It’s Tuesday treat time! Who doesn’t love lavender? I do, you do, and your hens sure do!
This week’s treat is bursting with herbs and protein (which is the best combination, don’t you think?) and you can make it for only a few dollars.
I thought I would change things up a bit this week with mealworms. My hens LOOOVEEE them – in fact, I timed them the other day, and it took them less than 60 seconds to devour a full cup of mealworms!
Spring can be a taxing time on your hens bodies because if they haven’t been laying, they’ll need more protein to get their little bodies into gear!
The lavender also helps to relax them so they’ll feel safe and comfy sitting for a while to get ‘er done and lay you some eggs!
If they laid all winter, supporting their bodies in the spring is still a good idea since they’ll likely be ramping up production naturally.
I love making these trail mix types of treats because it allows you to offer different types of nutrients, and hens love them because there’s a lot of different “flavors” to explore.
Particularly if your hens live in a coop and run full time, mixes like Lavender Springtime Treat Mix give them something new to cluck about AND environmental enrichment to keep their brains going!
And my flock loves picking at it while they poke around, exploring their new treat!
In a similar vein, the parsley is full of hidden vitamins. Although for human food, we tend to relegate parsley to a garnish, it’s a great source of necessary nutrients for your hens.
If you have a spare corner in your garden, you can grow parsley for your flock in a grazing box as well, which makes it easy to ensure they always have access to this “chicken superfood.”
The lavender, naturally, smells heavenly, and it wouldn’t surprise me if you made your own treat with it! (Have you checked out my recipe for lavender syrup?)
If you have any lavender leftovers, you can make yourself a relaxing herbal tea with it and add a bit of chamomile!
We have lavender for sale in the shop, but wherever you source it for your flock, please be sure it’s naturally grown and not been sprayed with chemicals or pesticides.
Here’s how to make Lavender Springtime Treat Mix for your hens!
Lavender Springtime Treat Mix
Ingredients (per backyard chicken):
1 tablespoon lavender flowers (dried or fresh)(buy naturally grown lavender here)
3 tablespoons unsalted, raw sunflower seeds (shelled is best, but with the shell on is ok)
3 tablespoons wheat berries (buy Non-GMO naturally grown wheat here)
2 tablespoons dried mealworms (buy USA raised & harvested mealworms here)
1 tablespoon parsley (dried or fresh) (buy naturally grown parsley here)
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and feed as part of a complete diet.
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
