Do you cook some of your garden produce for the hens?

[digitS']

What about squash bugs and chickens?!? I am so fortunate that the vine borers aren't a problem here yet.

Steve

 

[Buff Shallots]

I tried the cooked carrot peels last weekend, and the girls ate them all gone! Thanks for the tip.

 

[digitS']

I've found that the hens liked just about anything IF it was cooked.

The biggest surprise was feeding them weeds and seeing them eating things like dandelions, roots and all!!

They'll eat some of the tender parts raw as they cruise around the yard (not that I have any dandelions in the yard But if I washed the dirt off, cut up the entire plant and nuked it - the hens would eat every last bit.

I'm not sure how much more digestible cooking makes things or if they really should be eating the entire weed but - weeds I got! I may have to go over into the neighbor's yard but I could bring home bushels of weeds. And, if they eat even the tiniest piece - there's no messy pile left in the chicken yard. All gone!

There should be some "good" things for them coming out of the garden too and I'm looking forward to trying some special crops for the hens in 2008. I just need to better understand of how to make these foods part of a healthful chicken diet.

Buff, your "Treats Chart" on BackYardChickens is really going to help!

Steve

 

[peeps7]

I usually give them to my chickens raw. They like them like that. I plan to grow stuff for THEM in my garden this coming year.

 

[Txchikngardners]

I cooked mustard/turnip greens the other night with supper and fed the leftovers to them today- they loved it! They also loved the parts (stems, brown leaves) that I discarded when I was cleaning them before cooking.

As a rule, we garden in pots - but we plan to plant some things in the ground again this year. I'm not sure how we'll address the free rangers and the garden - I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. We never let them free range without one of us being around, anyway - so maybe that would help.

Of course, it didn't help this day - they were making a good snack out of my banana peppers - plant leaves AND fruit!! After I 'shooed' them away - they came back lurking and hoping for more!

 

[digitS']

When I take a pot of stew or soup or a casserole over to Dad's on a Sunday afternoon, it makes the trip in a "cooler." Which is kind of an odd name since the food goes in (and comes out hot!

Usually, I've tucked it in amongst old bath towels with maybe a Sunday newspaper underneath. Even in this subfreezing weather, dinner makes the one hour trip and is still plenty hot!

This year, I'm planning on using a cooler for "Cooking for the Chooks."

Here are some plans from an Australian guy on what can also be called a "Hay Box Cooker."

Steve
:tools

 

[digitS']

Is this germane to cooking livestock feed - probably not . . . But, I had fun looking at this solar cooker especially in light of my reflections on attempting to use a cold frame about 20 years ago.

In my defense, I'd come from a job at a commercial greenhouse just a few years before. So that meant that my "protected growing space" had shrunk from over an acre under glass to something like 6 square feet under glass!
Needless to say, I didn't make the adjustment worth a dang ! But, with just a few modifications, my cold frame could have been utilized as this Inclined Box Solar Cooker :coolsun!!

It isn't really the size of a coffin as it appears in the photograph! It's only about 1 foot by 3 foot - perhaps just right for a Summer picnic. Note that it is capable of boiling water in less than 2 hours!!

Smaller and simpler cookers can be made with cardboard and aluminum foil.

Steve

 

[warren]

Beware. I used to feed my hens loads of left over cooked vegatables and they loved it, but they started to lay thin shelled eggs because they were not eating the layers pellets.

 

[digitS']

How 'bout a nice serving of Crockpot Garbanzos and Couscous, or Pea and Mint Couscous salad, Warren?

Or, a bowl of Italian Lentil and Barley Soup with shredded kale . . . ?

Steve

 

[patandchickens]

Or "Vegetable Soup with Crunchy Oyster Shells"




Pat