I wonder how many people know about GMO's and the contamination of our food supply? It's really scary. A neighbor of mine is a farmer and we have agreed to not talk about GMO's. Her husband uses roundup ready sugar beet seed and he's been suckered into the Monsanto scam. It's not worth losing a friend over the conspiracy, but for my family, I do my best to avoid processed food which is LOADED with GMO's. That's one of the reasons why I want to gradually get away from store bought poultry feed. If I can provide correct nutrition without feeding them GMO corn (which is most feed corn these days), then I'm going to do it no matter how much extra work it requires. One step at a time!
growyourbrew - I use the black trays with the drainage holes. The trick for me has been to provide adequate moisture, but to not let the seed sit in water or get too warm. Unless you can control the environment, fodder is a cool weather project as temperatures above 65 degrees F really seem to get the mold growing. Another thing is to start with clean seed. Mold spores are everywhere so the risk is always there, but if your seed is coated with mold spores, you are making things more difficult for yourself. Also, the depth of the seed in your tray is important. The thicker the layer, the more often you will need to rinse and/or soak your seed. I put a layer around 4 seeds thick. That is 1 pound per tray. I don't have an automatic fodder system right now, so I'm handling each tray by hand once a day. What I have found to work for me is to take each tray set to the sink (two nested trays, one with holes, one without) and completely soak the seeds for 5 minutes. I'm getting a 95% germination rate using this method. The temperature in my house this time of year can be a bit chilly as we are in an old farm house. If it gets above 65 we are sweating!
- Clean seed and leave soaking in water for 12-24 hours
- Next day - Rinse seed really well. I typically leave the seed in the drained soak bucket for a day before putting in the tray. In my soaking bucket, the layer is about an inch or so of seed.
- Spread the seed onto a tray with drainage holes in it. Rinse the seed again, and then put aside. You can put an empty tray on top to hold in some moisture if you want to.
- Seeds start to sprout. They start out looking like little white nubs coming out of one end of the seed. Keep up with the watering routine and keep an eye out for mold. I don't have mold or drying out issues as long as temps aren't too high.
- Continue your watering schedule up to day 7 (I usually feed around day 6).
If all goes well, I'm hoping to drastically reduce - if not eliminate - the layer and grower mixes altogether. At the very least, I'm hoping my costs will go down so much that I'll be able to afford buying organic supplementation 
I mean, provided they don't find their way loose in your house - that can be disastrous. 
The ones in my barley were ugly black things that were crawling all over inside the plastic vittle vault container that I store my grain in. I wasn't thrilled with the thought that they might get out. Plus, the larva eat the grain kernel.Wouldn't the chickens WANT the weavils?I mean, provided they don't find their way loose in your house - that can be disastrous.
.Wouldn't the chickens WANT the weavils?
. So just store it covered like regular feed (inside out of elements, off ground, and sealed so no pests get in it)?
