Wintertime greens

[ABQ chicken keeper]

For those of with no pasture for chickens, and snow on the ground, what are you giving your chickens to supplement their green diet? It is so cold the weeds will not even grow.
Yes I know that will change in a coupe of months!

 

[nuthatched]

You can gets some romaine lettuce and give them a head a week.

 

[MountainWoman73]

Sometimes I grow microgreens in my windowsill. We eat some, and when they are done I dump what's left over in the chicken run and start over.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

You can gets some romaine lettuce and give them a head a week.

Good idea, Thank you

 

[Sally PB]

Sprouts! I sprouted barley and the chickens loved it, greens and roots.

 

[50-45-1]

I buy a bale of alfalfa hay. It's pricy but one bale lasts me an entire winter. I only feed one 3 inch flake every other day or so when the coop stays closed as it's too cold and snowy outside.
PS..I am in Michigan.
The chickens love to scratch threw it and pick out the tiny leaves that are packed with nutrition.
They leave the stalks behind, and I rake that up and fork it outside where the wild rabbits eat that up.

 

[rosemarythyme]

I don't give mine greens regularly but the most common one in fall and winter would be carrot greens - my flock enjoys them and they usually get tossed out otherwise.

Any other leftover greens is fine too - cauliflower leaves, parsley that didn't get used up, kale stems (not much left on there but they can pick at it), spinach stems.

 

[ABQ chicken keeper]

I buy a bale of alfalfa hay. It's pricy but one bale lasts me an entire winter. I only feed one 3 inch flake every other day or so when the coop stays closed as it's too cold and snowy outside.
PS..I am in Michigan.
The chickens love to scratch threw it and pick out the tiny leaves that are packed with nutrition.
They leave the stalks behind, and I rake that up and fork it outside where the wild rabbits eat that up.
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Thank you!

 

[fldiver97]

I give all sorts of greens from carrot and radish tops to spinach/chard/kale/mustard and collard greens to homegrown sprouts and micro greens. Mine also love getting cabbage - I string up a whole cabbage and hang it in the run. They love pecking it . Fortunately we don’t get a lot of snow and some of the weeds and grass are intermittently available.

 

[texsuze]

None of my girls has ever liked 'salad' greens, go figure. Lately I've been buying a small bag of pet rabbit-sized alfalfa at TSC. Mostly stems but as someone mentioned, I put a fist-sized clump out and the girls peck and scratch through it. I have found that it tends to make one of my BAs constipated so I use it sparingly. We're fortunate to have moderate winters with only periodic arctic blasts. Many native plants still blooming and bumblebees bumbling last month!