Chicken run 'salad bar'

When we had acreage or chickens and other poultry would free range through the orchards.  After moving to town our chickens used to free range through our yard.  That was nice, it was good for the chickens, good for the fruit trees, and rather pleasant.  Then we had issues with the neighbour's dogs. 

Now during the day the chickens are contained in a (very large) run under several fruit trees, at night they have a fully contained run with a house part and a covered deep litter area.  They always have shade and water, and we like them to have constant access to greens.  The number of hens, and the sheer size of the run, means they more than meet the definition of free range, plus they are safer from dogs.  

During the summer of 2019-2020 it was extremely hot and dry and we lost all our grass/weeds/lawn.  When the rains returned, the larger lawn came back but any seedlings that popped up in the chicken run were immediately eaten by our hens.  This means they would have no grass in their run unless some of the soil is protected.  I like chickens to have access to grass and weeds, I think it is good for their health.  

Back when our hens were free ranging, my wife built some cages to put in their run.  The idea was for the cages to protect grass and weeds enough that they could survive, and when they grew tall enough to poke through the wire the hens would eat some green feed.  It works well.  

The internet seems to refer to this as a chicken run salad bar, I hate this term but can't find it referred to as anything else.

Chickens are destructive

The cages work well.  For the past few years the chicken run has bare soil under the fruit trees, the only place anything grew was under these cages (plus whatever grows there that they will not eat such as wormwood or white horehound).  Each time grass seeds germinate outside of these cages they don't last very long.  

I have tried moving the cages in the hopes that the more established patch will survive.  The new covered soil quickly grows grass and weeds, while the unprotected grass gets eaten and scratched back to bare soil.  No surprises there, chickens are destructive.  

Cages protect grass and weeds for hens to eat

We have several of these little cages in the chicken's run.  Over summer we need to water them to prevent the grass and weeds from dying.  I have a few of these cages scattered through their run, and I have a few cages along the fence so the running grasses can invade them and replenish them if they get eaten too vigorously.  Grass is good for hens to eat, it helps them stay healthy, but it does not replace the bought feed.  

From time to time I sprinkle spare seeds in these cages.  Things like silverbeet, coriander, parsley, and bok choy are readily eaten by hens.  All of these things grow among the grass and weeds to survive for a time.  Sooner or later they die and need to be replaced.

  

This got me thinking, I wonder if I could grow something in these cages to replace a percentage of bought feed.  I don't want to replace all their bought feed, but I do want to replace enough that it lowers the cost of feed.    

I am not just aiming to keep the chickens alive, I want them to be productive.  They won't be productive unless fed some bought feed.  According to the FAO: "A scavenging hen lays only 30 to 50 eggs per year".  Also according to the FAO, in Tanzania the total number of eggs produced per scavenging hen per year ranged from 6 to 20.  This is not many eggs, and the FAO is talking about 40 gram bantam size eggs.  My hens lay on average 190 to 230 medium to large eggs each per year.  

Admittedly the FAO are talking about unimproved varieties of scavenging hens, while I run improved hens.  I also know from food security projects that improved breeds tend to die pretty quickly when not fed concentrates or grains.  

All of this indicates that I won't ever be growing all the feed for my hens, I will always be feeding them some pellets.  Even so, I would like to reduce at least a little of the bought feed.  

Sometimes we extend the run using temporary fencing 

I have known a lot of people who sprout grains, and I have sprouted grain to feed hens in the hopes of reducing feed costs.  Sadly we have never seen a noticeable difference in feed costs from feeding sprouted grains.  It may make a difference if the hens are in battery cages, but when free ranged and fed various fruits and vegetables sprouting doesn't seem to make much difference.  I know a few people who have fermented feed for their hens, again this has made negligible impact to feed costs and has increased the amount of work.  

I did a bit of reading on the internet to see if anyone else has reduced their feed costs by growing some chicken feed.  After reading countless pages about 'salad bars' in the chicken run, it became obvious that, while plenty of people only grow 'treats' for their hens, very few people are attempting to replace any bought feed.  This does not interest me.  

Some people suggest growing things such as iceberg lettuce!  While this is gladly eaten by hens, it is less nutritious for them than grass and weeds, plus it needs a lot more water.  Dandelion is far more nutritious than iceberg lettuce, plus it needs less work from me.  

Other people suggested growing mint for laying hens.  Mint is very productive, and has some medicinal benefits, but my hens rarely eat mint, and when they do eat it they never eat enough to replace any percentage of their feed.  Mint may work as a supplemental treat, but is not a good choice to grow for replacing any amount of chicken feed.  

While many people grow treats for their laying hens, it seems very few people have tried to grow something to replace feed and had it make any real difference to feed costs.  Or if they have tried, they have not told anyone what worked and what didn't work well.  

This means I can't learn from other people's mistakes.  How disappointing.  

Rosemary and other tall herbs provide afternoon shade

You can see in the photo above that I have shade cloth that I put down in summer to provide shade from the afternoon sun.  I put the shade cloth up during the cooler months so the hens get all the sun they can.  I am training a grape vine over this fence to do the same job with less effort from me.  

I also grow tall herbs next to their run.  The tall herbs block the afternoon sun in summer, and the hens pick at them and eat bits they can reach.  These grow over the warmer months, then parsley and things die off.  I need to cut back the rosemary as it is getting a bit too big.  Strong smelling herbs probably also decrease the mites and parasite load somewhat.  

Many people talk about growing treats for the hens, where I am trying to look into how to reduce the cost of feed over a year.  The difference here is one between a supplement and a replacement. 

Many people, if not all, seem to focus on supplementing feed.  They still provide the same amount of base diet, with the addition of various things that they grow.  This addition quite likely has multiple benefits and possibly helps the chickens to be healthier.  If you are aiming to supplement their feed, then you can add basically anything that they will eat (even if they will only eat it begrudgingly).  If you supplement their feed, they may be healthier due to the increased variety, but your feed costs remain much the same.  

In addition to bought feed, we feed our chickens leftovers and kitchen scraps, we also feed them a wide range of seasonal vegetables, herbs, and fruits from the garden.  They also eat a wide variety of insects, spiders, and mice.  I am already supplementing their feed and providing a huge array of seasonal variety, and I don't intend to stop doing this.  

What I am interested in is replacing some feed.  This is where the hens get less of the base diet, they have a percentage of bought feed replaced with something else that is cheaper (or free).  I don't want to replace all their bought feed, but I do want to replace enough that it costs me less to feed them.

In this case you don’t need to supply every nutrient from their feed in a completely balanced way, but you need to supply enough that performance does not decrease as a result of the substitution.  If you substitute correctly, the hens may be healthier as a result, but the important part is the costs should decrease in a noticeable way.  If costs don’t drop, then you need to consider if the replacement is worth doing.  

Grass in the cages is similar to the grass outside the fence

 The FAO and various other food security projects and agricultural experimentation stations have run trials and experiments to replace bought feeds with various things.  There are a bunch of different edible things that have been trialed over the years and can replace a percentage of bought feed without lowering egg production. 

Some are things that I can't grow here due to climate, others we don't have in this country, others are not legal to grow here.  Various meat and bone meals and slaughter waste have been successfully trialed, but they are not an option for me at the moment.  

Other trials have replaced one grain with another, this is of no use to me.  I know some people raise various insects or worms to reduce feed costs, these are not feasible options for me at the moment for a number of reasons.  

As well as these, there have been a few plants that have successfully replaced a percentage of bought feed without reducing the number or quality of eggs laid.  These are the plants I need to consider. 

Grass only survives where protected in the chicken run

I have read a few papers where they replaced up to 10% bought feed with mulberry leaf meal.  Mulberry leaves are incredibly nutritious, and the trees are true survivors.  I already grow mulberry trees, and I feed the leaves to my hens.  While this is a great start, I am also looking for things to grow in their run under cages that they can pick at during the day.  

Azolla is meant to be able to replace up to 20% bought feed without decreasing egg production.  Azolla grows fast and has an impressive amino acid profile.  Duckweed also grows fast, contains a complete amino acid profile, and is said to be able to replace up to 15% bought feed with no decline in egg production.  I grow azolla and duckweed, and feed them both to the chickens, but I lack the ability to grow enough to be able to feed significant amounts.  I also would not be able to grow much azolla or duckweed in their run, so this is labor intensive.  

I started to consider if Vietnamese fish mint (Houttuynia cordata - not related to mint but has 'mint' in the common name) would work.  It is incredibly vigorous, surprisingly nutritious, and has a host of proven medicinal effects.  I have read several papers where including fish mint in the diet of hens has effectively controlled coccidiosis and increased survival rates.  This is a great plant for poultry to eat, plus they seem to eat it readily. 

For all its benefits, I worry that fish mint would escape into my yard and I would have to deal with the yard smelling like fish each time I mow, so I am reluctant to grow this in the chicken run.  For now I am growing it in pots and cutting handfulls of it to take to the hens.  This is more work than growing it in the chicken run, but I have the peace of mind that it won't escape on me.  

Fagopyrum cymosum might be useful in reducing feed costs

I did a little reading about perennial buckwheat, Fagopyrum cymosum.  This perennial leaf vegetable which has been eaten in the Himalayas by people and livestock for centuries and has a host of proven benefits.  There has been some research done into using this to replace commercial feed in laying hens that indicates that 10% of the feed can be replaced with this without adversely decreasing number of eggs produced.  This sounds like it could be a candidate for replacing some bought feed.  

This plant is extremely vigorous, and spreads underground by rhizomes, so should be able to survive and spread under the cages.  It does need to grow tall to set seed, but I wonder if it could survive long term by staying closer to the ground.  

I also have some wire protecting one of the smaller fruit trees, you can see it in one of the photos higher up on this page.  The grass tends to grow rather tall in the cage around this tree at times.  Perhaps I could plant some perennial buckwheat in there and allow it to spread until it escapes under the wire and is eaten by the chickens.  I think this is a good option that is well worth trying.  If it did escape and get into my lawn, I don't think I would be overly bothered.  

I can't take photos without the chickens coming over

There is not a huge amount of space in the chicken run that I am willing to cover in wire cages as I don't want them always walking on wire, so I only have a few square meters of space to play with.  There is no point growing mint or lettuce as this space would be better used to produce grass and weeds that are both highly palatable and more nutritious.  

If I had acreage I am pretty sure I could significantly reduce feed costs, but at this stage I only have a little space that I can use.  I wasn't even sure if a few meters of growing space is enough to make any noticeable difference to feed costs, but it is worth trying.  

If it wasn't for these cages there wouldn't be a blade of grass left

After a bit more reading, it appears that I am already significantly reducing the amount of bought feed I give my hens.  What I am currently feeding them is apparently working well at reducing their feed costs.  

I read that on average laying hens are fed 120 grams of pellets per day.  For the past half a dozen years or so my hens are eating on average a little under 50 grams of pellets each per day.  They also get grass/weeds, left overs, food scraps, excess things from the vegetable garden, hand fulls of azolla and duckweed, excess eggs when they lay more than we need, various dropped fruits in season, various insects etc.  It seems as though all of this has reduced their feed costs significantly, and has done so for years, without me even realising. 

My hens are about 6 or 7 years old (and very close to being retired and replaced), and have declined to laying an average of about 190-230 eggs each per year.  I keep records on the amount of eggs, they are declining noticeably as they age and they may be in their final days.  Over winter their laying almost stopped, I gave some extra lighting which fixed the issue, which is pretty impressive for hens this age.  Now the days are a little longer I removed these lights.  

We used to have a rooster, and we used to hatch the hen's eggs.  Fertility was high, usually around 85% to 90% hatch rate.  While the hens may lay slightly less than if fed entirely on bought feed, they are laying well enough for us, and have laid for long enough, to demonstrate that what we are doing is working and is sustainable long term.  The high fertility and hatch rate when we had a rooster also indicated that what we were feeding was working well.  I have a feeling that the huge amounts of seasonal fruit and vegetables my hens eat has have helped them be so healthy and productive for so long. 

I plan on leaving the grass and weeds in the cages, as this is working well.  I will keep throwing in extra seeds of parsley and silverbeet and things into those cages from time to time.  I also plan to introduce Fagopyrum cymosum and probably a few other things to the cages and see how they go.  If nothing else, I think the wide variety in their diet must be of some benefit to the hens. 

If you have something that you are growing to reduce your fed bills, and doesn't need much effort, please let me know how well it worked.  At some stage I will try to either expand on this post, or write another post, and detail what worked and what hasn't worked well for me.