Do you plant anything especially for your chickens?

[ninnymary]

Well I planted swiss chard for us and even bought a steamer because someone here said they steam it and then freeze it in zip lock bags. I thought...I can do that. It's not canning so how hard can it be?

The swiss chard was in rainbow colors and grew very nicely. The only problem was that when there was a damaged leaf we would give it to the chickens. We discovered that they loved it and the kids would fight over who would get to feed them. So everyday I would give each child some leaves and they would throw it over. We had so much fun!

Never did get to taste that swiss chard. Maybe next year.

Does this count as planting something for your chickens?

Mary

 

[hoodat]

Double duty. Something for the kids and chickes both. Did you ever play chicken football? You take a piece of hot dog small enough for a chicken to grab and run but too big to swallow and watch the hot pursuit as each chicken tries to get control of the ball (hot dog)

 

[BarredBuff]

Hey, newbie here. Well not garden newbie but newbie to TEG. I am planning to plant 6 rows of corn for the chickens, ducks and rabbits this coming summer along with BOSS. Im hoping to make silage so if anybody has advice homesilage making feel free to PM me.

 

[seedcorn]

How much silage are you talking about making?

 

[hoodat]

As youngster on the farm I helped make a lot of silage but I never heard of making it in batches that small. We worked in terms of tons.
I suppose you could just try chopping it and putting it in a crock. It's nothing but fermentation after all.

 

[digitS']

There was a Canadian study on using barley silage as a supplement. One thing it apparently does is limit feather pecking. Why, I'm not sure.

Complete digestion of silage could be a problem. The grain in silage could be whole and should be very digestible for chickens.

Yeah, we put up silage at one of the farms where I grew up - - the one with the silo. These plastic bags for silage hadn't been invented . . . heck, plastic had barely been invented.

Steve

 

[hoodat]

My grandpa used to catch the liquid at the bottom of the silo and distill it into some kick butt moonshine. He caled it tanglefoot.

 

[cwhit590]

This year I planted Mammoth Russian Sunflowers for the chickens...they grew well and the chickens liked them. I set a few heads at a time in the run, shucked off a few seeds to get them started, and they figured things out quick.

I also planted extra cabbage for the chickens...they love it. That red cabbage though...it sure leaves it mark in the chicken run if ya know what I mean!

 

[hoodat]

I like a nice rich orange yolk in my eggs and there's nothing like greens to produce that.

 

[ninnymary]

Hoodat...Never heard of chicken football. But then I never knew of anyone with chickens before I got mine 1 1/2 yrs. ago. The things I learn on this site!

My chickens are very dumb though. I don't think they could figure it out. They are suuuuuch picky eaters. They only eat their layer pellets, greens, scratch, and boss. I've tried introducing them to alot of stuff but they just look at it!

Mary