As our poultry stock increases so does the cost of feeding them, so I have been trying out vegetable scraps with them to supplement there feeds and cut down on costs.
The chickens will peck away at greens but there are other vegetable scraps they just just seem to play with, I cooked up some potato peelings along with cut offs from broccoli then mushed them up with the hand blender and mixed in some of there layers
doesn't look very appetising but the chooks enjoyed it
The other thing I am doing is drying out egg shells in the bottom oven of the Rayburn
they crumble up very easy when dry I am now adding them to the chooks grit pot, egg shells take an age to compost down so this way the chooks benefit from them, on our next trip to the coast i a going to collect a load of shells to crush up for the chooks as well.
I have had a friend visiting for the past few days so have been otherwise distracted from the blog, Martin arrived back early today as well so my routine has been disrupted, back to normal for a few days then we have more visitors arriving next week end.
The weather is suppose to be fine tomorrow and I ave a few plans for out doors.
I hope that you enjoyed and will enjoy your visitors! xx
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to have visitors, but I so love our home when they have all gone, peace.
ReplyDeleteWe used to keep ex-battery chickens, so I don't know if it differs from yours. Our chickens LOVED beetroot stalks, leaves and the 'skin' (obviously chopped up and boiled). We also used to boil up all our veggie peelings too. We just loved the thought of everything being used up. Have a good weekend and enjoy your visitors. CMW
ReplyDeleteI remember feeding our chickens with a warm mash as a child, in the winter it was good to carry the warm tub out to them. We used to pull the brassica stems up and hang them in the runs for the birds to peck at as well. Enjoy your visitors, and then revel in the peace when they leave.
ReplyDeletemy Nan used to do war bran mash for the chickens as well potato, carrot, brussel sprouts anything that was going used to be boiled up and the liquid and peelings popped into the mash. She did not do it sloppy though used to be stiff so that there was still some substance to the bran. She also used to do porridge for them as well. She always dried the egg shell in the oven and re-fed it back to the chickens as grit. Same as Pam said with cauliflower,brussel and cabbage stalks and leaves used to hang them up and the chickens used to jump up for them. But then Nan used to cook the dogs food as well used to buy the lights and what not from the butcher and cook it up for the dogs. No tinned meat.
ReplyDeletePattypan
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One of my dads favourite childhood stories was of the smell of the mash boiling up for the chickens. I hope you have a great weekend. x
ReplyDeleteI love to have friends visit but I'm glad when they go as well as late nights and too much good living takes it's toll lol x
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