What I’ll plant in the chicken garden (growing chicken snacks)

To supplement the cost of chicken feed and treats, I’m dedicating garden space to the chickens.

Earlier this year I researched blending and growing your own chicken feed. I learned about many varying opinions on protein ratios, methods for blending bulk grain purchases, fermenting chicken feed, and a few fatal stories of DIY chicken feed gone wrong. The latter instilled enough uncertainty in me to discourage blending our own feed. Instead, what I aim to do is supplement our flock’s treats with a chicken garden.

A lay of the land for our layers

Our girls get a non-GMO layer feed provided free choice year-round. They also get Grubbly Farms black soldier fly larvae as daily treats. As the cost of these treats has gone up, the girls receive smaller amounts. (You may have missed an earlier post where I explain the downsides of feeding chickens internationally-grown mealworms versus domestically-produced black soldier fly larvae.) As soon as our first frost hits, the girls also get daily organic scratch grain treats, generally in the evenings, to help give them extra protein to stay warm. Throughout the winter I’ll make them suet blocks with leftover bacon grease or lard mixed with scratch grains. In the summer, if we’re going away for a long weekend, I’ll make a “flock block” treat with coconut oil, their regular feed, and flax seed and chia seed mixed in.

Chicken garden goal

Instead of fully replacing the chicken feed, I’m looking at the chicken garden to do a few things. Since this is an experiment, I’m starting with one small goal: Produce enough harvest to provide daily treats for 1 month. (About 30 cups of treats.)

The growing space(s)

Since I have a variety of existing growing spaces, each with different advantages and disadvantages, I want to lean on them. In my original garden space, I’ve struggled with a 5’ by 10’ space. It routinely has low nitrogen even though I mulch it with high-nitrogen quail bedding and use seasonal liquid kelp fertilizers and worm compost tea. This space consistently produces slowly with little-to-no harvests. To avoid annual efforts, I’ve been layering perennials that do much better in the area. Strawberries, asparagus, sage, and echinacea all thrive in this challenging area. I’m adding berry bushes next. As part of my chicken garden experiment, I’ll interplant chicken treats in this space to take advantage of unutilized areas. It’s also the site of my latest compost pile, so I’m hoping a full season’s worth of a nutrients breaking down over winter will help give this area a boost next year.

The apple orchard is near the chicken coop and each apple tree is protected by a deer cage. I’m hoping to heavily mulch each tree this winter, then plant some of the chicken treats around each apple tree. I’m also planning to do the same for the pond garden where cages protect peach trees. All of the fruit trees can serve as chicken treat nurseries.

A new garden in Zone 1

Aside from these existing growing areas, I’m planning a brand-new garden. The new garden supports several efforts. Currently, my main garden and high tunnel are far from the house. In permaculture, the concept of Zones helps to map your site and show your most frequently accessed areas. Zone 1 is a space you visit daily, all the way to Zone 5 which might be an annual visit. Gardens are meant to be in or close to Zone 1. During the growing season I’ll be making dinner and remember I forgot to make a salad. Then I don’t feel like going “all the way back” to the garden to cut one. When we brought pigs home this summer, they spent their first few weeks right outside our front door. We needed them in Zone 1 to not only keep an eye on them, but also ensure predator protection while they were small. The pigs loosened, aerated, and fertilized the soil in Zone 1. Winter cover crops are growing lush in the space now. In February, our next livestock (our forthcoming meat chickens) will start rotationally grazing in this space and continue adding layers of fertilizer. This will help with a challenge.

The big challenge

Next year I’ll start my sixth growing season. I have never been able to produce a full-size ear of corn. I’ve tried growing sweet, dent, and popcorn. I sow and re-sow. I protect the young seedlings from birds. Still, no success. I’d like to grow corn for chicken treats. I’m going to try using the new garden space as a three sisters garden: corn, beans, and squash. Since it’s an experiment, it will have temporary electric fencing (the same the pigs are using now). I’m planning to direct-sow everything in May, three months after the chickens scratch up the space.

Chicken feed ingredients that I researched

Throughout many resources, from veterinary sites to personal blogs, the ingredients that routinely surfaced included oat groats, black oil sunflower seeds, red wheat berries, white wheat berries, triticale berries, rye berries, corn, peas, oats, barley, millet, sesame, flax, quinoa, amaranth, brewers yeast, fishmeal, and kelp.

Quinoa was on my mind while I was researching because of its beneficial amino acid profile. Fortunately, I learned it has extra benefits. According to the Poultry Extension, quinoa “has higher levels of energy, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and B vitamins than corn, barley, wheat, and oats.”

I’ve grown amaranth in containers for the past two years and love the production and color. (I’ve been growing Love-Lies-Bleeding red amaranth.) The nice thing is that amaranth seeds are not just a chicken treat, their leaves can supplement feed too and contain three times more calcium than spinach. There are certain production methods needed to help make amaranth safe for poultry consumption, depending on if you’re growing for broilers or layers. Overall, the University of Kentucky Department of Animal and Food Sciences states that “layers fed diets containing amaranth required significantly less feed to produce a dozen eggs or a gram of egg than those fed the control diet.”

Chicken treats that I’ll grow: red wheat, a variety of peas, oats, barley, flax, quinoa, amaranth, and a variety of corn. Also, pumpkin seeds, a by-product of my personal love of pumpkins.

As always, I’ll share more as I learn more.