Dried Nettles, Chickweed & dandelion for 2 day old chicks?

[savingdogs]

I don't know how to tell you this any more bluntly, but I would not feed nettles, even a small amount. While it is a very useful plant, it is not a plant that chickens choose to eat. It has strong medicinal qualities and I do not know what amount would be "safe" since it can SLOW HEART RATE. I think if they ate enough, it could kill them. I'm no chemist so I'm not sure, but there are so many plant choices, not sure why you keep bringing nettles up. I have a whole mountainside of this plant so I have TRIED to find its uses and feeding baby chicks is not one of them anywhere in my research. I'm not being snide here, I understand wanting to raise organic meat and eggs...I do too.

I would try chopped up worms, dandelions, clover, grass, cooked natural grains, the suggestions you got here were pretty good I thought. But leave out the nettles!

It makes more sense to me to feed babies what their parents eat, but softer, wetter and easier-to-swallow versions of it. When given a forest of choices, chickens leave nettles alone. Believe me, I've been stung so many times and tried to WILL the chickens to eat those dang nettles. I have heard that goats and rabbits will eat it dried, but I also see those animals avoid nettles while free ranging. I would not call myself an expert on the plant, but I certainly am more familiar with it than I ever wanted to be.

Green shoots of grass and clover are what the adult chickens LONG for and love, I would concentrate on those green foods. And luckily, they are abundant! I hope my experience with this plant is helpful to you, that is my intent. I'm just getting firm here because you keep bringing up that you are going to feed nettles.

 

[Soap Junkie]

And I very much appreciate it too! I read on several other sites that nettles are excellent to feed chickens, high in protien, and calcium. But I will heed your advise and wait until they are older to see if they like it or not. Again my reasoning was strictly the extremly high protien value, but not worth sick or dead chicks, so thank you. I will cut some grass and see how they do.

Just a note though, the site I was on (and there were many ) that did suggest Nettles said they picked them and dried them and feed it to the chickens in the winter like hay. Wonder if your chickens would like them that way? There are some medicinal values to the nettle, but mostly just a really good food for everyone. Cooking them removes the sting and they are jam packed with vitamins and minerals. If you have that many of them maybe you should tryt them. Cook them like spinich with butter and salt they are excellent!

Thanks for your concern, I will hold off on the nettles until they get older, like laying age and see what happens then. I will keep researching and see if there is anything that is bad for a chicken in them.

Thanks!

 

[savingdogs]

We do eat them! We have used them in soup and in eggs. I also have read they can be used as a livestock food when dried. They said they you have to pick it before the plant matures, as it matures it becomes too high in _________ something, I forget, but after that point it is no longer healthful for us. Hard on the kidneys if I remember correctly. I'd send you links but my computer is having a crashing day today and lost all my links.

I was going to try to dry quite a bit of it. I know an herbalist who uses it as tea and eats it raw. I tried it raw but didn't really care for it. But cooked, I found that really good. But I was cautioned by my M.D. about it. I do eat it, but in moderation, and not frequently. I am glad to know of it as a survival food however.

I do think that possibly dried changes it, but they used the dried version as a medicinal tea, so it would stand to reason it would still contain the medicinal qualities. I think if I could not get my prescription medications I would start drinking it medicinally myself, but it has the same qualities as my medications is why my M.D. was opposed to me consuming it, it would be hard to have a consistent daily level like I have with my "artificial" meds, which is important in my case.

If you knew someone who actually used it as a food for baby chicks successfully for many years, I'd feel differently about it, but you expressed that you wanted to learn from us, so I'd stick with foods that worked. It is pretty easy to lose a few chicks even under the best of circumstances (they crush each other or drown in water bowls or some other mishap) and we have all had that dissapointment, just didn't want that to happen to you.

 

[Soap Junkie]

Funny, I was just going to sites to get you links that talk about nettles and chickens! What I have read is that it helped up the egg production, I would think that is due to the high calcium levels. I think I might like to try that this winter and see what happens to the egg production.
Also I get mine from mountian rose herbs, so I know it was picked at the healthy stage. Glad to hear you know all about them, cuz I was just going to send you links! LOL! I may want to try it with the next batch of chicks, but as I am a COMPLETE newbie to this I will hold off for now. I am trying very hard to make them live, dont need any complications! I was really worried about the high levels of calcium in them too as I have no idea how much calcium a young chick should get.

I really do appreciate the effort you put into talking me out of it... I have been told I am a bit stubborn at times

Thanks!

Oh yeah, do you chop up the grass and dandelions to feed to the young chicks? Run it thru a blender? Not sure how to prepare grass and dandelions!

 

[savingdogs]

I actually used chick starter, but I would think you would want to chop it fine somehow. And I think you need to give them grit as soon as they get greens.

I know they won't know what to do with whole worms (tried that with mine, thinking they would learn to forage). They did not seem to know what worms were until they were older. Now they recognize them just FINE. lol

 

[Soap Junkie]

I must have some really smart chickens then cause yesterday I fed them 2 worms, small ones cut up in 3 pieces each and they went nuts! It was so funny watching them run around with the worm in there beak and another chicken would steel it out of its mouth and take off running. Took them a few minutes to actually figure out how to swollow it but it was gone! I have been putting the grit in there as soon as I gave them food. They pick at it and I know they are eating some of it cause it is getting lower in the bowl all the time.
I think we are going to get some ity bity crickets this weekend and see if they like them too. It ought to be funny watching that too. It rained yesterday so it was a great time to get some smaller worms, they were crawling up out of the wet grass.

 

[savingdogs]

We call that "chicken football" at our house. We find that pretty entertaining too. They are little pigs!

I was surprised how much ours like things like freezer burnt ground turkey.....they LOVE that. I did not realize what little meat eaters chickens can be. But worms are like "meat"......