The Homesteader's Way of Feeding Chickens

[BarredBuff]

As a goal for 2011, I would like to produce most of the chicken's feed in one form or another. I am gonna grow some field corn and they forage from daylight to dusk. Despite the snow today the ducks and chickens are out ranging. So any suggestions?

 

[CrimsonRose]

I'm going to grow some sunflowers (good for my chicks and my buns!) but I can plant them in my flowerbeds and don't need to create extra garden space to plant them! I'd like to plant a bed of Flax as well

 

[BarredBuff]

I'm going to grow some sunflowers (good for my chicks and my buns!) but I can plant them in my flowerbeds and don't need to create extra garden space to plant them! I'd like to plant a bed of Flax as well

Im gonna attempt sunflowers for the buns and chickadees, but space is the issue.

 

[CrimsonRose]

Flax is actually a wild flower... we have poor soil but we have a ton of wild flowers... so I'm going to try sowing them and hope they grow... garden space is an issue for me as well... I have to make raised beds for our garden and since it's still a work in progress I can't waste any space for the animals just yet... but I'm hoping the flowers don't need extra cultivation so I can plant them anywhere...

 

[freemotion]

Do you have any farms nearby where you can get permission to glean? It is a great way to get free food for the critters. I glean a lot. Most farmers hate waste, but simply cannot use every little bit that the harvester misses or every deformed or scarred pumpkin or squash.

 

[BarredBuff]

Do you have any farms nearby where you can get permission to glean? It is a great way to get free food for the critters. I glean a lot. Most farmers hate waste, but simply cannot use every little bit that the harvester misses or every deformed or scarred pumpkin or squash.

Sadly not. I would but its way to mountainous in this area for grain farmers.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am slowly replacing my lawn with clover. The ducks are let a few times a week for foraging on it. I am also thinking about planting some amaranth. The plants look cool and it is supposed to be really easy to grow.

 

[BarredBuff]

I am slowly replacing my lawn with clover. The ducks are let a few times a week for foraging on it. I am also thinking about planting some amaranth. The plants look cool and it is supposed to be really easy to grow.

Luckily most of our lawn is clover. The bees love that and the chickens do too.

 

[FarmerDenise]

We try to grow lots of multipurpose stuff.

It seems all of our animals and us love swiss chard. We planted amaranth this year. it is easy to grow, but so far the chickens didn't care much for it, but the goats and the rabbit like it. I have grown various corn and that is loved by all, but it does take up a bit of space, time and watering. Sunflowers are a bit of work to dry and extract the seeds. But all the animals do like them and they can eat the greens as well as the whole seedhead and the flowers, when in bloom. There are many other garden greens that all the critters like to eat.

We also grow broomcorn. It grows just like corn, but the seeds develop on the top. It is nice in fall arrangements, you can make brooms out of it and the critters all love to eat the greens as well as the ripe seeds. The seeds are easy to remove from the stems, but we often feed them to the chickens, goats and rabbit whole. It gives them something to do.

We also grow millet, which we feed the whole spray. It is easy to grow also and does not require a long growing season. It is one of the first things we harvest every summer.

We dry basil and other stuff from the garden for ourselves as well as for the critters. It is a nice change for them from whatever else we have to offer at any given time.

It seems that some chickens like this and others like that, just like people. So we try to go for diversity.

We also don't have room to store a lot of stuff safely from moisture or vermin. So we we do a lot of year round planting here in northern california. And I forage for goodies all the time.

 

[i_am2bz]

It seems that some chickens like this and others like that, just like people. So we try to go for diversity.

I find things by accident. My chicks don't seem to like normal lawn grass (like fescue) but they love clover (which we have more of than grass anyway).

But now that we had our first snow today I have to find something else for them. I'm planning on growing sunflowers next year; I tried growing broccoli, which they like, but it was a total bust. :/