Can I store forage for winter?

[Cyprus]

This may be a crazy question, but then again when am I ever sane.
I was walking around outside watching my chickens be chickens and I started to wonder about the possibility of storing some of that nice, fresh, green grass, clover, and forage for my chooks to enjoy when the great white blanket covers the ground.
I understand that the forage would not be fresh anymore. But is there a way to store some in a fashion that would still be appetizing to my chickens in the winter? I was thinking freezing, but maybe that wouldn't work out well. Then I thought about grass hay but figured that chickens won't eat hay.
Anybody got a theory or solution?
-Cyprus

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chickens will eat hay. Some people buy alfalfa hay for their chickens to eat, either in winter or if they are in a run and get no vegetation because it is bare. I don't know if you've ever made hay. Cut that stuff and let it really dry out. Then store it out of the weather and where it cannot get wet. As long as it is properly dried out and doesn't get wet it will last for years. It will not be as nutritious as fresh and will lose nutritional value the longer it is stored, but it is still better than nothing and does not that much nutritional value. Lots of cattle, horses, and other animals get through winters quite well on hay. Your chickens would probably enjoy it.

 

[R2elk]

This may be a crazy question, but then again when am I ever sane.
I was walking around outside watching my chickens be chickens and I started to wonder about the possibility of storing some of that nice, fresh, green grass, clover, and forage for my chooks to enjoy when the great white blanket covers the ground.
I understand that the forage would not be fresh anymore. But is there a way to store some in a fashion that would still be appetizing to my chickens in the winter? I was thinking freezing, but maybe that wouldn't work out well. Then I thought about grass hay but figured that chickens won't eat hay.
Anybody got a theory or solution?
-Cyprus

Feeding alfalfa hay during the winter works. I had a neighbor that fed both alfalfa hay and rabbit pellets (feed) for the rich yellows it caused in her chicken's eggs.

Another option is to grow your own grasses in flats under grow lights. When the grasses are of a suitable height, the whole flat can be given to the poultry.

 

[Cyprus]

Glad to hear hay works.
We have our own alfalfa field that is due for another harvest this fall. I will keep back a few bales to feed out during winter.

 

[R2elk]

Glad to hear hay works.
We have our own alfalfa field that is due for another harvest this fall. I will keep back a few bales to feed out during winter.

Just toss them a small section and let them tear it up on their own.

 

[Kiki]

I was going to say you can buy horse alfalfa cubes and soak or ferment them for the winter. A couple of cubes a day would be good, a 50 lbs back would last a while.
But you have your own field...so win win.

 

[Cyprus]

I was going to say you can buy horse alfalfa cubes and soak or ferment them for the winter. A couple of cubes a day would be good, a 50 lbs back would last a while.
But you have your own field...so win win.

I can just soak regular hay, right?

 

[Kiki]

I can just soak regular hay, right?

I have no idea.
I would say no, I can't see my birds eating regular hay.

 

[pintail_drake2004]

I make and put up hay for my chickens and rabbits. I just toss a couple loads into the coop and they scratch it up, eat it, mix it with the pine shavings and adds lot Organic matter to the coop and run.

 

[Kiki]

This is what I know.
The cubes like this....last year I did soak a few cubes for my girls a few times, I stole a few cubes from the horses just to try.
My yard stays green pretty much all year so I don't need to do this.