- Jun 2, 2014
- 7
- 0
- 40
I have grown up my entire life on the family farm an cant remember a time without chickens, now that have my own little plot an im slowly getting into my own little homestead. i have at the time 5 chickens, a welsummer red links barred and two mixed ones that i call salt an pepper. the welsummer as far as i can tell from the egg color is my only egg producing chicken. the welsummer and red link were chicks this spring my others are 2-3 years old and had been laying an 1-2 a week between the three of them. they will soon be going to my brother to sell or butcher. i like to re-stock my small flock every year with new chickens to try an keep the egg production going, and i have started to get into the fodder feed. i just started a test batch to see how it goes before i jump into building full setup. im hoping to reduce the amount of feed they go through as of now i buy a 50lb bag of layer and 50lb of cracked corn and use 1/3 of the corn mixed with all the layer an mix in grit as well. the red link has a bad habit of spilling alot of this on the ground and they wont touch it once its on the floor of the coop. so im in the beginning stages of planning out a new more user friendly coop then what i have at the time. this new coop will include a better water and feed system but i still want to start feeding fodder. So has anyone here tried or use fodder? i am refering to the method of sprouting barley seed. i would like to expand my flock beyond just chickens it would be nice to have some ducks and turkey but the cost of feed is what holds me back. im also not 100% sure as to the amount of fodder to feed per chicken. i plan to keep feeding them the layer grit and corn as well just reduce the amount. I just would like some input on it as i will be enlarging my chicken flock as soon as my brother gets finds a nice rooster and hens at market i plan to start hatching some of my own.