Hay for chickens

I
snagged this photo from Gene
Logsdon’s blog,
where he was talking about a pile of hay that he accidentally left in
his shed rather than forking it into the hay loft.  He wrote: “The
chickens loved to scratch merrily away in the hay, eating green
bits of clover leaves and grass seeds out of it. With the ground frozen
and covered with snow, they can’t forage in the woods, so they are
supplementing the whole wheat and corn I feed them by eating the
haystack.”



I’ve been
giving our chickens autumn leaves and straw as bedding, but now that Logsdon
mentions it, I can see how hay would be a better choice.  The
chickens would have more to pick at when the snow covers their usual
stomping grounds, and around here hay is cheaper to come by than straw
(even though the latter is a waste product elsewhere.)  More than
ever, this makes me think that I need to learn to use a scythe so that
I can make hay myself on a small scale.