Growing fodder for chickens

[mobius]

I rinse my seeds morning and evenng if tht helps

 

[MigraineMan]

Moar barley sprouts! The first photo is from Day 3. The one tray went to the chickens on Day 5 (yesterday.) The photo of the tall greens is from Day 6 (today) That tray will go out in the run tomorrow morning.

As noted earlier, the chickens will give the mat many scratches and tosses in an effort to get the remaining seeds first. But they will ultimately devour the whole thing in a few hours.

 

[Kimberly's chicks]

I am going to start making fodder year round its a little treat in summer and spring months. I will use Milo wheat barley and beans

 

[AUtiger]

I just started this today. Soaked some wheat, sorghum, millet, corn, sunflower seeds, lentils, and quinoa. Drained and placed it across the top and bottom of a 24 count Costco clear egg container in a sheet pan (poked holes in bottom of egg container). Put another clear egg container on top (snapped right on!) I will update on how it works over the next few days.
And yes, I have to BUY eggs from Costco, my ladies are still not laying yet!

 

[ChristineMac]

Great, I can't wait! I have a lot of questions about protein. I saw a "new" feed at the store that boast "no corn no soy" and asked what the protein source was, thinking maybe it was fish meal. It is Canola.* I said, so it is chock full of GMOs anyway, and the guy helping me said Canola wasn't GMO ... ummmmmmm ... wow. I started a thread about it, hoping someone maybe has something enlightening to say about Canola protein.

Regardless, what is the reason companies have moved away from animal-based proteins in their feed? Obviously the formulations for the feeds follows commodities markets, and as far as I know they aren't required to specify what is in them beyond being truthful about the claims on their packaging. But should I believe they chose vegetarian sources for protein ONLY because they are less expensive?

*Apparently canola protein meal is a relatively new thing, and will be working its way into human food soon, if it hasn't done so already.

hi i just wanted to let you know what I know about canola. Canola was developed/modified to be an oil source for biodiesel, you know the stuff that you can have your car run on? After modifications of course. I don't know why anyone would use this product. It has been modified and modified so that person at the feed store didn't know what he was talking about. The second problem with canola is all the soil ammendments the farmers have to do just to grow a crop. Around here, they have to apply ammonia for N, then they plant, then they spray for bugs, then they spray desicant, then they cut, then they harvest and then they till. This is a lot of chemicals on that little oil seed. Finally the last problem with canola (IMO) is that it is not yet considered a food oil just like cotton seed oil which is present in many items such as crackers. When they are not regulated as a food source, the farmers can spray these plants with "stuff" that can be very bad for you and your animals. Just my personal bias towards canola. I like in an area where the farmers which completely surround my farm grow canola year after year. I can't even get my little farm certified organic because of their continual spraying and what they spray. I would walk away from that bag of feed for sure.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi Leslie,
Have been doing a lot of reading on the subject of corn, soy, and animal additives to Poultry feed.
From what I read it seems that having animal meal in the poultry feed causes more chance of some kind of disease in the GI tract. So they're working on replacing it with specialized soy .soy, if its specialized, gives the same amount of protein but without the anti nutrient ingredients available in the animal meal.
The websites www.poultryworld.net
See the article" why use a starter feed from the day chicks hatch".
Then, on the poultryworld.net website scroll down to: ' areas of Interest ".
choose :"our partners".
choose ;"Hamlet Protein".
See article , " 10 Important Days in the Life of a Broiler ".
it will explain so much about why it is so important to feed your chicks *when and how * for best results.
and www.allaboutfeed.com have a lot of white papers on the subject .
you can also surf over to the Hamlet Protein website . they have excellent research on how specialized soy can go ahead and improve the diet and reduce the anti nutritional factors at the same time. Hamlet is based in Finleyville ,Ohio ,USA and specializes in excellent feed for neonates of different species including poultry. I plan to use their HP Avistart specialized soy additive with my chick feed next season to get them off to a superior start. I believe it's at the Hamlet website will your find the white papers on why they're eliminating fishmeal and other animal products from poultry feed.
You can call up the people at Hamlet and talk to them too. they're very nice people and their website is extremely educational.
Best,
Karen

 

[Diannastarr]

for hi quality protein there is always growing sprouted barley oats & wheat & other grains into sprouts, sprouts are high in protein, not the wheat oat or barley grass that some feed that has grown to long & turned into a grass, and really has no protein left in it since it grew passed the protein stage in the original sprouts..! more sprout ideas, Soaked some, sorghum, millet, corn, sunflower seeds, lentils, wheat oats barley & quinoa..! o and dont forget the Milo..!

 

[micstrachan]

I sprout hard winter wheat and farro as a treat. At what point is the protein lost? I tend to give it to the girls before I even see any green. But wondering about the nutilritional value whe the grass is just one inch long?

 

[3riverschick]

For much longer, in-depth review of changes in ways poultry feed formulation is made , see this very long article at www.sciencedirect.com
" Specialized protein products in broiler chicken nutrition : a review ".
From the journal , " Animal Nutrition " ,
Vol. 1 Issue 2 June 2015 , pages 47 - 53 . Open access .
Section 3.2 Processed Plant Proteins discusses the work by Hamlet Protein. The 5 percent addition of Hamlet processed soy they discuss is the
HP Avistart product.
Best,
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Hi mic,
I can only speak to forage oats as that is the seed I studied . historically, forage oats (not feed oats) are sprouted and fed as grain feed.
here is the difference.
Grain feed is fed as part of the daily ration. it is Sprouts 1 through 3 days old .
Green Feed is fed to help bring hens into lay and help the cocks produce more robust sperm , hopefully resulting in more robust chicks . Green feed is fed in addition to the daily ration. It is fed at the rate of one cubic inch per bird. Or to bowel tolerance. if the bowels become a bit soft, just back off on the green feed a bit til they firm up again.
Green feed is oat Sprouts that are four days old or older . on the fourth day, a nutritional change takes place in the oat sprout which makes it Green feed instead of grain feed .
if I was feeding at Sprouts, I would not feed one older than 7 days. there is no nutritional advantage to this and the older the Sprout is the more chance you have of the Sprout going bad .
so I figure 7 days is a good time to not feed them any older than that.
your Sprouts should always feel crisp and clean and smell fresh. If they feel slimy or smell foul, they have gone bad. do not feed them to the birds .
Best ,
Karen