Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

Some grasses have a higher protein content than the standard 16% that we get in the UK

This was one of the first surprises I had when I started down the nutrition rabbit hole. There are at least 50,000 edible plants on the planet but we cultivate only about 7,000. There are about 10,000 species of grass worldwide, and about 70% of all our crops are grasses; just three of them - rice, corn and wheat - account for about 60% of the calories humans get from plants.

I've found myself wishing I knew a lot more about what these plants are and what nutrients they contain

Ditto. A very large number of animals feed on grass, from caterpillars to elephants.

stripping the seed from the plant

Sometimes I find mine are stripping not the seeds (only the quickest to flower will have set seed by this time of year) but the flowers. We don't think of grasses as flowering plants, I guess because their flowers are small and inconspicuous, but they are, and many are wind pollinated, so grass pollen is one of the big triggers of hay fever. Turns out pollen is very nutritious, so quite a lot of animals eat it when available. It would be easy to check if your chickens are favouring the different patches of grasses when they are in flower.

a type of grass, I think it's a grass

Now is the time of year to tackle identification, as it's much easier during the flowering season than when you've just got the leaves to go on. The Field Studies Council produces a very useful fold-out laminated field guide for the common species in meadows, woodlands, riverbanks, roadsides and waste ground. Identification is still hard though!

 

[Skyeknight]

Sometimes I find mine are stripping not the seeds (only the quickest to flower will have set seed by this time of year) but the flowers.

This is behaviour I see a lot in my CX pullets (and lambs, but we don't talk about those here ). The CX learned quite quickly to strip the grass with outward falling flowers. Although at least one has learned to eat the seeds/flowers from English Ryegrass, which are close to the stem. Motivated by their chronic hunger I am sure, but very interested to see them learn to forage so fast.

Now is the time of year to tackle identification, as it's much easier during the flowering season than when you've just got the leaves to go on.

Ah yes, highly recommend finding out now instead of later. Otherwise you will be looking very closely at "tongues" and "ears".

 

[RoyalChick]

Aren't they just. Worse, it changes with the seasons and the weather.
The field lot have been on a type of grass, I think it's a grass, that grows in the abandoned/not managed plots. There are three at the field currently and they all produce this particular plant. Usually they snack and move on but the last few days when they get to one of these plots they are there for quite a while stripping the seed from the plant. The green short grass on the paths around the plots they're not showing that much interest in which during spring and winter they have in the past eaten a lot of, particularly before roost time.
They won't touch the long clump grass that grows at the goose end of the extended run and that's mostly all there is in that area.
I've found myself wishing I knew a lot more about what these plants are and what nutrients they contain. Some grasses have a higher protein content than the standard 16% that we get in the UK.

I have lots of different types of grass in my largely unmanaged chicken feed field and the certainly have strong opinions.
Initially I thought they just liked tender shoots and seeds, but it is way more complex than that.

Edit to correct. Chicken field not feed.

 

[Perris]

this is quite a good site for IDing UK grasses etc.
https://www.northwaleswildlifetrust.org.uk/wildlife-explorer/grasses-sedges-and-rushes

 

[kattabelly]

They won't touch the long clump grass that grows at the goose end of the extended run and that's mostly all there is in that area.

That's really interesting because the chickens here (mainland Orkney) absolutely love the long clumps of cocksfoot. They graze them right down to lumpy stubble, scratch around the base of those once they're bare, and the free range flock of Hylines where I used to live on one of the Orkney isles would often choose to lay in nests in the middle of a few dense clumps that were still standing.

For seed they seem to like rough meadowgrass the best but I'm not sure how much of that is because the smaller seeds are easy to strip off the more openly structured flowering spike.

Definitely noticed them nibbling on some pollen recently too but I can't remember what plant.

 

[Perris]

Initially I thought they just liked tender shoots and seeds, but it is way more complex than that.

I think so too. Mine often nibble just the tops, and I think that's because they're selecting the 'ripest' flowers on a given grass stem (they seem to ripen from the top) as they pass. Here's one that's been nibbled thus They are really spoiled for choice here at the moment, as there are several areas where the grass goes uncut, and there's lots to choose from

Here's one that really shows they are flower heads atop the grass stem: the anthers are very obvious

 

[Sally PB]

Turns out pollen is very nutritious, so quite a lot of animals eat it when available.

It is honey bees' source of protein.

 

[Perris]

It is honey bees' source of protein.

it's honey bees only food source isn't it? so their source of everything.

 

[Sally PB]

it's honey bees only food source isn't it? so their source of everything.

Pollen and nectar. And water. A lot of people don't realize that bees drink water as well. They need shallow places of still or dripping water.

Beekeepers often feed their bees in late winter as the weather gets warmer and the bees are starting to become active, but nothing is yet blooming. There are special patties made by bee supply companies that keepers put in the top level of the hive, on top of the frames. It's a mix of pollen and sugar.

 

[Perris]

interesting. Does nectar contain anything but sugars? Surely the pollen is providing the bulk of the micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as the protein?