The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Floyd on March 05, 2011, 04:13:30 pm
-
Can anyone give me a suggestion of what I can grow to supplement my poultry feed. I dont think that wheat is an option due to living in the Scottish Highlands. Barley or Oats maybe.
Does anyone have any experience of this.
As usual really appreciate all your input and love the forum especially as there are so many Scottish forum members (however I'm not Scottish but probably would change my pastport having lived here for over 25 years!)
Many thanks
Floyd
-
what ever goes in the ground my chooks have eaten. what quanity would you be producing?
-
I think producing grains of any sort would require rather too much machinery, unless you already have it. Or perhaps you could just get smallscale hand stuff like rotivator and scythe. I'd love to do the same, but I just don't think it's practical.
I'm thinking this year of sowing more greenstuffs and roots for the other stock. My chooks are free roaming, so live very largely on insects and grasses. We don't mow any of the grasses in their range, so in the autum they help themselves to organic grass seeds !
Where about in the Highlands are you ? I'm in the Islands.
-
We grow extra kale and spinach for the chooks. They also get any brassica leaves, fallen apples and plums etc etc to supplement the layers pellets.
-
Hi
We grow lots of mangel wurzel for the hens. Whilst its growing they like the leaves and stored over winter, we grate it into their food or just give it to them grated. They love it!
Pete
-
I have survived nearly 43 years and have never heard of a Mangle Wurzel thank goodness for Google.
I was thinking of some type of seed or grain maybe oats due to my location, however Mangle wurzel looks good for planting when the birds get moved out of the area they are in now
many thanks for your replies