Winter greens

[GloriaH]

I wonder, if you mixed the thawed greens with their dry feed. Not to much, just a little. I think I'll do a cold frame. We are only suppose to be in the 40"s this winter here in Middle Tennessee.

 

[greginshasta]

We have a greenhouse with plenty of shelve space, and could easily grow a number of flats, providing temperatures allow growth. Could someone list specific seeds that would be preferable for this purpose?

Thanks much.

 

[allen wranch]

Birds naturally pull off bits of grass when they forage, pick around in the dirt, eat a bug, eat some grass, etc.

When you give them grass clippings already cut up (unless very small), they can eat too many at once and the small pieces sometimes collect in the crop, wad up, and cause impacted crop. Longer loose pieces are especially not good.

Chop them up, mix with some other stuff and they should be OK.

 

[Zenbirder]

Quote:
I also have a greenhouse and would like to know what would work best. I am starting some experiments, sprouting oats. I hope we can all experiment and share what works best.

 

[GloriaH]

I think sharing ideas sounds great. Even if no one posts for awhile I think we should still stay in touch with this topic and let each other know what works best in different parts of the country and what temps and conditions you are growing in and what grows best for you and your chickens.

 

[FrozenChicken]

I grew a small patch of turnips for my girls for the winter. I leave the tops on so they get the greens as well as the root. This gives them something to peck besides each other during the long boring months of winter. I was going to make a few alfalfa square bales for them but grasshoppers destroyed most of the leaves so I didn't swath any.

 

[greginshasta]

Quote:
Any time I give our hens something hard to get to, such as peas, they look at it with disgust and return to scratching the soil for bugs. They will tear apart hard turnips?

 

[Zenbirder]

I put the hens in the garden a couple of weeks ago. They ate the beet greens first, but once the easier things were gone the ate the beets while they were still in the ground. The girls left red crater holes in the dirt and they had pink chicken feathers under their chins for awhile!

 

[LindaN]

I've been thinking about growing greens to feed the chickens over the winter, too, but not so much because I want to "spoil them."

One reason I have chickens is so I can get healthy eggs to eat. The more greens the chickens eat, the higher the beta carotene (and deep orangy-yellow color of yolks) content of the eggs. For this reason, I also add flax seed to their feed.

Even if your chickens seem "picky" it's quite possible that if the only option they have for greens are the frozen ones you offer them, they will gobble them up. I've noticed my hens ignore something that I try to give them, but then hours later when they don't find anything more desirable, they start eating.

Anything that is quick growing should be good to grow over the winter under grow lights or in a greenhouse. I have some winter rye that I didn't end up using for cover cropping that I think I will try growing this year. It will germinate in temps as low as 30 degrees F.

I have some growing flats, but I'd rather use them for seed starting for my garden. So, I've saved a few of the half-gallon containers in which orange juice and some milk products are packaged. When they're empty, I rinsed them out well, then cut them in half along their long side. I'll use these as growing "flats."

For now, there are still enough green things growing. I keep pulling up dandelion greens from around the fenceline for the "girls" and they keep inhaling them!

 

[GloriaH]

Hi LindaN, I also feed an all natural diet for the same reason you do. I put about 2 cups of flax seed to 50lbs. of feed. I some times break up alfalfa cubes in the winter time for my girls to pick at. I mix the alfalfa with thier feed. Do to the hawk situation here I can't free range my layers so I try to find healthy greens to give them all year. If I can give them fresh greens in the winter time it's a plus. I may grow some buttercrunch lettuce for all of us.
We have a couple of extra windows so I might try a cold frame.