What do you grow to feed the chickens??

[lazy gardener]

I may be wrong, but you'll get more solar gain using clear plastic. It's also dual purpose. you can warm the soil with it, then use it for a tunnel after the plants are out of the ground.

 

[Rainey]

I just found this thread and enjoyed reading it. We have goats and rabbits as well as chickens and I feel like I have a better handle on what is good for them. Last spring we started some hedgerows around and between the goat paddocks that we rotate between. Willow and elder we could just stick cuttings into the wet ground along one end and they rooted. Also put in some hazel, rugosa rose, and raspberry. The goats need the browse to go with their grazing and we'd been cutting batches of the invasive multi-flora rose to feed them. I really like it when we can find a use for some of those"weeds"--gives an incentive otherwise lacking to go after some, push them back a bit.
We've had chickens for years, in a moving coop with yard underneath through the growing season. We give them greens that are bolting, overgrown cukes or squash, the cores when we're processing apples, skins and whatever is cut away from tomatoes when canning. Various weeds--visiting children who help in the garden are more attentive to what they're pulling out if we show them weeds the goats and chickens will like, then go and feed the critters when we take a break.
The rabbits, just started with them last year, are easy to feed mostly from what grows wild with some good hay and oats or wheat. This winter we grew the wheat into fodder for them and they really like that. Also had willow we'd cut in May when it was just fully leafed out and dried. They love to chew on that, eating wood as well as leaves, and willow is said to have a good amount of protein.
Just ordered white mulberry to plant if spring ever comes.
Don't think much of the vague label on the layer pellets we get at the local Agway but feel much less certain about what to feed chickens. Looking forward to learning.

 

[CherMoz]

Welcome Rainey!

 

[CherMoz]

My chooks have a "sun room." I took three 8-foot long (each about 4 feet wide) sections of old fencing, tops attached to the east side of their coop, bottoms out at about a 45-degree angle from the coop resting on straw bales, with the whole thing covered with an old green house skin. The dirt in there is heavily mulched with leaves and straw so they can dig around in it. I did this so I did not have to do any snow shoveling for them this year. It has worked out great, and the chooks really love it in there. I also did this on the west side of the coop for the turkeys. Because of the slop of the land, the turkeys had to have two levels of straw bales to get the bottoms of the fencing sections up high enough.

Once it warms up, end of April or so, I plan to remove the green house skin and grow scarlet runner beans, squash, pumpkins, and such (maybe some of you can come up with some other ideas) planted into the straw bales (straw bale gardening) with the vines trained to grow up the fencing to create a shaded area for them, to keep the coop cooler, and to grow some food for them. Any thoughts/suggestions in this regard are welcome!!

 

[Rainey]

My chooks have a "sun room." I took three 8-foot long (each about 4 feet wide) sections of old fencing, tops attached to the east side of their coop, bottoms out at about a 45-degree angle from the coop resting on straw bales, with the whole thing covered with an old green house skin. The dirt in there is heavily mulched with leaves and straw so they can dig around in it. I did this so I did not have to do any snow shoveling for them this year. It has worked out great, and the chooks really love it in there. I also did this on the west side of the coop for the turkeys. Because of the slop of the land, the turkeys had to have two levels of straw bales to get the bottoms of the fencing sections up high enough.

Once it warms up, end of April or so, I plan to remove the green house skin and grow scarlet runner beans, squash, pumpkins, and such (maybe some of you can come up with some other ideas) planted into the straw bales (straw bale gardening) with the vines trained to grow up the fencing to create a shaded area for them, to keep the coop cooler, and to grow some food for them. Any thoughts/suggestions in this regard are welcome!!

Thanks for sharing what you did--so far we've had our chickens in a coop that moves onto fresh ground every few days spring through fall but have just kept them in a coop for the winter months (in NY just east of Lake Ontario--lots of snow) This summer we'll be building new space for rabbits and chickens and wanted to give the chickens outside access. Your post gives me ideas of what we could do. Thanks!

 

[CherMoz]

You're welcome!

Our coop is stationary, but they have a large area to free range on. I love watching them make the trip to the compost pile during the summer to dig for the worms and bugs!

 

[CherMoz]

Looking at your avatar, maybe I'll try some melons! They would love that!!

 

[Arielle]

I noticed Rainy's avatar too!! A welcome tease as this has been the ( almost) the snowiest winter on record, and the coldest February for certain. THe endless pure white snow is truely a wonder to look at . . . .however I'm looking forward to spring!!

Rainy you are ahead of most of us. Love that you can just poke in cuttings and get a ready made fence AND feed for the goats. Great.

Generally speaking we have not attempted to jump into balancing rations. Depending on how much the birds eat, greens and fresh vegies could disrupt the balance of their feed. I too struggle with the useless labeling that is allowed. My old feed company listed specific ingredients. I think it is fair to say that the ration is balance so the addition of anything more to eat needs to be balanced to. Now steps in reality . . . we are bound to cause imbalance . . . . but does it really matter might be the important question.

 

[HerbGir1972]

Ours are still getting a mix of winter green, we've added some monarda and dandelion ino the blend.
they've been free ranging a good bit, so they've been helping themselves too.

 

[gjensen]

I noticed Rainy's avatar too!! A welcome tease as this has been the ( almost) the snowiest winter on record, and the coldest February for certain. THe endless pure white snow is truely a wonder to look at . . . .however I'm looking forward to spring!!

Rainy you are ahead of most of us. Love that you can just poke in cuttings and get a ready made fence AND feed for the goats. Great.

Generally speaking we have not attempted to jump into balancing rations. Depending on how much the birds eat, greens and fresh vegies could disrupt the balance of their feed. I too struggle with the useless labeling that is allowed. My old feed company listed specific ingredients. I think it is fair to say that the ration is balance so the addition of anything more to eat needs to be balanced to. Now steps in reality . . . we are bound to cause imbalance . . . . but does it really matter might be the important question.

Really that is a good question. Often our birds eat better than we do. I think the answer depends on how far and with what. Also what the goal is.

I am going to describe a scenario, but I am not recommending the scenario. Some gamecock breeders completely free range their cockerels once they are ready, and then round them up as they begin to "turn on". The free range I am describing is complete fend for yourself. They might only feed them some whole corn to keep them close. Some of these believe that they are growing out stronger birds, and saving money.
Now none of us are raising gamecocks. They are survivors by nature, and our birds do not compare. Also some are more nutritionally needy than others. These birds are not also intended for harvest as most of us would see it.

It establishes a point though. These birds are able to meat almost all of their needs in the late spring, summer months, given some forest and pasture to run. This method pushes them far and wide to meat those needs. What the environment would be the most short in is energy, those the whole corn.

Millions of chickens have survived off of less than what we give our own through history.

And, surviving and thriving is two different things. This scenario is on the extreme end. They were not as productive either. There is a danger in creating a false economy.

The point is there may be some room to work with. If we start in a good place (a good balanced ration), know our birds condition, we can then experiment a little. I would be wary about getting too far away though. I would also want to start with what our rations are most likely to be short in. There is something to be said for food that is alive (greens),and the rations tend to be short on fat (oil/oil seed). Growing a supplement that provides some of that fat or oil, and letting them range for green forage (or bringing it to them) is not going to hurt.

I think that the best we can do is to provide them as much opportunity to rustle up there own as possible. A mixture of leaf litter to scratch through, and good and diverse pasture. Birds can quickly deplete an area of part of their own ration, so the area and qty. of birds is relevant. A rotation could help.

There are times that we may be able to get away with more, and there is times that they need more. There may even be a time that we want to feed them an unbalanced diet, like fattening cockerels. A grain mix mixed with steamed potatoes is good for fattening up some cockerels for the table.

What we can grow practically is another issue. How much volume can we get in a given area matters.

If we start in the right place, make a couple improvements, then we can get away with a little. Someone with a few birds can do more than a breeder with more birds, and multiple generations.