black oiled sunflower seeds

[duckluck]

Mrs. K :

To sprout, do you just wet them down and drain them a couple times a day? And then feed them after a couple of days? mk

Keep them wet and feed them as soon as they sprout. Don't let them sit too long after sprouting because you want them to get eaten before they can get moldy. I wouldn't let them sit more than a day sprouted, myself, before feeding...that's our rule of thumb for parrots, anyway.​

 

[Amethyste]

My birds planted their own on the sides of the fence lol

I give them BOSS as a treat and sprinkle it in the run... I noticed they were kicking them in a certain area, and they woudl run over and give it the chicken eye. I didnt think much about it till I saw them kicking dirt towards that part of the fence. I went to see and they had a whole garden of BOSS sprouts growing lol

They do love them!!!

 

[PAJerry]

To sprout them, you just need to wet them with cool water once in the morning and once in the evening. They sprout in 3 days. Mixing them up a bit when wetting them helps prevent mold but this is not a problem if you are sprouting in a cool location.

 

[lngrid]

Quote:
Sounds like you have some smart chickens. Do you think they might be into square foot gardening ?

 

[Hen_House_Rocks!]

I don't think that my chickens "get" that the boss's are food. I bought a big bag and have been offering it to them in their feeder and by hand and they just look at me like i'm trying to feed them a shoe.

 

[Tala]

Our WM is expensive here. They're waay cheaper at TSC.
I bought mine at Wal-Mart and then found them about $4 cheaper at TSC.

Black Friday last week I bought 40# at TSC for $3 off the regular price - even though I don't really need any, they'll keep.

 

[ruffles]

Interesting, are teh small sunflower seeds the safest to feed?/

also, I purchased a bag of Ventura Chicken Feed Layer, as my 5 month old Rhode Island, perhaps two are now laying eggs as of last Friday , ingredient list alfalfa preserved with ethoxoquin, I guess I am concerned as this was removed from some cat and dog food?/

Does all chicken feed hae some ethoxoquin in it,?/ In cat and dog food if a company purchases say an ingredient to use in rocesing, and it contains a preservative they do not have to list it,but, if they directly add tehe the preservative , it has to be listed.

Now, I finished a bag of Agway layer and alfalfa is not an ingredient and no listing of preservatives



Anyone feed Layeena or Blue Seal chicken feeds


Sandi
Massachusetts

 

[CarolynPerth]

wow I looked up ethoxyquin and found this: http://www.avianweb.com/ethoxyquin.htm

Something I'll be looking out for now.

 

[Georgiapea]

Thank you for posting this. I've long been opposed to ethoxyquin but did not realize it might be in poultry feed. I'll be label reading more carefully from now on.

Georgia in Alabama

 

[Akane]

Large striped sunflower seeds have stronger hulls that are not digestible. Chickens could probably still break them up but mammals can't do anything with them. The little black seeds have digestible hulls full of nutrients. You can sometimes find just the kernel of the striped sunflower seeds, usually broken bits that didn't make it to be human snacks, amongst the other bird feeds. If I see them I buy them for treats to small pets and certain wild birds. The chickens do fine with the cheaper BOSS and it has more nutrition so no reason to buy just the kernels for them.

Not sure how ethoxyquin came up in this thread but yea it's bad. I make sure all my dog food, guinea pig pellets, hamster food, sugar glider biscuits, etc... is ethoxyquin free. Any fish source you have to be careful of because any fish not destined for human food is usually by law required to be treated with ethoxyquin before it even gets loaded up to ship anywhere. It may not be listed on the bag but in the fish if the fish are not from human grade sources. The only way to know is to call the company and ask. Many have gotten that call so many times they put it on the bag or their website. Most other ingredients are not preserved with ethoxyquin and most livestock feeds have strict limits on ethoxyquin because it can transfer to humans after the animals are butchered so you don't have to worry about it as much in feeds made for chickens or other livestock that could be used as food.