Spring greens

I spoke to my aunt in Vermont earlier in the week. She and my uncle, Lily's Godparents, are raising "meat birds" again this year. Two years ago when they did it the first time they specifically chose chickens that are not bred for meat because they had read that conventional meat birds (aka broilers) are not good foragers and have all kinds of diseases and health problems bred into them.

The experiment, though very tasty, proved not to be cost-effective as it took more than double the amount of time for them to grow to slaughter weight. So this year they have 60 baby broilers that they will soon put out on pasture, supplemented with organic grain, for eight weeks.

While we were talking she mentioned that her chicks, which are about a month younger than our's, have been devouring dandelion greens and worms that she brings out to them in the evening. She joked that it has become their nightly entertainment - much more entertaining than tv!

Hearing that got me thinking abour our chicks who are living in our barn eating mashed "grower" pellets made of soy and corn and I decided that I want to begin offering them greens, insects and worms and I also want to get our chicks outside into the sunlight where they can scratch for food they are biologically programed to eat as soon as possible.
 
For the last couple of days, Lily and I have enjoyed bring fresh salads (grass and weeds picked in the yard) to the chicks each evening and we are thrilled to observe that they too love their fresh greens!

The worm part of the feeding plan is going to be a little bit tricky as my daughter has recently devolped an affinity for worms and has been adding any that she finds to a container of soil on the back deck, which she created for her "pet worm", Squirmy.