Growing fodder for chickens

[Lacy Blues]

I've learned a lot here by lurking and reading, and wanted to share a video that might be a perfect fit for some folks. It's working great for me with slight modification.

Since it's practically winter here in Montana, I had to convert this to an indoor system. I use 5 buckets with holes in the bottom, and 6 with no holes. Each holey bucket has its own bucket to sit in when I'm not stacking them to water, and then I have the one left over that is always soaking the next batch. I stack them to water with a no-holed bucket at the bottom to catch runoff, then when they're pretty well drained I separate them all out again into their individual drain buckets. I rinse twice a day.

Five days seems to be about perfect for my girls with barley fodder.

Hope this helps someone.

Boy does that look easy! You said above that you have your holey buckets sitting in your unholey buckets. Your video doesn't show this so I'm wondering if you have made that change since they are now inside? Setting them in the shade outside on top of bricks so they don't get muddy is a good idea too. So, no holes in the sides, just in the bottoms?

 

[Kassaundra]

I've learned a lot here by lurking and reading, and wanted to share a video that might be a perfect fit for some folks. It's working great for me with slight modification.

Since it's practically winter here in Montana, I had to convert this to an indoor system. I use 5 buckets with holes in the bottom, and 6 with no holes. Each holey bucket has its own bucket to sit in when I'm not stacking them to water, and then I have the one left over that is always soaking the next batch. I stack them to water with a no-holed bucket at the bottom to catch runoff, then when they're pretty well drained I separate them all out again into their individual drain buckets. I rinse twice a day.

Five days seems to be about perfect for my girls with barley fodder.

Hope this helps someone.

I want to watch this video but the work computer won't play it.

so hoping I'll remember by the time I get home tomorrow.

 

[Bitterroot]

Boy does that look easy! You said above that you have your holey buckets sitting in your unholey buckets. Your video doesn't show this so I'm wondering if you have made that change since they are now inside? Setting them in the shade outside on top of bricks so they don't get muddy is a good idea too. So, no holes in the sides, just in the bottoms?

Yep. I wish I could keep them outside, but our highs have been in the 30's with nights in the teens so I had to start this up indoors. In order to keep water from dripping everywhere, each fodder bucket gets to sit in its own catch bucket. I drilled holes in bucket bottoms only, and am using 2 gallon buckets since I don't have a lot of birds.

I stack them to water, with a non-holed bucket at the bottom to catch and hold the water. Pour water into the top bucket, then wait about an hour to unstack them.


Everyone separated out and sitting on top of their own drain buckets to catch any stray drips. The big orange 5 gallon bucket is what I dump the used water out of the catch buckets into, and then I dump that on the trees outside when I go out in the afternoon with chicken snacks.



So in all, I have 11 2-gallon buckets. Five actively growing fodder, five sitting underneath them to catch any drips, and one (not shown above) soaking the next batch of barley. In the morning I take the oldest batch out to feed the birds, rinse it, and dump the soaking barley into it. I then set up another batch of barley to soak for the next morning. Nice and easy to keep going, and takes just a few minutes a day. Hope that helps any?

 

[Lacy Blues]

yes, thank you

 

[Kassaundra]

Yep. I wish I could keep them outside, but our highs have been in the 30's with nights in the teens so I had to start this up indoors. In order to keep water from dripping everywhere, each fodder bucket gets to sit in its own catch bucket. I drilled holes in bucket bottoms only, and am using 2 gallon buckets since I don't have a lot of birds.

I stack them to water, with a non-holed bucket at the bottom to catch and hold the water. Pour water into the top bucket, then wait about an hour to unstack them.


Everyone separated out and sitting on top of their own drain buckets to catch any stray drips. The big orange 5 gallon bucket is what I dump the used water out of the catch buckets into, and then I dump that on the trees outside when I go out in the afternoon with chicken snacks.



So in all, I have 11 2-gallon buckets. Five actively growing fodder, five sitting underneath them to catch any drips, and one (not shown above) soaking the next batch of barley. In the morning I take the oldest batch out to feed the birds, rinse it, and dump the soaking barley into it. I then set up another batch of barley to soak for the next morning. Nice and easy to keep going, and takes just a few minutes a day. Hope that helps any?

So do you have a pic of your day 5 fodder that you are feeding out?


I also see in your signature line you have rabbits, are you feeding them fodder?

 

[Bitterroot]

I'll get a picture tomorrow. I'm guessing mileage may vary with temps, regional grain growth rates, etc, but 5 days is right where my girls like it. It's not yet matted together into one giant clump, and is easy for them to grab and swallow. There aren't a ton of green grassy shoots yet, but you can tell the volume has definitely increased. I tried doing a batch every other day, but the grassier it gets, the less they like it. I'm thinking each person would need to give it a try and see how long it takes their particular grain to get to the stage their particular birds like it most, and just add an extra bucket set for each extra day.

Gave some to my rabbits a couple times, and they ate it but didn't seem to enjoy it. They prefer the grassier stuff.

 

[Kassaundra]

I'll get a picture tomorrow. I'm guessing mileage may vary with temps, regional grain growth rates, etc, but 5 days is right where my girls like it. It's not yet matted together into one giant clump, and is easy for them to grab and swallow. There aren't a ton of green grassy shoots yet, but you can tell the volume has definitely increased. I tried doing a batch every other day, but the grassier it gets, the less they like it. I'm thinking each person would need to give it a try and see how long it takes their particular grain to get to the stage their particular birds like it most, and just add an extra bucket set for each extra day.

Gave some to my rabbits a couple times, and they ate it but didn't seem to enjoy it. They prefer the grassier stuff.

I do sprouts for my chickens too (4 sometimes 5 day) but my experience was the same as yours they didn't care for the grassier fodder, however when I get rabbits I am wanting to grow thiers to fodder stage. Each time I have tried the fodder stage I get over run w/ mold. I am not going to spend my life rinsing it though. I am more then pleased w/ my sprouting method, but still looking for a fodder method.

 

[Kassaundra]

Finally got home and got to watch the video, looks like a simple straight forward method.

 

[Jeanette56]

I really like your system!
I've been trying to figure out a way using limited space and I think this will suit me very well.
Great photos by the way

Thanks for sharing!

Jeanette

 

[Chickens R Us]

Looks fairly easy. I just watched a video on you tube on sprouted grains and they said they heard that oats cause chickens to go into molt. Anybody ever hear that? I don't know if I believe that because scratch has oats and I feed my chickens scratch as a treat all the time. and they just go thru a normal molt in the fall.