anybody raise sprouts to feed the chickens?

[Kassaundra]

Kassaundra suggested using just a tiny bit of soap in the soak water. I've been doing that, and haven't had any mold in my sprouts since then. Next time I'm at the dollar store, I plan to buy a bottle of ivory dish soap to avoid all of the "antibacterial" agents in the usual dish soap.

Glad it is working for you, it has been for me too.

 

[RichnSteph]

Checked the BOSS seeds last night after the second rinse and we have a few starting to sprout at the pointy end of the seeds!

 

[OkanaganPeppers]

I been coming by and quietly reading about every ones sprouting, fermenting and making your own feed discussions. I've kept thing pretty simple for my sprouting just wheat berries, for a little extra nutrition during our winter months. But this year I wanted to make my own feed and. to all members that have posted questions and experiences I have to give all of you a BIG thank you.

First this morning I was looking over the posts on how to make your own feed and figuring out the proteins and to see where I was at and....and I finnally got it!

Just to note I'm not there yet on making my own feed 100% I chickens always have access to either layer pellets or chick starter, but I am feelng pretty good about it.

So I now sprout wheat,, BOSS and I just started adding sprouted buckewheat (3 days now). For the buckwheat I soak it for 4 hrs and it is used on the 3rd day (rotating 3 jars), no green leafy just sprouted roots, From what I've read the fagopyrin is in the green leafy part of the buckwheat which can cause the light sensitivity.

So off I went to dish out the goods. My first stop was my brooder shed with 17 one month old Legbars and one Silkie hen. Well... they went freaking crazy! about me this morning. Flying up to see me at the screened window,jumping at the bucket. Yah they where always excited to see me in the mornings but today they where extra excited. I'm thinking it might be the sprouted buckwheat that I added to the mix, not sure cause I also just bumped up the ground flax seed. But the are loving it! Just wanted to share and say thank you to all the BYC members. Anyways I was pretty happy that they where so excited...it made my day.

and to see if I can share a pic here is a image of my BOSS

 

[glib]

I been coming by and quietly reading about every ones sprouting, fermenting and making your own feed discussions. I've kept thing pretty simple for my sprouting just wheat berries, for a little extra nutrition during our winter months. But this year I wanted to make my own feed and. to all members that have posted questions and experiences I have to give all of you a BIG thank you.

First this morning I was looking over the posts on how to make your own feed and figuring out the proteins and to see where I was at and....and I finnally got it!

Just to note I'm not there yet on making my own feed 100% I chickens always have access to either layer pellets or chick starter, but I am feelng pretty good about it.

So I now sprout wheat,, BOSS and I just started adding sprouted buckewheat (3 days now). For the buckwheat I soak it for 4 hrs and it is used on the 3rd day (rotating 3 jars), no green leafy just sprouted roots, From what I've read the fagopyrin is in the green leafy part of the buckwheat which can cause the light sensitivity.

So off I went to dish out the goods. My first stop was my brooder shed with 17 one month old Legbars and one Silkie hen. Well... they went freaking crazy! about me this morning. Flying up to see me at the screened window,jumping at the bucket. Yah they where always excited to see me in the mornings but today they where extra excited. I'm thinking it might be the sprouted buckwheat that I added to the mix, not sure cause I also just bumped up the ground flax seed. But the are loving it! Just wanted to share and say thank you to all the BYC members. Anyways I was pretty happy that they where so excited...it made my day.

and to see if I can share a pic here is a image of my BOSS

Now these are well treated chooks. I am a fan of fermented, but it needs to be mixed with sprouted. Then you are covering a whole lot of micronutrients.

 

[RichnSteph]

image of my BOSS

That is just neat! What are you sprouting them in? We just started feeding sprouted BOSS as well and the chickens are really happy to have them. Even our duck is a big fan. I have two small trays that I am rotating out and if I do it right I can feed out of one for a few days while the other grows out. If I had room I'd have 4-6 larger bins to grow so that they'd get a healthy portion every day. Right now it's a before bed snack and they all get maybe 4 ounces of the sprouts each. The duck I think fills up on them as she goes right to bed as soon as she's done eating.

Looks great!

 

[OkanaganPeppers]

Thanks......I'm using black nusery trays lined with landscaping fabric. Ussally in the Spring time you'll get them free to take home your bedding plants. I also been using our empty coffee containers with holes drilled in the lid for the soaking of the seeds. I was using 4 cups of BOSS per tray but I'm going to bring it down to 3 cups, it was a little thicker than it needed to be. At first I was rotating 6 trays, starting BOSS seeds everyday....but wow I got a little overwhelmed by BOSS sprouts, so I'm going to bring my tray #'s down... maybe 3 trays, giving a .a break of 2 days inbetween.

My method is to put my BOSS seeds in the red container and soak over night. I then rinse and drain thoroughly, doing this every day till roots appear, which is about 2 days. Then put the seeds into the lned nursery tray and keep them in a clear plastic toute (mini green house) for a additional 3 - 4 days, taking them out every day and spraying them with cold water, lrtting them drain before putting them back into the toute. By the 3rd or 4th day they have gotten taller and I then move them to green up for another day or 2. I only keep a small number of chickens (10-20) so I don't need a whole lot. The lights come on at about 5 AM in my coop so they first get their pellets breakfast than by about 8 or 9 AM I'll come out with the sprouts and other goodies. Because of where I live they don't have access to any greens.....just alot of snow. So this really helps give that lacking nutrients back to them.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I been coming by and quietly reading about every ones sprouting, fermenting and making your own feed discussions. I've kept thing pretty simple for my sprouting just wheat berries, for a little extra nutrition during our winter months. But this year I wanted to make my own feed and. to all members that have posted questions and experiences I have to give all of you a BIG thank you.

First this morning I was looking over the posts on how to make your own feed and figuring out the proteins and to see where I was at and....and I finnally got it!

Just to note I'm not there yet on making my own feed 100% I chickens always have access to either layer pellets or chick starter, but I am feelng pretty good about it.

So I now sprout wheat,, BOSS and I just started adding sprouted buckewheat (3 days now). For the buckwheat I soak it for 4 hrs and it is used on the 3rd day (rotating 3 jars), no green leafy just sprouted roots, From what I've read the fagopyrin is in the green leafy part of the buckwheat which can cause the light sensitivity.

So off I went to dish out the goods. My first stop was my brooder shed with 17 one month old Legbars and one Silkie hen. Well... they went freaking crazy! about me this morning. Flying up to see me at the screened window,jumping at the bucket. Yah they where always excited to see me in the mornings but today they where extra excited. I'm thinking it might be the sprouted buckwheat that I added to the mix, not sure cause I also just bumped up the ground flax seed. But the are loving it! Just wanted to share and say thank you to all the BYC members. Anyways I was pretty happy that they where so excited...it made my day.

and to see if I can share a pic here is a image of my BOSS

Regarding your ground flax seed, how much do you give your birds?

I do some for mine but I'm not sure how much is too much and I base what I give them on the effect the flaxmeal has on me. I know it's really good for them. The only way I have, right now, to grind them is this little coffee bean grinder which really isn't a grinder at all. It's more like a dull bladed blender but it only holds about 1/4 cup. I grind up at least 4 of those to give to my birds which number somewhere close to 100.

 

[OkanaganPeppers]

Regarding your ground flax seed, how much do you give your birds?

I do some for mine but I'm not sure how much is too much and I base what I give them on the effect the flaxmeal has on me. I know it's really good for them. The only way I have, right now, to grind them is this little coffee bean grinder which really isn't a grinder at all. It's more like a dull bladed blender but it only holds about 1/4 cup. I grind up at least 4 of those to give to my birds which number somewhere close to 100.

I'm still figuring out things myself... so I'd be the wrong person to ask about the effect of flaxmeal. Might have to go to a different thread to find your answer...I'm just a new egg so feeling my way around still

As far as what I've been using though is a manual poppy seed grinder, basically the same thing as you. And I'm giving them 1/2 cup for about 20 birds.

edited to add....a quote from this link about flaxseed and chickens.

"Overfeeding flaxseed can cause problems for your hens because flaxseed contains sticky compounds that stop the hen from digesting some of the nutrients in her diet. Flaxseed also contains a compound called linoline that may increase the birds' vitamin requirements. Feeding too much flaxseed can cause production drops, small egg size, reduced body weight gain and thin egg shells. Including 10% flaxseed will increase the omega-3 fatty acids in your eggs and not cause problems for your birds."
http://www.gov.mb.ca/agriculture/li...-acids-in-eggs-from-small-chicken-flocks.html

Since I'm in the learning stage, I did a quick search for myself as well. Good question and thanks!

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'm assuming the 10% is by weight? If that's the case, or even if it's by volume, I am certainly nowhere near over-doing it.

I haven't seen a hand grinder. The one I have is electric and about the size of a "tumbler".

 

[OkanaganPeppers]

I'm assuming the 10% is by weight? If that's the case, or even if it's by volume, I am certainly nowhere near over-doing it.

I haven't seen a hand grinder. The one I have is electric and about the size of a "tumbler".

Yes I believe it would be by weight here is a link to a BYC thread that inlightened me on that https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/413596/ned-help-making-feed-mix/10
As far as the grinders I have, they`ve all have been baught at thrift stores, I just can`t refuse old cast iron stuff