Whole Oats as chicken feed?

[centrarchid]

I use whole as a supplement to free-range foraging this time of year. To me it is more of an energy source. My oaks are soaked to approximately 48 hours prior to feeding.

 

[barbjess]

I am checking prices so I can get a feed mix down. The bulk food store I called told me horse oats are 50 lbs for $11.89 and whole oat groats are 50 lbs for $31.30. What is the difference? How old do the chickens need to be to handle whole oats? I do provide grit.

Also they have the wheat in Prairie gold and bronze for the same price 50 lbs for $28.70 Is either better than the other?

How long would these grains store before going bad?

Thanks

 

[centrarchid]

I am checking prices so I can get a feed mix down. The bulk food store I called told me horse oats are 50 lbs for $11.89 and whole oat groats are 50 lbs for $31.30. What is the difference? How old do the chickens need to be to handle whole oats? I do provide grit.

Also they have the wheat in Prairie gold and bronze for the same price 50 lbs for $28.70 Is either better than the other?

How long would these grains store before going bad?

Thanks

Oat groats have had the hard outer coating removed. The oater coating is what makes consumption by us difficult. The removal of the hull increases the nutritional density with respect to available protein and energy.

My chicks by about 5 weeks start eating intact seeds including oats so you may be able to get away with applying groats a little earlier.

For some reason I have always been advised against using wheat in poultry feed but they may be a cost related issue. If cost does not offend but keep its inclusion rate at no more than 10% of diet.


Intact grains keep for at least 6 months when kept cool and dry, less when temperature and / or humidity high. Groats will not last as long as intact grain under similar conditions.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I am checking prices so I can get a feed mix down. The bulk food store I called told me horse oats are 50 lbs for $11.89 and whole oat groats are 50 lbs for $31.30. What is the difference? How old do the chickens need to be to handle whole oats? I do provide grit.

Also they have the wheat in Prairie gold and bronze for the same price 50 lbs for $28.70 Is either better than the other?

How long would these grains store before going bad?

Thanks

At the feed store here you can buy white wheat for $14 per 50 lb bag (hard red wheat is $18). You can get whole oats for somewhere around $10 per 50 lb bag (haven't bought the whole oats lately so might be a little higher). Rolled oats ($13) at the feed store will be flattened but hull still attached.

You can give them the horse oats just fine, but I'd wait until they are around a couple of months old- three months even better- as it is kind of large for chicks. I'd not bother with the groats if they are so expensive. However, the hull makes a large portion of the feed unusable nutritionally, and thus I'd include them in a limited way. Also I did read about how the hulls can irritate their crops if given in large quantities. I tried to find the article but found one that mentioned gizzard damage instead:
http://japr.fass.org/content/3/3/253.full.pdf

You might consider rolled barley, as this has no hulls in it around here. It is $13 per 50 lb bag and should be included in a limited manner:
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Feed_ingredients/Grains.html

So what I am saying is that if you do a whole oats and rolled barley mix, that will lower your costs and half the hulls they have to deal with. Just my opinion.

Also just so I am clear, I would not include the oats and barley as a majority of the diet at all. Just a small portion of it.

 

[centrarchid]

To control irritation of crop coming from use of whole oats, consider soaking them. Soaking can go two routes. First I do where seeds swell with water and fermentation starts producing some alcohol. Second is where seeds actually germinates which activates some vitamins. Both are valuable to me during winter months as a means of getting water to birds when temperatures cause water bowls to freeze over. Even when frozen the soaked oats can be ingested. When it gets really cold my birds go for 2 weeks at a time without access to liquid water by getting what they need by consuming the soaked oats. I have not seen evidence for crop issue in my birds fed soaked oats for most of the winter. My broodfowl are expected to live 5 years or better so long-term they seem to do fine.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

To control irritation of crop coming from use of whole oats, consider soaking them. Soaking can go two routes. First I do where seeds swell with water and fermentation starts producing some alcohol. Second is where seeds actually germinates which activates some vitamins. Both are valuable to me during winter months as a means of getting water to birds when temperatures cause water bowls to freeze over. Even when frozen the soaked oats can be ingested. When it gets really cold my birds go for 2 weeks at a time without access to liquid water by getting what they need by consuming the soaked oats. I have not seen evidence for crop issue in my birds fed soaked oats for most of the winter. My broodfowl are expected to live 5 years or better so long-term they seem to do fine.

This sounds good...I will have to try soaking some whole oats one day. Next trip to feed store (am currently temporarily oatless)!

 

[MelRaj]

How long do u soak the oats for...also, are old fashion oats acceptable for feeding chickens along with their scratch feed?

 

[centrarchid]

How long do u soak the oats for...also, are old fashion oats acceptable for feeding chickens along with their scratch feed?

I do mine in 5-gallon buckets for the fermentation route. On a volume to volume basis, for every gallon of oats about 3 gallons of water from tap are used. Upon mixing by hand, all is stored inside garage where temperature ranges 40 to 60 F for three days. Each day mix is mixed by hand. Process speeds with increasing temperature but I do not know how summer temperatures impact it. Then soaked oats from a given bucket are fed out in no more than three days, usually two. More than one bucket used so as to stagger batches enabling continuous availability. Many folks soak longer but continued fermentation I think destroys more nutritive value than it makes available. If they start smelling like sulphur they have gone too far. When feeding out the consistency is similar to sweet corn or hominy

 

[barbjess]

I do mine in 5-gallon buckets for the fermentation route. On a volume to volume basis, for every gallon of oats about 3 gallons of water from tap are used. Upon mixing by hand, all is stored inside garage where temperature ranges 40 to 60 F for three days. Each day mix is mixed by hand. Process speeds with increasing temperature but I do not know how summer temperatures impact it. Then soaked oats from a given bucket are fed out in no more than three days, usually two. More than one bucket used so as to stagger batches enabling continuous availability. Many folks soak longer but continued fermentation I think destroys more nutritive value than it makes available. If they start smelling like sulphur they have gone too far. When feeding out the consistency is similar to sweet corn or hominy

I misunderstood and now am worried. I have whole oats as part of my feed for my 6 week old chickens. Instead of grinding them in with the rest of the grains like I had been doing, I decided to soak them 48 hours in water and feed them that way. I did cook them about 15 minutes after they were soaked. Did I do wrong by not grinding them for the 6 week old chickens or are they fine after the 48 hour soak and the 15 minutes of cooking? They do have grit available and are outside pecking away for 5+ hours a day. I started reading about crop issues and now I am in a worry.

 

[centrarchid]

I misunderstood and now am worried. I have whole oats as part of my feed for my 6 week old chickens. Instead of grinding them in with the rest of the grains like I had been doing, I decided to soak them 48 hours in water and feed them that way. I did cook them about 15 minutes after they were soaked. Did I do wrong by not grinding them for the 6 week old chickens or are they fine after the 48 hour soak and the 15 minutes of cooking? They do have grit available and are outside pecking away for 5+ hours a day. I started reading about crop issues and now I am in a worry.

I do not intentionally feed such young birds soaked oats although they usually get ahold of some. By six weeks, if standard sized birds, they should be able to handle even intact corn kernels so long as not too much and they are provided grit. My rule of thumb with incomplete food types (does not provide complete nutrition by itself), they are to represent no more than 25% of what is consumed and usually less than 10%. Only exception to that occurs in winter when food item such as soaked oats provide water and additionally energy when temperatures low. Under such conditions birds must consume same amount of complete food types they do at other times before consuming the soaked oats or the equivalent (i.e. whole corn).

I have not had crop issues with my birds that was attributable to feeding of oats. What can make that appear to be the case for my birds has been complications related to coccidia infections where gut processing slows greatly making so crop emptied abnormally slow. Birds so affected have always been in the 2 to 4 week age range. Under those conditions, any particulates proved problematic and that included insects and even chick starter. My first go with that I did think it was oats in the scratch.


To keep all this in perspective, my young birds routinely consume dried seeds of grasses and even oats without ill effects. The birds are free-range and go after alternatives when they want to.