Do you plant anything especially for your chickens?

[hoodat]

I had some poor ground that needed organic matter so I planted a mixture of foxtail millet and little millet because it grows fast and doesn't need good soil. It's going to seed now and I was thinking I wish I had some chickens to turn into it. I'll bet they'd go crazy over it. Do you plant any forage crops for your chickens?

 

[journey11]

I haven't before, but I plan to next year. The little boogers are eating me out of house and home. I read a good article on things to plant for chickens...I think it was in Countryside magazine and written by Harvey Ussery (sp?) I'll have to look back over it, but one of the things it recommended was planting amaranth.

If I have kale that gets ahead of me, I usually toss that to them. And my broccoli plants when I'm done harvesting the side-shoots. They really wore that out.

ETA: Here I found the article online on his website... It was in Backyard Poultry (a sister publication of Countryside which I also get...duh. ) Feeding the Flock from the Homestead's Own Resources -- it is written in three parts so be sure to read them all. This is a very thorough article.

 

[hoodat]

When I had my 40 acre homestead in Oklahoma I just let the chickens run loose anywhere they wanted to go. I lost a few now and again to predators but they raised enough chicks to more than make up for it. The advantage was that I never had to feed unless there was deep snow or the ground was frozen. Even in the Winter they could feed themselves if they were able to forage. I fed them a few handfulls of scratch in the evening just to gather them up where they would be protected through the night. They were always fat so I knew they were getting plenty to eat although I sometimes puzzled over just what it was they were eating. Chickens are wonderfully self sufficient if they have enough land to work over.

 

[digitS']

This didn't turn out too well - hey, it was dark out there!

Anyway, I planted the foxtail millet so late this year (in July), I decided to sow just a tiny amount. I'm not sure if the seed even matured before frost threatened and I harvested the plants.

I may not share this with the chickens. I mean, there's only 2 bunches hanging in my carport. If DW gets motivated, it may have ornamental value . . . .

The wheat was about the same way - I planted very little. The hens don't get very excited about the millet but the wheat will go quickly if I thresh it out of the heads and let them have at it.

The daylight fails early now and they are spending a lot of time cooped up, under a light bulb. Soon it will be cold. I may well feed them the wheat . . . and, probably, most any other treat that comes to hand .

Steve

 

[vfem]

I need to go cut my millet now. Thanks for the reminder!!!

Yes, my chickens get a few extra plants I through in for them here and there.

 

[digitS']

. . . forgot to mention the
Black
Oil
Sunflowers
S'

 

[lesa]

Haven't planted anything specifically for the chickens, yet. Of course, they love all the weeds and extras from the garden. What I threaten to do every year (and I swear I am going to do next year....) is plant a bag of wild bird seed for them. I can get a 25 pound bag for 4 bucks- I think that will plant a decent sized patch for them.

 

[bid]

I plant sunflowers and pumpkins for my chickens. I agree with journey on the broccoli as well. I got 5 day olds in Feb. '09 and had some broccoli I was letting go to seed in a fenced in bed. So I would take them outside on warmer days and let them scratch around. They were so cute, had very little interest in the broccoli at first, but by the time they were 3-4 weeks old the broccoli was just stalks!

 

[hoodat]

Haven't planted anything specifically for the chickens, yet. Of course, they love all the weeds and extras from the garden. What I threaten to do every year (and I swear I am going to do next year....) is plant a bag of wild bird seed for them. I can get a 25 pound bag for 4 bucks- I think that will plant a decent sized patch for them.

Good idea on the wild bird seed. 90% of what you get from it will be millet but it's a lot cheaper than millet seed if you buy a bargain brand.
Expensive bird seed is sometimes steamed to kill it so the spilled seed will not grow but of course that's the opposite of what you want.

 

[RickF]

We haven't grown anything special for our birds either.. except weeds..

Of course they grow themselves! The birds have been great at keeping the weeds at bay -- even in our raised bed garden box which has had nothing growing in it for several years. The birds took the weeds and mowed them down pretty well! Now with the recent rains the backyard grasses (which have been completely brown for the majority of the past year) are sprouting again and almost looking normal except for the dibbots due to gophers.. Now I just need to redesign the entire yard..