Topic of the Week - Saving Money, Feeding Chickens

[lazy gardener]

IMO, by far the easiest way to accomplish your desired goal is to plant a garden for yourself, and share the bounty with your chickens. No sense growing stuff for the birds, if you do not also partake in the wonderful produce. Any of the cucurbits would be my first choice.

 

[AquaDuck]

IMO, by far the easiest way to accomplish your desired goal is to plant a garden for yourself, and share the bounty with your chickens. No sense growing stuff for the birds, if you do not also partake in the wonderful produce. Any of the cucurbits would be my first choice.

I would indeed take my share of veggies, not leaving all the goodies to the birdies. Haha! I have a tiny garden now and will keep using that for own consumption, but was thinking making use of some land and plant in 30 feet long rows, maybe 3-4 of them with a different type in each row.
Thanks for your advice, squash are able to grow here. Haven't had much luck with pumpkin, I guess the summer is too short and wet.

 

[TattooedChicks]

http://www.ufseeds.com/Chicken-Fora...mUaKCVE1hhHjlB1rgsDSZx89gx2p7-VsaAmnMEALw_wcB
There's multiple choices you can choose from. But this is my favorite one.

I'll be buying this for next years chicken garden!

 

[MrsAuberry00]

Mrs A, your birds should not be consuming more than 11# of feed/week. It's possible that some of your waste is occuring due to rodent, or possibly bird invasion. How are you storing your feed, and are you removing it at night? What are you using for feed, what are you serving it in, and are you adding anything to the feed? You might consider switching to fermented feed. They will derive better nutrition from it, it will enhance their gut health, and there will be NO waste. It can be fed in a large plastic dog feed bowl.

It's kept in a sealed container in our garage. I don't remove the feeder at night. They eat a crumble layer feed and the feeder is pictured in the photo below. Most of the waste is spillage and my cockerel is a piggy. I don't add anything to the feed, but they get a small amount of treats that include cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, cucumber, etc.

 

[lazy gardener]

I would indeed take my share of veggies, not leaving all the goodies to the birdies. Haha! I have a tiny garden now and will keep using that for own consumption, but was thinking making use of some land and plant in 30 feet long rows, maybe 3-4 of them with a different type in each row.
Thanks for your advice, squash are able to grow here. Haven't had much luck with pumpkin, I guess the summer is too short and wet.

I did not note that you were in Scandanavia! We truly do live in an international community. How many frost free days do you have, and what is your summer time temp like? Sounds like you would be good with some root crops and some brassicas. Could you put up a small green house? One can easily be built with a couple cattle panels, and some construction grade plastic. It's amazing how easy it is to extend your season with a green house, a hoop house, even a hay bale cold frame. Grow tunnels would easily add 2 extra months to your season so you could grow those nice hefty squash. Many squash have a longer storage life than pumpkins.

 

[ScottKelly1974]

I allow my birds to free range, but during the winter it is feed only. During the summer I supplement with wild bird seed. Also, I found a seed block at the ranch store for chickens. It weighed 25lbs, and had calcium added. After a while the chickens began laying larger eggs. The food is split in different places. I have an old rabbit feeder that works, but the chickens can toss the food out the sides. I also use a wood box I made for the seed block. It keeps the food dry. The only issues I have is the squirrels and mice. Local cats are watching the mice, and I recently cleaned out the cage, added new wire, and haven't seen the mice since.

 

[AquaDuck]

I did not note that you were in Scandanavia! We truly do live in an international community. How many frost free days do you have, and what is your summer time temp like? Sounds like you would be good with some root crops and some brassicas. Could you put up a small green house? One can easily be built with a couple cattle panels, and some construction grade plastic. It's amazing how easy it is to extend your season with a green house, a hoop house, even a hay bale cold frame. Grow tunnels would easily add 2 extra months to your season so you could grow those nice hefty squash. Many squash have a longer storage life than pumpkins.

When I said cold climate, I wasn't kidding! Haha! I've moved even further north than I'm used to, no one even produce grains here... The thaw goes in late May, but the summers are (usually) quite warm, and many hours of light. Almost midnight sun. So anything growing fast in regular temps should manage. I have some brassicas now, they seem to be doing fine. Potatoes should be a safe bet too, though I'm not sure how good they are for chickens. Lots of starch and little else.
Haven't thought of hoop houses and grow tunnels, that's a good, inexpensive idea! I got lots of fiberweb crop fleece and see through plastic already. Will stop the squash from drowning in the rain too, I assume.

 

[PirateGirl]

When I fed a large flock outside (in the run) I realised I was feeding half the neighbourhood's wild birds as well. I changed my feeding practices by not leaving food out all day and feeding twice a day only and standing nearby to deter any freeloaders while the chickens were eating (about 10-15 minutes was enough), before covering all remaining feed until the next feeding time. I cut my feed bill in half Yes, the wild birds were consuming as much feed as my 100 bird strong flock did!

Agree! I have watched wild birds and prairie dogs happily gorging themselves at the chicken feeder, I have relocated into the coop instead of the run. I don't think the little buggers have figured it out yet, but the chickens didn't take long to find the new location of the feeder. I fill it in the morning once when I leave for the day, and if it's empty when I get home they get a small ration or some veggie scraps, but I don't keep refilling and feeding all the time, I'd just be feeding the pests then.

 

[lazy gardener]

When I said cold climate, I wasn't kidding! Haha! I've moved even further north than I'm used to, no one even produce grains here... The thaw goes in late May, but the summers are (usually) quite warm, and many hours of light. Almost midnight sun. So anything growing fast in regular temps should manage. I have some brassicas now, they seem to be doing fine. Potatoes should be a safe bet too, though I'm not sure how good they are for chickens. Lots of starch and little else.
Haven't thought of hoop houses and grow tunnels, that's a good, inexpensive idea! I got lots of fiberweb crop fleece and see through plastic already. Will stop the squash from drowning in the rain too, I assume.

If you have a lot of rain that keeps the soil water logged, you might look at hay bale gardening. I am growing potatoes and sweet potatoes in hay bales this year. In years past, I grew a variety of cucurbits in hay bales with good success. But, this year, I am particularly pleased with the taters and SP in the hay bales. So much so, that I plan to move my potatoes out of the garden next year, and set up a 10 bale bed in the orchard strictly for potatoes. May do an other 10 bales for cucurbits. Are raised beds an option for you? You might do a raised bed, with clamps to secure 10' long PVC pipe to make hoops over the RB, so you could easily put plastic over one or more beds as needed to turn it into a hoop tunnel.

 

[Kiki]

I meant to add that I'm buying a 50 lb bag of feed about every week and half to two weeks for 5 hens and one cockerel! AND they all free range during daylight hours!

I have 8 hens and I only use one 50 pound bag per 30 to 32 days.
I ferment the feed and have zero waste.