Mary Allen
The stinging nettle is a cheap and healthy supplementary feed. However, you first have to make this extremely valuable green plant palatable to the chickens.
Stinging nettles are usually associated with unpleasant itching or even pain. Who hasn’t burned themselves on stinging nettle and got angry about it afterward? Because actually, you know the green plant and the consequences of meeting without gloves or other protection of the skin. But despite all the trouble with the stinging nettle, it also has its good sides – and not too scarce.
Already during the war and in the post-war period, the stinging nettle was considered and used as a valuable fodder plant. Like all green plants, it has numerous minerals, vitamins, and active ingredients. The contained vitamin A, for example, is particularly important during the breeding and development phase. During this period, a deficiency of this vitamin would lead to poor fertilization and hatch rates and retard the growth of the chicks. According to the specialist magazine “Geflügelbörse”, vitamin A also improves the quality of the eggshell and has a positive effect on carbohydrate and protein metabolism.
Vitamin K, which is also contained in the nettle, is involved in many regulatory metabolic actions. It is involved in sperm formation, ensures the right cell connections in the egg, protects against faulty calcium deposits, and plays an important role in blood coagulation regulation.
In terms of minerals, the nettle contains a lot of iron, magnesium, sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and silicon. In addition, it ensures a more intensive coloring of the egg yolk in poultry. This is because there are both yellowish and reddish pigments under the leafy green. In chickens with yellow legs like the Leghorn, it provides a more intense color tone. However, there is no need to worry that the flesh-colored legs of the Old Styrians will also discolor when they are fed stinging nettles; this is not genetically possible.
The stinging nettle probably has a similar effect on the health of poultry as it does on humans. Applied externally, it helps against rheumatism and body aches. Ingested, it prevents or at least reduces the annually recurring spring fatigue, ensures increased kidney excretion, and cleanses the blood.
Nettles as Far as the Eye Can See
In addition to the many health benefits, nettle is also a miracle for the wallet. You can find it almost everywhere for free. It is, therefore, no coincidence that the nettle is sometimes decried as a weed. The common stinging nettle, which is the subject of discussion here, grows in bushes and shrubs, along roadsides, on rubbish dumps, on riverbanks, in alluvial forests, or on dung heaps. It is mainly found near settlements.
Depending on the nutrient supply, the nettle grows between 60 and 150 centimeters high. The plant is easily recognizable by its oppositely serrated leaves. On the upper side of the leaf are the so-called stinging hairs, these are long, unicellular tubes whose walls are hard and brittle in the upper part due to embedded silica. They are an effective protective mechanism against predators.
Stinging nettles are also sometimes found in chicken coops. The chickens rarely look at them, let alone eat them. This is somewhat surprising, because, in the chicken yard, green fodder is usually pecked at and eaten. Stinging nettles, however, are only like chopped or very small chickens.
And as with most supplementary feeds, it is advisable to get the chickens used to it when they are still young. If you moisten the stinging nettles with a little water from a sprayer, they taste fresher, which is better for poultry. Especially on hot days, when chickens generally eat little solid food, this is a good way to increase the appetite of the animals.
In spring you can cut the nettle just above the ground, then it will be tender and tasty everywhere. Towards autumn, however, the stem at the bottom of the plant hardens. Then the soft, delicate upper stems with their foliage are best suited for feeding. Once cut off, the stems, as well as the leaves, should be finely chopped before feeding them to chickens. The following applies: the younger the animals, the finer the cut. When handling stinging nettles, it is advisable to always wear gloves to avoid burning yourself on the stinging hairs.