|
Pages: [1]
|
 |
|
|
Author
|
forage for chickens | (Read 159 times) |
|
kelda
Posts: 263
|
 |
August 13, 2008, 09:50:48 PM |
|
I'm planning a planting just outside of a chicken area, I'd like to have plants that hang over/grow through the fence and have yummies for the chickens.
What are some of their favorites?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
kelda
Posts: 263
|
|
August 15, 2008, 12:04:12 AM |
|
sweet.
so then my list starts to look something like this:
plums
service berries
autumn olive
strawberry tree
elderberry
mulberry
dwarf cherries
(I am trying to fit this into an existing landscape and not get too tall. Plus *I* like to eat fruit too, so I'm thinking of trees where they fruit over an extended period, or I won't be sad to lose a few fruits to the chickens. )
more ideas for that criteria?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1338
|
|
August 20, 2008, 07:34:07 PM |
|
This is one of my most favorite topics.
Some good ones have been covered.
Siberian pea shrub is another.
Mulberry is extra good.
I think raspberry is good because while they will take the low berries, they will leave the high berries for me.
Peas and lentils.
I wonder if chickens might like goumi and seaberry.
I wonder if there might be a high calorie leaf forage that would be good. A really good browse of some sort.
I would think most grains would be good.
Gaia's garden has lists of stuff in the back that make for good chicken browse. I just wish I knew which perennials made for the BEST chicken browse!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1338
|
|
August 22, 2008, 08:34:20 AM |
|
I would think that millet might be too small for full grown chickens - anybody tried feeding millet to chickens?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
kelda
Posts: 263
|
|
August 23, 2008, 08:28:58 AM |
|
and siberian pea shrub (as well as others), do they drop well? I've only met siberian pea shrub once, it has fat pods like fava beans, but super juicy inside. If for the 'chicken fence line forage' I'd love for it to be able to drop on its own. I don't want to go around managing bushes so that chickens can have food before it dries into hard seeds on the plant (again, like fava would do it if it wasn't plucked).
Although the 'management' wouldn't be all that bad: whenever I'm with the chickens just whack the bushes a lot with a handy stick...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
paul wheaton
Administrator
Posts: 1338
|
|
August 23, 2008, 10:14:32 AM |
|
I'm pretty sure that the siberian pea shrub pods pop open by themselves when they are dry and scatter their seeds.
But I do wonder about the amount of food they provide considering the amount of space they take up.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WenVan
Posts: 28
|
|
September 04, 2008, 09:53:26 PM |
|
Regarding Mulberry Trees (and you all may know this already) you have to make sure you plant the right gender to get fruit. I love to eat mulberries, but didn't know this. I let a seedling grow in my backyard and wouldn't you know it... wrong sex, NO fruit. So I now have a big bushy shade tree that tent caterpillars get to feed off of...but I don't! Lesson learned!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
WenVan
Posts: 28
|
|
September 05, 2008, 09:25:52 AM |
|
That's a good question, Leah!  I know they sell them sexed because the fruitless variety is often recommended as a shade tree because it's not as messy. But telling whether or not it's the right sex by looking at a free range seedling would be a good trick. I got a few Mulberry seedlings around here, (I think the Mockingbirds "plant" them for me!) but I can't seem to make that determination, even if one lets me look up under it's leaves. LOL!
After the 1st time mine produced it's poofy, weird little "flowers", I still didn't know what was going on until I googled it. I do remember reading that you didn't need to have both sexes in close proximity to each other, but I don't remember the exact distance.
I used to teach riding lessons at a local stable & there was a big fruited Mulberry planted next to the stand we would teach from. Me & the mockingbirds used to "fight" over the best berries! I was sad the day they cut that tree down!  I'm sure there probably was a non-fruiting mulberry on the property somewhere, but I don't know where. Got to find out if the goats will eat the mulberry leaves. If so, even a fruitless tree would be useful! 
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
SueinWA
Posts: 303
|
|
October 07, 2008, 05:17:28 PM |
|
Just googling around on sexing mulberries, and found this article on "Safe Sex Landscaping" (it's mostly about air pollution in the form of pollen) at http://www.consciouschoice.com/2000/cc1306/safesexlandscaping1306.html
Apparently, there's no way to tell if dioecious plants are M or F until they flower. This article has a couple of interesting bits if info that I need to tuck away in my plant info:
"Dioecious male shrubs ... produce abundant ... pollen. Dioecious female trees and shrubs ... produce flowers, seeds, and fruit, but they shed no pollen. Female-only plants do not have stamens — the male pollen-bearing sexual parts — and so produce no pollen at all."
And ...
"... Individual pollen grains are so tiny that they can not be seen with the naked eye. The grains of windborne pollen are light and dry and are negatively charged. Like heat-seeking guided missiles, these tiny, dry pollen grains — often shaped like a sharp-spined, minute ball of cactus — seek out moist, receptive surfaces.
"Mother Nature designed female plants to receive these grains of pollen. Female flowers stand up in the wind. With their large positively charged surface areas of moist stigmas, they attract, hold, absorb, and ultimately use the male pollen. Female plants are nature’s air-scrubbers, trapping ambient pollen grains and leaving the surrounding air free of this allergenic form of biopollution."
I was going to look for a source of mulberries, but I guess I'll have to plant more than I need. Elsewhere, I also read where you can graft an opposite-sex branch on a tree for pollination when you don't have room for two trees.
Sue
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
forest_gardener
Posts: 6
|
|
November 02, 2008, 01:29:33 AM |
|
Most "fruiting" mulberry trees/shrubs sold are grafted to ensure a flavorful fruiting variety (exactly the same genetically as the parent).
You could dig up the free seedlings and use them as rootstock.
Here is the list I have come up with for plant to use for chicken feed- please add to it if you can!
PLANTS FOR SOWING IN ROTATION
Sunflower, amaranth, corn, millet, buckwheat, chickpea, sorghum, wheat, oats, barley, clover
TREES and SHRUBS
peach,
banana (chop up the stems),
fig,
jaboticaba,
grumichama,
Brazilian cherry,
pears
Black Locust- Robinia
Honey locust (pods are high protien and tree is nitrogen fixing)
Cornus,
sorbus,
Nanking cherry
Sand Cherry
Siberian Pea Shrub- Carragana spp.
Apple
Plum
Raspberry
Mulberry (fruit is relatively high protien)
Sea Buckthorn
Apricot
rosa rugosa
Plums
Raspberries
Gooseberries
Saskatoon (Service berry)
Sea buck thorn
Sand cherry
persimmon, pawpaw, feijoa, strawberry guava, tamarillo, custard apple,
GREENS and/or SEEDS
dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
plantain (Plantago spp.) (high in calcium for chickens)
chickweed
arrowroot,
New Zealand spinach syn. - Tetragonia tetragonoides,
nettles,
brassicas (radishes, mustards),
alfalfa,
clovers- Strawberry clover, Ladino Clover, White Dutch Clover, Red Strawberry Clover
chicory,
purslane
Buckwheat,
black oats,
Perennial Cereals
pumpkins,cucumber
squash
Sunflowers,
amaranth,
corn,
chard, cabbage, kale,
spinach, lettuce, broccoli...in fact any of the green leafy vegetables.
sesame, sunflower,
pigeon pea
Flax,
Birdsfoot Broadleaf Trefoil,
Red Cowpeas
Strawberries
Radishes
corn salad
lambs quarters
dock (Rumex spp.)
Vines
chayote,
passionfruit
grapes
peas
climbing spinach- Ceylon Spinach
Herbs
Bergamot
Clary sage
Nettles
Yarrow
Comfrey (limited portion of diet- liver toxin)
borage (self-reseeds freely)
Feverfew
Wormwood (Artemesia absinthe)
rue (Ruta graveolens)
POND PLANTS
Lemma
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
SueinWA
Posts: 303
|
|
November 02, 2008, 01:30:24 PM |
|
Random notes
Oats: I have read in a couple of places that they are difficult to husk, even for chickens, who don't really like them that much. Where you can just cut the heads off wheat and toss them into the chicken run and they will have a good time picking them loose, the same cannot be said of oats. But if anyone hears of a small, hand-operated, inexpensive oat huller, please post.
Sunflowers: I wish there was a quick, simple way to hull them. While I do grow them, and they do get some, the hulls will bulk up their crop without any nutrition. What I we need is a small, hand-operated, inexpensive oat-huller and sunflower seed huller.  I know, I know...
Comfrey: I have read multiple places that livestock instinctively won't eat more of a medicinal/toxic plant (they are often one and the same) than they need unless they are forced to eat it due to lack of other options. Pat Coleby said she watched one of her sheep or goats eat a single rhubarb leave periodically, just one. Since nothing happened to the goat, she assumed that it knew what it needed better than her.
Amaranth is useful in both the grain and leaf forms.
Quinoa is also a grain crop that is useful for both poultry and humans. I've sprouted the kind found in bulk food bins, but I haven't planted any. It's on my list.
Sue
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
forest_gardener
Posts: 6
|
|
November 03, 2008, 12:42:03 PM |
|
Sue,
Thanks for the info. I have never had chickens and am just planting/planning for the day I will introduce them!
As far a comfrey- I have read that the milk of goats who eat comfrey may have sufficient toxins to be harmfull to people drinking the milk. Now the goat didn't die from the comfrey or maybe even get sick but that doesn't mean that it's milk or meat for that matter isn't harmful to the humans that consume it. As we all know "you are what you eat" and "what you eat has eaten!"
I see you point about the sunflower seeds. I wonder sometimes when I read advice to plant things such as Siberian pea. Do chickens really eat this? All the reading in the word is not as good as actually observing it yourself!
I read one place chickens like vetch and another place that its toxic for them?
Thanks for sharing your own experience!
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Pages: [1]
|
|
|
|
|
. you could do ground cherries (also known as gooseberries I think) each year in the lower portions. What a fun project!
