Fermented Feed & Sprouting Questions (NEWBIE)

[redsix]

I was messing around with lids, jars, and cans over this last week. I already had a big plastic coffee can of scratch soaking (mostly drained after 12 hours...but rinsed every few-6 hours to avoid molding) since Wednesday too. I used to sprout alfalfa sprouts to eat myself a few years ago and figured...why not again? For myself and the chickens. Well, I don't have any human grade sprouts for myself, but there's a possibility for the chickens with the scratch until I can find wheat, etc..
Well to shorten this saga a bit.. I found a large canning ring WILL fit a regular sized 24oz can (like the 24oz pasta sauce cans, but regular canning jars will work with the screening too...but mine are too valuable for this usage! for chicken sprouts!)..the extra little bit of fiberglass screen wire will make it hard to snap on... and the devil to get off! Just cut the "other" end off after ya empty the can, wash and cut an oversized hunk of either aluminum or fiberglass thin scrap screening up...snap the large canning ring around the screen and the end of the can...trim screening (pantyhose..clean...works too) to fit/look good and fill 'er up with pre-soaked seeds of some sort...and it's a drain-able/rinse-able a couple times a day (cheap?) reusable sprouting jar/can of about the size to use for a daily treat/fodder of sorts for a couple of days for 10-15 chickens. I prefer they get the main nutrition from the 16% layer feed..But this way they even eat the seeds they normally ignore...millet, etc.
Warning...the cracked corn in "shorts"/scratch will start to **ferment** in just a little time (hours)... avoid letting it sit in water or soaking under water for more then 2-3 days or your chickens may just get a buzz from it....lol But even with that said... after the first 12 hours or so soak and a quick rinse (removes dirt) and DRAIN I catch the drippings afterwards (the flat plastic pan in the pic) and pour them in a flat watering pan the chickens drink out of...it's loaded with dissolved carbs, some proteins, and of course some hooch but in small very small amounts. Mine love it straight up! lol


There is also an old pickle jar with holes punched in the lid to drain, but the opened both ends cans are easier to mess with and rinse. The flat plastic storage thing has a lost/gone forever top somewhere in the universe...probably right next to all of the lost mates of socks over the years.. The plastic thing with 1/2"x1/2" grid is a section of an old lay-in light grid I had in my shop....it allows excellent drainage. I rinse, and just sit them upside down on top of the gridded stuff in the plastic flat to collect the drippings.. simple enuff I even thought of it..(good thing too! lol)

Do you think the reason the corn ferments is that it is hybrid corn and won't sprout? I saw a guy on Youtube that put a very small amount of bleach in the initial 24 hour soak to help prevent mold. I am having a hard time can't get my chickens to eat millet as well. I have some old glass wide mouth Miracle Whip jars that I am think about using for sprouting.

 

[BBQJOE]

Auto sprouter posted: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1034257/automatic-seed-sprouter

 

[stevethack]

I'm pretty sure the reason the corn doesn't sprout is because it's all cracked/busted up into small pieces and the germ is destroyed...or removed?. The complete grains like the wheat, millet, sorghum?, and milo will sprout..The broken corn and other broken grains will start to ferment in minutes a slight bit...but the rinsing under running water gets rid of most of the alcohol .
The larger roundish ones take quite a while longer to sprout though I have noticed. But they do swell and crack the seed coat about when the wheat is well rooted out already same length as the kernel to start. My pullets would pick at the larger round milo?/sorghum? seeds but not much... the roosters would though. After soaking and sprouting a bit they go after all of it like they used to do with just the cracked corn. They clean their plate (the ground) quite well now.
I just let the grains sit covered in water in quart or half gallon jars and swell for 12-18 hours then drain and put them into the smaller cans (daily treat-feed amount sized?) and later rinse them under running water 3-4 times a day and never have any mold problems. Same way I sprout seeds for my own consumption..except I use all glass jars for human eating sprouting. I used to love Alfalfa and Mung Bean sprout sandwiches...or lightly stir fried and a sandwich made of that. I haven't found a health food store lately that carries human food grade sprouting seeds locally.
Can't say I would ever use a bleach soak at the start either..

And I don't use fiberglass or aluminum screen (should be fine...but??) wire for my personal eating seed sprouting adventures either.. I use boiled muslin or cheesecloth with the canning rings and jars...no tops. I'm sure my chickens have a slightly better constitution when it comes to pecking "whatever" attracts their attention out in the coop or pen then I do!

 

[Ra_]

I just sprouted about 10 pounds of Sunflower seeds. I used a very large onion sack with very fine mesh.
I put it in a storage tub. Pretty easy to rinse and dump.
I soaked them for a day and then rinsed them for 2 more days. I just put them in the ground before dark tonight.
Gonna be a big harvest next weekend.


They really dug in overnight.
I'll cover them with the siding panels for about the first 2 days.

 

[SaCollins]

My corn sprouts...the corn that's in the wild bird seed...I'm not sure what exactly is in it since it just says millet and sunflower seeds...but there is corn, sunflower seeds, a small round seed, and then one that is a little larger rounded seed...everything sprouts...the rounded seeds take at least 2 days to sprout (about 1 day longer than others)...but they sprout...it works well for my small flock of 4...since they are all younger (7-14 weeks)...the youngest one LOVES the smallest seeds, that's pretty much all she eats out of there...my oldest loves the sunflower seeds and tries to eat all of them before anyone else can get them...but the bigger girls eat all the rest...none is ever wasted, which is both fortunate and unfortunate...glad nothing is going to waste BUT I wanted to see if some would grow in their run for their enjoyment later...not so much

.

Thanks for the advice and tricks!! I'm about to try my hand at a little fodder now...hopefully that will work well and they'll have NICE fresh "grass" for the winter time...and the fermented feed is going great...I can't believe how much more they eat of the fermented feed...but it equals SO much less of the food!!

 

[stevethack]

I finally got my 5 plus week old idjuts to eat the fermented stuff. A possum had gotten inside their coop a few days ago and kinda had a late nite/early morning snack date with one and they were ****terrified**** of going back into their coop at nite. They spent one whole night outside huddled together. I had to physically chunk them in last nite and then left them locked up without water or food all nite and up till 7am or so this morning.. Then put the fermented feed (and water) inside with just a bare dusting of their normal dry crumbles on top and they prefer the fermented now in just hours of training.. And I finally let them out of the coop about noonish..and now they go back inside to eat out of the fermented feed pan...when they get hungry..they learn to eat other foods quickly! lol
I'm thinking tonite they may well want to go inside the coop about darkish-thirty on their own so I can let the door down. Their terror of the coop seems over, I hope!
Today after running enough extra electric fence wire to keep out sparrows from the top even, I think the possums/coons/eagles/buzzards/crows/blue jays/coyotes/stray dogs/cats/bats/and other assorted varmints that are left around will think 5 times before going into that pen now...or the coop too! They were really young small possums that could crawl under a electrified wire only 4 to 5 inches away from the well grounded metal poultry fence wire. But It's not nearly so easy to bag a free chicken dinner now! Just don't ask about the 2 miscreant possums who dined on a prime young pullet chicken 2 days ago and off and on about 10 pounds of chicken layer pellets over the last couple of weeks....they left no forwarding address it seems.
But now I have the young'uns on the fermented feed...and the older ones love the sprouted "treats".

 

[Ra_]

a small round seed, and then one that is a little larger rounded seed...

I wanted to see if some would grow in their run for their enjoyment later...not so much

.

I think the small seeds are the Millet and the larger are probably Sorghum, or Milo?

Try fencing off a corner of the run to give the sprouts a chance to grow.

 

[stevethack]

Don't!! sprout sorghum (milo--the brown-ish/red bigger round seeds in wild bird seeds and scratch) and let it grow leaves hardly at all. The young plants develop a poison... hydrocyanic, or prussic acid fairly early on in the green leaves. That's about the same stuff in the leaves of the common wild cherry trees. You can stick the leaves in a big bunch and make silage (let it ferment) after 2-3 weeks like the farmers do and feed it though....not so desirable after fermenting in the smell department..
If the millet in the mix is a true millet, it can be used for green forage cuz it has very low levels if any of the prussic acid content.
The sorghum/milo warning is not an old wives tale. Every cattleman/milker/feedlot that grows their own feed or makes silage from milo knows this and every Agriculture College in the world posts warnings about it.
Sorghum seed sprouts with short white roots are good........but NO GREEN leaves showing!

 

[Chicken girl 15]

Try finding some plastic milk crates to cover a section of the run where you put seeds. Once they sprout uncover and start another section.

 

[julia305]

I've never tried sprouting. For some reason I am a bit daunted by the prospect although i have a bag of wild bird seed that is just sitting there. I've read countless threads about it. Do they really like the sprouted greens then? I do like the idea of growing a little patch of seedlings for them. Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean about it fermenting?

Can I sprout most any grain then? (Again, forgive my ignorance i am only 5 months into chicken keeping!) Have a couple of small bags of BOSS sitting around as well.

Thanks