Need help with theoretical garden

[AMKuska]

I called up my mother yesterday to ask her about some gardening things, and we got to talking about the plants I was growing specifically to feed my chickens. I told her my ultimate goal would be to grow my own feed and she told me...

"That's impossible on half an acre. You need at least 10 to 15 acres for that amount of food."

Well, I am pretty sure that if 1 chicken needed over an acre to feed itself...you're doing something wrong. But I am curious to find out how you would garden on a minimal amount of land for the purpose of feeding chickens. How much ground would you need for it?

I told my mother I would ask you guys, and she said: "Let me know how you'd do it and I'll start gardening that way too!"

So how about it? How would your chicken garden grow?

 

[so lucky]

I bet seedcorn would be able to contribute to this conversation. At least to calculate how many bushels of corn per acre, and how many chickens that might feed. Black oil sunflowers is a good chicken food, but I don't have any idea of how many bushels per acre to expect. Milo? Millet?

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Digits i think posted something about this in the past. i'm sure he'll come around and post the link or update us!

most you would be able to do is supplement their diet with lots of goodies! and i certainly know how my chickies LOVE their garden goodies!

i have a small flock of around 25 birds so not too big a flock, but it sure does take a lot of space to grow enough corn to feed that many over a year.

i have a full acre here but over half of that is currently saplings to large trees that will eventually get thinned out to make some firewood and room for a few more fruit trees, some grape vines, maybe some hardy kiwi, definitely more berry plants-strawberry-blueberry-red and yellow raspberries, and the garden has been slowly expanding to include more and more stuff for both my dh and the birds.

so things to try and grow that your chickens should like and don't take a huge amount of space:
sunflowers for their seeds
mangel beets (fodder beets that can get to be about 10-20lbs)
dandelions (mine i don't have to plant or maintain, they just took over before i got here and the chickens don't mind my birds come running when they see me with handfuls of weeds)
kale, collards, or any of the brassica that give you green leaves. mine go crazy for those leaves anytime of year!
grass clippings (as long as you don't treat your grass feeding that is fine)
basically anything leafy and green you could grow in your garden for yourself would be good for your chickens.
i figured once the fruit trees start producing they will get some of those as treats too! they loved the peaches when i had some producing at the last property. apples are always a favorite.

 

[Smart Red]

Backyard biointensive does a pretty good job of helping with planning including amount of feed per bird per day. I couldn't fine where the author lived, but he said 5 months of feeding his flock, so it isn't a real warm growing zone.

Corn is stored whole, and ground just before feeding. I would suspect many other grains are handled much the same. Field peas are a good substitute to using soy beans.

Good luck! It just might be something I'd be interested in eventually.

 

[digitS']

Okay, it is easy to do a little bit of arithmetic:

A hen of a laying breed eats about 1/4 pound of high-nutrient feed each day. 365 x .75 = 274 pounds/year.

Let's just take wheat. It isn't nutritionally complete but we can worry about that later. An average yield per acre may be 3,000 pounds. See where we are going, here?

Ten chickens/acre.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

According to homesteading today, takes about 90 pounds of feed/hen. This hard number to come by depending upon free ranging or scraps, etc. acre of commercial corn raises 8400# of corn/acre. Home gardener, half that. So, home gardener can raise enough feed/acre for 26 birds. Now you will need a protein source, best option is peas-if you can get them to eat it-will need about 260 pounds. That is good news as that will be only .2 of acre. So per hen, 1742 sq ft of corn, 335 sq ft of peas.

Protein source, could take up fishing, dehydrate fish and use for protein. Also need calcium, greens to add vitamins. Much easier to buy feed and supplement from table/garden scraps.

I do not stand by any of this quick math......you get what you pay for.

Steve, your math is probably a lot closer..

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

almost forgot about the storage and drying of all that produce! you'd have to take into account where and how it all needs to be stored during the winter and spring months too.

 

[digitS']

Mine is a lot less complete, Seedcorn!

A lot of things have higher yield than wheat but it isn't the most difficult to feed. Yes, peas have much fewer "anti-nutrients" than soybeans. Might be a real good choice for balancing grain protein.

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Mine is a lot less complete, Seedcorn!

A lot of things have higher yield than wheat but it isn't the most difficult to feed. Yes, peas have much fewer "anti-nutrients" than soybeans. Might be a real good choice for balancing grain protein.

Steve

Either way, I'm buying my feed. Call me lazy! I can't imagine hand weeding an acre+. I remember good 'OL days of walking beans.....

 

[AMKuska]

Either way, I'm buying my feed. Call me lazy! I can't imagine hand weeding an acre+. I remember good 'OL days of walking beans.....

This is why the title is "theoretical" garden. I plan on supplementing my chickens as much as possible from the garden, but as for feeding them completely...not this year! I don't even know if my garden is actually going to grow. >.<