Wednesday 12 October 2011

Raising Chickens - Why 'Greens' Are Important For Chickens



Raising chicken is a very interesting hobby. Some people raise chickens just for fun and to make use of their eggs and meat from time to time while others will do this on a wider scale and turn it into a very profitable business.

One of the very important remarks on this type of hens and their egg is that their tastes change from one coop to another or from one breeder to another. The main difference between these hens is the feed that they eat. The type of the feed affects the taste of both the meat and the eggs of the hens and this is the primary cause of the difference in taste from one breeder to another.

The hen feed is one of two ingredients, dry feed and green feed. Green feed is very important because it is the thing that will improve the taste of the meat and eggs of the chickens. One of the major mistakes in breeding chickens is that breeders think that all types of green feed are the same but; the truth is the whole contrary of this.

There are several types of green fodder that you can feed your chicken with. The different types of green feed can affect the health of the chicken and can also add a distinctive odor or taste to the egg.

For example, the green fodder contains high amount of water but, only some of them has high amount of nutrients. Wheat grass is one of the very interesting green feed that hens would like to eat. The plant is full of huge amounts of nutrients as well as water and chickens love them much so they will eat it all the time and that will result into better production rate and better taste for both the meat and the eggs.

In addition to the wheat grass, chickens can eat any weed clipping that you can get from your garden. It is very important to make sure that they are eating safe plants and safe food. Some people think that because they are animals they could eat anything without getting sick. Some plants have highly adverse effect on the chickens so; make sure that you are offering them the right food.

There are two methods to feed your chickens with green food, you either get them out of the coop and let them free - range in your garden or you can cut the grass and the green weeds and put it in their coop.

If you will go for the first method then you need to make sure that the perimeter is safe and there are no predators can harm them while eating around. Also you need to monitor the weather and if it is going to be windy or rainy then you need to get them inside as soon as possible. If you are leaving for work then do not leave your chicken outside unless you are sure that they are safe or predators will make a feast with these easy to get targets.

If you will go for the second method then you need to make sure that you supply your chickens with enough amounts of green food while they are inside the coop or the free run around it. In the mean time you can easily keep them protected from predators with the fence of the coop. Also you need to make sure that the available space in the free run is capable of containing the amount of chicken you have.

Feeding your chicken with green food can save you a lot of money than feeding them dry ration. Green food can be a free source of food for your chickens if you decided to grow some useful greens in your garden or your backyard. If you are able to plant different sections of your backyard with green stuff on different times then you won't run out of food again.

All the recent researches had proven that green feed will enhance the amounts of Vitamin A, Beta Carotene and omega three in the eggs and will also eliminate a big chunk of cholesterol of the egg content.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jerry_Halsey


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4598290

No comments:

Post a Comment