Chicken Food Tower

[3KillerBs]

so if the tower is a good way of growing it, I'd definitely do something like this on my property.

I'm watching this thread out of interest, but I've had no luck with any form of raised/tower garden structure given my climate and the nature of my soil.

I CANNOT keep them growing when it's hot and dry -- even watering morning and night.

But in less heat or with more rain it out to work (I let squash and potatoes grow in my cold compost piles in New England).

 

[Krugerrand]

Yes, but you might not want them eat the raw beans. I will make totally 8 of them, and besides what I already planted, i might add some grapes and berries too.

yes ... I was being selfish!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm watching this thread out of interest, but I've had no luck with any form of raised/tower garden structure given my climate and the nature of my soil.

I CANNOT keep them growing when it's hot and dry -- even watering morning and night.

But in less heat or with more rain it out to work (I let squash and potatoes grow in my cold compost piles in New England).

Yeah, I'm staring at that, thinking I've got all this leaf litter and goat droppings - and that its rained almost every day for the past two weeks, usually 1/2" a day... If it works, I'd set one on top of a bare clay spot, and let it go. Less work than breaking up the clay and tilling spent bedding, leaf litter, and goat droppings in.

"Smarter, not harder", aka why "Lazy" has led to all sorts of advancements.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Following.

I suspect some of those seeds (corn, for instance) won't do well in that structure or might crowd others out, but definitely curious as to how it works out. The coriander/cilantro should do well on top, the brassicas will be hit or miss in my experience - but definitely interested in the climbing/trailing options. Oh, if you can get it cheap, would you try fenugreek??? In appearance, it looks a lot like coriander as it grows, but its one of the few good plant sources for lysine, so if the tower is a good way of growing it, I'd definitely do something like this on my property.

I have many veggies and flowers seeds (some are really too much and some have poor performance like purple color radishes), no matter what reasons I put them in this chicken food tower jar, they are seeds we have no or little love.

So, it's a perfect trial. I don't think corn can do well in this kind of vertical planter, but most of the leafy greens, herbs, strawberry, edible flowers should be fully ok. The seeds should get wherever they can find the light then grow out. I saw many people growing potatoes from the more traditional compost bins, but potato leaves or potatoes are not suitable for chickens. Anyway, i do have good feeling that this method should more or less useful.

The worst situation is, they are just compost bin that support a Hang-out places for my hens in rainy days. Anything more than this is a bonus

 

[N F C]

@Phaedra Geiermann I'm going to follow along with your thread to see how this works out for you; it's an interesting idea.

Whenever I buy a packet of seeds, I always end up with more than I can use so this could be something for me to try in the future!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I'm watching this thread out of interest, but I've had no luck with any form of raised/tower garden structure given my climate and the nature of my soil.

I CANNOT keep them growing when it's hot and dry -- even watering morning and night.

But in less heat or with more rain it out to work (I let squash and potatoes grow in my cold compost piles in New England).

Yeah, when it's hot and dry, it might not work very well as such open compost bin can't hold the moisture, especially in the beginning when there is nothing growing to cover the outer surface.

We have quite decent rain recently (and coming weeks, too), I am also trying to set up something simple to collect rain water from both coops. I wish these two areas I chose for chickens can gradually become self-sufficient, food, water, fun

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Forget to say, this method should also do well for "recycled vegetables" - carrot tops, onion bottom (including salat onion and onion) -they can stay 2 weeks in the water, when the roots re-grow, then can be inserted to the tower.

I would absolutely try chives as well. I love chives so much and they come back every spring, then flower lovely in early summer. Last year I cut the dried flower stems and directly burried them into soil, guess what, this year I have more successfully growing everywhere.

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I would like to share with you about my wild flower patch, which is an important element of this idea. To attract more pollinators, I bought some mixed flowers seeds last year, but the performance was bad because, directly sawing them to the ground is almost a gamble, even I did that during rainy day.

This year I thought about the seed bomb idea, so I mixed the seeds with compost first

and applied a 5cm layer directly on the ground

covered with whatever chicken scratched and their poo as an insulation layer (from low temperature in early spring, said March, and birds), also keeps the moisture as possible.

It worked. Compared with what I did last year, this year so many successfully germinated.

And they grow well. The first wave is in fact the Brassica campestris with yellow flowers, those purple flowers are the second wave - Phacelia (phacelia, scorpionweed, heliotrope)

Then I tried few more patches, these two are slower planted, so Brassica campestris are still blossoming when I took the photos.

Now is the third wave flowers coming for the wild flower patches - sun flowers, borage/star flowers, to give them proper space to grow, I pulled all the Brassica campestris (yellow flower ones) and gave them to the chickens for food+fun.

Therefore, I am really excited about the idea to make it vertical

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

In fact I was reading the article about the best treats for chicken, and suddenly an idea came into my mind. I have bought such hardware cloth (not sure if it is called so in English) originally for making a simple support between raised beds for beans and cucumbers. But, anyway it ends up with such a wire compost bin, but quite high, 1.2m.

I cleaned the run and put the mixture of soil, poo, whatever they scratched and left on the ground together, added the grass seeds then piled them up.

View attachment 2752777
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mixed grass seeds with whatever they scratched and left before adding them in the compost tower
View attachment 2752779

Then, well, i have really a lot of vegetable seeds, i means, why not push this idea a bit further?
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radish, coriander, different kind of brassica family veggies, carrots, herbs...
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pea - they should not directly eat raw beans, i know, but the leaves and flowers, tendrils will be nice! (i can accept only pea pods left for us, haha)
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Well, can't wait to keep developing this idea forward!
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Did anyone try similar ideas? It would be great for hearing your experience. I believe it can provide them both food and fun

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THIS! How awesome! I can't wait to see how it goes! Such a GREAT idea!!!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

Following.

I suspect some of those seeds (corn, for instance) won't do well in that structure or might crowd others out, but definitely curious as to how it works out. The coriander/cilantro should do well on top, the brassicas will be hit or miss in my experience - but definitely interested in the climbing/trailing options. Oh, if you can get it cheap, would you try fenugreek??? In appearance, it looks a lot like coriander as it grows, but its one of the few good plant sources for lysine, so if the tower is a good way of growing it, I'd definitely do something like this on my property.

We can try together so more exciting things will happen