Sunflower Seeds

[WoodlandWoman]

Black oil sunflower seeds have a higher oil content than the grey striped sunflower seeds. It's good for wild birds in winter, because it fuels them in the cold. Parrot owners more often prefer to feed the grey striped sunflower seeds as treats. Grey striped is usually what people eat, also.

Edited to add:

You might want to think about starting a worm bin or culturing some other type of bug, worm or larva to supplement protein. Fish is good protein, too, if you have a pond available. I think field peas are even better for them than soy, if you want to grow field peas.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
Any animal has a limited capacity for food. If they are eating the hulls, the protein level drops - from about 21% to about 10%. (These numbers are used assuming that BOSS have about the same nutrients as the sunflower seeds we are likely to find in the grocery store.)

If the hens are eating only the kernels, they are getting about twice the calories they'd gain from more common feed. I'm thinking that including lower protein/lower calorie foods like leafy greens would make for some balance.

Quote:
I'm growing a few field peas in the garden (BOSS, too

) in the garden this year. They are somewhere around 25% protein. This protein isn't entirely available for use by your hens without some additional feed source. But, that's true with soybeans also. It is probably essential that any legume be cooked before feeding to chickens.

Steve

 

[Featherland]

What are field peas? Do you HAVE to cook them? What do they need to go with them? Is it to complete a protein? I have thought about a worm bin. As for fish I will eat them and bury the unedible parts in the garden. It is the best fertilizer.

 

[digitS']

Quote:
There are probably a lot of varieties of peas used primarily for split pea soup

. An early variety and one I've noticed that the universities use for test purposes is "Alaska." You can buy Alaska for a garden shell pea. It isn't very sweet but some folks like it because they can get a very early crop. The seed is inexpensive, also

.

I've planted Alaska peas with wheat. The wheat plants provide support for the vines that are flowering and developing peas right now. The wheat is also "heading out" and so both crops are at about the same stage of development. When they mature, I will cut them and allow them to dry. Then the pea and wheat seed can be separated from the chaff by putting the dry plants on a tarp and walking on them.

At the other end of my garden I've got Alaska peas planted with foxtail millet. In between, there are a few rows of black oil sunflowers.

My plan is to cook the wheat & peas together in a rice cooker. They won't be "done" to our tastes (that is, if we would want to eat something like this

) but the "antinutrients" in the peas should be neutralized after the 20 minutes of cooking.

This is a very small project mostly to see what the hens think of this food. I've actually grown all these crops in my garden before - yep, even the wheat & millet. I've just never done this as a food for the hens. Who knows? Maybe I'll have a quarter acre of these crops next year and be a gardener for the birds

.

And yes, the protein make-up of the wheat & millet should partly compliment the protein in the peas. That will make a higher percentage of each usable by the hens.

Steve

 

[priszilla]

I have fed both- when they eat the BOSS-they poo dark-lol.