anybody raise sprouts to feed the chickens?

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
hhmmm...I was trying to sprout whole oats(they sprout in the horse poop well enough), but have not been able to sprout them whole. whole oats are seeds.....so Why aren't they sprouting? What is the difference between seed oats and whole oats?
Ginny

 

[HEChicken]

How long are you giving them? Different seeds sprout at different amounts of time. With wheat you can usually see sprouts in about 3 days. Oats take longer. I wish I could say exactly how long but I have so many different things going all the time that I don't pay particular attention to how many days each variety takes. I want to say for oats its often most of a week before I see the sprouts.

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
OK, I fed the soaked whole oats this morning..after they soaked for four days. I will try it again but be more patient. I didn't know that they might still be viable. thanks,
Ginny

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I will give them as long as it takes unless they seem to be rotting. I did however throw them part of the soaked oats from jar #1 to see how they like them. They didn't really dive in but they still had some corn from last night, so they weren't real hungry.

 

[joebryant]

Quote:
I will give them as long as it takes unless they seem to be rotting. I did however throw them part of the soaked oats from jar #1 to see how they like them. They didn't really dive in but they still had some corn from last night, so they weren't real hungry.

Do you make your own yogurt or kefir or buttermilk? If so, and your chickens have had it before, pour some over your sprouts, and watch them disappear fast.
KEFIR http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html
ETA Watch all ten of this guy's presentations:

BUTTERMILK Mine love it, and its lactic acid and bacteria culture is super healthy for them and YOU.
I make it a gallon at a time:
Buy a quart of buttermilk, pour it into a large container with a gallon of milk. Let the five quarts sit at room temperature for 24 hours, stirring occasionally, and you'll have five quarts. Save a quart to use with another gallon of milk later.
BTW, buttermilk will keep for a very long time in the refrigerator.
Store in a glass container(s).

YOGURTMAKE INEXPENSIVE YOGURT THE EASY WAY
(based on directions from “Miss Prissy” on the Backyard Chickens forum)
by
Joe D. Bryant
You will need:
A small plastic, insulated cooler that will hold:
4 one-quart jars/lids for yogurt/milk OR 2 half-gallon jars/lids for yogurt milk
2 more quart jars to be filled with boiling water
A very large pan to first boil water and then heat milk to 185* F.

Ingredients:
One gallon of milk (1% to 4%)
One cup (or two heaping tablespoonsful per quart if not making a whole gallon) of PLAIN yogurt with live culture… no flavor… no fruit… Stonyfield Farms Organic plain yogurt OR Traders Point Creamery plain yogurt are both excellent and are sold by Marsh and other large chain stores for $5 quart.

I used an Igloo 26-quart cooler that K-Mart sells for about $20.

After the large pan of water is boiling, dip all the jars/lids in for several seconds to sterilize everything.

Pour the large pan of boiling water into the cooler and into two quart jars. Put the lids on the jars loosely. Close the cooler’s lid with the two jars filled and the rest of the boiling water in the bottom of the cooler.

Set the cooler aside to heat up and proceed to make the yogurt:

After cooling the large pan, use it again to heat one gallon of milk to 185 degrees (I used Anne's meat thermometer because I couldn't find a "candy" thermometer in two stores). Place the hot milk pan in a sink filled with ice water and let it cool to 115 degrees (took about five minutes with ice on outside of pan). Stir in one cup of plain yogurt into the 115* F milk. After mixing well, pour the milk into the four sterilized one-quart glass jars or two half-gallon jars and put on the lids (not tight).

Go back to the cooler, set the two quarts of hot water aside for a moment and empty the hot water out of the bottom of the cooler. Set the jars of warm milk/yogurt mix into the cooler with the two jars of boiling water and close the lid.
After ten to twelve hours, take out the bottles of milk (finished yogurt) and put them in the refrigerator to cool.

That’s it:
For the cost of a gallon of milk, you have four quarts of yogurt that are identical to the cup of expensive plain yogurt that you bought. Save a cup of your new yogurt to make another gallon when this one is almost gone.

 

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
OK, I fed the soaked whole oats this morning..after they soaked for four days. I will try it again but be more patient. I didn't know that they might still be viable. thanks,
Ginny

Are you keeping them in the water for 4 days? You only soak for 8-24 hrs, then either rinse daily or keep moist for the rest of the sprouting time.

I get the whole oats that are under $10.00 at the feed store and they are sprouting wonderfully, I'll post pics later today.

 

[noodleroo]

joebryant; thanks for the recipes!

 

[Kassaundra]

Here are a few pics of my sprouting. I don't have pics of every stage.

1st step pour desired seeds into bulap sack and place that sack in bucket of water for 12-24 hrs (no pic, but it is a 3-5 gall bucket)

2nd step, after the soak place sack long side down on a plastic lid, fold edges of sack and crimp closed, and spread seeds out in the sack helps if you number or color code.

Each day repeat this process until the desired days of sprouting are met. (I sprout for four days so I end up w/ 3-4 sacks stacked on top of each other w/ one in the soaking bucket) Always put the newest one on bottom, by rotation the oldest sprout sack will be on top. loosely cover the pile of sacks so they stay moist I use a second lid.

Under the sacks will look like this starting w/ the 2nd day for oats anyway

They never need rinsing, just pull off the top sack each day and feed it to the chickens. I just turn the sack inside out and leave it out in the pen for a little bit, or until I have time to go get it, they will have picked it clean and the sack is ready for the next batch.

It literally takes seconds to put some water in the bucket in the morning put a few scoops of seed in the sack and set it to soak. Takes a few minutes to place the new sack on the bottom of the stack of sacks. Then there is just taking the top sack out to the girls. Less then 5 minutes a day.

I have tried other materials and the burlap seems to work the best retains enough moisture to continue to sprout w/o repeated rinsing, not too much so as to start molding.

When you pick up the sprouting sacks you will feel the heat they are generating.

I just purchased a couple of yards of burlap fabric and did simple straight seems up the sides, using the fabric fold as the bottom of the sack, if you want to get fancy you can go over the raw edge w/ a zig zag stitch to prevent raveling. 1.5 yards made 4 sacks. You may want yours bigger or smaller I am feeding 23 chickens.

Hope this helps some that are having trouble. There are a lot of ways this is not the only one by far, but I found it works for me w/ little time investment. I'm not always around for repeated rinsing.

 

[oldchickenlady]

Well, I guess I'll be going to Whole Foods tomorrow! Read through the whole sprout thread, the chickens and I are gonna be eating healthier! I could start some BOSS tonight, though...

 

[vmdanielsen]

Quote:
OK, I fed the soaked whole oats this morning..after they soaked for four days. I will try it again but be more patient. I didn't know that they might still be viable. thanks,
Ginny

Are you keeping them in the water for 4 days? You only soak for 8-24 hrs, then either rinse daily or keep moist for the rest of the sprouting time.

I get the whole oats that are under $10.00 at the feed store and they are sprouting wonderfully, I'll post pics later today.

I did write soaked, but they soaked for about a day then rinsed 2-3X's daily after.