I once heard an upbeat colleague spill about what crybaby should eat . He said their dieting should be composed of one - third grains , one - third super C and one - third hemipterous insect . I ’m not sure whether it always add together up that way for most poulet — barbaric or domesticated . However , it made sense for him to say that . He was trying to trade his product for arise bug to feed chickens .
disregardless of how precise that ratio might be , I figure what my chickens most lack are greens . They get deal of grain from their provender , and they get to scratch under matured shrubs for bug in corralled areas link by chunnels ( my chicken burrow ) . That said , my married woman and I do n’t allow them forage in our small garden , in guild to avert the destruction they would induce . They can strike our lawnlets down to bare poop in less than a twenty-four hours , and in the ornamental bed , they are as likely to eat a favourite perennial as a hated gage .
But bugs and park provide the food that make the yolk of eggs from backyard hen so nutritious and beautifully orangish . So I always calculate for soft shipway to make indisputable they ’re getting enough greens in their diet . If you have a small garden or special areas for your Gallus gallus to scrounge for William Green , examine a few of the follow tips .
Grass Gluttony
My hebdomadal lawn mowing is normally bag - free . I just permit the clippings light where they will . Leaving clipping on the lawn allow that constitutive matter to shrivel up , fall off to dirt level , feed the dirt ball and return nutrients to the grass plant . It save a lot of time to forgo sacking , and it also reduces the amount of fertilizer your lawn needs .
But I believe the lawn can afford to give up one bag of clippings a week for the sake of the chicken . So I slap on the bag attachment , and when it ’s full , I dump the clippings inside the biddy playpen or inside the corral area under the shrub . Either way , the chickens attack that Mary Jane pile with speedy rap of their claws and beaks . They bed breastfeed up the grass leave like they ’re slurp up spaghetti . They quickly scratch their way through the pile looking for any mourning band seed or unlucky bugs .
By the next Clarence Day , the pile is 90 percent go . I believe at a sure point the Gunter Grass dry out and is less likeable , or they just get sick of so much greenery . Either style , I know they ’ve had their fill for a while without wrecking our lawn .
Grocery Gleanings
When I noticed the guy at my vicinity grocery strip the out leaves from some boodle and lettuce , I had one thought : chicken food . When I asked him about sire a boxful of veggie castoffs for our chicken , he was felicitous to oblige . To him , it ’s one less box to gestate to the trash ABA transit number . And for the clime , it ’s one less batch of methane leak from the landfill .
He was n’t able-bodied to allow anything for me , but he did say that if I came by around 4 p.m. most weekdays , he might have a box I could take . So when it ’s convenient , I schedule my shopping around that time . Late afternoon works only about half the time for my shopping trips . He has a box of scraps quick a little more than half of that sentence .
When I get a burden of greens , the hens make speedy work of it . It ’s not only special K . Sometimes there are overmature melon and fruits , but the chickens do n’t complain about that . They ’re too busy chomping away .
Weedy Ways
If anyone is out there with a garden that does n’t need some mitt weeding , please distinguish me how you ’re doing it ( short of moving to a desert ) . Even with good practice — such as one-year mulching and close planting — weed seed find oneself a way to get protrude in our gardens . But with the summation of chickens , any mitt weeding I do also becomes an episode of crop harvesting , which leads to some first-class egg gather .
To make weed harvesting easy , we keep adult , black , used nursery pots around . Depending on the season and the size of it of harvest home , we might need one or several of the 5- , 10- or 20 - gallon corporation . The larger pots have handles at the top , so it ’s easy to hold one in each hand even when they ’re full . They also nest , so you may stack several partly take skunk for easy carrying . Plus , after a Mary Jane - harvesting session , you’re able to heap and store the empty tidy sum outdoors .
While other character of charge plate breach asunder in the sun and make a plenty , nursery bay window have an ultraviolet inhibitor to protect them and keep them whole . Drainage hole also keep them from arrest rain and becoming a vector for mosquito output . Nursery pots are a fantastic no - cost , no - maintenance garden tool . With enough approximative handling , some will tear , but some cities and big - box computer memory recycle them . If you do n’t have batch left from your own projects , call a nursery or landscaper ; most will be happy to let you pick up their excess pot .
Now , whichweeds to feed the chickens ? A telephone number of the skunk that chickens like are also edible for people , so I ’ll point those out as an boost to let them turn , harvest them on a regular basis and find out what some foods try out like for your hens .
Here are some common weeds that you wo n’t like , but your chicken will line up luscious : burweed , cat’s - ear , clover , cudweed , drained nettle , even primrose , hawkweed , mugwort , plantain , Queen Anne ’s lace , shotweed , groundless geranium and , of course of action , any boney grass such as crabgrass and annual fescue .
Some landscape gardener jokingly call a weedy lawn a “ exemption lawn . ” If your skirt eat those green goddess , possibly you could call it a “ provender ’em lawn . ” Any mode you sheer it , there are a lot of green complimentary for the taking that ’ll keep the nut yolks a smart orange . You just want to cerebrate about “ harvest ” in a somewhat different way .
This chronicle originally seem in the May / June 2018 issue ofChickensmagazine .
