Chicken feed

[Suburban Micro Food Forest]

Consulted with an organic egg producer at the market who said my regime of waste food sounds plenty adequate. So far only 3 eggs from 6 birds. Bill Mollisons book Permaculture 2 has a chapter on poultry with a list of forage plants to grow.

[Anthony Charles Hassan]

Our hens free-range for a couple of hours each day, although now they have started to lay, we keep them in the run all the time. I turn over the soil in the run, which is full of worms. I have to work carefully because they immediately gather around the fork and I don't want to spear any of them! I also throw the outside leaves of cabbages, silver beet, bok choy (they LOVE that) and beetroot over into the run. When we fillet fish we give them the frames, and they pick them clean.

[Megan]

hanging road kill until the maggots drop off are grounds for a divorce :) Roxy's suggestion of a worm farm is much better!! OPS - couple of stacked tyres make really effective worm farms, the ones in our community garden sit on a sheet of plywood propped up with bricks, with heavy plastic over the wood and a bucket underneath for the worm wee to drain into and another sheet of plywood as cover for the top to keep the rodents out.

[josephal]

Try boil up potato and fish scraps. Boil till bones soft.

Never tried for obvious reasons but heard hanging road kill up chooks love maggots dropping. Mealy bugs another one.

[Suburban Micro Food Forest]

Thanks Roxy. Guess Ill have to go ahead and design a worm farm then.

[Suburban Micro Food Forest]

Josephal - no Im not vegan (I eat eggs!) I tried boiled spuds but they ignored them. I gave them some fish heads which they also ignored but there wasnt much meat on them. Ill ask my butcher what they do with meat which is past its use by date and try another fishmonger who has monk fish heads. They do seem to like insects when they can find them, and lettuce.

[Roxy Hart]

Get a worm farm :) Add some seaweed to your vegie scaps, mix in grain or feed seperate. then thrown in a handful of home grown worms, cheap easy protein :)

[josephal]

So are you saying you are vegan and wont feed your chooks animal products?

No denying meat is an efficient source of protein, mine wet their pants over fish scraps. Potatoes are excellent feed for chooks boiled of course.

[Suburban Micro Food Forest]

Thanks josephal. Problem is, as any vegan will tell you, all plants contain protein. Do you mean meat?

[josephal]

This book is quite good, might be able to get from the library. http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Poultry-Rabbits-Scraps-ebook/dp/B0035... 

Chooks need plenty of protein to lay well.