Growing fodder for chickens

[mg15]

Sunflowergirl,

• In your flat are the roots all matted together?

Mine do not look all matted.

• should let these grow longer.?? Picture at #976

I got too excited to watch them eat the fodder.
Thanks,
mg

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

That's going for about 50 birds. I scatter it around their pasture ... their pasture is bare bones right now. I like to encourage them to go out there scavenging even when it is cold or wet.

The one super authoritative and rather antique source I read about fodder suggested one cubic inch per bird per day. And so by one measurement I'm feeding several times that amount, accounting for square inches and height of the fodder. But how a person is supposed to measure a cubic inch of something that is several inches tall and can be compressed quite a bit is beyond me. Or was that 1 cubic inch measurement meant for the dry grains the fodder was grown from? Who knows.

I stressed about it quite a bit at first, then I watched them eat the fodder ... they like it and chase after it like any other treat, but they sometimes do move away before it is gone, so I figure they are probably just as self-regulating about it as they are about forage.

The 250ish square inches I'm feeding was originally supposed to be divided up between about 120 birds, but my feeder person can't quite get with that program. It is rye. I send it out when it looks good. The last batch wasn't as tall as previous batches, maybe only 2" of green stuff, but I wanted it to go out. I do skip some days ...

For me this is really a replacement for forage while I'm between pastures. It might be a regular thing in the winter, but I'd prefer to get them rotating through fresh green pastures all year round.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Hi, this is 6 cups of wheat berries in the long tray you are talking about. It is too much.
Your suggestion of 3 cups would be sufficient.
I did soak them for 24 hours in a pan, and then transferred to the long black flat.
Thanks.
mg

It looks like there might be too much seed in there to get even sprouting throughout the seed depth, but it is hard to tell. What I did to measure how much seed would work in my tray was this: I poured dry seed into the tray until it was a single dense layer of seed in the tray. After soaking it will look like a lot more seed because the seeds expand. After a little bit of sprouting the seeds expand even more.

I'm careful to not put too much seed into my trays because at first my helper really loaded up the trays and then there was mold. If you don't have a mold issue, that's one less thing for you to worry about. But as the nutritional content is quite different between seeds and sprouts and "fodder," and I'm going for "fodder," I want to make sure most of my seed has the opportunity to sprout really well and reach the "grass" stage.

 

[Lacy Blues]

That's going for about 50 birds. I scatter it around their pasture ... their pasture is bare bones right now. I like to encourage them to go out there scavenging even when it is cold or wet.

The one super authoritative and rather antique source I read about fodder suggested one cubic inch per bird per day. And so by one measurement I'm feeding several times that amount, accounting for square inches and height of the fodder. But how a person is supposed to measure a cubic inch of something that is several inches tall and can be compressed quite a bit is beyond me. Or was that 1 cubic inch measurement meant for the dry grains the fodder was grown from? Who knows.

I stressed about it quite a bit at first, then I watched them eat the fodder ... they like it and chase after it like any other treat, but they sometimes do move away before it is gone, so I figure they are probably just as self-regulating about it as they are about forage.

The 250ish square inches I'm feeding was originally supposed to be divided up between about 120 birds, but my feeder person can't quite get with that program. It is rye. I send it out when it looks good. The last batch wasn't as tall as previous batches, maybe only 2" of green stuff, but I wanted it to go out. I do skip some days ...

For me this is really a replacement for forage while I'm between pastures. It might be a regular thing in the winter, but I'd prefer to get them rotating through fresh green pastures all year round.

I think you are right the second time... square inches, not cubic.

 

[pigeonguy]

I think you are right the second time... square inches, not cubic.

I read 1 square inch with the soaked seeds somewhere around 1/4 to 1/2 inches deep. That was from the old page links posted earlier in this thread.

 

[Sunflowergirl]

mg15, the longer you let the seeds go, the better matted together the roots get. I went back and measured how many cups my weighed seeds are and it is about 3 cups for the 9 x 22 inch tray. When I let mine go to fodder, I let it go about 7 days and the mat gets pretty good by then. You can vary what you give your chickens, being sprouts or fodder. When I feed them sprouts, it is not matted, nor does it have the green tops like your picture. I let sprout to day 3 and 4 when I feed.

Sunflowergirl,

• In your flat are the roots all matted together?

Mine do not look all matted.

• should let these grow longer.?? Picture at #976

I got too excited to watch them eat the fodder.
Thanks,
mg

 

[SHRIVERFARMGIRL]

That is very helpful. Thank you. They look yummy to me. Id say give them some time and sprinkle some scratch on them to let them know its edible. Silly birds.

 

[Organics North]

Wow... Lots of pages!!!! Happy to see the interest in growing fodder...

Being a year round market farmer, our birds get lots of fodder... In addition to the sprouted wheat and oats, I have grown them out in flats for young birds in winter as a treat.... I suggest growing Kale as a fodder.... We did a batch of meat birds that were fed a substantial amount of kale, and fat was yellow, just bursting with Omega 3's... (Even folks like myself that can not eat industrial meats, found the kale fed birds to be tasty.)

The laying hens also benefit from the greens, giving you dark healthy yolk color...

Lettuce is also a good fodder crop to grow, let the patch get nice and buggy then let the chickens go in it.. Here is a source for cheaper fodder seeds for lettuce and also wild garden kale

http://www.wildgardenseed.com/index.php?cPath=69&osCsid=98f3d7980a63f9a9ebfce9aaf3ae231b

 

[groverlvchx]

I know this thread is about fodder, but several people have asked about sprouting w/ burlap sacks, here is a video my husband helped me to make showing the way I do the burlap sacks for sprouting. I am still working on transitioning this method to a fodder growing method that would work for me for my future buns.

first of all: I LOVE YOUR KITTY! Also, I heard your puppy whining and thought it was mine for a minutes. LOL
Do you not rinse after day 2? I love your system! Why would you mess with it? It sounds like it works perfectly for you.

 

[Kassaundra]

first of all: I LOVE YOUR KITTY! Also, I heard your puppy whining and thought it was mine for a minutes. LOL
Do you not rinse after day 2? I love your system! Why would you mess with it? It sounds like it works perfectly for you.

Thank you, Bambam (the kitty) was coming to investigate the running water, she just loves playing in it. I never rinse again, just the initial rinse, 24 hr soak, and final rinse, then let it grow. I would like to grow fodder w/ part of it for meat rabbits, but don't want all the intensive rinsing/draining. So far my experiments have either been to dry or to slow to grow so develop mold (for fodder not sprouts) My sprout growing is perfect for me, I have no need to tweek that.