anybody raise sprouts to feed the chickens?

[Feanor]

My two cents on sprouting oats:
It was hard for me to find "the" answer on how long to soak my whole oats for sprouting. I saw everything from 6-8 hours to 36-48 hours. Well I tried 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours, and by a huge margin the winner for highest sprout yield was 6 hours. At 24 hours I hardly got 1 in 10 oats to sprout. I read somewhere about oats getting waterlogged, and now I fully agree. I guess as soon as they swell up with their water, they're ready. Just an FYI for anyone out there wanting to sprout whole oats.

Question:
Does anyone know if sprouts are any better than fermented grain? From what I've read they both improve the digestibility of the grain, but does anyone know if one is better than the other? Are sprouts better because they have shoots and roots and living enzymes? Are fermented oats better because they are partially digested by the vinegar mother and full of good bacteria? Or is it a "both have their benefits" situation and I should start doing both?

I keep telling myself that this is all about saving feed cost, but I think we all know somewhere in the back of our minds that its because we love seeing our spoiled little fluffy bums going crazy over some goodies

 

[lorililly]

I really need to learn how to do this.

 

[vmdanielsen]

My two cents on sprouting oats:
It was hard for me to find "the" answer on how long to soak my whole oats for sprouting. I saw everything from 6-8 hours to 36-48 hours. Well I tried 6 hours, 12 hours, and 24 hours, and by a huge margin the winner for highest sprout yield was 6 hours. At 24 hours I hardly got 1 in 10 oats to sprout. I read somewhere about oats getting waterlogged, and now I fully agree. I guess as soon as they swell up with their water, they're ready. Just an FYI for anyone out there wanting to sprout whole oats.

Question:
Does anyone know if sprouts are any better than fermented grain? From what I've read they both improve the digestibility of the grain, but does anyone know if one is better than the other? Are sprouts better because they have shoots and roots and living enzymes? Are fermented oats better because they are partially digested by the vinegar mother and full of good bacteria? Or is it a "both have their benefits" situation and I should start doing both?

I keep telling myself that this is all about saving feed cost, but I think we all know somewhere in the back of our minds that its because we love seeing our spoiled little fluffy bums going crazy over some goodies

I do both because I think living food is good. Sprouting, because the sprout is living and the fermented because the culture is living(probiotics). Variety is a good thing!

 

[Lacy Blues]

I've done the fermented and I've tried the sprouted with not much luck. Thank you for the breakdown in soak times. I will try again... a six hour soak.

... and I agree... a little of both... because it's good for them and because I enjoy them so very much.

 

[mg15]

I have tried to ferment feed and I didn't get anywhere.
I have sprouted buckwheat groats, wheat berries and sunflower seeds a.k.a BOSS.
I have had good results with sprouting. And the birds like it. I find especially the buckwheat
groats which happen to be the lest expensive....

 

[highline]

 

[HooDoo Mtn Farm]

At the risk of plagiarizing myself, I'll insert what I've posted elsewhere on the board:

Update on my sprouting system . .
I bought a bucket for each day of the week from the Dollar store.
Day 1 is a soaker, no holes in bottom, with a pint of whatever seed (currently lentil culls; 100 lb bag for $10!).
Days 2-6 have holes in bottoms, nested into one another.
I cut 4-inch-long sections of 4" dia white plastic pipe, and set one in the bottom of each bucket as spacers, so these buckets stack about 20" high.
Day 6 bucket is at the top of the stack, & is where I run my fresh rinse water into, 2x a day (filtering down thru the stack, all set in the bathtub).
Day 7 bucket has no holes & is in a lighted area, "greening up".

The gals get Day 7 bucket every day; day 6 goes into #7, Day one soaker bucket gets dumped into #6, which then gets rotated to the #1 (bottom) position in the stack.

That 1 pint turns into a gallon & a half of sprouts for my 2 dozen chickens.

Next on the agenda is fermenting a separate batch of seed grains, when my 100 Delaware chicks come in May

 

[Kassaundra]

At the risk of plagiarizing myself, I'll insert what I've posted elsewhere on the board:

Update on my sprouting system . .
I bought a bucket for each day of the week from the Dollar store.
Day 1 is a soaker, no holes in bottom, with a pint of whatever seed (currently lentil culls; 100 lb bag for $10!).
Days 2-6 have holes in bottoms, nested into one another.
I cut 4-inch-long sections of 4" dia white plastic pipe, and set one in the bottom of each bucket as spacers, so these buckets stack about 20" high.
Day 6 bucket is at the top of the stack, & is where I run my fresh rinse water into, 2x a day (filtering down thru the stack, all set in the bathtub).
Day 7 bucket has no holes & is in a lighted area, "greening up".

The gals get Day 7 bucket every day; day 6 goes into #7, Day one soaker bucket gets dumped into #6, which then gets rotated to the #1 (bottom) position in the stack.

That 1 pint turns into a gallon & a half of sprouts for my 2 dozen chickens.

Next on the agenda is fermenting a separate batch of seed grains, when my 100 Delaware chicks come in May

Lentil culls??????? That must be a regional thing never seen such a thing here.

 

[vmdanielsen]

At the risk of plagiarizing myself, I'll insert what I've posted elsewhere on the board:

Update on my sprouting system . .
I bought a bucket for each day of the week from the Dollar store.
Day 1 is a soaker, no holes in bottom, with a pint of whatever seed (currently lentil culls; 100 lb bag for $10!).
Days 2-6 have holes in bottoms, nested into one another.
I cut 4-inch-long sections of 4" dia white plastic pipe, and set one in the bottom of each bucket as spacers, so these buckets stack about 20" high.
Day 6 bucket is at the top of the stack, & is where I run my fresh rinse water into, 2x a day (filtering down thru the stack, all set in the bathtub).
Day 7 bucket has no holes & is in a lighted area, "greening up".

The gals get Day 7 bucket every day; day 6 goes into #7, Day one soaker bucket gets dumped into #6, which then gets rotated to the #1 (bottom) position in the stack.

That 1 pint turns into a gallon & a half of sprouts for my 2 dozen chickens.

Next on the agenda is fermenting a separate batch of seed grains, when my 100 Delaware chicks come in May

I like it!! Thanks for sharing!!

 

[HooDoo Mtn Farm]

Lentil culls??????? That must be a regional thing never seen such a thing here.

Hi, Kass . .
Undersized lentils, didn't make the grade!
- R