Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[no fly zone]

Does anyone feed chard to their chickens? I’m planting some as part of a fall crop, more for looks than anything else.

I hate it, myself, and when I found out that it’s a member of the beet family, I realized why.

Chard ‘Bright Lights’:
View attachment 4191677

Neither my chickens nor my tortoises cared for chard.

 

[fuzzi]

Does anyone feed chard to their chickens? I’m planting some as part of a fall crop, more for looks than anything else.

I hate it, myself, and when I found out that it’s a member of the beet family, I realized why.

Chard ‘Bright Lights’:
View attachment 4191677

I love chard, beets, but despise kale.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

I love chard, beets, but despise kale.

And all three are on my nope list! I love spinach and Brussels sprouts, though. I’m just weird.

How do you cook/prepare chard? I’ve read that Bright Lights is milder and less, umm, earthy than straight Swiss chard.

 

[fuzzi]

And all three are on my nope list! I love spinach and Brussels sprouts, though. I’m just weird.

How do you cook/prepare chard? I’ve read that Bright Lights is milder and less, umm, earthy than straight Swiss chard.

Pick chard when small, take the outer leaves. Cook as spinach.

 

[Molpet]

I cook chopped kale with onions and garlic in olive oil.

I used to make a dehydrated kale flaxseed crackers thing. I just wing it and don't have a real recipe.
A bunch of kale, stems removed is easier, in the food processor.
Add Enough tomatoes, onions garlic and coconut oil to get it to grind smooth. It's too thin to put on dehydration sheets at this point....so ....
Put this into a bowl and mix in ground flaxseed until stiff enough to spread with silicone spatula on fruit leather dehydration sheets. About a quarter to half inch thick.
I run dehydrator for a few hours.
Then I score so I can break later into square or rectangle when fully dry. Usually the score mark closes up if I do before I put in dehydrator.
Dry until can break at score and dry inside.
I run the dehydrator for a day or so depending on how humid.
I didn't use salt back then, but I'm sure you could add.
I would freeze in ziplock to keep fresh for winter. Probably could store in jars, but I haven't.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Integration continues. Today, the dividing fence in the run comes down:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

The Bigs listen uneasily as I explain what exactly @Mrs. K means when she says “Solve for peace in the flock”:

 

[Mother of Chaos]

The Littles say, “Time will tell!”

 

[Mrs. K]

Don't take the fence down, lift it up off the ground, so the chicks can get out, but can get back in if it gets to be too much! In a week they won't need it.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Don't take the fence down, lift it up off the ground, so the chicks can get out, but can get back in if it gets to be too much! In a week they won't need it.

We’ve made it through that step! That was a great suggestion, and it worked perfectly. At 8 and 10 weeks, they needed a biggish gap, and the EE went through several times, but she’s been pretty decent with them.