? about chickens & oats

[nikischicks]

cool thanks!

 

[greathorse]

Is this as simple as mixing oats and water into a slushy mass and waiting for the oats to sour? I have some birds that are in a light molt of some kind and I want to get them going, I am impatient waiting for these reds to kick in and lay. Do you mix it with the other feed or do you feed it straight for some time. I am not sure I want to spend the summer fermenting oats but would sure like to do something to get these girls to kick in

I have smelled soured oats in the bottom of a feed barrel and they STINK, is that oats that have gone too long or is that what they smell like? I have never thought about feeding them, but at the time I was feeding horses and it was rain in the bottom of a nearly empty feed barrel. I would assume the horse would not do good on it.

 

[technodoll]

I buy a 90 lbs bag of whole oats from the feedstore (I think they're oats for horses? raw, whole, unhulled) for $14 and keep the bag in the house for freshness.

My chickens go nuts for cooked oats (boil a big pot of water, add oats, let simmer for 10 minutes, turn off heat and cover the pot until cooled off and all water absorbed - this keeps in the fridge for a week). I add a couple of cups in their warm morning breakfast mush and have noticed bigger eggs and shinier feathers since!

 

[sommrluv]

I purchase oats hay from a farmer up the way from me. The chickens Love love love this. And they get tons of exercise over the winter smashing the stuff around.

 

[Chick CJ]

I fix Quaker oatmeal every morning for me and DH and I make extra to feed my hens. They go crazy for it and if I'm not careful when I put the tin down they will knock it out of my hands to get at it. When they are done and I pick up the tin to wash out there is not a speck of oatmeal left in it!
CJ

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
This whole 'hot feed' thing is a misunderstanding of what that phrase means. Corn or any other sort of grain is not going to raise your chicken's body temperatures.

Oats can be a good feed depending on what form they are in and how much it costs. I fed whole oats as a part of my scratch grains for years but eventually stopped. Oat hulls are indigestible and unless you have good, heavy oats the hulls constitute such a large portion of the kernel weight that they are hardly worth the bother. My birds would flick them out on the ground to get at the other grains after they'd eaten what they wanted of the oats. They don't do that with the wheat I switched to from the oats.

Feed store rolled oats are a much better feed than whole oats and grocery store rolled oats are better still because they have fewer to no hulls. Of course they cost three times or more what a bag of whole corn costs so that is an important consideration if you are having to watch your feed bill. Crimped oats are somewhere in between whole and rolled oats in value.

.....Alan.

 

[dchickenman]

Thanks for clearing that up Alan

 

[purplemoma]

When soaking the oats, do you need to cover them, or leave the container open, or does it matter?

Thanks!

 

[carolinasculpture]

Hi! Quite the discussion on oats! I love learning all the new stuff! We make our own cheese and I soak the oats in the whey that is left over. Just for maybe 1/2 hour, usually covered, but just because...I don't think it would need to be. Then I serve it as a treat. They love it!

 

[momdrinkstea]

Is oats + cracked corn + wheat a good mix?

What ratio of each/kind of each would you recommend?

Do you add oyster shells to the mix for laying hens? If so, what ratio?

I feed my chickens clabbered raw milk, with the whey, and they LOVE it!

Thanks for all of the info!
Gotta try the soured oats too!