Thanks, Diana. my chickens eat really well when my fruits and veggies come in! All the peelings, cores, end pieces, over ripe veggies go to them. I grow a lot of collards and I give them the tougher leaves or anything covered with cabbageworms, lol. Mine love zucchini as well (I always get one that I overlooked that is too big to eat). Plus they are free range and get a lot of bugs and such most of the year.
Last year, I started growing mealworms for them as well because the ones in the store are too expensive.
My main concern for the dairy goats and chickens is over the winter. There is not enough forage for my dairy goats and layers to produce well.
How close are you to civilization?
At my other farm, I lived on the edge of a town that had about 2K people. I made friends with the Produce Guy at the grocery store there (Shur-Fine Chain) and he would give me the boxes of damaged produce they had each week for my chickens. Otherwise, it was heading for the dumpster!
Some of that produce was just FINE - an apple with a dent, a bag of mixed greens that had broken open, random strawberries and other fruit that probably was on the floor, etc.
I will admit to taking the best of the best from those boxes to feed US - and the rest went to the chickens or the compost bin. Waste not, want not! :)
If you have a day-old bakery shop, you can sometimes get good deals on bags of expiring bread. Ask if they have any ‘bird bread’ for sale and tell them you like to feed the wild birds. My chickens always loved that, too.
You’ll probably find plenty of decent bread in there for yourself as well. ;)