joep337

Does anyone know if it would be safe to feed banana seeds to my chickens? Would the variety make any difference?
Thanks,
Joe

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Chironex

Now if you can just get the chickens to drop them where you want them to grow.

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Scot

joep337

I posted a serious question! I just joined your group. Maybe I made a mistake and joined an unemployed commedians' group! The banana seed would be digested and destroyed by the chicken's gizzard. Does anyone have a serious answer?
Thanks,
Joe

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You can have ten years' experience or one year's experience ten times. Which do you choose?

lorax

Here's a serious answer, because I feed Heliconia and Canna seed to my chickens and guineafowl, with no ill effects whatsoever. In fact, the guineas seem to go for them first in the mix. I don't see why banana seed would be any different.

Where are you located, that you have enough banana seed to consider feeding hens with it?

xavierdlc61887

i dont see how my post was funny....it was more of a curiosity question...i even said i was interested too

Lagniappe

I believe Joe is referring to my post. Last night I posted something like:

Funny, I was thinking about this on the Hwy home tonight (I really was). I think the difference, unfortunately, between a monkey and a chicken would be [the chicken's] crop and gizzard. The seed would likely be ground into a black paste topped with a snow cap (this is the outcome I theorized during my pondering of this).
I really don't know the workings of chickens.....just a theory.

I decided that this may not be an appropriate post and deleted it moments after posting.
Sorry Joe, those were my actual thoughts on the matter. I know that a duck can swallow whole acorns and grind them down and wondered if it was the same with chickens. It was too late and I was too tired to rework my post so I deleted it with the intent of reposting this morning with a fresh mindset.

Lagniappe

It only just occurred to me that you meant to provide nutrients to the chickens. I thought you meant to germinate the seed. I'm sure that others would make the same mistake as banana seed germination is often a hot topic here and the seeds' passing through animals has been discussed before.

joep337

Thank you all for the information. I live in Louisiana and plan on planting Musa velutina (fuzzy fat pink bananas on a miniature stalk) plants for fruit and seed production for my chickens. There regular feed is becoming expensive. Any other information would be helpful.
Joe

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You can have ten years' experience or one year's experience ten times. Which do you choose?

lorax

You should also look into planting some flax, sunflowers, maiz (starchy corn) and maybe even a bit of canola. Together, they make a pretty balanced mix for fowl.

You know, of course, that you can let your chickens free-range in your garden to control pests...

Chironex

Apologies to you, Joe. We tend to use comedy to keep things light-hearted and fun. Yes, I can be a comedian at times, but it is not meant to be insulting. Good luck, I see some of the others have posted answers to your question.

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Scot

joep337

Iorax,
Thanks for the advice, but I'm into permaculture. I have 3 chestnut trees and my chickens love the ground up nuts. The chickens are in 3 wire enclosed pens with no bottoms and on sleds. I move them ever few days to enable them to graze and eat bugs, grubs, etc. They have wonderful yellows to their eggs.
Joe

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You can have ten years' experience or one year's experience ten times. Which do you choose?

lorax

Joe, my entire garden is permacultured; the suggestions I made can easily be worked into an existing plot or by expanding. My chickens and guineafowl have permanent nighttime homes, and roam free in the garden during the day. I've lost two to condors, and after that they learned how to hide when big birds are in the skies. Luckily, we have no predatory land-animals to speak of - so long as they're in their houses at night, there's no danger of losing them to jaguars or pumas.

If you're interested in permaculturing the Musa, plant papaya and maybe citrus in with it - this will help to prevent fungal diseases in all three plants, and my fowl love the fruit and seeds; corn can be cultured with beans and squash for your own consumption as well as the chickens.' Flax and sunflowers can be cultured together with wheatgrass. Canola or mustard is best grown with other brassicants, like cauliflower, brussels sprouts, or cabbage.

Best of luck!
Lorax

harveyc

Joe, do you dry up your chestnuts and then grind them up? Seems like a lot of work for chicken feed. I grow chestnuts commercially, for human consumption.

I haven't heard directly from anyone else growing chestnuts in Louisiana. Are you growing the Chinese species?

Good luck,

Harvey

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