had never heard of it so i googled it and it returned the plant and the city (population 367)!

DigitS,
Thanks for the suggestion of millet and wheat.

I'm not sure what species of clover my chickens love, but it doesn't have the round flower like many species do. Rather the leaves of the clover are very small and there is usually only a few roots that support many (hundreds) of clover leafs. Once the weather warms up, I'll take a picture and ask for help identifying it.
My chickens love worms, so when I'm digging up the yard, they just go through the dirt and eat all of the worms in sight; it's pretty entertaining.

 

[digitS']

Perhaps it doesn't take much to scare me:

"AAFCO’s guidance to State feed control officials on March 3, 2003, follows the announcement made at AAFCO’s Annual Meeting in August 2002, that comfrey, determined to be a health and safety concern in animals, is recommended for removal from all animal feeds. . . . AAFCO’s Enforcement Strategy for Marketed Ingredients Task Force identified comfrey as the target ingredient. This Task Force based its selection on published scientific information provided by the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, an active member of AAFCO. Comfrey has been shown to cause liver damage in humans and in animals." Center for Veterinary Medicine, Food and Drug Administration

Perhaps your clover is black medic, Old97s. It sure can be invasive in lawn and garden but is planted as an animal forage. Roots grow along the stems against the ground. (Just a guess, since it has yellow flowers, it should be easy to identify.)
Steve

 

[CARS]

I googled Comfrey and gave up trying to find anything wrong with it.
I found a good article if anyone is brave enough to try some Comfrey

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1974-05-01/Plant-Multipurpose-Comfrey.aspx

 

[CARS]

Oh ya, I forgot about my up-side down hanging tomato planters. I hang them in the chicken run and I pick off some cherry tomatoes for the girls to snack on.

 

[dancingbear]

Quote:
He's right, they will tear the garden up. It's amazing how much havoc a few hens can wreak in just minutes.

One year, I planted a bunch of potatoes, and went in the house for a short break, and to cool off. About 15 minutes later, I went back out and found hens scratching through the potato bed, having un-planted nearly all my seed potatoes! They had even pecked away bits of some of them. I replanted, ran the hens off, and put a chicken-wire tunnel over them to keep the chickens out. They've destroyed tomatoes, peppers, dug up cucumber vines, and much more. They've pecked holes in ripening watermelons and cantaloupes. Evil chickens!

When I had turkeys, they were even worse. I'd go to pick a huge, beautiful tomato, and find the part I could see was all there was. The other side was gone, leaving just the curved outer shell on that side to fool me into thinking I had a nice 'mater!

This year, I'm putting up a proper fence to keep them out! I free-range them, so I'll pen up the garden instead of the birds.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Christopher, that MotherEarthNews article was for the May/June 1974 issue. I have little doubt that I read it - 35 years ago. After a 2nd go-around in college, I returned to farming that year. I'm not a very well traveled farmer but that's another thing about comfrey: it never, ever caught on as an agricultural crop that I noticed.

Farmers are an independent lot. They'll grow whatever looks to them will give them a good return for their investments of time, labor, & money. I listened to the promotion of comfrey as a forage crop literally for decades and never knew anyone who did more than stick a couple of plants in a garden.

If that FDA decision on comfrey in livestock feed isn't sufficient as something that might be "wrong with" comfrey, how about Cornell University, Department of Animal Science: "Another problem with comfrey is that it contains at least eight pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PA). While the level of PAs in fresh plant may not be very high, ready-to-use preparation often have high levels (e.g., 270-2900 mg/kg). PAs are hepatoxins and can cause irreversible liver damage. One of the problems is that the effects of the alkaloids can be cumulative. Therefore, damage to the liver may not be associated to the alkaloids in comfrey. Sometimes toxicity signs will not be present until an animal is stressed by something that requires greater liver function (e.g., lactation). Also, the leaves and roots of comfrey have been shown to be carcinogenic."

Here's what researchers in your own state of Minnesota had to say about comfrey (University of Minnesota/University of Wisconsin ): "Prickly comfrey was evaluated for its value as a forage by the USDA and numerous state experiment stations more than 80 years ago. Comfrey yielded less than some common forage crops . . . In a grazing trial in St. Paul, MN, comfrey was judged to be poorly palatable in comparison with several other plant species. . . Protein content of comfrey dry matter (15 to 30%) is about as high as legumes. . . Three ounces of dried turnip greens or spinach, in comparison to 20 oz of dried comfrey, supply adults with the total daily requirement of all essential amino acids, except for methionine."

So there you go, about as high as legume forage crops like alfalfa and clover in crude protein but spinach and turnip greens are 6 or 7 times better at supplying essential amino acids. AND, comfrey can cause irreversible liver damage along with being a carcinogenic. Whatever can be the continuing, perennial allure of comfrey?? The only thing I can think of is that it is easy to stick in the ground and critters will eat it . . .

Steve

 

[enola]

Tomatoes are not poisonous to any thing, are they ?

Try letting your chickens in the garden with ripening tomatoes on the vines. They will prove to you that they taste great !

The comfrey information was interesting though. I don't grow or use it, but, had always thought that it was good for lots of different ailments.

 

[CARS]

Thanks Steve for the additional info. I think you are right about the reason I used it though... It comes back year after year even when my chickens chew it down to a stump! Can you think of any other fast growing plant that may be better?

One question that may be asked of University studies is who is funding their research? If one of the big seed companies put up a few million to compare their genetically altered alfalfa plants to something nature created who do you think is going to win??

That doesn't mean that the liver damage found in studies should be ignored, I just wonder how much you need to eat before damage occurs. More than a couple drinks is bad for your liver too, but that doesn't seem to stop most people from finding the limits of their liver

 

[thedeacon]

see my response under :greens for chickens"

 

[Big Chicken Little]

Quote:
I plant Comfery and this is a wonderful idea to give them fresh greens without letting them kill off the plant Might be a good way to give them other veges they might like too I will try this year for sure.