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Don’t have chicken feed at home? Did you know vegetables, herbs, flowers, and fruits that can be fed to chickens?
People with animals and gardens are happy.
Are you such a happy person?
Do you have a chicken house in your garden with a flock of chickens that give you white gifts (eggs) every day?
My mother is such a happy person that she cares for her 15 chickens and my garden while caring for our household. She consistently shares a variety of delicious recipes made from chicken eggs and meat. It’s been a few days since she put two hens with eggs for hatching. The chicks haven’t hatched yet. I hope my mother’s chickens will grow soon.
In this article, we have discussed in detail gardening as well as raising chickens and the food crops you can feed your chickens, including vegetables, herbs, and fruits.
Are you ready? Let us begin then.
It is known that 6500-10000 years ago in Southeast Asia and Oceania, chickens began to be domesticated. The convenience of raising chickens, their nutritious meat, and eggs slowly spread across the country.
But before that, where did the chicken live?
Chickens were wild animals, and humans have been able to civilize and produce different breeds by rearing them. It is a matter of time. We now get hundreds of varieties very easily, but it did not come in a day. It has been a long journey.
When my mother first brought chickens to our house, our garden was not fenced; it was open. When the chicks hatched, they ate the fruit on my favorite plants and most of the fruit. I was suffering at that time. Later, I put up plants in the garden so the chickens can’t get in now.
Did your chickens destroy the plants?
They are masters at breaking in and destroying trees whenever they get a chance.
How can I raise chickens besides gardening?
You can build chicken houses with your backyard garden. You should keep in mind that you should build the chicken house in such a place that the chickens can move freely outside the coop and that they can move inside the house when it rains.
Another thing that you need to consider while building the house is that the smell of chicken droppings can be released into the air.
If the gas from the droppings remains trapped inside the house, your chickens can get sick. Put netting, plastic fencing, or netting around the chicken house to prevent them from entering your garden.
You can plant different vegetable plants next to the chicken house. Chickens can eat when they enter through the fence. You can also build your chicken house under a large tree to protect the chickens from the rain or the sun.
Chickens you can raise in the backyard or with a garden.
Orpington, Rhode Island Red, Hampshire Red, Plymouth Rock, Marans, Leghorn, and other breeds can be kept.
Feed chickens on the 90/10 rule
Chickens are omnivorous animals and are accustomed to more or less all foods. When chickens lived in nature, they could feed on crops when they were ripe at a certain time of the year.
The rest of the time, then they would not eat. They never looked for food in the forest. They eat insects by scratching the ground. They lived by eating fruits and young vine leaves from trees.
As a result of the development of civilization, when we do not decide to keep them at home, we try our best to add extra nutrients to their food. We make it a habit to feed the chickens. The farmers of the farm feed the chickens with high-quality feeds so that the chickens are healthy and able to produce regular eggs.
However, if we raise chickens at home, we will not depend on the feed. We will get used to vegetables and all other balanced foods.
We feed the chickens 90% feed at home and, in addition, we provide 10% balanced feed. A 10% balanced diet will include vegetables, herbs, fruits, treats, scratch, and whole grains.
A list of the vegetables, herbs, and fruits we will feed the chickens.
Vegetables
Chickens are used to eating more or less all kinds of vegetables. But you have to find out which one your chickens prefer to eat.
- Cucumber
- Pumpkin
- Pea
- Radish
- Carrot
- Potatoes
- Tomato
- Block copy and full copy
- Shallot
- Sweet potato
- Beetroot
- Papaya
- Broccoli
- Eggplant
- Green peas
- Spinach
- Radish greens
- Peas
- Kalai shak
- Lettuce
- Swiss chard
- Celery
- Bok choy
- Mustard greens
- Arugula
Herbs
- Dill
- Borage
- Mint
- Tulsi
- Rosemary
- Coriander
- Lemongrass
- Lovage
- Chives
- Thyme
- Greek oregano
- Calendula
- SpearmintPineapple sage
Fruits
- Watermelon
- Mango
- Banana
- Guava
- Strawberry
Flowers
- Marigold
- Echinacea
- Rose
- Sunflower
- Zinnia
- Lobelia
- Petunia
- Day lily
Grain
- Rice
- Wheat
- Corn
- Millet
- Sorghum
Which to avoid
- Garlic
- onion
- Broccoli
- Avocado
- Gelatin
Do not feed your chickens rotten food as it poses a health risk to the chickens.
You can grow vegetables, herbs, fruits, and flowers in your home. Chickens prefer to eat different parts of these ingredients. You need to know what your chicken likes to eat.
How important is feeding these foods in addition to feeding?
Feeding your chickens a diet rich in vegetables, herbs, and fruits increases the chicken’s immune system, increases egg production, and strengthens the shell. Vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, calcium, protein, and other essential nutrients are fulfilled in chicken.
Your organic farm is guaranteed. Since we eat eggs and meat produced from chickens, our food needs are met and the quality is maintained. Chickens become strong and healthy as a result of consuming a balanced diet.
The kitchen waste in your home can be used properly. Costs are reduced by feeding less feed and since vegetables are easy to grow and produce less, you save money all around. Some plants such as rosemary leaves repel insects from chicken coops. You can also plant rosemary along the fence of the house.
Feeding microgreens and sprouts to chickens
You can feed your beloved chickens microgreens and sprouts that you can easily grow at home and in your backyard. Microgreens and sprouts are rich in protein and vitamins, including iron, zinc, and potassium, which play an important role in your chicken’s growth.
You can grow microgreens and sprouts at home by following a few simple steps.
My chicken is not eating, what can I do?
See simple calculation. As humans, we also like to choose and eat food according to our tastes and needs. You also need to find out which vegetables your chickens prefer. My mums love Puishak so much that after filling their bowls they finish within a few minutes and want more. You can try reducing the amount of feed given to the chickens and you can see that they are eating more vegetables so you can get the chickens that are not eating them to get used to it.
Eat crushed vegetables
You can grind vegetables and feed them to your chicken. You dry the vegetables in the sun, blend them into molasses, and mix them with the feed, but do not mix it too much. Add to the feed bowl in the chicken house. As a result, you will need less feed.
Pecking garden
We tell you how you can garden inside the chicken coop.
Make a box out of wood (I will give it in the video) and put a net around the top and sides of the box so that the exit is visible. Do not net your plant down. Attach the lower part with wood. Put a few layers of soil in there and plant plants that your chickens like to eat. It will be attracted by the trees and greedily come close but will not be able to eat them.
This will make them interested in eating trees. The plants will continue to grow inside the box and can be eaten when they come close to the net and come out of the net. But the trees cannot be uprooted.
When the chickens sit on top of the box and leave droppings, it will add organic nutrients to the plant soil. Isn’t that great?
We have shared a video to learn how to make it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JrR2_x0-DI
Feeding worm to chickens
Chickens love worms which provide essential protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals zinc, and riboflavin. You can grow mealworms at home which are very easy to grow. You can find dozens of videos on the search engine for cultivation methods.
If you have a worm compost or vermicomposting bin at home, some of the vermicompost can be fed to your chickens. It is a good source of protein and safe food.
How Eco Systems Help
Your hobby garden and chicken flock support the ecosystem. Vegetables, herbs, and fruits from your garden go into your kitchen and you cook them. The leftovers can be fed to the chickens, the wastes are used and the chickens help to remove the waste. Also, the chicken droppings you put in your compost bin will be composted back into the soil of your garden plants. Thus the process continues.
As a result of keeping chickens at home, they come to your house or lawn and remove the larvae, frogs, lizards, and spider worms. We eat chicken eggs and meat which fulfill our protein requirement. Thus the whole process helps the ecosystem.
You can have chickens and a garden in one piece of space in your home that will fulfill the needs and interests of everyone in your home. Today, you don’t have to pay the high prices of eggs and chicken and you can provide your children with 10 times more organic food than grocery store-bought eggs and meat.
Don’t forget to let us know how you felt about reading our article and how many chickens you have at home.
