Can chickens eat cross pollinated grains?

[higuy1375]

I don't own much land but I want to make my own chicken feed. To conserve land, if I plant oats, wheat, and barley all together, which will most likly cause them to cross pollinate. If I feed this to my chickens, will they still eat it and get the same amount of nutrients if they weren't cross pollinated and were mixed separate? I am also adding in other ingredients too

 

[MysteryChicken]

I don't own much land but I want to make my own chicken feed. To conserve land, if I plant oats, wheat, and barley all together, which will most likly cause them to cross pollinate. If I feed this to my chickens, will they still eat it and get the same amount of nutrients if they weren't cross pollinated and were mixed separate? I am also adding in other ingredients too

I don't see why not.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Sorry that I don't know too much about cross pollination, even though I don't think it'd be a problem...
Whenever I have a food I'm bringing to my flock that I'm questioning, I offer a little to them for them to try. If they like it, I let them eat it. If they don't like it, I don't give them anymore. Chickens should have a natural sense that tells them if something is safe to eat or not by tasting it. (Not in every setuation that is accurate. Don't ever give your chickens something that you know isn't safe for them to eat to test this theory out.)

 

[saysfaa]

Wheat, oats, and barley do not cross pollinate. Well, technically people can force at least wheat and oats to cross but it is not easy to do. Wheat will cross with rye in a field (it makes triticale, which is edible by people and chickens).

But I recommend planting them in separate patches because they do best planted at much different times and they ripen at much different times.

 

[Coops Dad]

It doesn't matter what cross pollinates in a field of grain, legumes or other vegetables as far as THIS year's crop is concerned. Even they DID cross pollinate, the effects of the hybridization wouldn't be realized unless you planted the resulting seeds of the mature crops. Like if you have a pear tree and it is pollinated by a wild quince, you wouldn't know it by eating the fruit; you'd have to plant the seeds from the pear you ate and only when the resulting tree bears fruit would you experience what that cross pollination yielded.

 

[Coops Dad]

I sowed all kinds of leftover veggie, bean and greens seeds in the back of our tractor shed where the chickens couldn't get to them. After they'd sprouted and grown some, I opened the fence panel that kept them out and they loved it. Foot tall corn plants, broccoli seedlings, soybean sprouts, baby lettuce, all of it was devoured by the chickens in under a week.

They liked the young plants as much as anything I've ever seen them eat.