Grazing Frame - Fodder Table Box - Continuously Grow Fodder & Seedlings & Sprouts For Chickens

[Nifty-Chicken]

Hopefully that title was keyword-rich enough to have a good discussion on this topic!

Over the years I've seen various versions of this idea, but never got far with it.

The Basic Idea: Chickens have a continuously growing supply of fresh young greens, but don't have access to scratch them up / out so much that the plants are destroyed.

If you search for "fodder system" or "fodder tray" or similar, you'll find HEAPS of info about growing vast amounts of fodder from seed, THEN giving it to the chickens, but I'm more interested in building a "grazing frame" that is somewhat continuous and won't get destroyed by the girls digging up stuff by the roots!

@aart has an article on the idea here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/grazing-frames.73645/

... and I'd LOVE to hear more stories, ideas, experiences, etc. with these!

A few questions on my mind that I'd LOVE to get consensus on:

1. What types of seeds / plants are best for a system like this? Which have you tried?
2. What size wire mesh do you think is best and why?
3. How high off the ground is too low, too high, or just-right?
4. What have you done with this system to make it as trouble-free and successful as possible?
5. What would you avoid?
6. Any and all other tips, tricks, and/or experiences?

Great pic from @chickencoop789 :

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Ok, here's what my daughters and I just did:

1. Built a "raised bed" planting frame (3' x 4') out of 2x6 lumber from the old coop. This will be stationary / filled with soil.
2. Built a screen frame out of 1x4 ripped down the middle (1x2) and 1/2 inch hardware cloth. This will be put on top of the 2x6 frame / removable as needed. We also added some long strips of wood to add structural support for the chickens, that won't impede the growth of the seed.
3. Filled the raised bed with a potting soil.
4. Created 4 text "quadrants":
   1. Top-Left: Pre-soaked / sprouted seeds (2 days old) + soil cover
   2. Top-Right: Seeds + soil cover
   3. Bottom-Left: Pre-soaked / sprouted seeds (2 days old), NO soil cover
   4. Bottom-Right: Seed, NO soil cover
   5. BONUS: Middle rectangle: fully sprouted 10-day-old seed mix
5. Gave everything a nice watering
6. Let my daughter's favorite hen (that's been getting CRAZY bullied the last 2 weeks) have the first-go at pecking through the hardware cloth to try and get the tops of the sprouts.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Might have better luck online?

Actually, I think I hit the jackpot!

First my GF and I went to a place called "Harvest House" with a BUNCH of stuff, and they even had a section just for sprouts:

We picked up alfalfa (for us and for chickens), and "hard red winter wheat".

Then we headed to "Concord Feed" where we found even more bounty!

5, 10, 20, and 40 lb bags of individual seed or "bird mixes".

I got a 20lb bag of the mix:

The added oil and cracked-corn may be an issue, but we wanted to give it a try, so my GF and I took a bunch of seed, soaked it in an apple-cider vinegar / water mix, and then separated the seeds out into cups:

Some of the stuff we separated didn't seem to be listed in the bag (like the wheat and what looked like quinoa):

In addition to the cups, I'm also going to put some mixes in various soil, etc. to see how things go. I also did a cup that I didn't pre-soak with vinegar and didn't sort... to see how it goes.

If some seed does better than others, we can order big bags of just one type of seed.

It will be an interesting experiment!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Updates!

Stuff is growing well! Frame is working better than expected!

I think my last-minute decision to make the top of the frame "removeable" was a much better idea than I thought it would be. The girls are kicking up a ton of mulch onto the frame, and being able to just lift and tip, makes cleaning it SUPER easy! Also, if / when I ever want them to go inside and dig up the dirt, it will be really easy to give them access!

Here's the top of the frame turned over:

Seeds growing:

Happy girls:

 

[ZephyrCoveFarms]

I got home after dark and filled the chicken waterers up, checked the flock and their greens are LUSH! Some already grew to the wire and they have been grazing the tops off! Woo hoo! I’ll try to get some daylight hen action shots if I get home early tomorrow.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Tomorrow will be day 7 of my testing.

In the first pic you can see at the top I dumped a bunch of the "birdseed mix" into a container with soil to see how it did on it's own.

Below that are the various cups of separated seeds (and one cup mix seed).

Wheat is doing GREAT, followed by alfalfa, and then sunflowers. Milo and millet sprouted a little, but seem to be stuck. Canary and whatever the other small seed is are not doing anything.

... which is fine since I was mostly interested in how the wheat and BOSS would do.

 

[ZephyrCoveFarms]

Don't need your address...just this ' South Texas Gulf Coast '
If you're on a phone they all know exactly where you are anyway

They can’t track me when I’m wearing my tinfoil hat. I have actually added several layers over the last decade...

 

[ZephyrCoveFarms]

Leveled run dirt and screwed the boxes together with enough space behind to open tops.

Curious hens had to

Opened and seeded. One has deer plot mix and the other rye grass. It’s in the 70’s here so they should be sprouting by Wednesday or Thursday.

I covered the seed with about 1” of organic potting soil.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

I wish there were more videos that showed during construction, a few weeks after plants start growing, and then what it looks like a month or year later with chickens constantly using the system.

Here's a video that has some of that:

 

[ZephyrCoveFarms]

They love it. Keeping it clipped short!