Sunflowers and Chickens

[Mackay]

If you give your chickens sunflower heads that have gone to seed will they peck them apart and eat the seeds?

I am just wondering what I can grow to feed them.

 

[rebbetzin]

Hmmm great question. I have tons of sunflowers that come up as volunteers every year. The little golden finches here eat the leaves of the Sunflower plants every summer. I wonder if cihcken's would like to eat the leaves?

 

[lesa]

Absolutely, they love them! I hang mine to dry in the basement and bring them out in the winter- it is a feeding frenzy!

 

[journey11]

I don't know why, but mine didn't. They like the black oil sunflower seeds though. Too lazy to pick them out I guess! Or too short of an attention span! The wild birds ate all of mine instead.

 

[simple life]

Mine too, they eat every darn plant, blade of grass and flower in my yard but won't touch the sunflower heads I give them.
They do love the black oil sunflower seeds I buy them
(for ridiculous money around here too) but not the ones I grow.

 

[lesa]

I'll tell you what I noticed- when I offered the heads in late summer- when there was still a lot of goodies available, they ate them, but they weren't excited about it. In February, it was a whole different story. They devoured the entire thing!! I just broke the big heads into a couple pieces, and off they went.

 

[Mattemma]

My chickens like sunflower seeds before they get the hard shell.

 

[digitS']

My chickens will pull the seeds from the sunflower heads. But, let me tell you what I noticed in a friend's chicken pen. She had enlarged the pen after some sunflower plants had been growing awhile. Soon there wasn't a blade of grass in that pen. And, I noticed that the lower leaves of the sunflowers were gone. However, those plants continued to grow and the chickens made no efforts to shinny up them and devour the leaves.

It might have just been too much bother for the birds to climb up to get at them. But, those sunflowers looked kind of odd out there on barren ground with a few dozen chickens enjoying their shade. I am, however, sure they would not have lasted an hour if they were tiny seedlings.

Interesting what you say, Mattemma, about liking the seeds before they get a hard shell. I've noticed that various finches will pull the seeds out at that stage, too.

I grow millet and have grown wheat. The chickens will eat these things but as Lesa says, they are less interested, especially in something new, during times when they've got lots of choices.

Steve

 

[vfem]

I allow my heads to dry completely... I save them to throw into the coop over winter.

This year, the wild birds ate the most of them. I'm going out to dump the rest of the seed I had saved. I had gotten about a 5 gallon bucket full of the sunflower heads. It was a good harvest!

 

[ABHanna4d]

I'm trying to figure out what to grow for my chickens and I love this. I got some dwarf sunflower seeds to plant in my front yard and hope my chickens will eat them...good advice to save the flower heads for winter!!