what kind of greens do you feed your flock for winter.

[Martha80]

I bought a bale of alfalfa hay from a neighbor farmer. $3 I give the birds a "flake" of it on days that they have been unable to get out to free range. They will get it daily when the snow covers the ground.

 

[flowerchild59]

Alfalfa pellets, even soaked in water, is the only thing that my birds will not eat. I give them free range a couple of hours a day when I am home. There is nots of clumps of grass if they seek them out.
I also stop by our local veggie mart and they give me trimmings and produce they can't sell. I give them a little mixed produce daily.

 

[JJ Hen Hut]

We continue to toss in green weeds and kitchen scraps.

 

[Martha80]

I saw a post about chickweed (on this thread?) and realized that there is still a lot of that in the corn rows. I pulled up two 5 gal buckets packed full and have tossed that into the run the last few mornings. They love it! I put each bucketful into an old laundry basket and fluffed it a little so that it wouldn't spoil in the middle but I wonder if I shouldn't pack it tightly together so that it doesn't dry out. Any thoughts?

 

[7L Farm]

Quote:
Lettuce does not have the vitamins that greens have. I grow a fall garden & feed my birds kale, collards, mustards, spinach & leaves off of the other plants in the garden. They also, like the tops off of carrots. Its definately benefical because there's not much green stuff left for them to forage on. Plus the hawks are thick as theives here so I see no need to let them out as much only to feed them to a hungry over rated hawk. You can tell I am not a hawk lover.

 

[LisaCammie]

Quote:
Canned peas are not good for them> Way too much sodium. I suggest switching over to frozen. It's easier too

My girls are HUGE fans of peas!

So THAT's why their pea-craze is so inconsistant. I went back to the frozen peas and they gobbled them up in no time! So mad at myself for not considering the sodium content - I'm so picky about what I give my girls.

Thanks for your input!

 

[HiddenHens987]

My girls love Kale! They also enjoy tomatoes and grapes and they like strawberries a bit too!

 

[Niss]

Haha, this is great! I want to give a BIG Thank you to the folks with picky chickens...I worried it was just mine that did not realize they are supost to go crazy for greens. I will try the trick of hanging thw treats up and see if that helps.

Today I asked the produce lady at the grocery store for a little of the discard stuff. I expected the gals to be really happy to get some veggies, even though it only snowed last week and the ground is almost clear again. Wrong! The ducks did like the brocoli if I ripped it up, but the brussle sprouts, cabbage, cuccumbers, zuccini, and pomagranates were given a cursory peck by the hens and quickly abandoned. I took the butternut squash in to cut up (I have half of it in the dehydrator to use myself as a thickening agent/vitamin booster) so I will see tomorrow what they think of that (they have not been inpressed with the pumpkins I have given them, so I really only expect them to eat the seeds).

I wonder is since they are truely free range they can find stuff that is even yummier??

I did give them two small watermelons I saved from the garden as their Christmas dinner and less than a day later there was bairly any rind to be found, haha.

 

[omegorchards]

Quote:
They make take awhile to get used to new food. My birds took a bit to get used to squash. But after the first exploratory peck its been a goldrush.

 

[SagebrushMama]

Now, my hens will eat almost anything but peas. They loved my kids Jack-o-lanterns last Halloween and the occasional head of cabbage. But, just like my kids I can't get them to eat peas! lol