Growing fodder for chickens

[Oakieridge]

You are so right!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/hoop-house-zm0z11zmat.aspx

I ran across this a few weeks ago, i want the full size one for a greenhouse, our house is cramped and not a lot of extra room for my mealie farms, FF, and now fodder. I plan to do a small scale for raising CX and larger for turkey also, very reasonable cost and lightweight. I have my 2nd coop tied up all summer for meat birds, and DH wants me to expand the egg production

Woohoo!

Great idea!!! My 2 hooop houses are full of birds at the moment but I do have the supplies to make 2 more I could use for fodder. DH has plans for a concret pad we have sitting next to our house. Right now it doesn't serve any use. We have some old glass patio doors that are cloudy but would work for a "green house" type structure. He was going to use 4 sets, one set of sliding glass doors on each side and then use recycled metal for the roof. We have to do something since the guineas wiped out 2 more shelves of fodder yesterday since we let them set outside on nice days to get fresh air and sunshine. I told him today just drag them out and rinse them then put them back in the house so the guinea patrol doesn't eat it all up! LOL But on the flip side I do have really well fed guineas! haha

 

[melwynnd]

I'm going to interject here. Fodder does not need much light at all. It grows just as green and lush in my living room with all the shades drawn for the entire six days as it does when they are open. What it DOES need is a stable temperature around 70 degrees which is extremely hard and costly to maintain in a greenhouse, which tends to warm up a lot during the day and cool off a lot at night. You'd be better off with an insulated shed that has a couple of small windows.

Sherry

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I'm going to interject here. Fodder does not need much light at all. It grows just as green and lush in my living room with all the shades drawn for the entire six days as it does when they are open. What it DOES need is a stable temperature around 70 degrees which is extremely hard and costly to maintain in a greenhouse, which tends to warm up a lot during the day and cool off a lot at night. You'd be better off with an insulated shed that has a couple of small windows.
Sherry

Oh agreed, i wouldn't build it just for fodder. Its currently in my laundry room and there's no light there unless i flip one on.I want a greenhouse, FOR a greenhouse to have healthy organic vegetables almost year around.We usually have 3-4 months of real winter, so during that time i will have to do the stuff in the house (now... already 20s at night.. ugh) Hubby is looking into solar heating for the milder months, so it won't break our budget.

 

[pawtraitart]

Applause for hoop houses! My husband is going to build me one....or two next spring. I wish that I could grow fodder in them, but yes, it will get too warm in there. I need an underground fodder bunker.

 

[melwynnd]

I want to build a lean-to hoophouse for Aquaponics. There's a very cool video on You-tube that shows how to build an Aquaponics system out of one of those 275 gallon square water containers. I'm going to try catfish as they take temperature fluctuations best. No Fodder, though. It makes the water too dirty, when the plants in Aquaponics are supposed to CLEAN the water. :/

Sherry

 

[JulieNKC]

OK..I have a question. I went to buy oats for fodder. They did not have the seeds but told me racehorse oats are the same thing. Then I read here that they have a coating on them. Someone soaked their seeds in a bleach solution. Was that to remove what is on the racehorse oats?? If so...would Oxine work instead of bleach. It is a deritive of bleach I believe. I am fortunate to have a greenhouse so I am using plant trays that have small holes in them for drainage. Also...I am wondering if sand could be used to also sprout? It can easily be rinsed from the roots. I use sand in sprouting some seeds and cuttings. Drains well and works great.
Thanks!

Some horse oats have been steam cleaned or something like that to clean/sanitize them and won't sprout. A friend of mine bought feed oats and hers are doing great. I have some, but mine won't grow. My wheat, lentils, birdseed all grow great but the oats won't sprout.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I want to build a lean-to hoophouse for Aquaponics. There's a very cool video on You-tube that shows how to build an Aquaponics system out of one of those 275 gallon square water containers. I'm going to try catfish as they take temperature fluctuations best. No Fodder, though. It makes the water too dirty, when the plants in Aquaponics are supposed to CLEAN the water.

Sherry

Sounds very cool! i have been looking at catfish too. Its really tempting, and start up cost would be minimal. i know they grow quick, and i love catfish yummm. Not sure what i will use for filtering, have an old sand filter from a swimming pool just sitting there. that may be ideal with some modification!

 

[PacaPride]

Hi all,

I read through some of the comments and posts from those considering fodder for their poultry. I'll chime in as someone who has both poultry (22 in our coop and a summer run of a chicken tractor for meat birds and brooding egg-layers for city coops) as well as alpacas, and we have been operating our production fodder system for a couple of weeks after trials all this year on a smaller scale.

I was lead to this thread from another who called out an article on my blog via a link, so let me add the links to the articles that I've currently written:
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012...eed-in-8-days-barley-fodder-sprouting-trials/
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012...ed-new-flood-and-drain-tray-system-installed/
http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/barley-fodder-from-trials-to-production/

If you are located in Western Washington, I offer a fodder primer if you visit our farm. There is a fee for this consulting. If you want to see a working fodder room and learn the nuances and technical details, I recommend scheduling a visit. (www.PacaPride.com) Meanwhile, here are some notes from my experience...

Chickens vs. ruminants regarding fodder:
- For our alpacas we target a goal of 18% protein content which happens around the 7-9 day mark of sprouting. This requires grow trays and a flood and drain approach. For chickens, such a system is a bit of overkill; at the 7-9 day grow point, the chickens generally avoid eating the long sprouts and instead target the smaller, ungerminated or slightly germinated grains left in the mat.
- For chickens, instead of a grow tray operation, one could simply use a bucket operation. Two buckets,one with drain holes sitting inside the other, soaking grain seed for 24 hours, then drained for 24hours, then briefly wet again (just a dunk and drain), and let sprout for the next 24-36 hours. The result is a bucket full of sprouted grains that look like a "day 2-3" fodder mat: This is perfect for chickens and results in very little waste.

Soak Times: Information on this varies widely. Interestingly enough, I have found that researching under the "fodder" category, soak times are generally shorter (less than 6 hours), but researching under the category of "sprouts for humans", soak times are generally longer (24 hours or at least overnight). I am having the most success with a pre-wash and rinse of the seed, straining off chaff and cleaning the "field run" barley I use, then leaving it to soak in a mild (1tbsp to 1gal ratio) bleach solution for a 24 hour period. This has given me the highest germination rate as well as shortening the deviation among the seeds germinating (ie they all grow at the same time with no stragglers or late germinators). It sanitizes the seed hulls without impacting the seed and kills mold spores and yeast that may be on the hull. It also results in my procedures being limited to a once-a-day visit to the fodder room. Yes, there are other sanitizers out there, I personally find that household bleach still lands at the top of the list for a variety of reasons.

Grow Environment: I am consistently seeing bunches of people trying to include their fodder operation in a greenhouse setting. IMHO, this will cause you more problems than it is worth. A dedicated fodder room, temperature controlled, cleanliness controlled, is best. A grow room temp for barley fodder is 60F degrees. If your room is at 70F or above, you can bet molds will appear at some point. Ideally, barley is a cold-weather crop, it germinates when temps are as low as 45 degrees. Keep your grow room temps low.

Water: Use fresh water vs. recycling via a reservoir. The runoff from barley fodder is starchy and creates the ideal environment for yeasts to take hold and start fermenting. If fermenting begins in one tray, recycling will cause the other trays to do the same as well, regardless of how far along the grow cycle they are. In fact, I have found in my trials that this causes a more mature tray to get slimey roots and begin to have an off-smell of fermenting. A fresh tray of a barley fodder mat should smell like cucumbers picked from the garden.

AIR: Keep in mind that AIR is just as important as WATER! My watering cycles, once the pre-soaked seed is spread in the trays are 4x a day, for 4 minutes long, just enough to cover freshly seed trays with water and just enough for trays further along in the gorw cycle to get enough water. The trays drain automatically with the more mature trays taking the longest to drain completely. Once watered and drained, a fodder mat that has established a root mat stays wet for quite a long time, mature trays need less water than freshly seeded trays do. The roots need air as much as they need water. If you are harvest mats that don't smell fresh like cucumbers, or show grey slimey roots (not vibrant white), then you are watering too much and the sporuts aren't getting the air they need.

Lighting: No fancy lights needed, a few CFL's or some LED rope lights will green up the sprouts just fine. Do set them on a timer to simulate a day and night cycle. Mine is set at 16 hours on 8 hours off. No watering occurs during the night cycle.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

PacaPride, thank you for your post! I especially appreciate the Chickens vs. ruminants paragraph!!!
I had been feeding my chickens sprouted seeds that were about 3 to 4 days old. Then I read someone saying we needed to go to the 7 day mark. I tried that and I started worrying about my chickens getting an impacted crop from such long greens! Even in a mat, the grass seems to pull out pretty easily.

Do wonder if anyone has had any problems from impacted or sour crop from the long grass?

Chickens vs. ruminants regarding fodder:
- For our alpacas we target a goal of 18% protein content which happens around the 7-9 day mark of sprouting. This requires grow trays and a flood and drain approach. For chickens, such a system is a bit of overkill; at the 7-9 day grow point, the chickens generally avoid eating the long sprouts and instead target the smaller, ungerminated or slightly germinated grains left in the mat.
- For chickens, instead of a grow tray operation, one could simply use a bucket operation. Two buckets,one with drain holes sitting inside the other, soaking grain seed for 24 hours, then drained for 24hours, then briefly wet again (just a dunk and drain), and let sprout for the next 24-36 hours. The result is a bucket full of sprouted grains that look like a "day 2-3" fodder mat: This is perfect for chickens and results in very little waste.

 

[PAchickengirl]

I gave them some of the sprout today, they went nuts over them! I am just doing small food containers on top of my microwave.

Here is some we did a few weeks ago. It wasn't as thick as I'd like, but they liked it anyway!