winter feeding

[U_Stormcrow]

I buy kale in the grocery store when we run out here. They love that so much and it's outstanding nutritionally for them. We grow it but this year there wasn't enough to bother freezing it.

I either hold the bunch out and let them all eat it while I hold it, or tie it with twine and hang it.

Otherwise, they get nothing else but feed and occasionally some scrambled eggs if they lay too many lol.

Chard, too. and its prettier, if you care about such things.

 

[Sally PB]

My chickens get the same thing, winter and summer. Their feed, their mash snack, and water. Mash snack is the variable. It's their feed wetted into a mash, sometimes with something added. The something can be BOSS or other seeds, the leftover stuff from making bone broth, or some kind of kitchen scraps.

In summer they get garden weeds, in the winter I grow some fodder for them.

Most of the extras are to provide entertainment. For me as much as them. How can I watch a flock of hens run around with a leaf or after some BOSS and not smile?

 

[Sally PB]

Chard, too. and its prettier, if you care about such things.

It's lovely! I like it better, and the chickens like it better.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It's lovely! I like it better, and the chickens like it better.

Yeah, I will not only eat chard, I go to the trouble of planting it every year. I won't plant, or buy, kale. Its not bad, its just that there are so many better options for my table.

My birds, apparently, agree.

 

[Sally PB]

I go to the trouble of planting it every year. I won't plant, or buy, kale.

Kale has not done well for me, in several tries, for several years. I'm getting phenomenal chard plants with my late season planting. I'm hoping I get some chard to grow over the winter in the green house. Spinach and kale have not done well.

Chickens, I'll share... I promise!

 

[Debbie292d]

Chard, too. and its prettier, if you care about such things.

Yes, here folks plant chard and kale in their outdoor flower pots. I've only planted kale in the garden but we'll get some chard too. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Debbie292d]

It's lovely! I like it better, and the chickens like it better.

Never tried it. They go nuts over kale so didn't even think of planting some chard but we will this summer. Kale grows pretty fast so I'd assume chard is the same.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Never tried it. They go nuts over kale so didn't even think of planting some chard but we will this summer. Kale grows pretty fast so I'd assume chard is the same.

Chard is a little more "tender" and should grow faster - but not spread as much. Its a more upright plant. Honestly, yield is probably better on the kale, but I like the yellow, orange, and red rib colors.

 

[Sally PB]

I like the yellow, orange, and red rib colors.

Yes!

I tried chard, raw, from a friend's garden and eh, wasn't a fan. Someone said, try it again in a stir fry, and

I'm a believer, yeah, I'm a believer! I'm a believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Sorry about the song now stuck in your head.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Yes!

I tried chard, raw, from a friend's garden and eh, wasn't a fan. Someone said, try it again in a stir fry, and

I'm a believer, yeah, I'm a believer! I'm a believer, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Sorry about the song now stuck in your head.

Since I was just finishing Donovan's "Season of the Witch", and it (for inexplicable reason) followed the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B", a little Monkeys fits right in. Let me queue up some "Come Together" and we'll have the start of a play list...