You know the straps on a hay bale are great for holding down weeds so your chickens can pick the leaves off of all of them. From there you can give your rabbit the stems and she/he will gladly eat them up:)

Do any of you feed your chickens weeds and if so how do you feed the weeds to them? I notice when the chickens are able to take smaller bites they tend to eat all of the weeds. Only way mine have been able to take smaller bites is by me holding the weeds but this hay bale strap does the same thing

The hay bale straps are a great idea. Most of the time my hens like throwing the clump of grass or weed over their heads trying to keep it away from the others.

My sweet wife came up with this little idea and it works great! This allows them to eat the grasses and weeds easy:)

I was always told to be aware of feeding them "weeds" and grass( from the mower bags) because It can cause the grass to impact in their crop. If they free range, they tend to eat weeds/grass and dirt in the mixture as well "aka grit".... Now, I am not sure and I would LOVE some input on it because I would love to grow some clover just for that purpose....

With weeds I try and make sure I pulled them out route and all and I either hold it so they can eat the weeds fresh one piece at a time, or I use my hay bale straps to hold down the weeds. I think their crops can get impacted when they're eating too large of pieces of weeds or longer blades of grass. In nature the chickens can only eat weeds and grass by grazing one little piece at a time but if a mower cuts the grass and it's long there is really no way for the chicken to eat a tiny piece at a time:(

Basically the weeds in the grasses are anchored to the ground by roots and that makes it to where the chickens can only get a bite at a time:)

Does that make sense? I hope I explained that good enough! Ha ha ha!

Matt, I agree with you about the longer blades causing a impacted crop. That was my concern on the topic of feeding fodder. I am thinking if you feed them fodder with tall green shoots the crop could become impacted as well? I am new at raising chickens as well as fodder, lol

On my fodder, I just wait til the seeds sprout open and then let them get a "little" long. That way they are not eating long blades of "green".. And they enjoy the barley seeds as well.

Thanks Cindy,
I just want to make sure I don't create any problems for the hens. I am growing wheat right now but may try some other types of grains if I can locate them locally.

Awesome.. If you are keeping them in the coop, you might just try offering a side of some oyster shell or grit for that extra digestive and egg hardening factor.

Keep in mind that the fodder pad (once it is established) will weigh down the grass and they will be able to graze.

Maybe we need to make a little fodder feeder that we can put the fully grown fodder in with a screen the blades of grass can be grazed without the chickens being able to eat whole blades?

As they graze the tips we can push the grass up.

Thinking is hurting my brain!! Ha ha ha!

Matt