[Hanidu-Farms]

I have started BSF multiple times and have fed them to a wide range of livestock. But, I get distracted and they die out or the weather (even in FL) gets them. I’m considering a small structure moving forward. Mill worms also interest me, but I’ve never raised them.

[Stpdsteve]

Mealworms are super easy. My biggest problem with them is just not forgetting them completely. all you need is a container, rolled oats, and I use carrots for their water.

[Grams56]

I only have 3 hens for eggs, but I give them mealworms (TS) as a treat. Daily I make fermented feed out of corn, lentils, split peas, black oil sunflower seeds. Oats and bagged feed a friend had given me. They do have layer pellets kept in coop if they get hungry.

[Wilburs-Place]

I have 11 hens that are laying now. They have their laying crumble, grits and oyster shell available at all times. But, the ladies eat what I eat! And, they eat any garden leaf cuttings or grass that I throw in their coop. I use wild bird seed for scratch. I found it to be a lot cheaper. They, and my dog have a hybrid diet of kibble/crumble and my (healthy) table scraps – mostly veggies and meat. I try to keep a substantial garden of kale and mixed greens for the ladies as well!

[pow]

Chickens really do love their greens.<div>My garden isn’t that much of a success for greens, but we have the wild Spanish needle/Shepherds needle here it’s got a lot of nutrients and it grows everywhere. They love that stuff</div>

[c563]

I am looking into producing more of my chicken feed. I have 14 chickens. I only feed them commercial scratch and layer pellets when I let them out of the coop in the morning. They free range all day. I have a LGD and about an acre fenced in to free range on. We are growing meal worms as a supplement and treat. I have a compost pile in the fenced in area that gets my kitchen scraps and garden cuttings. We grew some field corn in a 20×20 fenced in plot this year, so we can grind the corn to supplement the chicken feed.

I have goats too, and when I clean the pens, that goes into the compost pile also.

I have tried soldier flies also, did not work well in central Oklahoma.

[c563]

I am brainstorming now about hay alternatives for my goats.

[Toni]

If you have a cow or know someone who does, chickens thrive on clabber as a mainstay if they can also free range. We also have a meal worm farm, grow extra winter squash, pumpkins, okra, amaranth, etc. Bone broth, if you have a source and supply on bones is great for minerals for them too. Putting a chicken leg or other meat in a five gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom of the sides can supply a large amount of nutrition also as the flies get in and lay eggs in the meat that turn into maggots that then crawl out and drop, making it available to the birds as supplementary protein. Just hang the bucket above nose level to avoid the unwelcome smells, lol. But it only works in warm weather. Lots of things that can be done. They also love chickweed which grows well even in very cold temps.

Looking forward to all your ideas to add to our chicken pantry 🙂

[Toni]

Oh, another way to stretch whatever you do have is to grow fodder for them indoors. Wheat and barley grow very quickly and chickens make them disappear very quickly during winter here.

[Pukalani-Farm]

This is some great info! Thanks.

[Yahwehs-Farmstead]

Look up perma pasture farms chicken tractor on steroids on youtube… I have yet to do this but am going to try soon . Good luck

[Toni]

We are just getting ready to try this. We have meat birds in the brooder now but can’t use his steroid tractor cause we chose the wrong breed. But in the next week or so we are expecting delivery of 25 buff orpington pullets and 2 BO roos that we plan to use his idea with. These will be the first chickens we will be keeping confined to a specific area and our plan is to use the hens to lay fertile eggs we can incubate and hatch for meat birds next year, and to use their chicken tractor on steroids for those also. We planted cover crops over our finished garden area for them ahead of time so they should have plenty of greens. We also do have the comfrey already growing. What we do not have is the access to scraps from local businesses like he does to supply the approximately 5 pounds per day of grains he feeds out daily for carbs for 25 birds, so we are going to have to figure that out since they also will not have access to the wild seeds etc, that the free ranging birds do. We do have all the things I mentioned above and hoping that works in this system. We’ll let you know how it goes. Our current backyard flock is strictly free range and scraps in summer,
and free range and clabber, fodder, walnuts and mealworms, etc in winter. We have several and various
stands of different herbs, berries and other wild forage that they love too. And some wooded areas they love to scratch through for bugs and all sorts of other lil critters.

[LoneWolf]

i have an idea/drawing for a chicken tractor made of cattle panel for structure & w/ chicken wire for extra mesh. I think I could draw it, but I have a visual imagination. I’m going to email you a drawing, if I may. Let me know if you want to see it

[Stoutlander]

I was thinking about this last winter and settled on the idea of growing Seminole pumpkins. They keep for nearly a year (so I heard), they are good to eat and chickens like pumpkins. Anyway, I planted 6 hills with 3 seeds per hill. They were slow sprouting, but all sprouted. Planted on June 3rd in S.W. Missouri. 2 hills took off, 1 hill started to, and the others didn’t do squat. I’m looking at about 20 pumpkins from the 2 hills, and the vines are still flowering. They took a long time to flower- around mid August, but since then those two hills are doing great.

I’m thinking that the possible problem may have been contaminated soil. When I planted them I added some Timberline brand topsoil that I bought at Lowes as this was an area I never gardened before and the soil here is terrible. I’ve seen that people have been getting bagged soil contaminated with aminopyralid herbicide over the years. The leaves did not curl though (one of the signs). Maybe it was the seeds. I’m running some test plots right now with the Timberline soil to verify.

Anyway, I’ll use the pumpkins I have and see how much of a help it is with winter feeding.

This is a good subject and I’m glad that you brought it up. Thank you.