Growing fodder for chickens

Well, I'm 97 pages from being current, but am enjoying every page, and learning lots. I have sprouted things for us humans from time to time, so why not for the chickens! And I too have had dreams of growing buckwheat and amaranth and other edible grain like plants that a mere mortal can harvest herself...

So I'm starting with buckwheat and sunflower seeds. Both are from the feed store, and both are from last year. The sunflower seems to be sprouting already, it's been less than 12 hours! That site on sprouting said two days for sunflowers, so I'm hoping their rapid growth will help me to be more patient with the other seeds...

Thanks for this thread.

My ducks wont touch it;( 3 nights in a row!

corancher said:

Oh, that is awesome! Have you tired giving any to your ducks and geese? Speaking of geese, how is Tri and her boyfriend doing?

I'm still drooling over her....are you getting any eggs from your geese yet? I found my first Sebastopol egg (ever) this morning. It either came from my smooth grey Seb, or my smooth lilac Seb girlie. Exciting!!

~ Aspen

I did give some fodder to the ducks and geese and they were not so excited over it. They are all a bit upset currently since they are all in their breeding pens since last Sunday and not able to wonder about of their own accord. I am sure they will come around to the fodder. They were not real thrilled with produce at first but once they got the taste for it they come a running.

We are lucky enough to have an agreement with a local farmer's/produce market to pick up their produce that is either a little old, odd shaped, over stocked in the months of May-October. It helps a lot on the feed bill and is nice for all our animals. In addition those overstocks, end up in canning jar or the freezer for our consumption.

The produce stands are a good source for any of you that have one near by. They have to pay lots of money for a dumpster with pick up every day or every other day so if they can find someone willing to pick up the produce they can't sell daily then it saves them lots of money. We just provide heavy duty trash cans and they put the stuff in the cans. They have a fork lift so I stop by on my way home from work they load whatever they have. It is a bit of work and can be messy but not bad if you stay on top of things. Just thought I would mention for those of you wanting to save money, provide produce for your animals, and not afraid of a little work.

Tri & Stimich are doing fine. I have another Splash Sebastopol (Speckles) female that is with them.. No eggs here but some of the geese are mating. Haven't seen anything going on with the before mentioned trio. I generally don't see goose eggs until March. Congrats on that first egg. Hope you get lots of pretty babies this year.

Click to expand...

I wish we were close enough to get produce like that. You pay a price if you live two hrs from any town! LOL

Did your waterfowl have access to greens before they were put in breeding pens?

My waterfowl have not had greens (besides some alfalfa hay) since about 4-5 months ago! Yikes! Anything green I offer them gets gobbled up.

Thanks for the update, I'm glad they are doing good! Speckles sounds like a cutie patootie! Thanks, I'm so excited! Either of the girls who laid it came from Shellie, who is in FL, so that might have had something to do with them laying first. Who knows.

sonew123 said:

My ducks wont touch it;( 3 nights in a row!

Click to expand...

Seriously? What's wrong with your ducks sonew????

~ ASpen

My special ed short bus ducks are on a slw train to nowhere my three male and only calls seem to be curious but thats it..the two khaki Campbell runners are afraid of their own shadows and chuckie is just chuckie duuuhhhhhh...i love them all but they will be my only ducks ever...too much work in my tundra life! Lol

sonew123 said:

My special ed short bus ducks are on a slw train to nowhere

my three male and only calls seem to be curious but thats it..the two khaki Campbell runners are afraid of their own shadows and chuckie is just chuckie duuuhhhhhh...i love them all but they will be my only ducks ever...too much work in my tundra life! Lol

Click to expand...

I can remember seeing pictures of Chuckie, isn't she a black/white crested girl, if I remember correctly?



~ Aspen

I live in Oregon where grains will (slowly) sprout outdoors all year round but I sprout feed and sunflower seeds from October til the end of March since the chickens are confined to the run when the rain just doesn't stop.

To try small amounts you can by grains in the bulk section of your food store, ours (WinCo) has wild bird seed (for 57 cents a pound) and most of the grains in it will sprout on a tray. I am greenhouse flats with the clear lids but produce comes in all sorts of contained that can be re-purposed to sprout grains. I soak the grains for a few hours then spread them thinny on damp bagged soil about 1" deep. I mist them with water when they look like they needs it. It takes a week or so to sprout most small seeds and another 2 weeks to get then to 3"-4" tall.

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy said:

I can remember seeing pictures of Chuckie, isn't she a black/white crested girl, if I remember correctly?



~ Aspen

Click to expand...

Yes but a very dominant boy! He rules the yards no matter how big or small his opponents are! Even me half the time! How long do ducks live gain?
Hes 4

I have a 150 gal. trout tank and for a biofilter I use a 3'x8'x12" gravel bed. In the gravel grow bed I grow comfrey for the donkeys and chickens . I groom it every day and when it goes dorment I plant the cut mat after juicing wheat grass. That roots and keeps the water clean in winter. In summer the grass root mat goes to the pigs. I live in the Mohave desert with not enough green on my acre to even feed one donkey, except for my garden and orchard.

sonew123 said:

Yes but a very dominant boy! He rules the yards no matter how big or small his opponents are! Even me half the time! How long do ducks live gain?

Hes 4

Click to expand...

Aww, he sounds like a cutie! Ducks can live a pretty long time, I'd guess 10-15+ years.

~ Aspen