I was spending a TON on chicken feed, but then I did THIS!
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- Опубліковано 10 тра 2020
- We're in the middle of an experiment to grow feed for our egg layers right in the pasture. Using egg layer chickens and especially broiler chickens in Joel Salatin-style chicken tractors, we've been successful in raising 100s of pounds of grain that our chickens self-harvest.
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Absolute proof we need animals on the land. Great presentation of how animals can heal the land. Thank you have a wonderful day.
The wolves in the northwest healed the land once they returned to that area
@@reason5591 Was just about to mention returning the wolves to Yellowstone.
@@reason5591 That was a great example of how herbivores alone on a landscape is detrimental because they loaf around in the same places and eat the landscape clean. Introduce predators (or ranchers who'll actually move them) and the land starts resting and healing. You need the herbivores to prune and fertilize, but left to themselves they prune until they kill the grass.
@@JeffGray Absolutely, an ecosystem must be maintained by both predators and herbivores. Limiting the time they spend in an area is crucial in the healing process.
@@JeffGray yes sir indeed! Nature is wiser than humans. Nature is completely balanced to work as things should work. No need to go messing that up.
When my chickens are in full forage they go from at least a cup a day of feed to about a tablespoon. It's amazing
OK, I have the feeling of 'they have grass/hoppers, worms flies... But will they cont/sent?
@@laszlonemet4425 ?
@@user-hl6ls8sv4t all day out but devour their portion as usual
This is not just about chicken feed! It is a real life experiment in revitalising the soil and conserving it. Great idea. I remember seeing another video on how grazing animals helped improved pasture land in Australia.
Yes and they help protect the native animals on the land.
Checkout the Savory Institute!
Only humans would forget..
I was hoping to see a jumbo Bobwhite Quail jump outta there.
@@djt7387 I’m tired of you aliens always ragging in us humans.
I discovered something when i laid down about 3 inches of aged wood chips outside my coop. A few months later, a beautiful crop of wheat came up! The scratch grains had sprouted in the wood chips. It’s an easy way to make a quick, no dig, small-scale crop of wheat.
Wow this is so cool!
Any area I exclude my chooks from for a while... Bloody tomatoes spring up everywhere 😁
@@emceeboogieboots1608 free plants
5 chickens running around in my backyard. They keep the weeds down and grass is growing dark green and thick.
Why you remove weed? Roll a joint and chill man. Let the weed grow.
How large is your property? I'm on a half acre & I was wondering whats a good number
@@rf5101 regular city lot. So nowhere near your half acre. You could get as many as you want to deal with.
We love that rooster crowing brings me back to my childhood when every farm in Ireland had chickens !
I only have 3 chickens and it's amazing how they can change the area they are in no pest insects no weeds the grass stays green and some of the kitchen waste becomes feed for chickens which helps keep down feed cost unlike most people who think you have to spend a lot of money.
Great video! Thank you!
The crowing roosters are NOT an issue for the viewers!
I have found that another great benefit of chickens on the ecology of the soil is the scratching. when chickens scratch they are basically tilling up just the surface of the soil.
In order to cut costs further, around here, a person can purchase "sweepings" from the floor of our local grain mill. These huge sacks are sold very cheap for livestock feed. Just need a good strong pick-up to go get it and someplace to protect it from mice and moisture.
Do not discount the chickens are small rototillers. They help cultivate the top most topsoil so the seeds you scattered find loose enough dirt in which to germinate!! Talented little buggers (pun intended).
You're very smart man that's how you feed the world if you do that on a small scale it spreads all over the country you're teaching the right way!!!!
Love the phrase “Just Try Something”. Thanks for sharing. Lord’s Blessings,
Seth
I just tried something, I found your channel and liked this video, and subscribed. Wish all of life was this easy. Thank You, for the content and time you took for sharing. I loved you were just normal, I get tried of drama lures, and crazy music. Love to hear natures sounds, including roosters. Thanks Again, I'll check out the rest of your channel for sure.
Great video, @jeff. It's so cool to see once barren land being revitalized with something as simple as running some chickens through it. Keep up the great work!
Soil Kee in Australia have some very interesting info on pasture renovation crops and methods. The increase in their soil carbon, soil life (which aerates the soil, builds humus vital for water retention, and binding the soil with mucilage that greatly reduces topsoil loss, all whilst making soil nutrients bioavailable to plant roots without the need for fertilisers), water holding capacity (and thus drought resilience) is truly awesome.
They use mixed crop seed, just as this chap has, including things like a large long radish type that helps to create ground aerating divots that capture rain and keep it from running off the pasture.
Very much worth a look.
I saw a video from a farmer in Vermont who got compost donations from nearby restaurants and he just let the chickens roam on the compost eating was still edible as well as the bugs and worms from the compost pile.
Brilliant! We have been somewhat sustainable for 50 years. This year with the current shortages at the feed store we were thinking about seeding one of our pastures just like this for our chickens and geese. Its so great to see you've done this successfully. We are old and always learning.
Comfrey can be grown and chopped up and roofing’s separated to grow like crazy
Awesome! Just found you and subbed! My homestead was nothing but clay and rocks when I moved here.....started the deep litter method in my barn and harvest the compost annually....I would leave mounds of compost to break down naturally by time and chickens working on said mounds in the pasture.....I now have a lush pasture. Love your video! Thank you!🙏🏻
You are a chicken & pasture grass genius. Old ways brought back with modern systems thinking methodology. Love it! Subscribed
It's good to know that you can bring red dirt land back to life with chickens. I thought it was pretty much useless. Growing the grain is a great idea too. If you can keep from buying commercial feed all together that's awesome.
Great video--- I might add that doing this method will probably be safer with a chicken tractor ..Tall grass is how Ive lost most of my chickens by coyotes and eagles.. . Also, FYI,,,,,My brother once had a garden where he had a tiny chicken hutch in the middle until he planted corn. Where the hutch was ,, the corn grew at least a foot taller .
Love this! Just try something. I wish I would've done this when we first got the property. My favorite hobby is over thinking. 😒 There's no better way to learn than by doing. I have so much swampish land and clay but nothing will change just by shaking my head at it.
I overthink everything too. And then realize I never get anything done
Ain't that the truth!
Try adding beavers. They might reroute the watershed and give you some fertile ground you can use. (Might want to get some qualified consultants first...)
I struggle to build a good chicken tractor!!! And think on designs lol
Plant some trees😁
Exactly what I have been looking for! Thanks so much! Broadcast millet and sorghum for the first time ever and it grew so easily. Didn’t know it was so hardy.
Hi pretty
Thank you for sharing this.....I was actually hoping to do something like this myself.
We will not have a ton of money for feed when we live on our off grid property (no steady income)....I was hoping that I could feed my chickens naturally like you have done, this gives me hope.
You put into words (and results!) exactly what I was thinking of doing. Great stuff. Can't wait!
Bless all the incredible content creators out there sharing important ideas while showing proof those ideas work. Gratitude! This video is amazing for anyone with a homestead. I plan to try this. Inspiring! Subscribed. ❤️🙏🏼
WISDOM ! Thankyou for sharing !
A big thank you from Vancouver Island Canada! 🐔🐓
Just try something!
This video was very helpful! It answered the questions I've been trying to ask of homesteaders that make pasture super complicated. Many thanks!
I love the mantra of "just try something". I live in the desert SW and am working in various ways to get pasture to establish in the harsh drought environment we consistently live through. Thanks so much for this video 🤠👍
Wonderful! That's what our poor planet really needs - not artificial food, but chickens and other animals, as it always was before the agricultural revolution!
Loved your show. I was amazed at how nature on nature works. From lifeless
Bone acres to a lush paradise🙉!
UA-cam needs to have a love button! Thank you so much, that was so helpful! I now know what I need to do with our soil! We have an area of our property that would be perfect for this and I didn’t know how to transform the soil. I think we have the same soil as you. Thank you so much!
You did well on the video. You did well relaying your experience. I enjoyed your video and appreciate your time putting it together. I hope you and yours are well.
We are also in SC and I’ve been planning to try this. Found your video when I was researching and it really helped. Thanks!!
At 9:35 when he says, "There it is!".... His expression looks just like Jack Black!
New Subscriber....Love watching what other do in their gardens/homesteads
Grow out kunekunes or Gloustershire Old Spot pigs on that pasture...great heritage pork, without destroying the pasture. They forage well with the chickens and help deter chicken predators.
Natural corn may be diffcult as chicken feed, but still plant some corn, it attracts a lot of insects and when the plant dies it makes good mulch that attracts more insects.
It's nice to hear the boy crow. I miss that. Blessings.
Enjoy the laid-back style you used for your presentation some folks appear to make it more complicated than it really is.
I had this idea a few years ago and I'm thrilled to see someone do this and have success.
Nice to see the result, this definitely wouldn’t have happened without you over seeding. I’m sure that from an agronomy perspective that the nitrogen and phosphorus from the chicken manure played a major role in your results, additionally chickens scratching and incorporating your seeds into the soil gave you better germination. We are doing this with our 45 layer chickens this summer in a larger tractor, 30x15. I’m deliberately seeding the ground 2 weeks before the chickens start grazing
Great video on creating an ecosystem. Thinking about applying this in my country, Australia, I’d be really wary of snakes. They love grassy cover.
Great Idea Jeff. I hope to get a pasture to raise chickens on someday.
what a fascinating experience!! thank you for sharing your observations!! invaluable
Thank you for the video. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with a patch of land that is just dirt. I now have a plan!
Thank you for the quality information. My family is trying to go more organic and grow our food. Our pasture and the property around the house does not grow very well so I will be giving this a try. By the way, I love hearing the roosters in the video. 😉
Awesome video Jeff
Yup. Years back, for nearly 5 years I took on 40 acres with 3 dead pastures. We had just over 100 chickens, free range, and a couple horses. For the first year we fed them regularly. Year two they had conditioned the pastures in such a manner that we planted hey & alfalfa on one pasture, hay and clover on the other, one we left as tall grass for grazing. Never had to purchase feed for the horses following that, and with the exception of winter or during storms, drastically reduced the amount of feed going to the birds. From useless pasture to square bails folks stated were too heavy...lol
Thanks.Good luck.
Clover, first. If you have a tractor, churn the grown clover back into the soil while you sow your grain seeds. Birds do help germinate seeds; the digestive enzymes weaken the seed shell, allowing it to crack open and grow more easily. You could alternatively (or additionally) soak your seeds in some 1% solution of hydrogen peroxide for an hour, or put your seeds in the freezer as freezing and thawing them has the same effect.
I tried clover one year for the bees, nothing happened. Scattered amongst the grass. Dandilions won't grow either. Maybe the soil is too acid? There are alot of live oak trees.
sorry but this is bad advice. One of the soil health principles is Minimal Disturbance. And as if anyone should soak seed in chemicals or put them in the freezer! Seeds have no trouble germinating all on their own. Mother Nature doesnt need our help!
Thats brilliant. Thanks for sharing. We got a similar improvement using compost tea, a noticeable, wonderful improvement. We grazed the whole area with cows and sheep as well.
Awesome video. Thank you 🌻
Great ideas! Please keep videos coming🌱🌱🌱☀️
My local foxes love when my chickens go in the high stuff......
Learned quite a few things this morning! Thanks 🙏
Just found your channel via the black soldier fly video. Great content! Keep up the great work.
Some great ideas 😀 just came across your channel and I’m enjoying your videos!
Awesome discovery video. I too, have left a few acres 'go to seed' (I did not seed these acres). I just left them alone, no cutting. Free range our flock of Chickens, turkeys, ducks and geese during daylight hours. The next year these acres exploded with grasses 4 feet and higher. We have a lot of deer as well, so manure is everywhere. Going to get a few goats, and cattle next year and they will now have tons of fresh grasses n seeds to share with the flock.
Do not forget all the wonderful insects that supplement their diet as well while they free range or tractor range them. Proteins abound.
Undigested seeds pass through their tract and end up on the ground as fertilized seeds, that have a great start the following year. Woot, woot!
Thank you, Jeff.
God bless.
That intro was hilarious! This is my first video from you, it popped up in suggested. I’ll keep watching!
I planted bird seeds in a certain area. put rabbit fencing around it until it grew and then I pulled up the stakes and started somewhere else in my yard. I also started several sunflower patches around the property and when they got past the I will eat you phase I removed the fencing because they are great at keeping out bug's. I also had two separate worm bed's growing. I would take the board off for about a hour hour and let them have breakfast and since I crushed my egg shells and put my veggie peal's in them I had such delicious egg's.
Three minutes in and enjoying it. Good information. Like your history, current to plan ratio
Luv it! Thanks for sharing
Nothing to do with grains or hens but my your face lights up when you smile.
Loved the video of course .
Very well explained. Thank you
Your intro got a sub! Haha, I ilke your sense of humor. Chicken manure is the miracle of plant life. I don't know why people say it needs to be aged. It doesn't. I use it fresh and mix with potting soil for EVERYTHING I plant. Just don't use so much manure. All plants THRIVE on it.
Excellent video and great tip about the scratch grain we are in the same boat just dropped a ton of cash on seed.
Try spreading fertilizer 6o-80-80 Do this early spring time. Your grass yield will more then double ! Been down this road as a dairy farmer. My father had a 22 acre pasture. He treated it as a waste land. That was back in the 1970s. I asked him if we could spread fertilizer on it. He say no... its a waste of money ! So..I asked him if I would pay for the fertilizer if it was ok to put fertilizer on it. He said sure. Mid summer the grass was nearly 5 foot tall. Cut and baled the hay......and pastured the milk cows on it the remaining of the summer ( when it was not too hot for the cows ) More then doubled the profit !
Great video, thank you!
Very good and helpful video-this is something I really need to door bc our fields are just like you described yours USED to be. Thank you.
But you know, I find it amusing. that so many yt producers seem to be so self-conscious about their roosters crowing. It’s not as if he was standing right next to you. And you know, I don’t think I even noticed the crowing until you mentioned it. It’s just typical ambient homestead background sound. I wouldn’t give it another thought.
Thank you for the chicken videos!
God bless you even more
That intro was awesome funny! Lol!
Hello from a fellow south carolinian, I'm from over in Darlington county
Great video. Thanks.
Wow, this is gold!
Great information, thank you so much for sharing.🐓
I just moved my chicken tractor to the bad parts of my yard. In the parts of my yard that I have put chicken on it did truly change. So keep those chickens moving.
You heard of Allan Savory? He did a Ted Talk talking about using cows , and grass to turn deserts back into productive land. Video is on You Tube.
You had to break the surface the first time to plant. I have the same type of soil. Sprayed all the weeds. Tilled it up 3 weeks later as it rained and then planted. Sprouted
Well done. Great suggestion.
Just found your channel...and crazy youre from the upstate...im in Pickens and have been watching homestead channels for years and NEVER was once recommended your channel! Awesome videos!!
That’s awesome! I’m in Marietta.
This is very interesting, thanks. I am researching homesteading for myself now and your pasture is something i would really hope to emulate.
Great video! Two thumbs way up!
Thanks for the information. It is a great idea
Thanks to my townie neighbors insisting my hens be enclosed, I've ended up with a barren pen , a fortune spent on feed and rats eating more than the hens. I'm going to see if I can make a smaller pen that I can move around and buy whole grains then see if I can get a pasture like this going. Of course I'm sure my neighbors will then complain about the long grass!!
You do you. The neighbors should mind their own damn business
I was about to suggest a chicken tractor too. If the Joe Salatin tractors are too big for your yard, there are UA-cam tutorials on how to build a smaller chicken tractor for ~$100 with cattle fencing panels and wood. I have varying sizes that I use to rotate chickens, ducks, and turkeys
I take my weeds, cut grass and yard waste and throw it in my coup. The chickens eat some of that stuff also. They love chickweed, they eat the Japanese knotweed and other things. This stuff decomposing also brings up bugs and things.
Put a fence up to keep birds out of neighbors yarda
Who cares what your neighbors say or think?
Great video
I just had 10 acres of open pasture bush hog. I live in a suburb of Central North Carolina, land is 1 hour north. Having a hard time deciding to unplug, my life being here. Very possible choice to be made.
Really awesome video. Good looking birds too.. I’m definitely going to do this method on my land. Love the idea of not buying organic layer feed anymore lol
Ive never seen such a drastic and immediate a change in soil ecology and grass health as occurs after dense running poultry. + 1
Haha the rooster crowing I know how you feel I feel like every time I'm trying to listen to a good video mine starts crowing! Great information to know giving me some good ideas for my place and my chickens thank you so much!
One note about oats. Last year I did purchase a large bagged bale of 'horse bedding' that is oat hulls. Many viable seeds survived in the mix and grew in my vegetable patch as I used the oat hulls as a less expensive soil amendment and mulch. Right on the coast here, it's never really warm enough to grow most grains, or corn, millet or sorghum. But there is a widespread native weed that is closely related to quinoa, or perhaps I'm thinking of amaranth. In any case, thanks for the advice. I will be encouraging at least those weeds while I'm pulling, trying in vain to destroy the Veldt Grass during the rainy season and Spring. Only problem, we just have had so little rain. Practically non existent these last several years. Nevertheless, the Veldt grass is persistent as ever.
Really needed to know this onfo. Actually helps me . Thank you
Great video. Makes me want to move to a place where I can get some chickens :)
Chickens are the natural fertilizer on earth.
Just a cautionary tale about letting your hens eat long pieces of grass..
We had a hen that developed sour crop after being out on our lawn before it was cut the first time in spring. Not really tall grass.
She couldn't eat. I had to flush her crop every day and syringe feed her gruel and give her dulcolax. Finally 3 weeks later she pooped out a clump of long grass that looked about 8" long.
It isn't wise to let your hens feed on tall grass. Especially if they are pets. If you plan to cull them if they get sick I guess it wouldn't matter, but not if you want to keep them alive. My hen was lucky.
I really admire the way you worked to save that hen. I didn't know they could be saved. I had a hen die from gorging on dry spring grass after being let out off the coop after a long winter. Her crop was stuffed and couldn't empty.
@@bwaldners we had our good and bad days. Days I cried in exasperation as I felt like I was fighting a losing battle but she pulled through. My daughter and I cared for her. Cooked her some eggs, oatmeal, corn..whatever she would eat to put weight back on her.
I joined the Backyard Chicken forum. That is a wonderful place to get information on care and treatment for your hens. Someone there helped me save that hen, even though she only had another 2 years with us.
Good stuff dude thanks for sharing
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