Don't tell the wife, I'm growing fodder in the 2nd bathroom!

[gtaus]

UPDATE 10/9/2019: About Day 6 and the oldest barley fodder bin has grass about 4 inches tall. That's comparable to about Day 5 of growing outside in the garage this summer. So, maybe it's only a day to a day-and-a-half behind from my summer experiment. Anyway, some nice pics to share....

Here is a side view of the fodder bin. You can see the barley grass blades are up to the top of the dish bin side, so about 4 inches tall. Notice how almost all the barley seeds have germinated. Very nice carpeting and excellent root mat.

Here is a picture from the top view. Again, you can see how lush and green the fodder is. I am sure my girls will love this. It is ready to feed to them now, but I'm going to let it grow out for another day or two and let the grass get taller.

Alright, this is working out pretty good and I am very happy with my indoor results so far with the barley fodder. I have a couple bins of oats and oats/barley mixed in the sprouting stages. They don't look like they are coming along as well as the barley only bins, but in a few days I will have a better idea if the oats bins are growing good, or not.

One thing I just noticed today is that there are some little flies in and around the fodder bins. They look like small fruit flies to me. I might set out a fruit fly trap with some apple vinegar if I see more flies. It's not really a problem, yet, but thought I would mention it.

Along with that, I should mention that there is almost no smell coming from the bins. I have filled my tower rack with 7 bins, so I no longer have any new seeds soaking in standing water. I think the only smell I detected the other day was probably coming from the soaking bin. So that is a positive report to make for those of you considering to grow fodder in your basement, or elsewhere in your house.

The smell was never bad, and now I cannot detect any odor.

Will update again in a few days. Stay tuned....

 

[Major_in_MS]

that there are some little flies in and around the fodder bins

Hmmm, this would me a deal breaker for me. I hate a blasted Drosophila! I used to raise the flightless ones for my kids pac-man frogs that my sister gave them without checking with me first. Thanks, Tracy, for that.

 

[gtaus]

Hmmm, this would me a deal breaker for me [little flies around the fodder bins].

Well, I'm trying to honest with my observations and I thought I should mention this. These are the same type of flies I see when we take a small bunch of bananas home from the supermarket. Or sometimes other fruit. It's not an infestation by any means, but I did notice some small flies.

I will keep track of this situation and update as appropriate. Right now, I'm not concerned with the number of flies I discovered. But I understand how this might be a deal breaker for some people. At least for inside the house.

 

[Kiwibird]

These tiny fruit flies are also attracted when I soak wheat in an open container on the kitchen bench. If they hang around, it's just extra protein for the poultry, but I think they will lose interest in any bins past their initial soaking phase.

 

[gtaus]

These tiny fruit flies are also attracted when I soak wheat in an open container on the kitchen bench. If they hang around, it's just extra protein for the poultry, but I think they will lose interest in any bins past their initial soaking phase.

This was my last day of new soaking bins. Until I feed my oldest bin to the girls in a couple of days, I will not be starting a new bin. So I will see if the flies lose interest and/or just die off. We don't have any flies anywhere else in the house.

 

[duluthralphie]

No, the wife did not see the bathroom curtain open. In our house, the second bathroom is on the "other" side of the house along with our guest bedroom and my home office. She really does not have much need to go to that side of the house on a daily basis. She does have some things stored in the closets on that end of the house, but mostly seasonal bedding and bed spreads. Where I am concerned that I will get caught is if the fodder starts to smell or if she goes into the second bathroom to clean it (she cleans the bathroom even though it does not get used!) and opens up that curtain.

If she found the fodder tower, I would know about it from her. You would probably read about it in the obituary pages after you notice I am no longer posting to BYC forums!

Which paper will carry your obit?

Would you like a full chicken funeral?

We need to be prepared for this, we can’t just assume it will be done.

Also you should join us on our state thread. Of course, it’s not all Minnesota people on it. We have some southies that wish they were us too..

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/surviving-minnesota.1052702/page-4041#post-21832041

 

[MROO]

Loved the story.

At any rate, you got me interested in trying this someday. Thanks.

Sounds like another tower in the bathroom ...

 

[Kusanar]

Loved the story.



I was talking about using the aquarium as the container because I think I have a nice screen cover for it. I was thinking about only putting a couple inches of oatmeal in the bottom, not filling the entire tank to the top.

I watched a few YouTube videos on growing meal worms and understand the process better. They used carrots, but the concept was the same in that they eat the oatmeal but "drink" the carrot.

For harvesting meal worms, one guy showed how he used a series of sorting screens made to fit on a 5 gallon bucket. He had a pretty big operation and stated he had about 5000 meal worms. Sounds like a lot to me. But he was able to sort out the mealies from the eggs from the beetles with those screens in just a couple of minutes. He had a number of trays going at one time. It looked like a lot of work to me, but he stated that it only takes a few minutes to set up a tray, and then it basically sits for 2 weeks before you need to sort and sift the meal worms and start new trays.

At any rate, you got me interested in trying this someday. Thanks.

You can also make harvest easier by making age group bins. You can put window screen in the bottom of a tub (cut bottom out of tub first) and nest that tub in another one with some space between. Put a thin layer of food (oatmeal, wheat bran, etc) in the bottom and put your beetles in this bin, the eggs and small worms will fall through to the bottom bin, simply change out bottom bins every so often and this will give you age ranges. SOME worms will not fall through and will live with the beetles and will somewhat ensure that you have a steady supply of beetles for the next generation.

 

[room onthebroom]

I generally toss the slices after the mealies are done with them. There's not usually much left and they look nasty! An aquarium would work, but it's probably a bit of overkill. You only need a few inches of oatmeal to keep your buggies happy. If you put much more in there, you'll never find 'em until they fully morph into beetles. That's okay, too, I guess. My birds like to chase them, but the beetles are more likely to get away and I'd really rather not have them living in my yard!

I can't really tell you how long the little buggers live, because ours have been inconsistent from the get-go. To explain that, I have to tell you a story:

We started with mealworms looooong before we had chickens. DS' first grade class studied the metamorphosis of the mealworm from mealie to beetle. The process took them about two weeks, after which, the students were "allowed" to take their pets home. Many declined, so DS ended up with six of them, including "High Five," so named because "he" lost an appendage during Show-n-Tell on the bus ride home.

When DS arrived home, carefully carrying his cup cup full of "pets," I immediately got on the horn with the "thoughtful" teacher who allowed him to adopt these lovely little critters. She assured me that I had nothing to worry about, as Darkling beetles were completely harmless, took no real care other than the apple slice, only lived about a month and required "ideal conditions" to reproduce. Okay, I could handle pet bugs for a month.

Well, two strikes against that wise and helpful teacher-lady. Not only did our buddy "High Five" live a long and healthy six months, but apparently a styrofoam cup on my kitchen counter constitutes "ideal conditions" in the mealworm world. We had to expand their living quarters several times, as High Five and his friends were extremely friendly with one another and we soon had a healthy little colony going. I didn't really complain (at least not too much) because my super shy, socially awkward son was totally enamored of his pets. He took them out for exercise and showed them off to anyone and everyone who would listen to him recite their histories.

Well, over time, I managed to thin down the ranks by explaining to DS that we needed to "clean out" their bowl. Changing the oatmeal once a week effectively took out many eggs. Fewer eggs = fewer meal worms = fewer beetles = happier Mama. By the time the last one passed on (to much fanfare and a sad farewell from DS) we had been catering to his pets for nearly two years. I breathed a deep sigh of relief and ceremoniously put away the ceramic dish they'd been living in for so long.

Two weeks later, guess what DD brought home from her first grade class?

OMGosh! Tooooooo funny!!!

 

[gtaus]

Which paper will carry your obit? Would you like a full chicken funeral? We need to be prepared for this, we can’t just assume it will be done. Also you should join us on our state thread. Of course, it’s not all Minnesota people on it. We have some southies that wish they were us too..
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/surviving-minnesota.1052702/page-4041#post-21832041

I really did not think this through very well. I suppose if my wife did me in about this fodder tower, she would probably cut me up with my reciprocating saws and feed me to the chickens as nothing more than road kill. She would probably leave the chicken run gate open and let the chickens free range - for the rest of their lives because I doubt she would be going out there to feed and water my girls.

The bad news is that I suppose she would claim I ran off with a younger woman and never heard from me again. Therefore, no local obituary. However, sooner or later there would be someone who would suspect "fowl" play (younger women have no interest in me anymore, if ever) and maybe an investigation would start. Could be someone from BYC forums informs the police and sends them a link to this thread. Probably make the cops job a lot easier.

So, that is about when you would hear about my demise. I'm sure you would be reading about it in all the state papers, at least, and maybe it would hit the national papers with headlines like "Something gone a-fowl in Minnesota chicken caper!" "Hen-pecked husband fed to his own chickens!" "Fodder Tower Collapse leaves one dead!" "Chicken guy found in compost bin!" "Nothing but bones in chicken run. DNA test to follow."

I don't even know what a full chicken funeral is, but I suppose that's about my only option at that time.

Anyway, the goal is not to get caught in the first place, but if I do, I now have a list of at least 18 excuses I can throw out in my defense. And if all that fails, I can still outrun my wife...