tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29834831.post3221728377883529646..comments2024-03-27T18:07:43.918-07:00Comments on Daniel's Pacific NW Garden: Plans for 2016. Growing for hen food. 12.3.15Daniel Wachenheimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11009166706587141830noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29834831.post-52622538589122653052015-12-10T17:22:33.167-08:002015-12-10T17:22:33.167-08:00I never grew it before. The seeds have arrived al...I never grew it before. The seeds have arrived already. Can't wait for the start of gardening 2016! The chickens aready get a lot of kitchen scraps. They ate all of the left over squash seeds and cooked squash.Daniel Wachenheimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11009166706587141830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29834831.post-28328117587219293272015-12-10T17:21:16.946-08:002015-12-10T17:21:16.946-08:00Thanks for the great information! We have been us...Thanks for the great information! We have been using commercial chicken feed, plus they have a very large free range area where they forage continuously. I'm really looking forward to growing more of our own chicken feed.Daniel Wachenheimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11009166706587141830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29834831.post-35182624111917648732015-12-09T22:35:38.768-08:002015-12-09T22:35:38.768-08:00I wanted to see if my chooks could survive and lay...I wanted to see if my chooks could survive and lay on whole foods, so this summer I fed them for a month on whole grains, seeds, and garden scraps. I had to smash the sunflower heads a bit, pull out some of the seeds and put a few cracked on top of the seed head, so they could make the connection. I fed them the smaller, ornamental sunflowers and they loved them. Next was pearl millet from the health food store bulk bin--they went crazy for that. Then some high-protein hard red winter wheat--just feed them whole seed heads with the junk still on it or buy some local stuff from the store. Lastly for the grains, dried sweet corn (old fashioned, OP stuff that I save for seed). No digestion or crop disorders with any of these, but individual results could vary. Also the missing amino acid for eggs will almost always be methionine - mostly comes from bugs, worms, dairy and meat (my girls killed a rat and all that was left was a pelt), but plant sources provide varying amounts according to my googling. <br /><br />They layed almost as much as on pricey organic scratch, but despite the lazy style of this comment I actually did a lot of research about what grains and whole foods are best--a lot of them have anti-nutritive properties or limited protein. Most useful research was from universities in developing countries. pseudo-scientistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29834831.post-31674477684838963752015-12-09T13:49:24.365-08:002015-12-09T13:49:24.365-08:00Broom corn is just so ornamental. I grew it this ...Broom corn is just so ornamental. I grew it this yr and saved some seeds for next yr. The mice left them alone unlike the sweet corns. They are very tall and just look fantastic. Chicken likes everything a person likes to eat, I would give them my left overs and fresh greens. lancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03657961543274999017noreply@blogger.com