I dropped by my mother-in-law’s coop the other day and took a look inside. “What an interesting feeder,” I said. “Where did that come from?”
She explained that the feeder had actually started life as a waterer. But the lip broke off, which meant the gravity-feed contraption no longer worked as intended. So now she fills the bucket with pellets as a low-tech gravity feeder. A great example of Appalachian ingenuity!
Before livestock entered my life, I never paid attention to the first green grass. But now, even when we don’t have our own chickens or goats, those tender sprouts in late February make me smile. Sure enough, a visit to our neighbor’s house revealed her flock hungrily pecking up not just worms but also every bit of greenery they could get their beaks on.
Luckily for all of us, chickens aren’t like ruminants — they won’t eat so much spring grass that they make themselves sick. But they can easily overgraze the first flush so much that their pasture becomes spotty and rank for the rest of the year.
In a free-range setting like this one, there’s not much you can do to prevent overgrazing. And our neighbor doesn’t really need to — after all, her chickens are able to roam across several acres, so once one area runs out they’ll move on to another. But if you’ve got your flock more constrained in either tractors or a pasture, spring is the time to be plotting out your entire year’s rotation schedule so you still have green grass for the birds to enjoy in July and August.
$2.99
(epub file sideloaded through Bookfunnel)
I’ve plotted out years’ worth of pasturing wisdom in my ebook Pasture Basics, currently on sale for 25% off if you buy direct. Hopefully my tips will let your flock enjoy the spring flush…and the summer lull as well. Happy grazing!
Here are a few points to think about to help decide if this is something you should try.
How much do you need? The bigger the bag the more shipping is likely to cost the company so you’re probably going to pay a little more. Many sites like Amazon offer free shipping on many products so this may not even be an issue depending on where you choose to purchase the feed. This 5lb Chick Starter is included in Amazon Prime and may be all you need at one time. Larger farms may however find the shipping on 50lb bags too much to swallow.
What kind of feed do you need? I have found that rabbit feed seems to be about the same price or even less online as when I buy it in the store. Chicken feed, however, always seems to cost a little more than I’m used to paying.
Is your current feed store too inconvenient? Buying feed while out and about may not be a major deal to you if you can just pop in while running other errands. However, if, like me, you have to go out of your way to buy feed, then online may be the way to go. Another advantage of buying online when you notice you are running low, you can just click a few times and be done with it instead of trying to remember to buy more feed on your next outing.
So if you can find the product you need within your budget, why not give it a shot and see if it makes your life on the farm a little easier?
