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

[aart]

The only thing I’m not sure about, is a few times the box just spontaneously died, so just replanted. Not sure if that is expected or not?

Might be obvious, but did you water it when not enough rain happened?
Turf grass can be fragile, might not hold up well.
Even other plants need to be reseeded...and under the frame needs to be cleared of excess poops and other debris.

 

[ladybrasa]

It was decently rainy this year, and made sure to water at least every few days if not. I was wondering if perhaps too much water - the base soil underneath is clay like and of course garden soil is designed to retain water ... Meh there is tons of leftover grass seed and the frames are pretty small so wasn’t a biggie.

 

[Sally PB]

This is something I want to try next spring. This thread has inspired me to try growing a couple little fodder cakes with some alfalfa I had in the cupboard. I also have a 5 lb bag of chia seed (like maybe a forever supply?) that I'm going to try if the alfalfa goes well.

 

[fuentemoon]

I haven't done frames, but have direct sown areas that I blocked off until a few inches high a then opened, and have sprouted trays for mine. They love most greens and wheat and bird seed, but not alfalfa I now have a large alfalfa plant though!

 

[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.

 

[aart]

Looking good @Nifty-Chicken !

This discussion prompted me to sprout some wheat berries.
After 4-5 days I just stuck it into the 'weed feeder'.
Fodder rather than thread topic tho....so I'll not post pics.

 

[CatsandCrops]

We had two growing frames in our run when we first started. Simple squares with a support down the middle and chicken wire stapled to the top. It worked well for a little bit until we continued to grow/build up the deep liter method in our run. The chickens would constantly throw wood chips/grass/leaves onto the frames and the frames slowly died. They were getting plenty of weeds/treats from the gardens so I guess I just didn't put enough effort into the frames - I could have easily built them higher but felt like the grass/seeds wouldn't have grown high enough to make it worth it.

I have a fodder system set up to grow greens over the winter for the monsters. Right now it's wheatgrass and I have it set up so a new batch is ready daily for them. I let it grow and feed on day 7. It's working out well so far!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

That's really good feedback / info!

I'm wondering if I should build two 2x4 frames: One that is the bottom part and filled with good soil, then the 2nd one stacked on top that has the mesh. I wonder if that would raise it high enough that they couldn't kick all the "stuff" in the yard onto / into it. Heck, I even have some old 2x6's I could use for the bottom part.

Basically a small raised bed

 

[ackie]

this is brilliant

 

[aart]

I'm wondering if I should build two 2x4 frames: One that is the bottom part and filled with good soil, then the 2nd one stacked on top that has the mesh. I wonder if that would raise it high enough that they couldn't kick all the "stuff" in the yard onto / into it. Heck, I even have some old 2x6's I could use for the bottom part.

Basically a small raised bed

Sounds worth a try....and if that doesn't work, Fodder Table