What do you grow to feed the chickens??

[Highcotton]

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Cilantro and Parsley do better here in the winter than they do in the summer. I am in Zone 8A. The temperature gets down to 17 degrees here.

 

[Highcotton]

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It should go to seed about April or May.

 

[Highcotton]

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Green Manure is wsing the green parts of the plant as a soil ammendment. You can also let it go to seed and chop it up and turn it under and get the same benefit. It just takes the plant longer to break down.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I did look at a number of web sites that sell seed, and rye was very commonly used. I even looked at what was on sale in the stores locally and rye was a big % of the grasss seed for lawns. Annual rye.

LOve that you have green grass all winter. IF the chooks can get past the snow, the grass is green underneath. I rarely have brown grass-- the heat and lack of rain in the heat of the summer is the least productive time-- and that is not often around here.

CLover is very imporant for fixing the nitrogens-- good point. CLover is high on my list and alfalfa too.

 

[Highcotton]

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Do Barney Fifeand Andy Taylor still live there? I am a farm boy that sort of lives in the country. I have found that carrots are very cold hardy. I learned in a master gardening course that here we should plant the carrots early in the fall and they will be mature about January. The springs get too warm too soon to grow them in the spring here. The clover and grains should grow like the kale and turnips and collards.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: THanks Hagar for the clarification.

I don't have the ability to till here. THe land is covered with relatively young trees because it was clear cut some 50 years ago-ish. THe tall thin black birch make good poles! Eye rails for the horse fencing. ANd I don't see any lack of rocks-- maybe that was the prefered crop here!! lol SO I am limited on my methods.

I had for gotten the effects of the heavy leave coverage on the ground. I can see that Many trees need to be removed inorder to get the sunlight in, decrease the fern count and get grass thriving. I have keept a few sheep as they hoover the leaves and the chooks just scratch and move the leaves.

Have thought about raking the leaves into huge piles to rot down and let the chooks into it when it is full of bugs. I wonder what I could plant on it later?

Now I am wondering if the chickens eat the tiny almost microscopic fungii that goes in rotting leaves . . and is this good or bad. . . ..

These chickens keep taking me down new roads. lol

 

[Arielle]

Quote: I love the ANdy Griffith SHow-- funny how I left a small rural town as fast as I could and now years later I yearn for the simplicity.

THe growing season up here is very different than your location. THe zone has changed by one whole zone though-- it is getting warmer. ANd more unpredictable. THe late frost can still happen. Last yr I cxhanced the frost and a late frost never happened. Luck of the draw I guess.

 

[Highcotton]

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Mustard greens are good stir fried with some bacon. In the old days before fats weren't good for you cooks mother would fry the bacon and use the hot grease to stir fry the mustard. Mustard is also good cooked in a pot of turnip greens. It adds a good flavor to the greens. i have mustard, kale and turnips in the garden now. Most of that will last until about Christmas. Kale is the most cold hardy and it will last throught the winter. Collards will last almost year round. Just break off the younger tender leaves and let the plants grow. By late spring the stalks will be 3 feet tall and still producing for you and your chickens.

 

[Noobiechickluv]

I plant crimson clover and Wrens Abruzzi Rye as a winter ground cover and for forage for the chickens here in Georgia. Crimson clover is a reseeding annual so it will die when the weather gets too warm and it will come back the next fall. The clover will grow all of the way to main. I don't know if it is planted in the winter all over or not. The area that the rye grows well is from Central Texas East to the Atlantic South of Tennesee. There are other varieties of Rye will grow better farther north. Wheat will also work well also. The chickens like all of these for forage. The clover adds nitrogen to the soil and the grains provide organic matter for the soil when turned under. i turn most of mine under before the rye produces grain but the chickens will eat the grain also. So you really get triple benefits. The chickens get winter forage and And the ground cover and chicken droppings provide better soil for the garden. We get no snow cover in this part of Georgia so there is green forage all winter.

That crimson clover sounds like what I may be looking for. The plan is to hatch some little ones in the spring in the parallel run and let them live in there with their mom (hopefully if one wants to step up and get all broody). Then in the late summer, I'll put them in the bigger run with the others.

So, once the chicks move to the big run in late summer, I could plant the clover. That would give them a little forage for fall
Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[Noobiechickluv]

Do Barney Fifeand Andy Taylor still live there? I am a farm boy that sort of lives in the country. I have found that carrots are very cold hardy. I learned in a master gardening course that here we should plant the carrots early in the fall and they will be mature about January. The springs get too warm too soon to grow them in the spring here. The clover and grains should grow like the kale and turnips and collards.

No, sadly Andy & Barney are passed... but seriously, I live just outside of Mt. Airy NC, which is the town Andy grew up and Mayberry is based on it. There is a Mayberry days festival, a Snappy lunch, Floyd's barbershop, and The Andy Griffin Playhouse

I do have a bed of carrots, but they are kinda hard to grow here, they don't like the red clay, you have to add sand. Just pulled some little ones today, but we harvest most in Feb or March