Sounds dreamy! Certainly seems doable. Having a solid animal protein source through winter would seem to be prudent to me. I presume it will be cold and the worms will be less available in winter? What about other insects? Will you be hunting and fishing or raising beasts? If there is a way to have some animal protein and animal fat on hand, you would be ticking a lot of boxes like fat soluble vitamins, B12, lysine, methionine, etc.
My covey love dandelion greens, so that might be a cool addition that grows itself. Haha. Is growing lentils an option? They are quite performant on the protein and micronutrients front. Peas come in at second best too. You might even get away with these as the major protein source for winter as the hens will stop laying for a while. But then if you do do that, you will need to be mindful of fat. You could send sunflower seeds at them I suppose, but that is a lot of polyunsaturated fat, too much for my liking. But it could get you through winter. As long as you are hitting 4–5% fat, and 16–24% protein (higher end if plant-based) then they should be groovy in winter.
You could also think about plants that are accumulators of iodine. Quail need iodine and salt . . . Salt source?
If they are getting sun, they should be sweet on the D3 front.
You will want to think about calcium too. I am blessed to have tiny snail shells everywhere here. And cuttle bone within walking distance. They will need a little extra on top of their egg shells and whatever they can get from greens.
So yeah, high calcium greens that accumulate iodine but that are not high in oxalic acid would be useful!
Perhaps you could tick a couple of boxes at once by rearing insects with calcium-rich shells.
Recovering Academic
npub1w9…wekxt
2025-03-21 21:23:29
in reply to nevent1q…c2jp
Author Public Key
npub1w9wz0y54ke29f3ryk7zs84s4fttkj7agy3sv2mv2gt44mgg7d39sewekxtPublished at
2025-03-21 21:23:29Event JSON
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"content": "Sounds dreamy! Certainly seems doable. Having a solid animal protein source through winter would seem to be prudent to me. I presume it will be cold and the worms will be less available in winter? What about other insects? Will you be hunting and fishing or raising beasts? If there is a way to have some animal protein and animal fat on hand, you would be ticking a lot of boxes like fat soluble vitamins, B12, lysine, methionine, etc. \n\nMy covey love dandelion greens, so that might be a cool addition that grows itself. Haha. Is growing lentils an option? They are quite performant on the protein and micronutrients front. Peas come in at second best too. You might even get away with these as the major protein source for winter as the hens will stop laying for a while. But then if you do do that, you will need to be mindful of fat. You could send sunflower seeds at them I suppose, but that is a lot of polyunsaturated fat, too much for my liking. But it could get you through winter. As long as you are hitting 4–5% fat, and 16–24% protein (higher end if plant-based) then they should be groovy in winter.\n\nYou could also think about plants that are accumulators of iodine. Quail need iodine and salt . . . Salt source?\n\nIf they are getting sun, they should be sweet on the D3 front.\n\nYou will want to think about calcium too. I am blessed to have tiny snail shells everywhere here. And cuttle bone within walking distance. They will need a little extra on top of their egg shells and whatever they can get from greens. \n\nSo yeah, high calcium greens that accumulate iodine but that are not high in oxalic acid would be useful! \n\nPerhaps you could tick a couple of boxes at once by rearing insects with calcium-rich shells.",
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