Ducks and fodder bricks question?

[nao57]

As most of you have noticed, ducks bill isn't sharp and edged like a chicken beak.

So its hard for them to 'cut' at food than chickens in some ways. (?)

Well...my fodder bricks have been getting so thick that I'm actually worried about how thick I should allow the sprout fodder bricks to be in order to let them still be able take out bites.

What do you think about this?

When you have fodder sprout bricks do you need to cut it up smaller for ducks?

The fodder sprout bricks with barley in them can get pretty thick. And by the time I take them out its this huge solid mass. I've been tearing them into smaller pieces so far to help them eat it. And they do love it, but it takes a lot of time to do the cutting up the sprout brick. I thought by asking I might be able to work out the best options after getting feed back.

 

[NatJ]

I don't know much about ducks, but I can think of two things to do:
a) put down the fodder brick without any cutting, then watch to see how they do with it.
b) if you need to cut it up, try a shovel (preferably one with a flat end, rather than round)

 

[Sally PB]

Can you cut them with a pizza cutter? That would be faster. I grow my chicken fodder in a pie plate. When it's ready, I just slide it off into the "treat pan." If I needed to cut it up, that's what I'd try.

 

[nao57]

Can you cut them with a pizza cutter? That would be faster. I grow my chicken fodder in a pie plate. When it's ready, I just slide it off into the "treat pan." If I needed to cut it up, that's what I'd try.

Wow.

And this works pretty well?

I wouldn't have though of using pie pans! That might be cheaper than other containers!

If you use pie pans do you get limited by a pound limit? Or can you still grow them up to nice sizes?

I like it.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm not growing much at a time, compared to people like @gtaus. He has a whole tower setup; read this for more info. It's a great article!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...odder-tower-with-dollar-tree-dish-bins.75190/

I have four chickens, so I put enough barley to cover the bottom of the piepan one seed deep. I soak the seeds for 12 hours, spread them out, and just make sure they stay moist. If I see it starting to look slimy, I use some white vinegar in the water I rinse it with, about 1 tablespoon in a cup of water. Some people have used bleach, at 1 tablespoon/gallon of water for the same reason, to kill mold and I find it cuts slime too. (I just had the vinegar within reach; the bleach was down in the basement.)

One thing with piepans is they don't drain; I'm not gonna try to drill holes in a glass pan. So that's why I keep an eye on it, as it can get icky. If it does, I flood it with the vinegar/water, let it sit for about 15 minutes or so, and then drain.

I've let it grow for about 8-9 days, trimming some green tops off at day 5 or 6. What can I say, I was impatient to see if the chickens liked it. They did. They rated it four beaks up!

 

[gtaus]

One thing with piepans is they don't drain; I'm not gonna try to drill holes in a glass pan.

Just about any flat bottom plastic container would work and you could drill holes into plastic. I use the Dollar Tree dish bins for my tower system, because they were all the same size. I know our local charity/thrift store sells many plastic containers of various sizes for about 10 cents each. Just drill some drainage holes on one end and prop up the other end a bit to let the water drain out of the container. Seeds sitting in water will go bad.