feeding sprouts, grass alternative?

[MSchickenmama]

hi guys. i have chickens in an enclosed run. they barely have grass to eat and they just don't eat lettuce and other greens.
so im planning to imitate grass by sprouting oats and other grains i can try.
do u think this will work?
here is an example (not my pic). after they have grown this far. im planning to put them in the run.

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It works great- I have four movable coops, one permenet with a run. Though the girls in there get weeds pull from the bed, rose petal, marigold petals. I do sprout mung beans, radishes and birdseed. Yeah birdseed is cheap and sprouts(milo,sunflower,corn, oats). The girls girls yolks are just as yellow as the free ranging girls. I buy the other seed in bulk at the feed store. Oats in fifty pound bags that we feed the cows and pigs. Always pull a few pound sout for the chickens, especilly in the winter when greens for all is limited. Good luck

 

[chickenlover237]

cool idea i might try this

 

[manaze88]

My chics are about 8 weeks old, and I have them in a permanant coop/pen. I've been throwing the lawn clippings in, and they go through that. I've also pulled weeds from the garden and throw those in. I like the idea of putting a growing box together with the hardware wire on top to see if they can just keep it trimmed above the top.

Do you think you could plant something strong enough to stay rooted and keep growing, or will they just pull it right out by the roots, anyway?

 

[t/m]

... I like the idea of putting a growing box together with the hardware wire on top to see if they can just keep it trimmed above the top.
Do you think you could plant something strong enough to stay rooted and keep growing, or will they just pull it right out by the roots, anyway?

Just to see how it would work, we planted some kale and greens (mustard maybe?) in a low, large clay pot covered in chicken wire. After it
grew up thru the wire we put it in the pen, they demolished it in short time!! But, they did not pull the whole plant up, in fact we left it in there hoping it would grow thru again but they could get to it too easily thru the chicken wire so we've moved it out to get some height on it. So I'm thinking something like leaf lettuce might get pulled up roots and all but stuff like the above with a better root structure may last you longer. Also the higher your hardware cloth, the better foundation your plant will have. BTW, ours are large fowl. Good luck!

 

[Chickmama74]

My chickens are about 4 months and I have a movable coop. So every 3 or 4 days I go out there are move it. The second that I move it they peck like crazy. I also have taken the lawn clippings also and put them in there. I also give them kitchen scraps. Any thing green and leafy. They pick all day. I can say that for the most part they will eat anything I put in there.

 

[jeannieo]

this is all great info! I've done wheat grass before and they loved it but recently I planted more wheat grass in a plastic window box and put it on my deck. within 24 hours the dang squirrels had dug up and eaten every seed! the hardware cloth is a great idea. Also, I have two pens, one on either end of the coop. One time before I blocked access to the smaller pen and planted the entire thing with wheat grass and when it grew up to a decent height, I let them have at it! gone in no time but lots of fun to watch. I can't do that again because I've got my 3 "rejects" in the second pen permanently. Love my "rejects"

but the rest of the flock does not. Maxine, a Columbian Wyandotte, is at the bottom of the pecking order and one day I went out and the others had pecked a hole in her back so big, it looked like they were trying to eat her! Also, my little blind Cochin roo, Spencer and Fran Drescher, a tiny obnoxious silkie/cochin splash who the others hate. They don't really bother Spencer all that much but every once in a while someone takes a pot shot at him and he freaks out and runs around in circles and hides his head in a corner. now that he's in a space with just two girls, he's happy as can be!

 

[NoZolbitty]

I can't help but wonder if those packets of grass you sprout for your cats might work

 

[backintime]

I've been thinking of using a corner of my garden to grow this high-Omega 3 chicken forage mix, and then just mowing it down and feeding the clippings to my hens. But this won't give me anything in winter. Wonder how well the stuff would grow indoors in trays? Seems ultra-nutritious!

http://www.groworganic.com/omega-3-chicken-forage-blend-irrigated.html

 

[ChickNhood]

Mine seemed to trufly enjoy the fat trimmings from my ribeye steaks the other day! Otherwise they emjoy the low hanging leaves of my tomato plants...grass clipping and weeds.from my garden of course....all of my wives flower get pruned rather quickly

 

[Lookin4space]

I grow wheatgrass and give my spent flats to the chickens after I cut and juice the grass. The grass comes out of the plastic flat like a square of lawn sod. I just lift it out and place it on the dirt in the run pen. It disappears very quickly.