Growing fodder for chickens

[Oakieridge]

Okie,

Did you drill holes in your upside down shelves and water them daily? I'm still trying to figure out what my set up will be and I'm really liking yours.

ETA: Oops, guess we were typing at the same time!

Oh and hubby cut the poles down so that the shelves would be closer together. You don't have to do that but we wanted to stack them 5 tall and me still be able to see what I was watering lol. So far so good. We just drag them outside each day to water for about 5 mins and then once they drain I move them back into my mud porch that usually only holds firewood but now that has been moved to another location, lol. On cold nights I will put a heat lamp out there but so far we haven't needed to.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Well I had been layering them to thickly, the first batches had seeds that didn't sprout much because there were to many. Now I am doing just enough to cover the bottom of the little sections. We have aprox. 200 birds (about 1/4 bantams). I have been doing 4-5 "trays/shelves" of fodder each day. 4 will feed them all but with 5 I feel that they have left overs and to me that says they are getting plenty and so therefor aren't going hungry. We had alot of layer pellets still in the feeders this morning so I told my husband lets try just giving fodder today. I don't like having pellets in their pen over what they will eat in one day because it draws in the mice IMO. We started feeding the fodder last Thursday and I just saw in an increase in eggs yesterday.

During the summer we were fermenting reclaimed oats and they loved that but since it has cooled off we haven't been. We may try to set some fermenting oats up in the house once we get the hang of growing the fodder. We had been going through 150#s of layer pellets every other day. Since Thursday I have only gone through 200#s. We have used about 20#s of wheat and about 35#s of barley so far for the fodder, if that. I think even if the fodder wasn't cheaper I would still do it. The birds LOVE it and if they had green stuff to free range this time of year they would be.

These shelves are perfect! They have little "cells" on the bottom so once the fodder grows it comes out in these nice cells that are already scoored into 4 pieces so they tear apart really easily.

Awesome info! Depending on how you count your days, it sounds like your layer pellet consumption went from about 75 lbs per day down to about 33 lbs per day. That's quite a decrease.

One more question to clarify ... if you had to measure how much fodder is going out each day, how much per bird? In square inches? Cubic inches?

Seems picky question, but calculating this to 55 "regular" birds, 6 more bantams, one more rooster, and 50 chicks that are about 2 months old and a few more chicks at 3 weeks (I think), 2 adult ducks, 5 each of day-old ducklings, and a couple turkeys I'm not going to bother to count any more (

) ... and I'll just calculate that to be about 130 mouths to feed (I'm excluding ducklings which won't be exposed to greens for a little bit).

I'm trying to crunch some numbers about how many flats I need to sprout for each day. My flats are about 14.75" x 17.5" which is about 250 square inches (if my math is working today). I'm sprouting rye, because I have a large quantity of that available to me for free.

I'm quite eager to reduce the amount of feed I'm buying. I can only fit a few bags into my car at a time, and it gets old and expensive making emergency food runs all the time. Also I know they're wasting a lot of dry feed by scratching it out of the feeders, so I'm going to start fermenting. Tonight. I'm starting that tonight. It's official. Did you hear me Universe ... I said I'm starting to ferment chicken feed tonight!

 

[Oakieridge]

Awesome info! Depending on how you count your days, it sounds like your layer pellet consumption went from about 75 lbs per day down to about 33 lbs per day. That's quite a decrease.

One more question to clarify ... if you had to measure how much fodder is going out each day, how much per bird? In square inches? Cubic inches?

Seems picky question, but calculating this to 55 "regular" birds, 6 more bantams, one more rooster, and 50 chicks that are about 2 months old and a few more chicks at 3 weeks (I think), 2 adult ducks, 5 each of day-old ducklings, and a couple turkeys I'm not going to bother to count any more (

) ... and I'll just calculate that to be about 130 mouths to feed (I'm excluding ducklings which won't be exposed to greens for a little bit).

I'm trying to crunch some numbers about how many flats I need to sprout for each day. My flats are about 14.75" x 17.5" which is about 250 square inches (if my math is working today). I'm sprouting rye, because I have a large quantity of that available to me for free.

I'm quite eager to reduce the amount of feed I'm buying. I can only fit a few bags into my car at a time, and it gets old and expensive making emergency food runs all the time. Also I know they're wasting a lot of dry feed by scratching it out of the feeders, so I'm going to start fermenting. Tonight. I'm starting that tonight. It's official. Did you hear me Universe ... I said I'm starting to ferment chicken feed tonight!

LOL I want to figure out how much we are using daily as well. I ment to bring a "scoop" of feed with me to work today and weigh it but I forgot. We use 15 "scoops" each day so I want to figure out how much is a "scoop" in ounces or pounds and then figure how long a 50# bag of grain will last me. Our shelves are each 14" x 30" and if we feed at the most 5 shelves a day that is 420 sq inches per shelf which comes out to a total of 2100 sq inches of fodder being put out daily. Now of course the bantams don't eat as much and the OEGBs don't eat nearly as much. I can hopefully remember to bring a scoop of grain with me tomorrow to work and see how much is in a scoop. I will also say that we don't feed fodder to any of the chicks. The youngest birds getting fodder at out place is 4 1/2 month old bantam cochins. The little chicks (all under 2 months) I figure need all the stuff that is in the chick starter. I may throw them some to play with but I want a bulk of their nutrition to come from the chick starter.

Our neighbor who is a veggitarian came by last night and pulled some fodder out of the trays and took it home for him and his wife. He said it tasted great! I figure it does it smells so sweet.

Fermenting feed isn't hard. We never fermented the layer pellets but we did reclaimed oats and whole rolled oats and the birds really liked the rolled oats better than the reclaimed oats but they ate both eagerly, lol.

 

[groverlvchx]

How do you ferment chicken feed (like scratch?) and why do it? I'm picturing a bunch of drunken chickens...

 

[pawtraitart]

How do you ferment chicken feed (like scratch?) and why do it? I'm picturing a bunch of drunken chickens...

Fermenting increases the digestibility of the feed. I think I'm going to give it a try! There are several threads that tell you how to do it. You'll need a bucket, the feed you want to ferment, water, and apple cider vinegar. (the pure kind that has the "mother" in it) From what I've read, once your fermentation liquid has been infused with the "mother" you can replenish the vinegar with the cheaper kind you can get at the regular grocery store.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I keep using the good stuff.

 

[pawtraitart]

My first mission is finding the good stuff! I'll probably have to make the 30 minute drive to the city to get it. LOL

 

[Lacy Blues]

It would probably save on gas money if you were to order it online. $5 to ship something recently seems pricey but then if I was to drive to the nearest store... one hour one way... it would cost me a heck of a lot more to go and get it myself.

Do you have a Walmart?

If so, some of them carry Braggs and recently Heinz put out an unprocessed ACV with the mother in it.

 

[Kassaundra]

My first mission is finding the good stuff! I'll probably have to make the 30 minute drive to the city to get it. LOL

It will ferment w/ just grains and water too. I've been feeding fermented grains for over a year and have never put anything in except water.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Lucky for me I have a friend that makes his own vinegers. I plan to dope about half a gallon of acv with some apple juice and some of his mother. and get the process started.