Growing fodder for chickens

Lacy Blues said:

Did you soak them in a 10% bleach solution first?  I did and had good results.  I also have milo sprouting and the first time I did not soak it in that bleach solution and I had some mold issues that I managed to work out.  Next time I used the bleach.  I'm waiting on them to see how they will do. 

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Lacy Blues said:

Oats seem to want to sit in the pan and sour before they grow.  Soaking in a bleach solution kills off the mold spores that are on/in the husk.  Did you soak them at all?  Soaking works to soften the husk and then the little root can find its way out sooner.

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• You can have some great runs of growing fodder mats at the start of your growing cycles only to experience a decline in performance, over time, with more mold prevalent. Mold spores and yeast, can become a cumulative problem, that is, no problems at first, but as you do more and more, there's a tipping point where they can take hold in your grow system.
• The better you wash and prepare your seeds at the start, the cleaner your overall growing operation will remain.
• Mold, but especially yeast, can accumulate in your drain lines. If you are recycling water from a reservoir, then be sure you add a "System Flush" routine to your procedures to keep any plumbing lines clean. Recycling water also means considering filtering it as well. If one tray gets a problem, recycling will quickly spread that problem to other trays in your system. Simplify your system design such that cleaning it is easy. Factor maintenance into your system design.
• Mold generally happens later in the growth stages, or more mature trays, than earlier. A dense thick mat of green can hide the start of that decaying process which the seed hulls will go through. Check your mats at the base of the growth, between the root mat and the grassy growth, for molding. The seed hulls start to decay the moment the seed germinates, so this is where to look for mold presence. Try to grow a fodder mat too long and you'll see problems in the mat.
• Bad molds are generally blue-ish or greenish. There are some that can also appear as a thick whitish mold. However, do not confuse the white fuzz you see on root hairs as mold during the early part of the grow cycle.
• Smelly roots of a mat do not indicate mold is present, more likely it indicates yeast and fermenting is present. A slight off smell in a freshly harvested tray is not a worry. You could rinse the roots before feeding too if you have picky animals. But if the roots look grey and slimey, you are veering towards too much fermentation with some molding starting in. Fermenting itself, though, is not an unhealthy thing.
• Aside from your seed prep procedures, the other factors that contribute to mold are primarily temperature and humidity levels. Keep temps in your grow room around 60F degrees, or as low as 50F degrees. Do not go above 70F degrees. Keep humidity around the 40-50% mark as a goal. You can tell your room is too humid by looking at the more mature trays: if there are droplets of water at the tops of the growing sprout, you could stand to lower your humidity further.
• Operate the grow room as a clean room. Mixing this type of operation with other growing plants is not the best of options of the long term. If considering an operation in a greenhouse, consider enclosing the grow trays in a cabinet of some sort which is easy to clean.
• Some companies offering turnkey fodder solutions on the market would rather sell you a system that includes the shed, container, or room within which to operate the system and cringe if asked if one could just buy the system itself. They know that its the grow environment that is the key to a successful fodder operation over time and wish to avoid complaints that their system is "not working" when the blame lies more with the "environment" that the system is operating within. Trials in your basement, laundry room, greenhouse, etc. are more apt to present you the most problems over time.

DMRippy said:

WELL.... I just found today that my timer had been messed up. BAD. They were getting light 23 1/2 hours a day of light

I really have no idea how long that has been going on..... I need to move that timer so we don't accidentally change it. BUT it didn't really have any impact on the laying except one hen.... she laid me 2 eggs a day SEVERAL times... really within 12 hours. She is the only one in the pen so YES she did it. I have a couple of other pullets in there (1 was laying and stopped) and 2 hens but it didn't really change their laying. I bet they start to molt now

Oh well.....

I personally did have a chicken die from impacted crop, we put grass in the pen.... never again. Fodder I would think is much smaller, thinner really and they can PULL off what they want.

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MarineCorpFarmr said:

Quote: I know, but until you have one do it you will not believe it. I didn't.. She is in a pen with no way for another hen to get to her and it is closed with no gaps on all sides....just not possible. She was injured so I moved her to these pens. She is in a pen by herself. She kinda quit laying, but would pop out 2 eggs at a time when she did lay for some odd reason. Some have been soft shelled, but most are normal size and regular eggs..... BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

BTW I have bricks on top of the ones with big birds because they can move the screens and get out.

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