FREE Food for your chickens

[bj taylor]

this is a little off topic, but...these stores policies about food they don't sell is sad. I think, what they can't sell, they can write off. I know that wall mart here uses unmarked, private 18 wheelers to come pick up food and take it to the landfill. food that is barely damaged, still plenty of good for human consumption thrown away by the tons- it seems incredible to me that we are throwing away food all over the country like that and claim we have people going hungry - that's a pretty big disconnect.

 

[MeggsyGardenGirl]

Amen to that. At least stores (and restaurants) should make sure their cast off food is composted to add fertility back to the earth. I think landfills are a toxic abomination that let people off the hook by taking their trash out of sight and out of mind. We work really hard to recycle and compost as much as we possible can from our household but still we end up taking about small bag a month to the transfer station. Hate having to do even that. And don't get me started on the disposable society we live in where nothing is repaired but simply tossed on the heap and replaced. I'm not a Trash Nazi, but wanton waste really bugs me.

 

[Naughty]

I have my coworkers trained so that whenever we have a potluck type of treat day - at the end of the day the leftovers are put in a bag for my chicks. They get some unusual treats....but it is fun to watch em....

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

I love it that we are all so creative and resourceful in how we give that little bit of extra to our chickens.

 

[canesisters]

Amen to that. At least stores (and restaurants) should make sure their cast off food is composted to add fertility back to the earth. I think landfills are a toxic abomination that let people off the hook by taking their trash out of sight and out of mind. We work really hard to recycle and compost as much as we possible can from our household but still we end up taking about small bag a month to the transfer station. Hate having to do even that. And don't get me started on the disposable society we live in where nothing is repaired but simply tossed on the heap and replaced. I'm not a Trash Nazi, but wanton waste really bugs me.

Woah, easy there. Modern landfills are not the most pleasant place on earth but they are basically just a GIANT compost pile. Granted, there are things in there that will never actually compost. But I would guess that roughly 80% of what passes my scale is brush, house hold garbage, restaurant waste, and building materials (wood). The air around is carefully monitored every 20 days to make sure there are no methane leaks and as it's being built, a network of pipes is laid to collect waste water and methane. The waste water is collected, monitored and treated and the gas is pumped to an on-site plant to create 'free' electricity. I'm no fan of 'wanton waste' either but 'toxic abomination' is a bit harsh.

 

[hoodat]

I wish all landfills were that well managed.
On another note some of the old timers feed roadkill to their chickens.

 

[ducks4you]

I thought you were going to mention my favorite free chicken food- weeds! I enjoy weeding more when I imagine all the beautiful dark yolked eggs, I am going to get from the girls!

I do this. I've found that they like some weeds and don't like others. They like dandelions, and whatever weed flower it is that's popping up everywhere. They like chickweed.
They don't like thistles, or burdock.
It's a trial and error, but if you throw the weeds on the floor of the run, whatever they don't eat mixes with their poo and makes great compost for the garden, anyway!

 

[ducks4you]

Just mowed this morning where the grass had gone to seed, so the chickens got a big pile of it. They were sorting through before I left this morning. There WILL be more...
You know, it doesn't matter if they don't eat it all bc in a few months, after they poo all over it and you remove it you have the BEST compost for your garden!

 

[canesisters]

Yall who feed lawn clippings to the chickens - do you rake it or do you have a bagger?
And if you use a bagger - is it from your mower manufacturer or did you DIY one?

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

We leave our lawn clippings on the lawn. Best way to get organic matter back into your lawn soil. IMO. But all weeds that I do pick, go right into the chicken run or to the pigs when we have them.

Like others have said, I would agree. The chickens know what they can eat, what they don't like and that gets scratched around and turned into great soil! We have dumped last years leaves that I use for mulch on my flower beds over the winter in the chicken run the past two nights. You would think we dumpled a pile of gold in there. They were very excited! (I guess to a chicken leaves are better than gold)

Edited to say: We don't have to mow our lawn as often as our friends in other climates do. Thus our mow it and let it sink in method. I am sure it is very different when you have to mow your lawn often.