Does anyone know of any whole grain chicken growing feed? I really want to feed my ducks sprouted grains but can't find whole grain feed.

[RainbowRabbits]

I thought I had found a good one through new country organics but am realizing its a layer feed which obviously won't be good for drakes due to long term calcium poisoning.

Does anyone know of a whole grain feed that can be sprouted (aside from making your own through Justin Rhodes recipe)? I plan on sprouting and fermented it (or minimally sprouting).

I really want to do an experiment to see if ducks smell better on a sprouted feed (I had rabbits ages ago and when I took them off of grains the smell was a night and day difference).

 

[Alagirl]

any mix with whole kernels will sprout, hemp being the exception. Wild bird seed, scratch mixes.
rolled or cracked kernels will naturally not sprout.

Also, mixed seeds have a different germination timeframe. So one grain sprouting efforts might work better: get barley or oats from the feed store.

 

[Mother-Hen-Michele]

I like red wheat for spouting, I get big bags 50lbs at a local feed store. If in doubt, google "animal feed" or specific animals like horses or goats. The big bags cost less at a feed store than small bags at the grocery store when it comes to things like sunflower or bird feed.

 

[raingarden]

I second whole red wheat. Also, Audobon brand wild bird food. The little two-pound bag from the grocery store will last a long time. It is mostly proso millet and milo.

 

[Chickeeaholic]

I threw the scratch feed around a patch of yard last year that later I planted crop on. It had hay down over the dirt so the chickens didn’t get it all. Everything but the corn came up in my crop. That surprised me. I’m not sure if it’s cheaper than buying each grains separately though since you are paying for corn too?

 

[Perris]

If you want to sprout them Alagirl's point is a good one: choose just one seed/grain, whichever is best for ducks. Here whole grains sold separately are labelled as 'straights' in the feed store, a 20kg sack of wheat, for example. Whole grains also keep their nutrients much longer than milled ones (because there's much less oxidation), so it matters less if it takes you a while to use it all up.

 

[MalSabreur]

any mix with whole kernels will sprout, hemp being the exception. Wild bird seed, scratch mixes.
rolled or cracked kernels will naturally not sprout.

Also, mixed seeds have a different germination timeframe. So one grain sprouting efforts might work better: get barley or oats from the feed store.

Hemp seeds WILL sprout. Or a proportion of them will. Chuck them in a bucket of water and see which ones float and which sink. I forget which is which, but one is viable and the other isn't. My dad used to do that and grow the plants as a "tonic" for his racing pigeons. Also, I used to work in a tackle shop and one of my favourite patrs was working in the bait shed,- running casters, boiling up hemp etc. There were always blackbirds getting in there and ending up stuffed, but we kept finding what looked suspiciously like marijuana plants growing out of cracks on the pavement just outside.