Growing fodder for chickens

[Kassaundra]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but has anyone tried filtering the return water? I live in an area where water is in short supply, this summer they restricted our usage. NO usage other than houshold! We saved a few trees from dying with grey water, and got an exemption for livestock, but the garden was a goner.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if filtering, perhaps even with activated charcoal, could extend the life of the water? Any thoughts?

Also, Pawtraitart, what kind of hair sheep do you have? Just curious.

~S

I would think it would, also adding an airstone might increase the use of the water to basically indefinately since you would be adding water to it too.

Maybe some little snail or shrimp or something could be added to the tank to eat the starch from the grain, something small and easy to keep alive, that wouldn't add to the cost or work. (just brain storming out loud)

 

[pawtraitart]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but has anyone tried filtering the return water? I live in an area where water is in short supply, this summer they restricted our usage. NO usage other than houshold! We saved a few trees from dying with grey water, and got an exemption for livestock, but the garden was a goner.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if filtering, perhaps even with activated charcoal, could extend the life of the water? Any thoughts?

Also, Pawtraitart, what kind of hair sheep do you have? Just curious.

~S

Filtered water...that would be interesting. I know that activated charcoal leaches phosphates which encourages complex algae growth, but I don't know if it would affect mold for better or worse. It would be useful to know the results from somebody who has tried it.

I raise white dorper and dorper cross hair sheep. They are our weed control system. I love them.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hi Leslie,

Fodder doesn't need any extra nutrients added to the water. It would also not be a good choice for Aquaponics where the purpose of the plants is to clean the water. Fodder is seeded so thickly that the water picks up a lot of starch, so it actually makes the water dirtier.

Sherry

Thanks! I'm catching up with reading this tread now, so might have more intelligent questions soon! This is all fascinating stuff! Besides sprouting our own fodder from "store-bought" things, we could actually grow some of our own source material here ... we have a guy contracted to grow grain-like stuff on our property (his choice about what to put when and where), and I could likely get part of the harvest from him, or even have him plant a special item/blend for me on some of the land ... Just thinking ahead here ... how to make part of the chicken thing "sustainable," but without compromising any of the nutrition the flock is getting from the commercial feed. It would be SO AWESOME to be GMO / Soy free, for one thing, and do it affordably. But to be able to produce our own feed is something I thought we would be impossible -- we are short on irrigation water here, for one thing, but I'm also incredibly unschooled in chicken nutrition. Now it almost seems possible. I can't describe how very exciting and inspiring this is to me!

 

[greenhorn]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but has anyone tried filtering the return water? I live in an area where water is in short supply, this summer they restricted our usage. NO usage other than houshold! We saved a few trees from dying with grey water, and got an exemption for livestock, but the garden was a goner.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if filtering, perhaps even with activated charcoal, could extend the life of the water? Any thoughts?

Also, Pawtraitart, what kind of hair sheep do you have? Just curious.

~S

Wow, had to scrub the garden? That's terrible, glad we live in a right to farm state.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

LOL!!! It's not like you're wearing your underwear on the outside of your clothes or anything..

Sherry

I went to a poultry swap yesterday, then met up with a "long lost friend" who had just moved to the town where the swap was held. My boyfriend and I were all full of chicken stories, and over dinner we were BOTH forcing her to look at our entire chicken photo libraries on our phones ... She was laughing at us so hard I thought she was going to disappear under the table. She threatened to take a picture of us ... the thought of having to see what I look like when I'm in full Chicken Share mode makes me shiver with embarrassment.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

However, I do it the old-timey, rednecky, low-techy way by just stacking three Costco spinach containers on the kitchen table next to the window.

Photos please.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Wow, had to scrub the garden? That's terrible, glad we live in a right to farm state.

It has to do with river levels and water rights. We were on the verge of going on 'water call' where a larger city that has water rights pre-dating our towns could 'call' our water rights, leaving us without ANY water AT ALL! It's happened a few years back, 2002 I believe. Scary stuff, to be sure, but in a drought these things happen.

~S

 

[ChickenFootRnch]

I must try this, Thanks for the post.

 

[melwynnd]

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but has anyone tried filtering the return water? I live in an area where water is in short supply, this summer they restricted our usage. NO usage other than houshold! We saved a few trees from dying with grey water, and got an exemption for livestock, but the garden was a goner.

Anyhow, I was just wondering if filtering, perhaps even with activated charcoal, could extend the life of the water? Any thoughts?

Also, Pawtraitart, what kind of hair sheep do you have? Just curious.

~S

It's not a dumb question at all. When water is scarce, you want to see it go to as many things as possible. My system recirculates the water for up to 3 days (depends on how warm it is and how well the grain was rinsed) without a filter. Then I pour it on my outside plants, which love it, and refill the tub. I figure between 30 and 40 gallons of water per week, but almost all that goes to water other things afterward. So it can be done in a way that negates water use.

Sherry

 

[Spangled]

Quote:
Sorry. You'll just have to use your imagination since I won't start back up growing the greens until snow is covering the ground or all the grass dies. I haven't ever taken any photos of them before, so I don't have any from past years either. Sorry.