Anybody tried Mangels?

[WildBird]

Hi, I am planting some Mangels next spring for the first time for my chickens. I am wondering if anybody has had any experience with these?

 

[flowerbug]

i have not heard of them before. will have to look that up...

ah, ok, field beets for cattle fodder, worm food, greens, etc. sounds good to me.

 

[baymule]

I planted some when this was still a new garden. Only a few came up and they did not do well. Big surprise (sarcastic). LOL I had a great beet harvest this spring and canned 2 cases of spiced pickled beets. So, maybe mangels need to be on my radar again. I have looked high and low for a beet shredder, they are not to be found. The old ways of storing them for livestock winter fresh fodder has gone by the wayside and along with it, the tools to utilize them with.

Don't forget pumpkins, your chickens will enjoy those too!

 

[digitS']

I have grown white beets.

They were neither mangels nor sugar beets but I had some intention of trying to make sugar with them. What I was mostly interested in was how they tasted since beets are one of my favorite vegetables. I like small beets, even thinnings, cooked roots, stems and leaves. Large beet roots are okay and that's about it. The darker beets haven't done as well in my garden. I was curious to try a couple of varieties of white beets, they grew fine, but decided that I didn't prefer them. And, I also decided that cooking them down for sugar sounded like a rather tedious job.

Using them for poultry feed - I don't think that occurred to me. Are you thinking of cooking them first? I used to collect a handful of weeds from the yard/garden, put them in a plastic bag and microwave them for a minute. After they cooled my small backyard flock of laying hens ate them voraciously. These were the same weeds that they may have passed by with hardly a peck, many times while ranging about the backyard! Dandelions seemed to be especially appreciated. It was fun doing that little bit of cooking for them just to see their reaction.

Steve

 

[WildBird]

I planted some when this was still a new garden. Only a few came up and they did not do well. Big surprise (sarcastic). LOL I had a great beet harvest this spring and canned 2 cases of spiced pickled beets. So, maybe mangels need to be on my radar again. I have looked high and low for a beet shredder, they are not to be found. The old ways of storing them for livestock winter fresh fodder has gone by the wayside and along with it, the tools to utilize them with.

Don't forget pumpkins, your chickens will enjoy those too!

Pumpkins...pumpkins...I should probably right that down!

I have grown white beets.

They were neither mangels nor sugar beets but I had some intention of trying to make sugar with them. What I was mostly interested in was how they tasted since beets are one of my favorite vegetables. I like small beets, even thinnings, cooked roots, stems and leaves. Large beet roots are okay and that's about it. The darker beets haven't done as well in my garden. I was curious to try a couple of varieties of white beets, they grew fine, but decided that I didn't prefer them. And, I also decided that cooking them down for sugar sounded like a rather tedious job.

Using them for poultry feed - I don't think that occurred to me. Are you thinking of cooking them first? I used to collect a handful of weeds from the yard/garden, put them in a plastic bag and microwave them for a minute. After they cooled my small backyard flock of laying hens ate them voraciously. These were the same weeds that they may have passed by with hardly a peck, many times while ranging about the backyard! Dandelions seemed to be especially appreciated. It was fun doing that little bit of cooking for them just to see their reaction.

Steve

I've never even thought of cooking weeds or plants for chickens. I'm not planning on cooking the mangels, but cooking weeds sounds like a great idea!