Your Chickens' Diet- Do you supplement with greens?

[Table4Six]

This thread is for sharing and learning the best ways to add variation to your chickens' diet by supplementing greens, especially when free-ranging is not an option. Share your expertise and what works best for you: how often you provide greens and what do the chickens like best.

 

[CCUK]

This thread is for sharing and learning the best ways to add variation to your chickens' diet by supplementing greens, especially when free-ranging is not an option. Share your expertise and what works best for you: how often you provide greens and what do the chickens like best.

My chickens are in a run at the end of my garden so the grass disappeared a long time ago! I get them kale when it's available from my local fruit and veg seller. They also get pumpkins but they're more seasonal! When I cut the grass I also throw some of the clippings in. They also get apples occasionally chopped up and frozen peas in the summer!

 

[21hens-incharge]

I cannot vote...... There is no option for giving them what I grow or sprout.

Ok so I voted "what's around the yard".
Mine get occasional greens/produce.
I store winter squash from my garden and they get the "extras" over the winter along with alfalfa (technically purchased) from a bale.

In summer they get more from the garden like cucumbers and tomatoes along with thinnings and trimmings.

 

[Table4Six]

I cannot vote...... There is no option for giving them what I grow or sprout.

Ok so I voted "what's around the yard".
Mine get occasional greens/produce.
I store winter squash from my garden and they get the "extras" over the winter along with alfalfa (technically purchased) from a bale.

In summer they get more from the garden like cucumbers and tomatoes along with thinnings and trimmings.

You can vote now.

 

[CCUK]

I cannot vote...... There is no option for giving them what I grow or sprout.

Ok so I voted "what's around the yard".
Mine get occasional greens/produce.
I store winter squash from my garden and they get the "extras" over the winter along with alfalfa (technically purchased) from a bale.

In summer they get more from the garden like cucumbers and tomatoes along with thinnings and trimmings.

Alfalfa is really good for them and it makes a nice deep yellow yolk!

 

[21hens-incharge]

You can vote now.

Thanks! I fixed my vote.

I did notice nicer yolks after adding alfalfa. Pretty amazing to see how dramatic the change was.

 

[MillersFarm]

No, I "free range" all my birds ('Cept for my breeders) on 50 acres of pasture and woods, No fences or anything. Get plenty of greens from foraging..

 

[Table4Six]

No, I "free range" all my birds ('Cept for my breeders) on 50 acres of pasture and woods, No fences or anything. Get plenty of greens from foraging..

Do you ever have trouble with aerial predators?

 

[MillersFarm]

Do you ever have trouble with aerial predators?

Will have the occasional fox come through, but they're quickly taken care of.. Got a Bernese mountain dog that does a good job of keeping predators away, Oddly i've never had any hawks attacking my birds so they're not much of a problem.. But all my birds(Guineas not so much) know to put themselves away and are locked up at night.

 

[IamRainey]

My chickens are enclosed in a run so I feel I have to do their foraging for them. They get: kitchen scraps, bagged shredded cabbage, any weeds or overgrown flowers I pull out of the flower beds and lawn, and then occasional mealworms and BOSS for the protein.