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!

Can I feed unpopped popcorn to the chickens?

Our baby chicks come in next week ... 5 auracanas and 5 black australorp. We have chicken starter and chicken grit, but as you know, we're hoping to at some point get off the pre-prepared foods and feed what we grow.

Meanwhile, from my "Grow to Feed Chickens" at http://vikkisverandah.blogspot.com/2010/03/grow-to-feed-chickens.html , you know we plan to feed cracked corn.

I looked at Sam's and they don't have regular dried corn. I can get some at Big R supply store but it's a tad expensive. So I'm wondering ... can I buy the bulk popcorn at Sam's and crack that for the chickens? Will they explode?!?!

= = = =

Thanks for the suggestions about growing potatoes, and bagged potting soil/compost. We'll see what we can do.

= = = =

Yesterday the Kid and I went into town. Needed various items so we can get more done this weekend, and were out of carrots and pears. Walking out of the store, a black sky greeted us. It had been raining off and on for 2 days (good cuz we need it) but when we left our little homestead, we had blue sky with white fluffy clouds. The black sky took us by surprise.

Now, in case I haven't mentioned it, the Kid had a great fear of tornados. When he was about 6 years old, we were driving cross country in my Dodge Dakota with topper above, and Christmas presents underneath. Somewhere in Kansas, in the dark of night, a humongous gust of wind (possibly a pre-tornado) picked us up and quickly slammed us back down, ripping off the topper and taking almost everything from the truck. A wonderful couple of truckers stopped to help me gather the few things I could, but I never did find the topper. And the Kid has had a huge fear of high winds and tornadoes ever since.

As we hurredly started the drive back home yesterday, the rain started. Very light, with the clouds beginning to swirl. The Kid's eyes widened, and kept me updated every minute with the status of the clouds. I drove as fast as possible, considering the winding country roads and constant presence of police. About 10 minutes from our house, Hubby called. A tornado had just hit where we just were. I didn't let the Kid know and just calmly told Hubby I'd call back when we got home. Home, unloaded car, took some footage of the sky with my camera (which I'll post when I can), and called Hubby back... just to let him know that we were home safe and the hail had started pounding here.

What an exciting day. Took several hours before the Kid stopped jittering. Hail hit for about an hour, followed by rain. Hope our roof held up! Haven't inspected it yet.

And now it's snowing.

Ah, I love this place!

5 comments:

phaedra96 said...

Since the moisture in the kernel is heated, causing the pop; cracking it for chicken feed is not going to cause them hurt. It is just a smaller kernel, therefore will take more to use for feed. I have no idea of the nutrition, etc. since I never thought of using it for feed!

DayPhoto said...

I saw that on the news, I didn't know it was close to you. I'm glad you all are safe.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Rita said...

Don't forget chickens also need protein. On your list, you didn't have any. Give them table scraps of meat or scramb them an egg.

I forgot about it in my firstposting

Rita

Vee said...

Thanks, Linda. We are home safe, and warm, although we lost electricity for a while.

Rita: The food list for "grow for chickens" actually did include protein.... the scratching in the yard during the day will provide bugs, worms, etc. And the treats list includes soybeans, lentils, peas, greenbeans and sunflowers (seeds).

I will scramble them an egg from time to time. Thanks for the input!

Vikki

Vee said...

Phaedra: Didn't mean to forget you! So ... if I crush the popcorn kernel without popping, it should be fine, right? Just considering it because we use it to crush into a fine powder for cornmeal for corncakes so nutrition should be same. While I'm powdering ours, we'll just do a little bit more for the chickens.

Vikki