Chicken food ideas

[AMKuska]

My husband wants to create a "Chicken Garden" on the back of our property. Basically a bunch of plants such as lettuce that are fast growing, easy to grow, and will provide enough fun for the chickens before the plant is completely destroyed by ravaging claws and beaks.

Any ideas on what sort of thing we can plant that they would love? Things that aren't too slow growing or have poisonous parts?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Clover, alfalfa, any of the cabbage family, grasses typically used for hay. Avoid the nightshade family like tomato, pepper, or eggplant.

Not sure what the area looks like but if it is in a run maybe you can build a frame and cover it with chicken wire held up off of the ground far enough the chickens cannot pluck the roots. The will eat the greens as they grow through the wire. That way they can have an area of green to eat in what is normally a barren run. Might need to let the roots get established before they start eating it though. If the ground is soft they may just pull it up soon after it sprouts. Hay type crops are probably best, clover works well.

 

[digitS']

AMKuska, I don't think that you will have this problem but I just want to share it with you. The subject of "what can I grow for my laying hens," used to be very much an interest of mine. I mean, I have big gardens but I realized that I could decrease their egg production by giving them too much of one kind of food and not enough of another. Then, I also realized that it would be difficult for me to mill grains or process meats - and that was where primarily their protein was coming from.

Chickens benefit from a 12% to 18% protein diet. That's about the same as humans! We all appreciate variety. What we don't want them to do is to have too much "junk" food even if that's just too much carbohydrates and insufficient protein.

A hundred years ago, there may not have been too many places that people could buy processed chicken feed. At the same time, laying breeds were being developed that could produce a hen that laid 300 eggs a year. Wow! What to feed her??

The author of an important university breeding program wrote something about it way back then. What he was saying, "Look, if you feed a hen only wheat even with a calcium supplement, she needs to eat for 3 days before she has sufficient protein to lay 1 egg. And, it doesn't help to give her enough carbohydrates and fat to make three eggs a day." (I'm paraphrasing. ) So, give them leafy greens (or even whole wheat ) in moderation. Keep their dietary protein levels up.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

When I had chickens-still waiting 3 years for last rooster to die-they always found and destroyed my cabbage plants.

 

[AMKuska]

Thanks for the concern @digitS' these chickens are pretty old, so I'm not too worried about egg production. Although I've been trying to get an earthworm bin growing at a high enough rate I can give them those as treats as well.

 

[Just-Moxie]

Mine love anything they can get from a kitchen garden. And things like tomatoes, if you can, they love any trimmings.
Gardens, turnips, lettuces, most greens, carrots, cabbages, sweet potatoes + their vines. Really, almost anything from a garden except maybe nightshades, and the onion family.

 

[canesisters]

Just lay down a couple of pallets covered in chicken wire and let them graze every day from whatever mix of grasses comes up. Or plant a couple of mini-meadows of various grasses and cover crops. @Ridgerunner had a good list to start off with.
I've got 2 LONG pallets that I'm goin to drop over a patch of chickweed for them. They LOVE that stuff and it grows well all year long.

 

[so lucky]

You know, if you just have a few chickens, you might want to start "farming" mealworms. They are a real treat for many birds, chickens included, and are really easy to take care of. And will provide the protein that the greens might not.

 

[catjac1975]

When I had chickens-still waiting 3 years for last rooster to die-they always found and destroyed my cabbage plants.

I hate to tell you this. I have a big old blue cochin rooster that I think might be over 10 years old. Of course I have not kept good track of when I hatched him. He used to be the king, now the hens protect him form the young roosters.

 

[AMKuska]

You know, if you just have a few chickens, you might want to start "farming" mealworms. They are a real treat for many birds, chickens included, and are really easy to take care of. And will provide the protein that the greens might not.

I've actually tried doing this but I just don't have the skill. The best I could do was get the mealworms to the beetle stage, but if they bred I never got babies.