13 Plants That Grow Free Chicken Feed All Winter

🐔 A hen doesn't need a single bag of bought feed to lay you a basket of eggs. Our grandparents kept their flocks through hard winters on almost nothing from a store — they grew the feed right in the garden. Here are thirteen plants that do it, and turn your backyard into a feed store that plants itself: 🔹 Comfrey — a plant-once perennial that hands you free, protein-rich leaves for twenty years. 🔹 Sunflowers & field corn — high-energy seed and grain you hang in the shed and feed all winter, no shelling needed. 🔹 Mangels & winter squash — the great keepers: harvest in fall, store whole, feed through to spring. 🔹 Kale & winter rye — fresh green feed through the snow, plus grain you can sprout on the kitchen counter in January. 🔹 Duckweed, field peas & a mulberry tree — the protein that grows on water, on a fence, and drops free from a tree every summer. The honest truth: you won't drop the feed bag overnight. But grow a spread of these and your flock feeds itself from spring to fall and leans on your stored crops all winter — brighter combs, deeper yolks, and eggs that taste of something. Right now, at the start of fall, is the season the whole thing turns on. Harvest your keepers, sow your hardy greens, and you'll walk into winter with feed in the shed. Which of these would you find room for this fall? For more of the old ways of feeding a family from a small piece of land, subscribe. #chickens #backyardchickens #chickenfeed #homestead #homesteading #selfsufficiency #raisingchickens #backyardflock #growyourownfood #offgrid #sustainableliving #permaculture #urbanhomestead #chickenkeeping #selfsufficient