Growing food for chickens?

[fruitylou]

What veg can I grow that chickens will like? I will have a little scrappy piece of ground next to where I plan to put the enclosure and am trying to find a use for it. I am thinking leafy veg but no idea really, it's just to supplement their usual diet.

[Flummery]

Try chard or perpetual spinach. Both grow easily, are slow to bolt, and my chickens are absolute tarts for them! They will pick the chard out from a mixed greens batch and eat it first. Kales and borecoles etc are also good as you can pick a slack handful in the winter months.

[polo]

I grow chard on my allotment for the hens and the kale thing in the winter

Chard in particular is pretty quick to grow. I can just see the hens crammed up against the fence drooling!

Polo

[fruitylou]

Thank-you, yay! I grew chard last year and it's so low maintance. Chard and kale it is then

[grenhouse]

My courgettes have always been a winner with the chucks! And one plant gives you a real return. I also give them chard and various other bits. I always grow way too much at the lottie so they get real mixed bag in the summer!

steve

[Snadger]

I grew collards for the first time this year. Just like a cabbage without a heart that you can take off individual leaves over a long period (July 2010 until now) and mine are still growing!
Kales are good along with swede tops which mine adore.

[Flummery]

They also love dandelion leaves which is great news when you're weeding!

[chris]

Mine munched all my beetroot leaves (don't blame them, I like them too!) - which was ok I guess, but i was plannign on over wintering them to see if I could get them to seed for the seed swap this year. Not sure if they'll do that now!

I give them the leaves from my broccolli plants, kale, and they LOVE my carrot tops.

[Mikey]

I was going to ask a very similar question, I'm in the process of building two large raised planters for some chickens. Roughly 1.8m x 3m, it is my intention to move the house and run from one to the other, as I don't want the chickens to have free reign of the whole garden.

Are there good plants which can be grown in the vacated bed which the chickens will love when they are moved back. I was thinking of changing beds every 6 to 8 weeks, or possibly even shorter in the summer months.

[Flummery]

I don't think I'd move chickens onto a bed with the plants growing in it. They'd gorge on the lot in a day and you'll be up to your gunwales in green poo. Grow the plants elsewhere and feed a bit at a time.

[VirginVegGrower]

They also love dandelion leaves which is great news when you're weeding!

I didn't know that - dandy leaves, slugs and snail eaters - they are brilliant!

[Snadger]

They also love dandelion leaves which is great news when you're weeding!

And..................dandelion leaves are supposed to be a mild form of an organic wormer!

[VirginVegGrower]

And..................dandelion leaves are supposed to be a mild form of an organic wormer!

Hens are the perfect friend for the gardener - wished I had known this years ago.

Thanks for the interesting facts - it seems I am learning something new everyday.

[Mikey]

I don't think I'd move chickens onto a bed with the plants growing in it. They'd gorge on the lot in a day and you'll be up to your gunwales in green poo. Grow the plants elsewhere and feed a bit at a time.

I was thinking maybe grasses or a derivative, as opposed to veg. Is this still a bad idea.

[OverWyreGrower]

I don't think I'd move chickens onto a bed with the plants growing in it. They'd gorge on the lot in a day and you'll be up to your gunwales in green poo. Grow the plants elsewhere and feed a bit at a time.

When I just had 4 hens, I would move their ark and run onto my 'fallow' veg bed.... they would do a good job of scratching up the weeds, and rotovating and fertilising the soil

Then I could either cover the bed over, or dig and then replant....

However, that was just scrubby weeds etc, but I think if you plonked them down on a bed full of chard/spinach etc, it would be a bit much for them!