Need a list of plants medicinal and food for poultry to replace expensive stock feed?

Question

Hi there all , i would like to start raizing poultry with as little stock feed as possible, so i would like to fence of an area and grow herbs, fruit trees, vegetables and all sorts of plants that will meet the reguirement needs of a number of chickens, ducks and geese, any advice from poultry breeders, hobby farmers , and pet owners will be apreciated

Answer 1

sorry to say this but you cannot just bulk up and feed you chickens with vegetables ....

and loaves of bread??

no wayy that is bad for chickens and ducks in fact and should be given RARELy ....

bread has no nutritional content for birds only carbs and minimal fat and clogs the throat easily if water is not easily got at.

vegetables and fruit are great .... except AVACADOS

They are highly toxic and will KILL your birds

and also potatoes have to be coooked first

grass, worms  .. bugs  will make up the bulk of a goose's diet and for a ducks too which they can all find readily find in the garden etc . .

but you will HAVE to get some kind of grain/pellets for them .. it isn't too expensive i get mine for €8.50 which lasts me a week

(i have many many birds)

but without a proper diet

*birds won't lay

*become malnourished

*easily pick up diseases and germs

*avail to stress easily

* and go into moult too often

Answer 2

I would grow regular grass in the fenced area. It's nice for them to walk on, and ducks and geese normally graze on grass when they are in the wild...they like the stuff. They will need a little more than just grass though. You can give them any kind of grain, fruit, or vegetable. On my farm we used to take table scraps down to the barnyard, and the chickens loved to scratch through it to find there favorite tid bits. Also an inexpensive feed for all is expired bread. Most stores throw out expired bread, or they may sell it for about $.10 per loaf. You can ask a manager if you can get a regular schedule to pick up expired bread about once per week or so. It reduces there trash, and any poultry love the stuff. expired milk or yogurt also is inexpensive and a great source of calcium for egg laying poultry. If you have really young animals, just watch out for mold. Mature animals don't usually have a problem with mold, but young animals may not have a metabolism or resistance built up to deal with mold.

   Good luck.

Answer 3

my chickens love tomatoes, cucumbers, corn cut off the cob as treats, clover,  and some of my horses sweet feed.  Never feed anything moldy, its bad for any animal. just feed the treats in addition to their reg feed.