Chicken Feed - Home Grown Sunflower and Millet!

www.edibleacres.org
This is the first season where we're trying to grow a portion of our chickens grain needs. Much more to learn, thinking through ways to harvest, cure and store grain at scale all need to be figured out, but we're super excited with how our first attempts are coming together!
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Edible Acres is a full service permaculture nursery located in the Finger Lakes area of NY state. We grow all layers of perennial food forest systems and provide super hardy, edible, useful, medicinal, easy to propagate, perennial plants for sale locally or for shipping around the country…
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Happy growing!

[@karendavis8764]

Isn't it just amazing how God created gardens to grow! Plant one tiny seed and get a huge return on your efforts, gotta love it!

[@womanofwazo]

My thoughts indeed

[@WideCutSawmill]

God is a bountiful creator.

[@treehouse7367]

I have seen some amish around here do a "sunflower braid"(like garlic) - they take off as much of the flower, greens and leaves as they can without compromising the head - leave about a foot of stem(?). Using 3 heads at a time, all facing outward - they bundle the stems with twine move up 6 inches add 3 more etc. - it seems space efficent and provides a lot of air flow.

[@lanekorbyn7723]

i dont mean to be so off topic but does any of you know a method to log back into an Instagram account?? I stupidly forgot my login password. I love any assistance you can offer me

[@lanekorbyn7723]

@Daniel Jack Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and im trying it out now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@lanekorbyn7723]

@Daniel Jack It did the trick and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thanks so much you saved my ass :D

[@danieljack9214]

@Lane Korbyn Happy to help =)

[@robine916]

@@danieljack9214 Interesting, both you and "Lane" joined YT a day apart,...this year...

[@Michael_McMillan]

I foresee many sunflower and millet volunteers in your garden next year! haha :-)

[@amykinnell2837]

Your attached greenhouse with the cats is a great idea. I tried to dry sunflowers in my shed and the mice had a field day.

[@tamarab5751]

I just throw them in a large cardboard box for a month or so in our supply closet inside. But we've never had mice.

[@kenyonbissett3512]

Lol, just what you need, a mouse house shed. You could catch, kill and feed them to your chickens. Chickens love protein. Free protein. Chicken happy dance!

[@catherinegrace2366]

Baking soda will rid you of the mice. I had a horrible problem with mice and rats. It took about a month of refreshing the baited feed with baking soda and now I just put baking soda on the floor where the mice use to run. They run through baking soda, they will absorb it. So much nicer! No mice or rats!

[@adamrummer5342]

It's wonderful to see a small part of the life you lead, you seem truly fulfilled with life and it's heartwarming

[@turiaturiana7529]

Sean you have such a calm, relaxed manner and voice. Ty for great info and amazing video

[@edibleacres]

So glad you enjoyed!

[@sparrowgarden1401]

We are putting our millet and sunflowers in pillow cases this year to prevent mice from getting to them. Even hanging from the rafters did not keep the mice away. Make sure your sunflowers are super dry hefore storing or they will mold. We also let overipe corn dry and use it for chicken feed. We use a bottle opener to scrape the kernels off.

[@kevinrudd1]

Mice and rats can easily chew through most bags, metal or glass are the only rodent proof containers I know of

[@ludicrousone8706]

Their is a garden channel here on KZbin were she buys cheap tulle by the yard and wraps her plat with it. She says most animals really don't like to touch it and it allows for a good airflow.

[@reneelalala7690]

Hey how did you get the sunflowers to dry without molding? Just the drying process was unsuccessful for me this year. I did in a dark shed with good airflow hung upsidedown. Thanks!

[@sparrowgarden1401]

@@reneelalala7690 I rub off the flower parts on the seeds, I also wait to harvest them til they are drying out on the stalk. At the first sign of birds getting them, is when I usually pick them. But we do have very dry summers, with no rain and low humidity. I find drying them outside helps. But we have to protect them from creatures eating them. They do mold, if they are not completely dried out.

[@juliosalas6907]

😅0

[@madelinepommier205]

Best part for sure is that chuckle at the end...

[@chuckzinda4820]

I think I'll plant sunflowers next year in my newly prepped garden bed. The birds will love them. Must get the Wizard of Oz look for my wife when she goes to harvest! 😊

[@rickbailey7183]

What a wonderfully harmonious way to farm!

[@Xxfades321xX]

Sean, I like to roast my sunflower seed and then use that roasted seed to cut my whole coffee beans as they go into the grinder, they add a good flavorful and nutty component to the coffee and sunflower yields a different yet seemingly longer lasting energy than caffeine

[@nymbeats]

that is a very cool practice.

[@edibleacres]

Great idea, we'll remember this during the winter!

[@Xxfades321xX]

@@edibleacres roasting for me usually means putting seed Into a cast iron skillet on the wood stove and simply stirring and watching it as it roasts over the coming hours-weeks depending on temps and how much were using the wood stove

[@keralee]

Do you roast them hulled still with shells? Am guessing hulled ?

[@tinuvianna]

@@keralee I don't know what their practice is but I bet you could roast them unhulled and grind them with coffee beans and just perk the seeds, hulls, beans and all. 🤷‍♀️ Try it each way?

[@jules-marcdavis6843]

Beautiful and well thought out video again. I find your voice very soothing which just makes my chicken watching that more pleasant. Yes I come to watch your chickens lol... One note, I finally had some goji berry bushes take and they flowered this year! It's fun to try even if I'm in a apt. and container gardening, I got zucchini and tomatoes and bunches of herbs, I'm satisfied

[@fallenangelwi25]

*** then the wild birds spread the seed and makes for next year's harvest ❤️

[@charlesnemec4280]

And spread disease

[@cattfishing]

We did this accidentally at first. We had a huge bag of feed for the chickens along with wild bird seed sitting out because I forgot about them and our lovely buck, fred escaped, and completely tired the bags apart, scratched at them digging for his favorite seeds and spread them all over.lol then while cleaning what I could up, the girls had a heyday grabbing handfuls to plant in their planter and around the small part of the land we use a "yard" with maybe less than 100sq ft of grass. Well, now its probably a few hundred sq ft of free feed that has been feeding our animals all thru the summer as treats and still have some to put away for the winter. We are now going to designate an area and continue to grow it ourselves to help supplement feed and use as treats. And hopefully one day become completely self sufficient. As feed is getting harder and harder to come by when its needed. And we can find hay for the life of us. Anywho. One day. As long as we keep working hard, I believe our day will come. You have been such a huge help and inspiration this year since I've found your channel. Thank you so much.

[@joydavis4087]

Thanks for this vid. It has given me some excellent ideas to help sustain my future chicken project. Thanks

[@courtneyheron1561]

Terrific! I love what you both are doing. Ideas I definitely wish to incorporate in my future growing operations! Love the bouquets of seeds. Thank you for your creativity, generosity and gentle sharing! I look forward to seeing more of what you do and come up with. Much appreciation and gratitude 🙏

[@gerardhoward1652]

Your videos are always so interesting… you’re always giving me ideas to implement around my home stead.

[@naturegirl2873]

Thank you for sharing your little piece of heaven with all of us!

[@janellelucido4444]

Thanks for leading by example. I’m doing similar next year. Love providing forag and activities form my chickens guineas and ducks

[@benjamindejonge3624]

Probably the best thing I’ve seen about keeping chickens, compliments

[@Angelbach1995]

I want to see how to press sunflower seeds for oil!

[@davidschmidt270]

Me too

[@Brisbanesdaddy]

@@davidschmidt270 I bought a Piteba oil expeller. Its the way to go to create oil from sunflower seed, also other nuts and seeds. Angela Baumbach, Edibleacres

[@rosea830]

Looks like a great way to dry them out. I would mention that we grew Black oil sunflowers next to Mammoth sunflowers and the Mammoths don't seem to attract the gold finches as much if at all. They grew well in a berm I made to stop fall flood waters from getting to the house, no fertilizer or soil amendment.

[@bradspaugh9827]

Your garden looks amazing. Its so green and lush.

[@russelltheone6969]

I love growing sunflowers. Millet is easy to grow and one can always replant the seed next year.

[@LcChubby123]

Excellent work Stanley

[@threegoodeyes7400]

Thanks for the ideas! I planted both sunflower and amaranth for their beauty and the bees love/d the sunflowers. I’ve a friend that just started keeping chickens and I’ve already told her I’m going to save the seed heads for her to give her chickens some snacks. I didn’t even think about trying to save the amaranth. I bet they’d enjoy that too. Now I have to figure out when to harvest those. Thanks!

[@threegoodeyes7400]

I’m not sure how important it is for storing long-term, but I saw elsewhere that you should remove the spent tiny flowers before hanging to dry. Maybe it helps expose the seeds and won’t remain as damp if/when they get rained on, perhaps prevent premature molding?

[@ludicrousone8706]

The chicken will enjoy unripe or not as ripe amaranth as well. Just cut it when it's convenient to you.

[@NS-pf2zc]

I'm going to have to try this next year. The few sunflowers I had that survived the deer I've been trying to harvest.

[@CliffsidePermaculture]

These are really beautiful, in addition to being so functional, very nice video, I really enjoyed watching.

[@ColossalSwordFormAndTechnique]

Never mind. I already bought some. Will plant and water them once a week lightly in a poked water bottle ☝️

[@ednaofeliasabile5737]

The sunflowers looks beautiful hanging like that

[@johoney5458]

this is exactly the topics I am interested in, and many more. ty very much.

[@lunabeta3516]

The whole video is great for me. Thank you

[@samuelmjlfjell]

Great Video very helpful to me. My sunflowers I put quarter inch hardware cloth to protect them from the squirrels. I also put Crisco and pepper on the stems of the tallest sunflowers to protect some of them from the squirrels. I get about 10 seed heads .

[@farmerjones5479]

The eggs will be amazing! The oils and nutrients are phenomenal.

[@edibleacres]

It's always lovely to remember all this niceness we're trying to bring our hens comes back to us in short order.

[@carlclark1036]

Thanks for sharing this good info!

[@blancadejesus9464]

Loving the chickens♥️

[@antiowarr9467]

I always wait for a relaxing time to view ur videos. You guy are awesome..... thx....

[@edibleacres]

Our pleasure!

[@nicholasnapier2684]

You've been teaching very well you're doing a great great work..our Creator would have wanted this is why you are doing this I don't know how I missed this video.. but it's very good!! I try to convince a lot of my friends live this way because in the countryside it has sustainability in the city you don't have much sustainability meant to be built up and goes out like that you go to other countries don't do that what we do here....costarica good example...

[@familyfungi]

So wonderful and creative. Really love the idea to use a sack of store-bought black oil sun flower seeds.

[@edibleacres]

We had the seed so why not, but I'm sure there are more interesting types to work with

[@familyfungi]

@@edibleacres I'm a big fan of use what you have. We love seeing what y'all implement. We found rose-eyed mallow (we're in zone 8) and harvested some seed to sow in late fall. Seeking hardy perennials in our area. Are you familiar with the grand solar minimum? If so, thoughts?

[@jonrev5630]

Very loved and happy chickens. Inspiring ideas thanks

[@edibleacres]

My pleasure 😊

[@chickenlaynehomestead94]

I love this video. It gave us great ideas for our home garden.

[@edibleacres]

So glad!

[@zubaidasmith4551]

oh gosh millet! That would be a hard one to share...LOL Love it so much!!!! I make my sushi and my grape leaves with it. Yummy!

[@Thee-_-Outlier]

You're an impressive observer of nature my friend, and you have a funny way with words as a bonus

[@edibleacres]

:)

[@BoldlyGrowHomestead]

Beautiful sunflower harvest! I had about a 1/2 dozen or so Mongolian Giant Sunflowers grow this year. No chickens sadly but I am in the process of harvesting the seeds for our own eating or replanting next year!

[@edibleacres]

We need to grow out larger headed types for next year I think.

[@jeffskinner1226]

I used to have Cockatiels and whenever they got a fresh dish of seed mix they'd always go through and eat all the sunflower seeds from it first.

[@edibleacres]

They love sunflower. Very high value food for them.

[@f_youtubecensorshipf_nazis]

sunflower sprouts add a nice nutty flavor to salads My dad couldn't eat seeds but always missed the flavor so we tried sprouts and he got to have those flavors back, was cool figuring that out.

[@edibleacres]

That is really nice.

[@jackhighwood2160]

Your chicken vids are the best.

[@edibleacres]

Glad you like them!

[@PeytonWind]

Hmm, at 0:44 it looks like somebody's wearing stockings and slippers similar to the "witch of the east," in the Wizard of Oz. ^ ^ You're so right about the massive return to be harvested from planting one seed and harvesting a seedhead.

[@longarmsupplies]

Keep planting those sunflowers! Their pollen has medicinal benefits for the guts in bees...

[@edibleacres]

Thats great to know!

[@barrypetejr5655]

The birds are already having a field day north of u on our sun flowers.....do to the large amount of produce from my garden spot always lots of free food that is so luvd by our chickens. Actually have millet growing where the bird feeders were last winter.

[@kevinbane3588]

Great Video!

[@johnpino4837]

I have fence wire over my chicken run. In the fall I just through the sunflower seed heads on it. Many of the seeds fall out on their own but I also occasionally hit them with a stick to thresh them on to the ground.

[@NarrowPathDiaries]

Love this, I’m gonna try sunflowers next year! Have you thought about or have you grown any alfalfa for the chickens? On an unrelated note, love your hair! And the candid moment with your wife was adorable :)

[@nicholasnapier2684]

My grandparents used to put them in paper bags on the ceiling on the back porch to keep mice out of them...

[@edibleacres]

Neat!

[@juliamarple3785]

Great ideas.

[@williamwilliams7706]

Interesting ideas.

[@aron8949]

Amazing!

[@levoiliernippon]

very lovely

[@wildedibles819]

We well the chippys helped us plant sunflowers lol the chippys and rabbits are enjoying them now Happy harvest im very tired but trying to push on Much love xoxox

[@edibleacres]

Chipsters are really involved in both directions of planting and eating what grows here. They somehow seem to eat much more than they plant! The rate they eat our strawberries they are eating the equivalent of 10,000 pounds in ratio to their body weight!

[@wildedibles819]

@@edibleacres lol where they putting them all lol We don't have it too bad here further up north we have red squirrel and they tend to eat more wild food i think? Ive heard lots of storys but ours are not too bad Since i started feeding our rabbits sunflower seeds and oats lol they are going under and around the pens to clean up what the rabbits spill lol Happy harvest much love xoxox

[@user-us5ox6py2z]

No you are drying them the right way keep up the good good man keep up the good work someone has taught you very well Soldier good job

[@edibleacres]

Glad you think so :)

[@patrapper7367]

Last year I tried drying sunflower seeds in the garage that is not heated but they still seem to turn up moldy on some of them maybe they need to hang in the field longer I don't know

[@FindingHappinessInAllYouDo]

This is awesome I made a millet vegan meat loaf that's some good stuff and I eat butternut daily good video new sub

[@karenbuckner1959]

Your vegan loaf sounds good. Care to share the recipe?

[@bbtruth2161]

A added bonus is the sunflowers and millet can be good for your soil.

[@dailynature3712]

really nice

[@CharlesGann1]

Gotta love Stanley

[@victoriajohnson3034]

I would wrap hanging sunflowers with a mesh screen to catch any that drop as they dry

[@LWeideman1]

Chicken heaven!

[@elkhound25]

super nice harvest. it would be interesting to see how much oil could be pressed from that sunflower plot if totally harvested.cant wait to see the corn harvest.

[@edibleacres]

I suspect a fair bit of oil from that field if we really went for it.

[@tamarab5751]

You may get new, smaller sunflowers on the stalks you left standing. I always do.

[@edibleacres]

I bet. We're aiming towards fall/frost soon but that's fine.

[@RagbagMcShag]

I love when it's time to harvest pumpkins we are having pumpking chili or soup atleast twice a week now :) Also can't wait to turn some of them into lovely jelly

[@johnduffy6546]

Chooks are amazing

[@edibleacres]

Thanks!

[@rosehavenfarm2969]

i grew some of those black seeded sunflowers (like you, from the chicken seeds) in our new hoophouse, half as a joke, to "see what happens." HUGE. The girls LOVED picking at the heads. We have plans to grow a lot more next year. we just need to find a way to protect the seedlings from the deer out in the field. no, there are not enough hours in the day, but we persevere, right? cheers!

[@edibleacres]

Just keep trying and expanding each year, and things seem to work out more and more!

[@marvona3531]

Thanks for sharing👍🦋👍🦋👍🦋

[@MsLeanne68]

Hi there! Love your vids ❤️ We’re from Qld Australia and am a lil annoyed that out of all of the sunflower seeds I planted, only 2 have survived 🤷‍♀️

[@benneb663]

i can dig it. jah bless!

[@nicholasnapier2684]

sunflowers I grow different varieties here in Florida pick it up when I feed my chickens I buy by the bag but now that I see that I can grow them that's why I started doing it cuz if I even do it more now I think it's important each other people

[@edibleacres]

They are beautiful to grow for sure.

[@ericolsen7687]

Sean rub the flowers off of the sunflower seeds so the heads dry faster and are less likley to mold.

[@edibleacres]

Thank you, I can do that later today... Good tip.

[@allonesame6467]

Great treats for the girls and you! Question! What is the pink blooming shrub mid frame at 5:40? It's beautiful. Love what you guys do! Blessings Abound!

[@edibleacres]

That's actually a goji berry!

[@nelslindberg765]

Stanley is so cute.

[@edibleacres]

He's a joy

[@frederickheard2022]

Is the rope on the greenhouse post a scratcher for Stanley?

[@sean-or1nc]

Looks like your gonna have to build a drying shed specifically for next year.

[@edibleacres]

I think we'll need more infrastructure to process the scale of food we're growing now. Good problems to have.

[@hughezzell10000]

i wonder how a crop of winter wheat at the sunflower/millet location would do. Perhaps there are two crops to be had there each year.

[@Brisbanesdaddy]

I see that you have some squash on trays in your greenhouse. Are you curing them? If so, what kinds need cured and for home long? In the sun? in the shade? Thank you so much!

[@chriscoody9922]

I used to be a raptor biologist and what we do is run some survey cord at about eight feet and tie some aluminum pans on it. It is a little trashy looking but it really seems to mess with a raptors mind from two perspectives, 1) the twisting aluminum startles them and 2) as a falconer I can attest to this personally, it is dangerous for them to fly around wires.

[@lindawisner3525]

Rodents probably enjoying too

[@amritaamazon3692]

Thank you for this video! At what point did you pick the sunflowers? We’re they still looking fresh or had they dried out quite a bit?

[@edibleacres]

Kind of a mix. Some were further along some more fresh. The birds were taking many so we harvested before they were all gone.

[@peterwhelan6144]

Great presentation thank . Congratulations on your wonderful speaking voice - I would suggest that if you ever needed to , an audio job would just fall into your lap . God Bless your family and farm.

[@edibleacres]

Very kind of you thank you!

[@LolitasGarden]

Squirrels get my sunflower heads before I can use them as winter feed. Good luck.

[@edibleacres]

I think the key is to have a larger scale of planting so a lot can be lost and you still have some for your hopes

[@hogue3666]

That's an awesome idea. I don't have a lot of experience with any of this, but I'm curious to know what your thoughts are over doing sunflowers over field corn. With the amount of Labor that you've done you may as well throw some corn through a grinder. Potato potaato?

[@edibleacres]

Probably could have been more efficient in many ways with this project, but its all about learning.. .I suspect amaranth will be quite worth our while this season

[@jimmyhvy2277]

So Much Virtue Signalling , OMG !

[@lindakurtz2653]

Just curious 'cause I love how your mind works....What are the tree stump sections along the fenceline?

[@ludicrousone8706]

He keeps them to allow worms to collect under them and than pushes one or two over to give the hens an extra treat.

[@edibleacres]

Yep, makes habitat for little creatures the chickens can eat later, and protects the currant and poplar cuttings I stuck there this spring from being dug up by the hens scratching. Very low tech but pretty functional.

[@ironleatherwood1357]

👍

[@BrendaRuhl-dj2qd]

Beautiful You don’t have any weasel, possum or raccoons?

[@edibleacres]

They're around I think but haven't been too much trouble

[@chrishayes4023]

That's nearly a 1000/1 ROI! Nothing gives that, even crack😂

[@edibleacres]

Homegrown sunflower, "even better than crack"

[@mideallen202]

Do you get a mice problem doing this system?

[@kennethflynn2469]

Hang upside down in rafters keeps them from getting moldy

[@edibleacres]

Good t know!

[@revolutionfarm1232]

Stanley!

[@yoopermann7942]

the only diffrences i see that deal with the sun flowers is the number of flower "heads" you put in a bundle, as ror millet i never grew that before so i can not comment on that, my problems with drying sun flowers are chip munks, squriels, and mice, no matter what i do them fury little buggers seem to get to the sun flower heads,, great looking flock of hens

[@ludicrousone8706]

Maybe try to wrap some in tulle

[@reneelalala7690]

Hey tips for easily getting the seeds off the heads once they are cured?? takes FOREVER!

[@edibleacres]

We aren't there yet, so not quite sure... Someday we hope to be at this level: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnSZfqd3lNGXh6s :)

[@suzette1875]

Are you preserving any seeds for planting?

[@edibleacres]

We try to save a wide range of seed for planting

[@klee88029]

Do they eat the outer shells of the millet and sunflowers?

[@edibleacres]

Yes