Alfalfa: cubes and pellets questions

[Nicole01]

I've been sprouting alfalfa for us and the chickens along with sunflower seeds. They are fresh and do not get stuck in the crop.

 

[allpeepedout]

Mine completely clean up soaked pellets.

 

[lotzahenz]

I would also soak them in Hot water. My local Tractor supply store sells bales of pure Alfalfa hay, it is super compressed and wrapped in plastic. Not your regular bale of hay. It i expensive, but it is pure and the birds go crazy over the green leaves. I have 80 birds and I feed two of these bales a winter, just a little to get yellower yolks. Maybe they would order it for you? It comes from out West and they order it like they do horse feed. Good luck. It runs $12.00 per bale here, but the bale weighs around 50#.

 

[ontimeborzoi]

I use cubes. I have learned that they soften MUCH fast if you use hot water. Cold water takes forever. They will expand about four times more than you think they will. : ))
Some chickens need more than one try before they will eat it. I think my girls took about four days, so don't give up just because no one is interested the first time they see the stuff.

 

[Ariel301]

I use the pellets, I soak them in water or milk/whey until they fall apart and mix them into the rest of the food.

 

[cmom]

Not all alfalfa is the same. My birds won't eat the orchard alfalfa which has more of a broad leaf. I do buy nice green small leaf alfalfa (variety unknown) and they go nuts over it and eat all of the little leaves off of the stems. I have used the alfalfa cubes and they did eat it too after awhile. I did soak the cubes in water. They really like the small leaf alfalfa best and when I don 't have enough vegie scraps for them then I put out the alfalfa so they can get some green. I do let them free range when I can be out with them as we have so many predators around (hawks, coyotes, dogs, foxes, racoons, etc). I have lost birds to a possum, bobcat and dogs that run loose in our area, so I don't let them out unless I'm out. Now I have an electric fence as each time the predator dug under the fence.

 

[teamsunbelt]

Not sure of all the ingrediants, but mine get a dose of rabbit pellets on occassion. The clean up anything that the rabbits spill under their hutches while they are out, and I throw them a handful as scratch as well. It is very green pellets, and they eat them up quickly. As a treat, the 50# bags are pretty cheap. The ducks eat them as well.

 

[BlazeJester]

My uncle just showed me the alfalfa cubes and my girls ate them right up (uh, in the first 24 hours). I broke them up and soaked them in water.

 

[hannakat]

I soaked a cube of alfalfa in water yesterday and it made a nice little bowl of greens. The girls run around the yard trying to find their greens but winter in PA doesn't offer much. They looked at it, pecked at it, knocked it over and then left to go scratch in the dry brush. I went out later and called them, turned the bowl over and brave, cocky Penelope started flinging it all over the place. The other girls went after the pieces she was flinging and before I knew it the bowl was empty. yummmo!

 

[geoff40]

Update: bought a 50 pound bag of Timothy alfalfa cubes. Reconstituted in water, just as some of you have said, then given to the birds, they took right to it. They scratch through it while eating it, looks like they like it just fine.