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Post by seedywen on Dec 30, 2010 20:01:51 GMT -5
Does anyone here grow buckwheat for their chickens?
Around 65 days to maturity.
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Post by bluelacedredhead on Dec 30, 2010 20:32:17 GMT -5
I grew it for Turkeys one year, but they must have heard me say it was Good for them, cuz they preferred the Rhubarb leaves over the Buckwheat.
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Post by flowerpower on Dec 31, 2010 7:51:03 GMT -5
Yuko's open pollinated seed - a small seed seller around here sells a chicken mix. I'm not sure what's in (can't remember). If it is the same Yuko of Kanoko squash fame, then this is the chicken mix... 570. Yummy Chicken Treat, $1.50 Mix of Amaranth, Chinese Greens, Dill, lettuce and mustard for hard working hens. Of course it’s good for your salad bowl and even for bossy roosters. Yes, it's the same Yuko.  I grew this out last year. It was very tasty for the hens and myself. |
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Post by honeydew on Dec 31, 2010 11:00:26 GMT -5
No offense at all atash but I laughed so much when you said do I get snow...I guess because I find it hard to comprehend NOT getting snow. We get snow before Halloween most of the time, but it usually melts and the snow comes for winter sometime in November, and stays until March or so. I also live about 3 miles from a ski hill. It just blows me away that you could get 265 ff days. That's like almost 9 months! We get 3  I do understand what you mean about cooler temps increasing DTM, I noticed that in the last two summers we had so much rain, and cooler temps. I knew I needed a greenhouse if I was going to grow the crops I expect to be able to. As an aside, I'm wondering if sorghum can be started early like the grasses you buy at the nursery, and make it to maturity, but that wouldn't be practical on a large scale. Do they produce a lot of seed per plant? I'm going to be growing a few varieties of Triticum aestivum, as that is what is generally grown around here. I have tenatively chosen early red fife, red fife, prelude, park and mckenzie - but am open to suggestions. When you say they need something else besides a cereal, do you mean the greens? That's doable in the summer months, but we really don't generate enough kitchen scraps in the winter months. The grocery store would rather through out produce than give it away. I know a lady who said she would boil up potatoes in the winter and feed them to her chickens. I suppose I could grow extra squash and give them those in the winter too. The C. pallidicuale sounds interesting....I wondered if you were to feed the quinoa to them if you have to wash them first like if we were to eat them, this one apparently doesn't have that. I'm not sure where I have ever seen seed for that (though you know how it is when you aren't looking for something - you may see it and not remember lol) is it easy or hard to find? I'd love to hear what varieties of quinoa are shorter season ones. I have a small amount of seed for one called multi-hued (a mix?) - I can post next fall how that one did. |
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Post by honeydew on Dec 31, 2010 11:19:26 GMT -5
Does anyone here grow buckwheat for their chickens? Around 65 days to maturity. This sounds like another good one....the bees like it too - it makes a darker honey and beeswax. I love the color of buckwheat beeswax. ;D I would have never thought that chickens would like dill! Do you grow an area of this mix and let them loose in it, or pick it and bring it to them? The first summer we had the chickens, we learned what they like as the garden was very close to the coop. We learned that they will completely ignore celery, but decimate nearly everything else! They will peck at the tiny squashes, ruining them, but otherwise don't like those. Next summer that garden will be full of potatoes, I'm assuming they will ignore those like the horses do (ask me about that one now there's a lesson about having good fences!) They love anything brassica or green and leafy. They get first grabs at weeds in the summer too. My lesson here - if the garden and chickens are in close proximity, chicken tractors may be a consideration. I have been thinking long and hard about this one, because they even got in the greenhouse last summer....my thoughts are that they are still being free ranged, move them around lots, but I would rather that they are totally free. But on that note, we lost 4 last summer to predators. Hmm. any other thoughts on that? |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Dec 31, 2010 11:45:12 GMT -5
As an aside, I'm wondering if sorghum can be started early like the grasses you buy at the nursery, and make it to maturity, but that wouldn't be practical on a large scale. Do they produce a lot of seed per plant? A cup to a pint of seed per plant. |
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Post by atash on Dec 31, 2010 14:06:51 GMT -5
Sorghum is very similar to "corn" (aka maize in many countries) in the size of the plant, nutritional value, and productivity, except I'd say that it is more common among Sorghums to vary significantly in size. There are tall and dwarf corns too but it seems to me that most corns are around 5-7 feet.
Really dwarf sorghums might work for you if your short growing season is uniformly warm, especially at night. Sorghum is more sensitive to cold than most flint or dent corns.
Your snow cover might provide shelter for fall-grown grains which is why I brought up the issue.
I wasn't referring to leafy vegetables when I was referring to non-cereals, but now that you mention it, I think they do require some leafy greens for optimal nutrition.
I was referring to crops like soy. Soy is high in lysine, which all cereals are somewhat deficient in. Problem with soy is that you need to grind it fine enough for a chicken to be able to eat and digest it. A 3-month growing season is probably pushing it for soy although there are soybeans that have been grown in Alaska such as Fiskeby V.
Yes, you're right, I think you would need to rinse out the saponins before serving chickens quinoa.
Yes, chickens like cooked and cooled potatoes.
I'll keep thinking of chicken feed plants in the back of my head. I think part of the problem is that it's been so long since people have had to come up with their own non-commercial chicken-feed, that we've collectively forgotten what chickens eat in cold climates.
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Post by honeydew on Dec 31, 2010 14:42:39 GMT -5
Soy is generally not grown here, as a commercial crop anyway from what I know, but it is further south from what I understand. That said, I actually have on order the Fiskeby you reference. Also one called Manitoba Brown. We have a mix mill to do the necessary grinding.
What about fava beans?
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Post by honeydew on Dec 31, 2010 14:53:31 GMT -5
In regards to your comment about collectively forgetting what chickens eat - I think you are right on with that one....in this area not many people even KEEP chickens anymore. And I'm talking about my farming/rural neighbours.
The local hardware/ag store stopped stocking feed for all livestock last year, they must not have been really selling it.
Choice was an issue too, it was always hard to find non-medicated, and when you ask what's in it, they tell you the percentages of nutrients and give you this pained look when you say "but what is it made of?" It's not actually on their product info sheets.
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Post by mjc on Dec 31, 2010 16:14:51 GMT -5
In regards to the question...what do chickens eat...well, the short answer is anything they want to.
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Post by seedywen on Dec 31, 2010 17:15:52 GMT -5
Chickens are omnivorous.
In my opinion, it's not difficult feeding chickens to keep them alive as the range of what they'll eat is extensive.
It's keeping them laying steadily especially during winter, that is more challenging, given that chickens need a certain amount of protein 17-19% to maintain their maximum production plus 14 hours, real or simulated(light-bulb) daylight.
As other posters have previously mentioned, the trick is a steady supply of protein from either animal or vegetable sources.
Cooking potatoes daily with additional dairy or fish meal is my back-up feed plan, should I not be able to afford/obtain feed from the store.
My chickens receive a LOT of raw squash during winter as well. After we eat a squash or they peck the innards of of a raw squash, I take the skins and further blend them into my chicken 'gumbo' of the day.
Part of my regular winter feeding plan on the West Coast, is to plant a big plot of Siberian Kale for both rabbit and chicken food. However we got a deep snow freeze for about ten days in mid November and most of the overwintering crops like Kale, chard even parsley, got severely frosted and basically wiped that option out.
Every spring/summer I grow buckwheat as a cover/chicken food crop but not nearly enough to make a dint in the chicken feed requirement.
I grow corn but the goats get nearly all of that. Grow dry beans but again not enough quantities to sustain the chickens and ducks through even a Wet Coast winter where they can continue to forage outside for many days. Being a seed saver, there's oodles of Lamb's quarters, dill, cilantro etc. going to seed everywhere in the garden but not enough for more than snack forage.
Realistically I understand that most of my livestock are dependent a minimum of 50% reliance on outside inputs. If suddenly, we had to produce ALL their feed on our homestead, it would be necessary to fairly quickly reduce the numbers of stock to best breeders only.
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Post by steev on Dec 31, 2010 23:39:37 GMT -5
I would suppose chickens would like any sort of sprouted grain. They are also very partial to chicken guts. As for chickens and potatoes, I prefer them both deep-fried.
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Post by honeydew on Jan 1, 2011 13:25:48 GMT -5
Once I was told that you could take a chunk of frozen carcass (deer or whatever, I suppose scraps from the butcher) and feed it to your chickens in the winter. It will give them protein and stop them from pecking each other.
Anyone try this?
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Post by steev on Jan 1, 2011 19:02:21 GMT -5
Sounds like a great use for roadkill, if true. Better than burying in the compost pile, my current best use.
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Post by seedywen on Jan 1, 2011 23:05:51 GMT -5
The problem with feeding chickens, meat, raw or cooked directly(never tried frozen!) is that not only chickens will be attracted to the feed.
Cats(especially feral, dogs, ravens, raccoons, bears, cougars etc.
Especially if the meat is of an amount that the chickens can't clean it up fast. Although my chickens may have pelleted, or crumbled feed or grain on demand, if I give them any food that might attract predators especially smell-wise, I give it to them in amounts that experience has shown, they can clean up the food within 15 minutes.
This usually means smaller amounts of food, more often. I'm outside a lot every day so just make it part of the farm routine.
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I grew this out last year. It was very tasty for the hens and myself. 
I do understand what you mean about cooler temps increasing DTM, I noticed that in the last two summers we had so much rain, and cooler temps. I knew I needed a greenhouse if I was going to grow the crops I expect to be able to. 
