Good morning,I have wondered how the pioneers fed their
chickens before pellets. The noted site below is an interesting web site that
addresses this issue.
It is just as
interesting that most sites I have seen that address this issue are located in
wetter climes. Similar to what I have found with veggie gardening. This does
add a curious twist to it. It would be interesting to see “The Mother Earth
News” do an article on West Texas Arid homesteading.
The summer time, especially if we get a wet season, free
range feeding the chickens becomes a lot easier. Chickens are omnivores and
will eat just about anything you throw at them. I have seen them eat anything
that runs, walks, crawls, or is just lying there. This includes animal or
vegetable. I sometimes laugh when I see chicken food that sells itself as
vegetarian. Chickens will only be vegetarian if they are permanently enclosed
inside. Chickens are opportunists.
What I have found is that you need to feed chicken
carbohydrates and protein. The carbs are an easy issue. Mangles which are
oversized beets have traditionally been grown for livestock feed. In milder
climates, like ours they can be harvested throughout the winter. I have fed
beets to my birds and they love them. Another large root crop is turnips. An
interesting note with turnips, the leaves contain around 18 % protein and the
roots have about 12%. Of course they would also contain carbs too. I choose
mangles and turnips because their roots can get to be upwards of 20 pounds.
Several birds could eat on one root.
The above mentioned
website addresses all sources of protein. I will address vegetable sources. I
have tried to feed the chicken’s alfalfa pellets for winter protein and they
look at me as to say “do what”. I have not gotten them to eat alfalfa pellets,
but this would also encourage a need to purchase food if they would. One time I
purchased an alfalfa hay bale to mulch with in the garden and the girls went
ape over the stuff. So I decided to look at growing legumes for forage. Two
examples are alfalfa and clover.
When we were prepping the guineas to be free range, we had
planted their run to New Zealand white clover. I have also used this crop as a
cover crop in the garden to increase nitrogen (protein) levels in the garden.
This is a vigorous grower and stays short, up to 18 inches.
I searched the net and found this site that deals with
cover crops and forage.
White clover (New Zealand clover) as a forage provides a 28
% protein crop. This could very easily provide my protein source. With
ruminants this causes a bloat risk, not so with chickens.
The roots could be planted in one 45 foot long bed. The
clover could either be a mown cover crop bed or plant accessible areas of
clover in the barnyard. I could rotate through these areas and let one rehab
while feeding from another. I suspect that I could not completely feed my hens
without augmenting with pellets.
We may have to give this a whirl.
It is so nice to finally be getting nice warm weather. It has
been difficult to mature succession crops and I have been harvesting my over
wintered mature crops. These are beginning to be sparse. With this warmer
weather I am hoping that there will not be any veggie scarcity. Please place
your orders for your desired veggies and I will do my best to fill all orders..
Veggie transitions from winter to summer can be tricky. In the event that I
cannot completely fill orders I will only bill for the portion I do fill. Thank
you for your patience.
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