In article ,
"Amy Blankenship" wrote:

You may want to look at raising black soldier fly larvae.


"Gas Bag" wrote in message
...
sci.agriculture.poultry, alt.cooking-chat, alt.permaculture,
rec.gardens, aus.gardens

Chickens – supplementing their grain diet?

My Brother has some Chickens in his backyard to lay Eggs. I have to be
honest and say that since Noah floated the Ark, I have been a hardcore
dedicated Egg-a-holic. And then some. Add some bacon/polish sausage/
chorizo sausage……and SWISS BROWN mushrooms……and it’s game on!
I particularly like Eggs where the yolks have a really rich orange
colour, and are full of flavour. At the moment, the Chickens are being
fed the proper Pellet Food from a local Grain & Fodder retailer, but I
am trying to “supplement” their diet to make their Eggs taste
absolutely A1. I don’t just want the Chooks’ diet to be “reasonably
good”…..I want it to be as close to perfect as possible. At the
moment, I am getting box load after box load of vegetable scraps from
some local grocers – and I am continuing with this. They mainly
contain lettuce and cabbage scraps, but there are often some carrots,
cauliflowers, avocadoes, etc. (Some of the more choice vegetables get
carefully “selected out” by my brother…..but that’s another matter
entirely) I also know that the Chickens go crazy over thistles and the
like.
Anyway, I heard somewhere or other that, along with LOTS of greens,
the addition of some protein to the Chickens’ diet can help boost the
flavour of their Eggs. So I thought of worms! I’ve recently set up an
ultra-basic compost pile by digging a very shallow hole in the Chicken
Yard, filling it with as many food scraps as I can lay my hands on,
watering them in, covering it with hessian, then watering the hessian.
Then I have covered the whole pile with a plastic tub of sorts. The
hole I have dug in the ground is actually quite shallow, so most of
the food scraps are actually above ground, not below ground level. I
am assuming that in a week or so, this compost pile should be
absolutely writhing with masses of worms…..hopefully. Once it reaches
this stage, I will simply remove the plastic tub and the hessian, and
let the Chooks go to town.
I am hoping for any and all advice, in regards to what I am doing
here, particularly with the worm-compost pile.
• Any specific do’s or don’t’s?
• How long should the worms take to fill up the pile?
• Certain foods that are particularly good or bad for the Chickens?
• Certain foods that are particularly good or bad for the Worms?
Like I mentioned before, I want the Chooks to have the best diet
possible to give the Eggs the best flavour. As an aside, the Chickens
seem to dig and scratch about like nothing I have ever seen. Quite
funny to watch how they actually do this. I have even seem them sort
of “rub themselves about” in the dust in drier weather, and this is
VERY funny to watch. What is this they are doing? They often get quite
aggressive when other birds, such as doves and pigeons, try to eat
their food. They really are funny critters to watch. When we’re out
the back having wine and beers, and play the Stereo, the music really
has some sort of effect on them. They will often come over and jump up
on the garden table or on the Stereo. Weird.

Classic perennial of possible interest Russian broadleaf comfrey.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...&sa=X&oi=spell
&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=Russian+Broadleaf+comfr ey&spell=1

Bill

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Garden in shade zone 5 S Jersey USA