Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
your garden. The best way to utilize it as a food crop for poultry is to turn the poultry
out onto the patch and let them forage for the seeds and eat the foliage. Plant buckwheat
at the time of the last spring frost. It will start providing you with mature seeds about 60
to 70 days later.
DO BIRDS NEED ANIMAL PROTEIN?
Poultry can be raised successfully without animal products, though ducks and other
waterfowl are markedly more prosperous if given animal protein of some sort. Of
course, they acquire what they need from creepy-crawlies when allowed free range
or to reside in an outside pen. Because of this, it's very difficult to raise ducks in con-
finement without outside access. Poultry given free range always eat enough insects
and worms to supplement their diet.
Millet
Many types of millet exist and some of them provide both good bedding and small seeds
that all poultry enjoy. Although it's not time-efficient to thresh millet, it can be harves-
ted with a scythe or pair of hand shears, depending upon the variety, and bundled. I've
cut millet when the heads were not quite mature or dry and put the entire stalk into the
pen. Geese enjoy eating these in their entirety, while chickens and quail relish the tiny
nutritious seeds.
Pearl millet produces the largest seed heads — some more than one foot (0.3 m) long
on plants more than 10 feet (3 m) tall! Japanese millet also grows tall. German and fox-
tail millets don't get as tall and the seed heads are loose in nature. Plant millet after the
last spring frost as it grows best in warm soils and higher temperatures.
Amaranth
Although high in protein, ornamental, and easy to grow, amaranth is difficult to harvest
effectively and does not produce much feed for all the space it inhabits. It can be planted
very early and up until midsummer. Earliest plantings make the biggest seed heads and
tallest plants.
Amaranth's bright red and orange flowers and deep green leaves are a lovely sight.
I find it particularly pleasing when planted near the poultry pens. It provides shade and
beauty at every stage, and as it matures, I just break off part of the plant and let the
poultry peck at the seed heads and eat the leaves as a daily treat. Quail and pheasants are
particularly fond of it.
