Growing fodder for chickens

[lynnehd]

Has anyone tried doing corn fodder

You don't see people talking about sprouting corn. I'm not sure why; maybe the protein content isn't as good as wheat or barley.

Where did you get that seed. I'm from Alabama as well and can't seem to find any

My feed store sells wheat that is untreated for feeding to animals. I'd check there first. If not, try online; Ebay, Amazon, etc.

 

[Camille2t]

In the interest of spreading my poultry feed budget, I'm growing fodder for my flock during the winter months. So far, for every one pound of seed, I'm getting 6 1/2 pounds of green fodder. They eat the seeds, the roots, and the green shoots. I prefer to use barley, but I haven't been able to get bulk barley this year so I'm growing wheat with a handful of black oil sunflower seeds per flat. Anybody else grow fodder for their birds?

 

[Camille2t]

Hi, yes, I grow a mixture of barley and chia... The chicks (we have 4) go wild for it! It is great to be able to give the chicks greenery through this snow storm!

 

[amiachicknorwat]

A friend of mine sprouted corn last year and gave me some -- it was delicious, sweetly so. That was the first I'd heard of sprouting corn. The sprouts are bigger too, more like shoots, i guess given the towering size of the plant full grown. So with the inspiration from Bamachikken's question I plan to start sprouting corn and other greens for us and our flock. Also cuz I'm finding feed to be very expensive and our birds very voracious -- bad combo. So to pull having our chickens into $u$tainability I want to sheet mulch our grass and grow grain thru our next growing season. Thanks, Nick

 

[nab58]

Hi, yes, I grow a mixture of barley and chia... The chicks (we have 4) go wild for it! It is great to be able to give the chicks greenery through this snow storm!

How do you sprout chia? I tried once and it turned to a solid gelled mass that wouldn't absorb water. Do you just let it sit like that until to sprouts?

 

[Camille2t]

Hi, I let the chia soak with the barley for 24 hours, then, I pour the mess onto a fine-mesh piece of nylon covering a cooling rack and attached at 4 corners with binder clips set upon a cookie sheet. I rinse the barley-chia twice a day and voila, in about 5 days, we have lovely sprouts...I imagine, if you just did this with chia, it would work fine, too. I am thinking of sprouting the whole corn, too, because my chicks won't eat the whole dried corn...do your chicks eat whole corn?

 

[nab58]

I've never fed who.e corn, only cracked. Some like it more than others. Some prefer black oil sunflower to the cracked corn. I would imagine the sprouted corn would be more nutritious than dried.

 

[glib]

whole corn is a lot slower to sprout, compared to other grains. It is also a hard sprout, but other than that, it can be sprouted fine.

 

[Bamachikken]

Im going to give corn a go as well. I will update with pics later on in the week to share the experiment

 

[holm25]

Has anyone tried doing corn fodder

I have my second batch going right now. It sprouts a day after soaking. Here is a pic of the corn on day 3