My current home doesn't have a verandah or even a porch but I dream of owning a little farmette again, with a verandah overlooking chickens, goats and gardens. Absolute heaven!

Grow to Feed Chickens

Although we don't have the chickens yet, we're planning our garden to feed not only us humans but also our critters. Here's what we believe we can do for our chickens:

Morning Feeding:
1 cup cracked corn

All Day:
Scratch in the yard (worms, bugs, plants, etc.)

Evening Bribe to get back in the henhouse:
2 cups total treats

Treats:
-apple cores
-beans? (still checking on this!)
-beet tops
-corn (cracked) or on cob
-dandelion leaves
-fruit scraps
-greens
-lentils, peas
-millet
-oats
-potato peelings
-pumpkin/winter squash
-soybeans
-sunflowers
-vegetable scraps

ALL of the above are on our list of things to grow, including the oats (not this year but probably next) and millet. The only thing we'll need to buy is feed (for winter when they can't get out as much ... just a little to supplement the scraps we'll give them) and baby-chicken starter, and possibly grit. Once we have eggs coming, we'll crush up the clean eggshells and feed them as part of the grit (calcium needed to make more eggs). If the chickens are fed a regular “diet” and allowed to scratch for bugs, worms and leaves, then should be fine.

WATER: Clean and refresh with clean water daily.

= = = = =

Added 6:29 p.m. Finally got my silverware into a drawer, dishes and food sorted, and lots of stuff stored in the downstairs storage area. Tried to make a loaf of bread but I guess the bread machine was too cold from being the garage, and it ended up spilling over and frying on the heating element. Very smoky in here. Guess we need new batteries for the smoke detectors because NOTHING went off!

I saved the dough and cooked it on something else. Meanwhile, I have to do a little more on the kitchen tomorrow (about 10 more boxes to unpack, mostly bakeware, dishes and cups... oh where are the cups!). I also want to do some writing, and need to find a local dentist to fix my tooth.

Hey! I just saw two kids cut through our yard and by our bedroom window, throwing rocks at the neighbor's chickens as they walked by. Ok... gonna have to rethink the type of fence we had planned!

1 comment:

Rita said...

Your going to have so much fun with the chickens. We just past our 1 yr mark of raising hens. We bought 3 new ones this year --total of 9. I am on a couple of "groups" that discuss chickens. All of them pretty much say the same thing. The babies really need their special food -- at least for a few weeks. Our chickens eat table scraps and organic chicken feed. They also eat every flower I hope to grow. That will change this year, we fenced in a large are for them to free roam. The groups all suggest corn in the winter, it keeps them warm. I don't know about taking pop corn and crushing it. One of the fav foods is rice. They make a snarfing sound when they eat it.
Winter is a challenge, but we/and the chickens did just fine.
Good luck with your new adventure

Rita