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["Robert Walton" <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

> Does anyone have any suggestions as to fast growing plants that I can feed 
> to the chickens, either green or dried that won't take much > room?

Your chickens will eat about 30% of their diet in pasture. Green
stuff. If you have a mall area that you can plant to alfalfa, clover,
grass, brassicas that would help out some on your feed bill. Brassicas
might grow in winter in your area if you start them in fall. Mustard,
kale, turnips are pretty fast to grow.

You'd probably have to rotate the chickens some so they don't tear the
pasture up too much. Look for nutritious stuff that grows in your
area. Eggs off chickens that eat green stuff are much better tasting
than organic or free range store bought eggs. Here they are called
farm eggs.

If you've got small stones in your soil, you should not need grit.
They will scratch up their own. Oyster shell might be needed.

This link has been shared here:

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html

Check out this book:

http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/oliver/oliverToC.html

Basically he is combining vermiculture with keeping hens. He calls it
intensive range. I'd allow more range to my plan, but if you are
cramped for space, it's a good idea. Basically, you are using the area
under your roosts to make a trench and raise worms off the chicken
droppings. You grow trays of worms and feed them to the chickens.

I have not done this yet. I think that it would fit well with a small
holder setup. The worm castings would be a great way to process the
chicken manure to garden gold.

Rob - Va




I was thinking some sort of ground cover/crop cover? The chicken pen
is all dirt now and we are going to build some lightweight chicken
tractors so we can move them around the yard but I'm hoping to only
have a little, if any grass areas by next fall. Also, since the
chicken's outdoor area is dirt and that's where their food and water
is too, do I need to make grit available to them? They are about 7
months old and laying nicely.
>
>           Sue in Aberdeen WA
>