Growing fodder for chickens

[La Casa de Pollo]

Yay! it is working! I can see little sprouts starting on my wheat today, I am so excited.

 

[pawtraitart]

Yay! it is working! I can see little sprouts starting on my wheat today, I am so excited.

Yeah!!!!

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

:yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick :yiipchick

Thanks for the idea to get this going!

 

[ScottnLydia]

Our property has very old water rights, so we get water no problem for our flood irrigation. We have a well for our house water. During drought years, there is always a lot of "water wars" talk.

Same thing here. We haven't had 'irrigation' water for years because the reservoir dropped to sucha low level. It doesn't even come near the outlets anymore!

It was actually the city that almost had the water shut off to it due to a larger city having older rights! They actually did it for 2 weeks back in the drought of 2002. I NEVER thought I would see ANYTHING like that in my life. The river was so low you could walk across it without getting your ankles wet. We had to buy water and bring it home from another town. It wasn't government, it was water law, something that we deal with all the time, but is hard to understand where water is plentiful.

~S

 

[pawtraitart]

Nice start on your fodder!!!

Water....yes, our water table has lowered since we bought our house. We had to put in a deeper well two years ago since our original well didn't have the right pipe to deepen. $$$

 

[ScottnLydia]

So anyway, I just wondered, since you water the flats 'x' times a day, that leaves a fair amount of time for the water to drain out. What if it drained into something like a settling tank first, with a fairly substantial filtering medium, and dribbled back to the reservoir.

Starch grains, if I recall correctly, are fairly large, and should be fairly easy to trap. If the filter medium is something like, say, a terrycloth washcloth, it could be rotated and washed on a daily basis.

All this is purely hypothetical, of course. And even if it doesn't remove it all, if it removes some, that could extend the life of the water, couldn't it?

I'm still too many $ short of building anything to try out yet myself, so I'm still planning. BOY AM I PLANNING!

I am still trying to figure out how many 'bisquits' I need per head of sheep, though!

~S

 

[Terri O]

I tried to tell my "thick" DH (who really isnt dumb at all) to remember when the kids sprouted bean seeds in a paper towel lined jar. I think he was being stooopid on purpose! He does like an argument-wish he woulda been a lawyer! I think you hit it on the head whomever said about DRY weight...
SO I am headed to the mill to see what kind of grains I can get to sprout...I am hoping that I can tell them I am trying an experiment and they will let me go and sweep the floor in the back room! It's worth a try!
So excited to begin this...TerriO

ETA: One other thing...do you think I could sprout weed seeds in the same way? I ordered them from Carolina Pet Supply for growing winter food for my tortoises. Tried to grow them on dirt like they said--NOPE! I was just thinking that maybe it would work the same as grains?

 

[Warner123]

I am going to run a couple of tests, but look forward to joining the fodder growers! Great way to extend that food budget with little input.

 

[foothillsfiber]

I have briefly read through this. Has anyone tried rice. We are rice farmers and I can get fresh harvested field rice easily. Would the rice be as just healthy for the chickens? Thanks

 

[pawtraitart]

I've never tried rice as I don't have a reasonable source. It would be interesting to know if it works.