Those of you who live in really cold and snowy places how do you feed your geese and ducks in winter. Right now mine are turning their noses up at their feed most of the time in favor of anything green. Nothing green here in winter aside from expensive supermarket stuff.
Thanks!
MollyD
What do you do in winter?
When they get hungry, Molly, they will eat their feed, trust me!
Thanks Beth!
yes, they will. and you bierng up north, there are plenty of greens you can grow yourself, cold hardy types...
Unfortunately, with our cold and snow, there is no way we can grow greens here outside in the winter. Unless I wanted to grow them under lights, and that would be too expensive. But, I have grown grass for the cats on occasion.
GG
i bet MOlly could grow plenty in her greenhouse... search on motherearthnews.com for types
Oh, cool! Molly has a greenhouse!!!
I want one. I'm trying to see if I can possibly fit an inexpensive one into my budget.
I do but that space is earmarked for our business plants. There literally isn't room to add veggies there in the winter. I wish I had a bigger space though.
Beth I made mine from cattlepanels. There is a thread here on DG in the Greenhouse forum that explains how to do it. I'm no good at locating those old threads.
MollyD
hotbeds would be a cinch for you to make. Elliott Coleman has a book called Four SEason Harvest, where he grows food year round in Vermont or NY...
tf I don't know about his area but here hotbeds would be buried under several feet of snow most of the winter. Anything inside would be frozen solid. You can not grow anything out of doors here in the winter.
MollyD
Actually, old Elliott has really worked out a way of doing it--but he is sort of the obsessed Master of year-round gardening. I do know what you mean, though, Molly, I never imagined doing it when I lived in Victor. It involves mostly brassicas and other greens that are cold tolerant. I can't believe I never tried chickens either in Victor even though I had 5 acres. What an idiot!
I saw him on the Victory Garden once many years ago. I don't know how he does it but I'm not going to do it. I'd have to constantly be digging snow off the thing for any light to get through!
You know if you are holding down a job, raising kids etc it gets real hard to even think of adding things like chickens. I tried and it was a total disaster!!!
MollyD
Heh, Molly - that is why I waited until I could semi-retire and son is almost out of college!
Beth I'm retired (and tired!), both of my sons are now over 30 (remember when THAT was over the hill?!) so now I can have all the critters I want to baby here.
MollyD
Molly, don't you love it? Looks like we were both born in the same year - 1953, and my DH has really indulged me with this farm. Right now, I have 20 2 day old keets in their brooder in the garage along with 6 baby chicks, the Angora goats in the barn, our two horses standing in the front yard, and all the chickens and guineas I have free-ranging. Oh, and ducks. And dogs. And cats. It's heaven. My part-time job is trying to earn some money from the farmers market, my photography and pottery. I figure it will take awhile to make any money, but I'm having a great time trying!
I know that when any animal gets hungry enough, they will eat....about anything. We have had dogs and cats that turned their noses up at the cheap store brand food, and eventually they eat it like its the best thing they ever had. My DH works on a hog farm and they always have left over feed that he can get for free.....ALL of our critters love that, but then our free range hens turn their noses up to the laying mash.....when that is all that is offered though, they come back around to eating it. I haven't seen a group of any critter yet that would let themselves starve....well, except a baby turkey......when they are first born, if they can't find the food or water, they will starve literally to death.....yep, they are just not too awful bright....cute though!
Another thought....will ducks or geese eat dried grass? I was thinking that maybe, if your lawn is not chemically treated with anything, maybe you could gather up dried grass clippings, put them in a garbage bag or old feed sack and store them until winter comes. I'm not sure if they would eat it or not......in the middle of winter though, they are not so picky and it might work. If you did this though, you would have to make sure that the grass is dry before putting it up......you wouldn't want mold. Just an idea.......the cost is right too! Hope this helps some!
Christy
Christy our grass doesn't get that long to collect. In a plastic bag though grass would get moldy. I did leaves last year to use this spring in my garden. They were dry when they went into the bag but they had molded into a sodden mess over the winter. I can toss hay into their area. Some hay can be bought with green in it.
Beth I grow daylilies and sell those. Also will be selling some of the goats off over time. Won't break even but it helps.
MollyD
Oh, daylilies are so pretty. That's why you have a greenhouse!
Yes. I hybridize them. By growing them in the greenhouse over the winter I speed up the two year seed to bloom cycle we have in the north. I can see flowers in anywhere from 8 months to 16 months.
MollyD
Oh, that is very exciting, Molly.
It's fun Beth but a lot of work the year round. Right now all my critters are taking a huge chunk of time out of my day when it's critical that I work in the garden. I'll have to figure out something.
MollyD