winter protein for chickens: black oil sunflower seeds, pro and con

The chickens prefer black oil sunflower seeds to giant striped. So do the local sparrows -- and starlings, and jays, and finches. Early harvest of the flower heads was indicated. So we cut all that had shed their disk flowers and hung the heads where we always do, in the top of summer kitchen, to dry.

Only they didn't. They began to drip, and then they dripped more, and then they began to shed seeds. People working in there making cider were brushing seeds and guck out of their hair.

So, we've taken the flower heads down, and we'll be feeding them to the poultry early -- immediately, in fact.

No great loss without some small gain: I needed to take the chickens off milk for a while anyway, so I could have the milk for cheese making.

The other issue: with the BOSS used up., what will we give the chickens for protein in the winter? Well, this year's squash crop looks like it will set new records, so we guess the chickens will eat squash seeds.

Done.