Everyone, post your best homemade chicken feed recipes!

[redsix]

can you post any pics?

would wheat do the same thing?

 

[chickengr]

thank you! I will do it with wheat and start looking for barley although I am not sure if I can find it where I live.

 

[Seatrout00]

Have you tried sprouting grains? You can buy a 50 lb. bag of barley for about $7.00 and it will last a long time if fed as sprouts. I only have 9 laying hens. I use 3 wide mouth quart jars with metal bands to hold plastic window screen over the end..The grain in each jar is at a different stage of development. I start out with a 1/3 jar of barley and soak it for 24 hours. Next day I dump the water out and rinse the grain leaving the jar turned upside down on a metal rack in the laundry room sink and start the 2nd. jar 1/3 full of barley soaking. By the time I start the 3rd. jar of grain soaking, the first jar is sprouted and ready to feed. I rinse each jar of grain two times a day. I use warm water to accelerate the process. I am only doing this during the winter months when not many greens are available.

Well that's a neat idea! So you are growing barley grass for them ... interesting ... making a lot more chow for the buck and getting them some greens in the process.

 

[slordaz]

my idea I want to try this year is little trays that we can switch out of a mix of grains , haven't figured out what I am going to cover it with so they can't get at the roots but can get their own fresh we keep going inside so they get fresh during the harsh winters we have, will need to figure out how many trays I would need to have going to make sure they have enough time to grow back before we run out of them though

things I am considering for this is:

oats
barley
wheat
clover
garlic

Also thinking of doing one with their favorite veggies inside: will have to use a trellis in the pot for some of them, but have a grow lamp
buttercup squash
sugar snap peas
lettuce
watermellon

 

[ladyearth]

yeah I sent for someorganic sprouting seeds again. for us and the feather girls.. Unfortunately those grain bugs got into the box, also the grain moths. So now will keep most seeds and stuff in glass jars..
Those creepos find their way into boxes and chewed thru the plastic bags...
Now I am going thru those expensive. sprouting seeds and trying to get out the larvae and moth webbing. RAh.. I should have known better
I got out those "Pantry Pest traps" bought them by the box well case...
they even got into sunflower seeds that I was sprouting last year , in dirt with the alum cake pans on a rack. RAHHHH
Yeah its hard around here to find grain by itself. Since they closed our" SOUTHERN STATES STORE."
Plus I dont know if there seeds were for sprouting either.. since most I saw for for gardening instead of feed grade.

 

[ladyearth]

DO you store the jars up side down lke in the pic. I guess you keep them upright for how long. 24 hrs? I assume you also rinse them? explain a little more please. I have those special lids I bought YEARS ago for myself. and a crappo 5 tiered sprouter.... doesnt hae the brand name on....
thanks

 

[ladyearth]

so you mean outside? I did it with wheat "boxes framed and covered with hdwe cloth"lids". But unforutnately BERmuda grass takes over.
So this spring I need to pull up them and try to tear out that INVASIVE grass and reseed the "boxes" I have four inside their smaller run and three outside in their field.
saw the idea on this forum and you tube, I believe....
just my humble opinion

 

[slordaz]

not in a box so to say more in a tray with something to keep them getting at the roots but still allow them to grow up through, that we can take to the hen house for a bit at feed time then take back in under the heat lamp to keep it growing

 

[Stout]

I use hen scratch tree limbs grass that I pick by hand scraps from the house layer pellets

 

[chickengr]

DO you store the jars up side down lke in the pic. I guess you keep them upright for how long. 24 hrs? I assume you also rinse them? explain a little more please. I have those special lids I bought YEARS ago for myself. and a crappo 5 tiered sprouter.... doesnt hae the brand name on....
thanks

I have started to sprout barley and wheat. I put them upside down for about 10 minutes only. I rinse and drain them twice a day. it takes about 4 days to sprout with cold water. my chickens love it and I am saving money.