7 Plants to FEED your Chickens for CHEAP | Backyard Chicken Tips

So I grow food for myself, but what can I grow to feed my chickens? Keeping chickens is a real joy, but these small, lightweight birds eat a surprising volume of food. So today I'm gonna share seven crops that we're growing to help us keep our chicken feed costs down and also keep our chooks happy and healthy by giving them lots of homegrown goodies. If you've been following our channel, you'll know that self-sufficiency and health is at the heart of all that we do here. And that doesn't stop just with us, that includes our animals too. So by growing a little extra for our girls and feeding them what we have a surplus of, it gives them lots of fresh goodness and also saves us money. And it's a win-win because when our chickens are happy and all of their needs are met, they lay eggs incredibly consistently. We have been blown away by the productivity of our small flock. It's important that your chickens get the right balance of protein and nutrients. And what we have found has worked amazingly for us is letting them graze freely on organic layer pellets in the morning using this automatic feeder. And we got our feeder from Vibor. It's very similar to the famous grandpa feeder, but this one is a lot more affordable. And this is if you can hear me over the noisy chickens. And then once laying is finished for the day, we start feeding them homegrown snacks and goodies from the garden. And we'd love to hear what you grow in your gardens that your chickens love to eat too. So let us know in the comments down below. And now here's my list of seven plants that we grow to feed our chickens for cheap. Number one is sunflowers. They are easy to grow. They look great. And they also offer good food for other insects and pollinators. And once the seeds have formed up on the heads, they offer a great high calorie, high protein snack for your chickens. And if you grow lots of different varieties, they're ripen at different times. So I just pop one or two heads into the chicken run at a time as they come ready. And we've dotted these all around our different growing areas this year. And we actually have some growing in the chicken coop too, as you can see. Now you could also dry these heads and seeds and store them for winter if you liked also. Amaranth is number two. And this is such a stunning crop. It is another one that is super easy to grow. And once these plants reach about two inches high, they just shoot away and grow so fast. From what we've worked out, they are not fussy about soil types. And we actually haven't watered these plants at all since they first established in the super hot and dry summer that we are having this year. I'll feed this to the chickens fresh and just pop the whole stems in as the seeds come ripe so that they can enjoy the leaves too. And this saves the drying and thrashing process, which can take quite a bit of time. But you could also dry it out and store it for winter if you liked. The seeds are around 14% protein, which is great. But if you're feeding it fresh like me, make sure it's only about 10 to 15% of your chicken's overall diet. Number three is a bit different. I grow and save our kombucha scobies to feed to the chickens. Oh, you wanna try this? A scoby is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast and is a powerhouse of living yeasts and beneficial microbes. It's also high in protein and a good source of B vitamins. And I feed this as a fun, occasional gut healthy treat. And the girls are always really curious. And it is great because this is actually a waste product of kombucha brewing. We grew this small block of corn amongst our pumpkins as an additional chicken feed this year. And this is a short season flower corn called Painted Mountain. And it's super dark kernels will have extra antioxidant benefits. And corn is really easy to grow. It's not fussy about its soil type and it is a really resilient crop. We did have to do an emergency harvest of this block the other day though, as the rats had made a good start on it. And again, this is just a supplement. It is not a feed replacement for our chickens. Hi girls. We just toss in a whole ear and the chickens love pecking at the kernels. And this is such a beautiful corn to grow as well. And this bed also leads on to the next amazing crop that we grow for our chickens. And that is pumpkins or winter squash. And it's August now and we actually still have some pumpkins in our store from our harvest last September. We always end up growing more pumpkins than we need. And the girls just love pecking away at the bright orange flesh. And often we end up with some massive pumpkins as well, which can be really difficult to get through in the kitchen in good time. But now the girls can help me out with that all through the winter. Pumpkins have got to be the best multi-purpose crop that you can grow. They are easy to grow. They're easy to store for a long time and they offer a hydrating, vitamin rich treat for your chickens. And the seeds are great too. They are high energy, high protein and they may act as a natural wormer also. Although we do add apple cider vinegar and garlic to our girls water regularly for this. And I've actually grown a specific variety just for pumpkin seeds this year for both us and the chickens as we love them roasted as well. My last two favourite chicken feed crops are both in the brassica family. They are cold hardy and they grow really well for us in the shoulder season. Number six is kohlrabi. And this one here is actually left over from a sowing in February. And I grow kohlrabi as a kind of backup crop for us. And some years I end up using very little of it. But this spring I discovered that the chickens absolutely love pecking away at these funny little alien heads until they are completely hollow. This is a great calcium rich treat. It's high in fibre and the whole plant can be tossed in so that the leaves can be enjoyed too. It's a great food supplement for the sparser months as well. And I've actually got a tray ready to go in the ground that I'll be planting out in the next few days to give us a good crop throughout the winter for our girls. And last but not least is kale. And my girls absolutely love pecking away at freshly harvested kale leaves. We grow heaps of kale here so there is always plenty to spare. And it is another cold hardy chicken superfood. Kale is loaded with calcium, protein and vitamins. It helps strengthen eggshells, deepen yolk colour and gives our girls fresh greens all through the winter. Now, if you've stayed on right to the end, drop us a smiley face in the comments. And I've got three more bonus crops that we have in abundance towards the end of summer that our chickens are loving right now. Wimple apples are plentiful from our food forest at this time of year and are a favourite with our girls. We don't feed them too many though as they are high in sugar. Courgettes or zucchinis. Who doesn't have too many of these at this time of year if you grow your own food? But it is not a problem as the chickens love this hydrating treat. And they particularly like the big seedy ones as well which is great. We have been blessed with an abundance of melons this year. And I'm sometimes in two minds about adding these seeds to our compost in case it doesn't get hot. But it's no problem now as the chickens are devouring all the melon seeds we can give them. They adore this nutritional summer bonus treat. So that's the main seven crops that we grow to feed our chickens. And we would love to know which of these crops you feed your flock to. So let us know in the comments below. So we don't replace our feed completely but supplementing with these plants massively reduces the amount of bought-in feed that our girls choose to eat. We hope you found this video helpful. If you have and you'd like to follow our self-sufficiency journey then make sure you subscribe to our channel and also give this video a thumbs up. And if you would like to see how we built our amazing chicken house then we've also got a series of step-by-step videos on how we built that which you can find on our channel as well. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you here again soon. Peace and plants. Hush.