Let’s face it. Food prices are going up across the board, and chicken feed is no exception. Whether you feed commercial pellets or crumbles, or mix your own whole grains, you’ve noticed the monthly feed bill is on the rise. While fermenting your feed can stretch the budget a bit further, maybe you’re wondering what else you can do to lower costs without compromising your birds’ health. The good news is, no matter what size yard you have, you can grow plenty of tasty, nutritious plants that can feed both you and your flock.
The benefits of supplementing your flock with fresh veggies, fruits, berries, grains, and flowers doesn’t end at your wallet. Supplying your birds with a varied diet keeps them happy, healthy, and entertained. After all, who wants to eat the same boring, brown pellets everyday?? For most of us, growing everything we need to fully supply our flock is neither practical or feasible. But, that shouldn’t stop us from doing what we can. So, how can we make our gardens work for us and for our birds?
Even though I love the idea of letting our chickens run free through our summer garden, the reality is, chickens are destructive. They love sneaking into the garden and wreaking havoc. They scratch, they fling, they peck. They tear things up and poop everywhere. Most plants don’t stand a chance. So we compromise. I dedicate some space in my gardens for extra plants, and then bring the produce to them. They get treats, I keep my sanity.
Flowers
Every summer we plant a few rows of black oil sunflowers as a beautiful garden backdrop, then we let them go to seed. We choose black oil sunflower seeds in place of other varieties due to their cheaper price per pound, as well as their thinner shell. They are high in protein (15%), fat (25%), fiber (40%), calcium, vitamins B and E, potassium and iron. Once the seeds are fully mature, we cut the plants at soil level (leaving the roots in the ground to degrade) and carry them to our bird run. The flock makes quick work of the seed heads, and they thoroughly enjoy tearing at the leaves and hunting through the stocks. Of course, we leave a few plants standing too so the native birds have a food reserve as winter sets in.
Other flowers that you can grow to share with your flock include roses, nasturtium, marigolds, calendula, zinnia, lavender, bee balm, chives, coneflower (echinacea), and dandelions. As I deadhead our flower garden I like to dump buckets of spend blooms into the chicken run and watch the birds search out the hidden cucumber beetles. Even if they aren’t always interested in eating the petals, it provides them with a ton of entertainment.
Flowers to avoid feeding your birds include foxglove, tansy, sweet peas, rhododendron, tulips, azaleas, morning glory, daffodils, monkshood, amaryllis, yew, lily of the valley, iris, narcissus, lobelia, lupine, and anything in the nightshade family. This is not an exhaustive list, so do your research before you free range or feed your chickens flowers you’re unsure about.
Vegetables
If you already have a vegetable garden, consider adding in a few extra plants here and there. Whatever your family can’t eat, the chickens will be happy to take off your hands. One of my favorite vegetables to grow is zucchini, but towards the end of the season everyone in my house is getting pretty weary of eating it. Once I’ve preserved enough extra for us for the winter months, I start cutting them in half and letting the birds feast.
Pumpkins are another great choice to grow for your flock, being high in vitamin E, niacin, vitamin B, iron, and a great source of healthy fats. They are a fun plant project for kids, make great fall decor, and store well into winter. If your garden is short on space, look for bush varieties that won’t send out long vines.
Other vegetables that chickens love include cabbages, squash, cucumbers, Brussels sprouts, peas, and broccoli. All parts of these plants are safe, so after the growing season is over, your birds would be happy to forage through the spent leaves and stalks.
Turnips, radishes, carrots, rutabagas and beets are all edible, as are their tops. Greens such as kale, collards, and chard can winter over in milder climates or under protected conditions. A greenhouse could keep you in fresh greens all winter.
While lettuce and spinach are more sensitive to temperatures, they make a great treat for your birds. Even if your plants have bolted and flowered, the chickens will go crazy for them. One caveat being iceberg lettuce, which has very little nutrition and can lead to diarrhea in birds. Your best bet is to grow dark leaf varieties.
If you have extra garden space and a long enough growing season, consider planting a row or two of corn for your birds. Dent corn is the type most commonly grown for commercial feeds, and has less sugar than sweet corn varieties. Your birds will go wild picking those cobs clean. No matter what kind you grow, remember corn should be only part of a well balanced diet.
Tomatoes are also a nutritious addition to your chickens diet, but keep in mind that the vines of tomato plants (or any plant in the nightshade family) should be avoided. There are plenty of varieties that grow well in pots, so even if your space is confined to a porch or a small plot, you can still produce quite a bit.
Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid (oxalates) that are toxic to chickens, so toss those leaves into the compost, not to the birds. Raw potatoes should also be avoided due to the presence of solanine, which is found mostly in the outer skin, especially when it is green.
While beans are safe to feed chickens once they’re cooked, raw and dried beans should be avoided as they contain the toxin hemagglutinin, which can make your birds sick.
Fruits
Chickens love fruit, but as most tend to be high in sugars, they should be fed in moderation. Watermelon, cantaloupe, and grapes are a welcome treat for a flock, especially on a hot summer day. Berries provide vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, and are very popular with our birds. Strawberries disappear pretty fast if the chickens manage to sneak their way into our garden. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and marionberries are all safe. Apple season makes our local deer population pretty happy, but the chickens take advantage too. They make quick work of all the apple peelings left over from our applesauce making. Straining blackberry seeds from your jam? The birds will love those too. Bananas, kiwi, plums, and pears are all wonderful treats.
Most chickens don’t care for citrus fruits, so while they are safe to consume, they often rot on the ground instead of being eaten. Keep in mind also, apple seeds and pits from stone fruit should be avoided in large amounts as they contain a form of cyanide.
Herbs
Growing herbs for your flock is an easy and inexpensive way to supplement their diet, and can be done even in small planting areas or pots. Feed your birds a variety of fresh herbs throughout the summer, while also drying some for use during the winter months. You may have seen bags of dried herbs being sold online for use in coops and nest boxes, and they can get pretty expensive. If you’d like to treat your birds in the winter, a bit of time and energy spent in the summer can save you a chunk of money later.
Some of our favorite herbs to grow include dill, mint, basil, yarrow, fennel, parsley, rosemary, lavender, oregano, lemon balm, thyme, chamomile, and cilantro. Salad Burnet is a great heirloom perennial herb that thrives in our garden with little care, and is a favorite of both our chickens and our rabbits. Our birds also love an occasional treat of leaves from our raspberry plants. While some herbs are more popular than others, they all have their benefits. Exposing your birds to a variety of herbs allows them to chose for themselves what their systems might need.
Not all plants are bird friendly however. There is a lot of debate on the safety of feeding comfrey to chickens as it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids, but our chickens enjoy grazing it occasionally. It is high in protein, vitamins B12, A, and C, potassium calcium and iron, but also makes a wonderful cut and drop green manure. One fairly common garden herb that chickens should be kept from is St. John’s Wort. Less common herbs such as henbane, bitter orange, aloe vera, wolfsbane (aka monkshood), and pennyroyal should also be avoided. Always do your research before supplementing with herbs, and offer them in reasonable doses. Knowledge, moderation, and common sense are always the right answers.
Cover Crops
If you are a gardener, you probably already know the importance of building healthy soil. A great way to accomplish this is with the use of cover crops, which can double as a great food resource for your flock. Cover crops are simply plants grown in a space for the purpose of improving the soil rather than for for harvesting. They may help fix nitrogen in the soil, prevent erosion, smother weeds, or create organic green matter as they are winter killed or turned in. Hands down, my favorite cover crop to rotate through our garden is buckwheat. It grows very quickly, looks beautiful, draws an army of bees, and the chickens go crazy for it.
Other cover crop options chickens enjoy foraging are sorghum (adds organic matter, smothers weeds, and breaks up compact soils), alfalfa (adds organic matter and nitrogen), barley (weed suppression, adds organic matter, erosion control), oats (erosion control, adds organic matter), clover (nitrogen fixer, ground cover, green manure), and wheat (improves topsoil, green manure). Each of these has a different life cycle, and offer various benefits to your birds. Your chickens will graze what they can reach, find unsprouted seeds on the ground, and have fun searching for bugs hiding in the foliage. Cover crop grains that go to seed can be saved and fed later, or sprouted for a much appreciated winter treat. Whatever cover crops you chose to grow, both your garden soil and your chickens will be appreciative.
How you go about growing food for your chickens will depend on many factors. How much growing space you have, your housing and fencing setup, and how much time and energy you can afford to spend will all play a role. Whatever you decide to grow, be proud of your effort. Your chickens will appreciate any and all treats that come their way, and will reward you with fresh, healthy eggs you can feel extra good about.
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