Feeding silage to laying hens
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Kent Jisha
Oct 25, 2009, 11:00:26 AM10/25/09
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Does anyone have experience in feeding silage to laying hens? We have about 6000 hens on pasture in NE Texas and are in between grazing seasons. I also have a dairy and started to feed Iron and Clay pea silage to the hens. (Iron and Clay is a variety of summer legume in the class of Cow Peas) They seem to really like it and ate everything including the stems. I know chickens are not ruminants and I wonder how they will do on the silage. Will this affect taste and color? Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Kent
Thanks,
Kent
Chris Squires
Oct 25, 2009, 4:47:32 PM10/25/09
to grass-f...@googlegroups.com
I'm replying to Kent, who may know more about silage than I do, as well
as explaining what this stuff is to anybody else who wants to know.
Bear with me and read along.
I feed silage -- or "baleage" as we call it here -- to my sheep. The
high-quality grass/legume mix hay is harvested a little damp and wrapped
in air-tight plastic wrappers -- so you get a big 800 lb block of
plastic-wrapped stuff. (actually, the hay in these sizes is 800 lbs,
the baleage, with more moisture in it, is closer to 1600 lbs per bale).
With sufficient moisture, it ferments and becomes "baleage" -- baled
silage. It is just "sauerkraut" made out of forages. I take off the
wrapper in winter and cut the strings and unwind them, and there sits a
steaming warm, moist, fragrant pile of fermented hay. It is convenient
to feed to livestock in winter in deep snow in the feed lots because
then they don't need water with it (well, sheep don't, in my climate --
they are pregnant in the winter and tend to have twins and triplets in
the spring, which suggests that they thrive on this stuff).
The chickens go in among the sheep -- some will come out of a nice warm
barn and travel some distance over the snow to get to it. I
believe the farmer I buy it from goes for a 16% protein mix for hay --
some of that is made into baleage. Baleage will have a lot more
moisture left in it, though. This is called "dairy quality" hay or
silage here, which would support a cow in milk -- just barely. One
thing we have in Upstate NY is lots of grass and forage, so we try to
utilize it before grains and stuff.
My chickens won't eat the stems (heck, the sheep won't eat some of the
stems -- that becomes bedding and later, compost for my garden in the
summer). The chickens do enjoy picking through for fermented leaves and
seeds. Then again, our forage is different from that in Texas -- has a
lot of grass of various sorts in it.
I would not confine my chickens out there with the baleage in my set-up
-- I have kept them in the barn with heated water dishes and the baleage
is way out in another paddock area -- but they do eat some. Of course,
I only have a few dozen chickens at any one time, and I let them range
pretty much everywhere -- if they want to trek out there in the snow
with 9 ft drifts just to eat silage, I don't object (just so they come
home to lay). I would suggest you try some silage or baleage and see
how it goes for you.
One caution - if the stuff is not made properly, or stored properly, all
sorts of nasty things can grow. One is Listeriosis -- from a bacteria
that is in the soil everywhere and normally is killed by the anaerobic
fermentation, but can grow if there are holes in the wrappers or if it
wasn't baled with enough moisture to start fermentation properly. The
farmer I buy from is an expert -- he knows just when the hay is ready
and not too dry, and how to do it right. Our climate, near the Great
Lakes, is very moist and this is actually a more efficient way to store
forage when we are having too much rain and they can't get enough sunny
days to make high-quality hays. Some of the molds that can grow in
silage or in a silo, are OK for livestock to eat, and some are
toxic. The fermentation is a natural process -- by putting
everything together at the right time in the right condition, it happens
naturally and nothing is added to the forage -- it just ferments when it
is treated just right. Some people may add something in other regions
of the country or world -- we don't have to because this is a method
that works in our climate and conditions.
We have moderately-to-severely cold winters with periods of warmth
in-between. Usually the silage, once opened, is eaten up pretty fast.
I make sure I do not put out too much at a time. I watch the
weather. You do not want moist silage sitting around uneaten in warm
weather. I do not feed silage in warmer weather because there is the
risk that it may start to rot with unhealthy fungi, molds and bacteria
and cause problems. As in massive deaths of your livestock. Can be
treated with antibiotics, but you will surely lose some of your flock if
something goes wrong.
I would not tell you NOT to use baleage - there are risks with anything
we do -- you could slip in the bathtub, your chickens could cross the
road -- we all have risks in our lives. It is good to understand that
baleage has to be managed properly to remain a nutritious, healthy
food. That's all.
Ask your dairy cow extension agents in your region how they handle the
silage and what to look out for before going into it on a large scale.
To Kent - hope I have't bored you with stuff you already know. OK --
try it and see how it works, but chickens will not eat everything, which
means that there will be some waste and spoilage, and you have to watch
for ill-effects. Do test-feed it to some of your chickens -- see for
yourself. It is worth a try. I have been very pleased with it and
have worked it into my homestead for the larger livestock -- and the
chickens do seem to like it. It probably keeps their eggs bright and
golden even in winter (unless those hens are eating mice in the barn,
too and that makes the difference! HA!). :)
Your mileage may vary. ;)
Chris
Little Biddy Farm (Upstate NY)
--
"Humankind cannot take too much reality."
T.S. Eliot
as explaining what this stuff is to anybody else who wants to know.
Bear with me and read along.
I feed silage -- or "baleage" as we call it here -- to my sheep. The
high-quality grass/legume mix hay is harvested a little damp and wrapped
in air-tight plastic wrappers -- so you get a big 800 lb block of
plastic-wrapped stuff. (actually, the hay in these sizes is 800 lbs,
the baleage, with more moisture in it, is closer to 1600 lbs per bale).
With sufficient moisture, it ferments and becomes "baleage" -- baled
silage. It is just "sauerkraut" made out of forages. I take off the
wrapper in winter and cut the strings and unwind them, and there sits a
steaming warm, moist, fragrant pile of fermented hay. It is convenient
to feed to livestock in winter in deep snow in the feed lots because
then they don't need water with it (well, sheep don't, in my climate --
they are pregnant in the winter and tend to have twins and triplets in
the spring, which suggests that they thrive on this stuff).
The chickens go in among the sheep -- some will come out of a nice warm
barn and travel some distance over the snow to get to it. I
believe the farmer I buy it from goes for a 16% protein mix for hay --
some of that is made into baleage. Baleage will have a lot more
moisture left in it, though. This is called "dairy quality" hay or
silage here, which would support a cow in milk -- just barely. One
thing we have in Upstate NY is lots of grass and forage, so we try to
utilize it before grains and stuff.
My chickens won't eat the stems (heck, the sheep won't eat some of the
stems -- that becomes bedding and later, compost for my garden in the
summer). The chickens do enjoy picking through for fermented leaves and
seeds. Then again, our forage is different from that in Texas -- has a
lot of grass of various sorts in it.
I would not confine my chickens out there with the baleage in my set-up
-- I have kept them in the barn with heated water dishes and the baleage
is way out in another paddock area -- but they do eat some. Of course,
I only have a few dozen chickens at any one time, and I let them range
pretty much everywhere -- if they want to trek out there in the snow
with 9 ft drifts just to eat silage, I don't object (just so they come
home to lay). I would suggest you try some silage or baleage and see
how it goes for you.
One caution - if the stuff is not made properly, or stored properly, all
sorts of nasty things can grow. One is Listeriosis -- from a bacteria
that is in the soil everywhere and normally is killed by the anaerobic
fermentation, but can grow if there are holes in the wrappers or if it
wasn't baled with enough moisture to start fermentation properly. The
farmer I buy from is an expert -- he knows just when the hay is ready
and not too dry, and how to do it right. Our climate, near the Great
Lakes, is very moist and this is actually a more efficient way to store
forage when we are having too much rain and they can't get enough sunny
days to make high-quality hays. Some of the molds that can grow in
silage or in a silo, are OK for livestock to eat, and some are
toxic. The fermentation is a natural process -- by putting
everything together at the right time in the right condition, it happens
naturally and nothing is added to the forage -- it just ferments when it
is treated just right. Some people may add something in other regions
of the country or world -- we don't have to because this is a method
that works in our climate and conditions.
We have moderately-to-severely cold winters with periods of warmth
in-between. Usually the silage, once opened, is eaten up pretty fast.
I make sure I do not put out too much at a time. I watch the
weather. You do not want moist silage sitting around uneaten in warm
weather. I do not feed silage in warmer weather because there is the
risk that it may start to rot with unhealthy fungi, molds and bacteria
and cause problems. As in massive deaths of your livestock. Can be
treated with antibiotics, but you will surely lose some of your flock if
something goes wrong.
I would not tell you NOT to use baleage - there are risks with anything
we do -- you could slip in the bathtub, your chickens could cross the
road -- we all have risks in our lives. It is good to understand that
baleage has to be managed properly to remain a nutritious, healthy
food. That's all.
Ask your dairy cow extension agents in your region how they handle the
silage and what to look out for before going into it on a large scale.
To Kent - hope I have't bored you with stuff you already know. OK --
try it and see how it works, but chickens will not eat everything, which
means that there will be some waste and spoilage, and you have to watch
for ill-effects. Do test-feed it to some of your chickens -- see for
yourself. It is worth a try. I have been very pleased with it and
have worked it into my homestead for the larger livestock -- and the
chickens do seem to like it. It probably keeps their eggs bright and
golden even in winter (unless those hens are eating mice in the barn,
too and that makes the difference! HA!). :)
Your mileage may vary. ;)
Chris
Little Biddy Farm (Upstate NY)
"Humankind cannot take too much reality."
T.S. Eliot
Robert Plamondon
Oct 25, 2009, 11:40:16 PM10/25/09
to Grass-Fed Eggs
I've reproduced the entry about silage from "Feeding Poultry" below.
"Feeding Poultry" (http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/
feeding_poultry.html) is one of the books I've republished largely
because of its chapter on green feed (though it has lots of other good
stuff as well). This edition was from 1955, back when people still
remembered all the small-farm techniques. As you will see, there was a
lot of research done about feeding silage to hens in the old days,
along with just about every other concept of interest to small-flock
poultrykeepers, which is why I find old poultry books and magazines to
be such gold mines:
"SILAGE is frequently suggested as a means of supplying green food.
Favorable results have been reported although frequently the value of
silage is overestimated.
"The West Virginia Station concluded that because of the beneficial
effect upon hatchability in the first test and upon egg production in
the second, it would seem that, when available, a small amount of corn
silage may be fed to laying hens in winter to advantage. On the other
hand, there have been some cases of digestive disturbance. They might
have been due to the fermentation. As a form of succulence, corn
silage has been used satisfactorily by some poultrymen by mising it in
the mash after boiling it.
"Grass silage of various types has been given considerable attention.
Payne and associates at the Kansas Station reported larger net returns
per bird when pullets were fed immature cereal grasses, both in fresh
and in ensiled forms. The feeding of oat grass silage resulted in the
production of olive-colored egg yolks, commonly classified as 'grass
eggs.' Darker yolk color was observed when heds were fed silage as
compared with fresh cereal grasses. Restricting the silage consumption
to 2 to 3 pounds daily per 100 hens and feeding a high quality of
silage eliminated grass eggs. There was no significant effect of
feeding silage on egg production.
"The Tennessee Station concluded that silage feeding as a supplement
to the regular rations was a desirable practice. The advantages of
silage feeding included greater zest for eating and higher daily feed
consumption, increase in weight over poultry not receiving such
silage, and better physical condition as determined by appearance,
vitality, weight production, egg production, and post-mortem
examinations.
"The New Jersey Station reported that grass silage fed at the rate of
4 pounds per 100 birds per day prevented the usual drop in
hatchability when alfalfa leaf meal and dried buttermilk were removed
from the ration. The use of grass silages as a substitute for milk and
alfalfa in chick rations up to a month of age was not fully
satisfactory because of the inability of the young chick to handle
such bulky material.
"Temperton and Dudley concluded that, in the feeding of grass silage
to laying pullets, the two chief difficulties encountered were in
cutting the grass sufficiently short and in getting the birds to eat
the silage in sufficient quantity to effect a material saving in mash.
"The West Virginia Station concluded that considering the labor
involved in making immature silage and the experimental evidence
showing little or no beneficial results from feeding the silage to
chicks in batteries, to growing pullets and layers confined to pens,
poultry rations can be supplemented more efficiently by other vitamin
carriers, especially for supplying riboflavin.
"[...] In the feeding of silage to mature birds the usual
recommendation is to feed 4 to 6 pounds to 100 hens daily. They
frequently will consumer much larger quantities, but this is usually
neither necessary nor desirable."
Robert Plamondon
http://www.plamondon.com
"Feeding Poultry" (http://www.nortoncreekpress.com/
feeding_poultry.html) is one of the books I've republished largely
because of its chapter on green feed (though it has lots of other good
stuff as well). This edition was from 1955, back when people still
remembered all the small-farm techniques. As you will see, there was a
lot of research done about feeding silage to hens in the old days,
along with just about every other concept of interest to small-flock
poultrykeepers, which is why I find old poultry books and magazines to
be such gold mines:
"SILAGE is frequently suggested as a means of supplying green food.
Favorable results have been reported although frequently the value of
silage is overestimated.
"The West Virginia Station concluded that because of the beneficial
effect upon hatchability in the first test and upon egg production in
the second, it would seem that, when available, a small amount of corn
silage may be fed to laying hens in winter to advantage. On the other
hand, there have been some cases of digestive disturbance. They might
have been due to the fermentation. As a form of succulence, corn
silage has been used satisfactorily by some poultrymen by mising it in
the mash after boiling it.
"Grass silage of various types has been given considerable attention.
Payne and associates at the Kansas Station reported larger net returns
per bird when pullets were fed immature cereal grasses, both in fresh
and in ensiled forms. The feeding of oat grass silage resulted in the
production of olive-colored egg yolks, commonly classified as 'grass
eggs.' Darker yolk color was observed when heds were fed silage as
compared with fresh cereal grasses. Restricting the silage consumption
to 2 to 3 pounds daily per 100 hens and feeding a high quality of
silage eliminated grass eggs. There was no significant effect of
feeding silage on egg production.
"The Tennessee Station concluded that silage feeding as a supplement
to the regular rations was a desirable practice. The advantages of
silage feeding included greater zest for eating and higher daily feed
consumption, increase in weight over poultry not receiving such
silage, and better physical condition as determined by appearance,
vitality, weight production, egg production, and post-mortem
examinations.
"The New Jersey Station reported that grass silage fed at the rate of
4 pounds per 100 birds per day prevented the usual drop in
hatchability when alfalfa leaf meal and dried buttermilk were removed
from the ration. The use of grass silages as a substitute for milk and
alfalfa in chick rations up to a month of age was not fully
satisfactory because of the inability of the young chick to handle
such bulky material.
"Temperton and Dudley concluded that, in the feeding of grass silage
to laying pullets, the two chief difficulties encountered were in
cutting the grass sufficiently short and in getting the birds to eat
the silage in sufficient quantity to effect a material saving in mash.
"The West Virginia Station concluded that considering the labor
involved in making immature silage and the experimental evidence
showing little or no beneficial results from feeding the silage to
chicks in batteries, to growing pullets and layers confined to pens,
poultry rations can be supplemented more efficiently by other vitamin
carriers, especially for supplying riboflavin.
"[...] In the feeding of silage to mature birds the usual
recommendation is to feed 4 to 6 pounds to 100 hens daily. They
frequently will consumer much larger quantities, but this is usually
neither necessary nor desirable."
Robert Plamondon
http://www.plamondon.com
ath...@atlantic.net
Oct 26, 2009, 8:46:30 AM10/26/09
to grass-f...@googlegroups.com
I have never ensiled it, but I have fed cowpeas (field peas) to my
birds many times over the years. Provided it wasn't too rank and
tough they ate it well and seemed to do well on it. Great yolk color.
birds many times over the years. Provided it wasn't too rank and
tough they ate it well and seemed to do well on it. Great yolk color.
.....Alan.
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