Author: Anna & Mark

Drying sweet corn for chickens

October 18, 2010 Posts No Comments

Chickens eating dried sweet cornDespite
hoping to ditch
the grain in the
long term, I figure that homegrown grain is better for our chickens
than highly processed pellets.  So when Mark came home from a
friend’s house with a sack of over-mature sweet corn, I instantly
earmarked the windfall as chicken feed.



What is over-mature
sweet corn?  If you leave corn in the garden for too long, the
sugars in the kernels turn to starch and the corn is no longer as
delicious.  Your chickens will be glad to take care of the
problematic corn — just peel back the husk and toss an ear to your
flock, then watch the kernels disappear.  At the time we received
our corn, though, our chickens were gorging on garden produce, so I
decided to save the grain for colder weather.



I’m ashamed to admit
that the sack of corn sat in the car for three days before I got around
to dealing with it.  By the time I peeled back the husks, some of
the kernels had begun to rot, and later other kernels would sprout
before drying.  Still, the dried sweet corn was enthusiastically
received by our forest pasture flock on one of the days when I felt our
kitchen scraps needed a bit of supplementation.


Our homemade chicken
waterer gives your
flock something to do rather than pecking at each other.

Chicken coop makeover

October 11, 2010 Posts No Comments

Filling nest boxes with strawWith
a few winter trips on the horizon, we’ve decided to consolidate all of
our chickens into the forest pasture.  Our coop was built with young
broilers in mind, so it lacked a few essential accoutrements of laying
hen life — namely, a sturdy perch and a couple of nest boxes. 



Mark took an hour last
week to give the coop a makeover.  An egg crate and an old freezer
basket make quick and sturdy nest boxes while costing next to nothing
to install.  In his usual Nest box accessible from outside the coopingenious
fashion, Mark tacked the nest boxes to the wall in such a way that
we’ll be able to reach in from outside the coop to collect the day’s
eggs. 



During warm weather our five gallon
bucket waterer turns
the chicken pasture into the sort of operation you check on once a week
or less.  Since freezing water can be a problem in the dead of
winter, though, Mark plans to experiment with making a heated version
of the Avian Aqua Miser.  Our goal is to be
able to leave the farm for a week in the winter with as few worries as
when we take a long summer vacation.