Growing fodder for chickens

[Lacy Blues]

On the liver, do you thoroughly cook it and then cut into chunks? Has anyone "ground" liver for their chickens?

Yes, looks good to me.........and I bet the chickens love it too!

I cook it until its easy to handle...dice after frying.

Lacy..spoiled chickens come to mind! LOL It looks delicious! Mmmmm

~ Aspen

Well, I don't know about "spoiled" ha ha! I don't buy the commercial bagged stuff anymore and I know their diet is still lacking some things. It makes it a LOT more work for me than just pouring food from a bag into their feeders I can tell you for sure! But I'm trying to make sure they're healthy.

I know they need more protein (I think I know) I haven't done the math, and I'm sure there are minerals and such that they need. Still need to find some Aconite (?)

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I cook it until its easy to handle...dice after frying.
Well, I don't know about "spoiled" ha ha! I don't buy the commercial bagged stuff anymore and I know their diet is still lacking some things. It makes it a LOT more work for me than just pouring food from a bag into their feeders I can tell you for sure! But I'm trying to make sure they're healthy.

I know they need more protein (I think I know) I haven't done the math, and I'm sure there are minerals and such that they need. Still need to find some Aconite (?)

That is awesome. The hard work pays off in the end tho. My birds love scrambled/boiled eggs. That could up their protein some.

~ Aspen

 

[Sorca]

Fodder is a blast, the hens love it. I even do teff grass through the winter, but it never grows taller than 4 inches indoors. Teff grass is very high in protein and calcium. But it is expensive. I purchase it from a local feed supplier that special orders it for me because I want organic....the cost is $150 per 50 pound bag, but will last a full year. I grow it without the soaking phase in a solid black tray. No soak phase because teff seeds are very, very, very small. Of course sunflowers, sprouted beans (mainly adzuki), radishes and all sorts of other sprouts. Wheat, both summer and winter varieties will grow tall, but I find with my dozen hens I can only feed a half flat or they get liquid poo. Dehydration isn't a good thing winter or summer. They love sprouted rye and barley. This year I also sprouted out some millet, but wonder if I will do it this year. Today at the feed supply store I went to purchase more millet and the price has gone from $20 per 50 pounds to $45 per 50 pounds. Though sprouting it will produce more than feeding it in the scratch. I am an anti corn person because being organic I don't want to introduce any GMO products into my property or animals. The guy at the feed store stated as of this year, just like soy beans, they can no longer guarantee corn seed isn't infected with the Round up ready gene....So all soy and corn products are now out of my hens diet.

 

[Chicks Galore3]

So- I watered twice today, instead of three times. with in about a 13 hour period, one tray was still wet at the bottom, slightly dry on top. The other was dry almost all the way through. Am I watering enough, to much?

 

[ScottM]

Fodder is the best. When the lawn is under two feet of snow, my birds are gobbling up fresh greens! Love this thread, but I really should add an article of what I've got setup for my small flock of six

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

I find that my girls like the wheat fodder best when the green shoots are about an inch long. Here's a treat bowl given to my girls today (I have a very small flock currently - only four). The bottom is moistened layer feed, topped with fodder and meal worms. They loved it. By the way, the mealworms are very easy to grow. I just got a starter batch a month ago, and they seem to be doing well with very little effort on my part.

 

[PoultryGirly]

Can I use rolled oats for this?

 

[Sunflowergirl]

The rolled oats won't sprout. They have been smashed!
People have been using the oats for deer plots that one can buy from Tractor Supply called PlotSpike.

Can I use rolled oats for this?

 

[Sunflowergirl]

That looks SOOOO good for the chickens!!! Those are some nice, FAT mealworms!!! How many mealworms did you start out with and what medium did you use?

I find that my girls like the wheat fodder best when the green shoots are about an inch long. Here's a treat bowl given to my girls today (I have a very small flock currently - only four). The bottom is moistened layer feed, topped with fodder and meal worms. They loved it. By the way, the mealworms are very easy to grow. I just got a starter batch a month ago, and they seem to be doing well with very little effort on my part.

 

[UrbanMamaHen]

That looks SOOOO good for the chickens!!!  Those are some nice, FAT mealworms!!!  How many mealworms did you start out with and what medium did you use?

I got 500 of mixed sizes. Fed about 100 to the girls and put the rest in a box with wheat bran about 2 inches deep. I used apple at first for moisture, but found that I want to eat the apples rather than feeding them to the worms so I switched to baby carrots. These were sitting in the fridge uneatten. I am beginning to "harvest" the worms on occasion to feed the girls.

By the way, I am a bit squeamish with picking up the worms by hand. I use a spoon to scoop them up, lol.