I am going to try another batch of wheat berries and/or BOSS on a flat instead of a screen.
Growing fodder for chickens
- Thread starter pawtraitart
- Start date
I may try a small tray of them...next time I go to the mill I can get barely, wheat, milo, more BOSS and perhaps some other seeds.
I'm using plastic flats with holes cut in the bottom. I simply spray down my flats at the sink every morning, let them drain, and put them back in the green house. I've had great luck so far!!
~ Aspen
That's certainly possible. They do need to stay moist.
Wow...been doing this myself and didn't even know this thread has been going for months! LOL I've been doing winter wheat since that's what the feed mill sells this time if year. $12 for a 50 lb bag. It's doing well, but I need larger containers! 80 birds eat a lot of fodder.
I don't remember what got me here to this thread, but it was a lady friend that really got me started on this. She told me she was going to Las Vegas to a gun show, and told me she was picking up some barley seed to make fodder. I was "kind'a" interested, so I gave her the money to add one bag of barley seed to her order, and she brought back a 50 pound bag for me. That was almost a month and a half ago.
It sat for several weeks, and each time I saw her, she asked how my fodder was going. It got to be pretty embarrassing to keep telling her I hadn't started yet. The last time I saw her I finally said I would start my seeds that night, and stopped off at a Dollar store to buy a bunch of those thin aluminum pans for baking. I punched several holes in several, soaked my seeds that night in a 5 gallon bucket, added bleach to kill off the unhealthy stuff, and spread the seeds out on a tray after soaking for 24 hours. Each night I faithfully started a new soak, and added that currant soaking seeds to a new tray.
After several days my seeds started to sprout, but nothing like the pictures I am seeing on this thread, so finally I brought my oldest tray of seeds to her and asked what was going wrong. This would have been about day nine, grass, yes, but tall like I see here, no way.
She showed me a tray of her seeds and they were TALL, like about six inches or so, and only five days old. Same seeds, same barley, what was I doing wrong.
When she lifted her fodder out of the tray there was a root base of several inches, like three inches of white roots, thickly matted, and HEAVY. Mine were maybe 3/4" to 1 inch thick, and nothing as good as what she showed me so she started looking at my tray. There were many holes, but the roots were wet. She asked when I had last watered and I said about three hours earlier. She showed me the holes on her tray, all on one side, and three times larger than mine. My itty bitty little holes were NOT DRAINING enough of the water, and too much water was stunting my growth.
On my way home I stopped at Walmart, and bought some storage trays. 15 quart trays, a bit smaller than the overall size of the baking trays I was using, and taking her hint, I drilled 1/4" holes on one side of the bottom. Now when I water my trays the holes are staggered side to side so that the water draining into the tray has to go all the way across the tray (wetting everything in the tray) before exiting this tray to water the tray below it, and those holes are on the opposite side, so again the water has to travel to the opposite side before draining, and so on and so on, all the way to the bottom.
Within a couple days, what a difference. I now have TALL grass growing, the seeds are getting soaked, but then they have a chance to dry a little without drying out, and I still water twice a day, in the morning when I get up, and again in the evening before I watch TV. It takes about five minutes to water all the trays, then I take the soaking seeds and add them to a new tray, and put new seeds into fresh bleach/water to soak until tomorrow night.
So, I believe the secret was ... too much water and you slow everything down, but placing a screen under the seeds will not allow the seeds to be watered properly. It's just a matter of balance I guess.
Skip
It sat for several weeks, and each time I saw her, she asked how my fodder was going. It got to be pretty embarrassing to keep telling her I hadn't started yet. The last time I saw her I finally said I would start my seeds that night, and stopped off at a Dollar store to buy a bunch of those thin aluminum pans for baking. I punched several holes in several, soaked my seeds that night in a 5 gallon bucket, added bleach to kill off the unhealthy stuff, and spread the seeds out on a tray after soaking for 24 hours. Each night I faithfully started a new soak, and added that currant soaking seeds to a new tray.
After several days my seeds started to sprout, but nothing like the pictures I am seeing on this thread, so finally I brought my oldest tray of seeds to her and asked what was going wrong. This would have been about day nine, grass, yes, but tall like I see here, no way.
She showed me a tray of her seeds and they were TALL, like about six inches or so, and only five days old. Same seeds, same barley, what was I doing wrong.
When she lifted her fodder out of the tray there was a root base of several inches, like three inches of white roots, thickly matted, and HEAVY. Mine were maybe 3/4" to 1 inch thick, and nothing as good as what she showed me so she started looking at my tray. There were many holes, but the roots were wet. She asked when I had last watered and I said about three hours earlier. She showed me the holes on her tray, all on one side, and three times larger than mine. My itty bitty little holes were NOT DRAINING enough of the water, and too much water was stunting my growth.
On my way home I stopped at Walmart, and bought some storage trays. 15 quart trays, a bit smaller than the overall size of the baking trays I was using, and taking her hint, I drilled 1/4" holes on one side of the bottom. Now when I water my trays the holes are staggered side to side so that the water draining into the tray has to go all the way across the tray (wetting everything in the tray) before exiting this tray to water the tray below it, and those holes are on the opposite side, so again the water has to travel to the opposite side before draining, and so on and so on, all the way to the bottom.
Within a couple days, what a difference. I now have TALL grass growing, the seeds are getting soaked, but then they have a chance to dry a little without drying out, and I still water twice a day, in the morning when I get up, and again in the evening before I watch TV. It takes about five minutes to water all the trays, then I take the soaking seeds and add them to a new tray, and put new seeds into fresh bleach/water to soak until tomorrow night.
So, I believe the secret was ... too much water and you slow everything down, but placing a screen under the seeds will not allow the seeds to be watered properly. It's just a matter of balance I guess.
Skip
Oh, and I forgot to mention above, the girls L-O-V-E this fodder.
I started growing the fodder because I had been letting the girls out all day to free range. Something got all the chickens that were out one day (half the flock was allowed out at a time, ten chickens IN and ten OUT of the coop/run, staggered schedule) I lost ten chickens one morning and didn't let the girls out for weeks after wards, so I needed SOMETHING green for them.
I evidently left the coop door open once a few nights ago right after feeding the fodder. Then when I went back an hour or so later, the coop door was wide open, but all the girls were inside the coop (when they could have been outdoors). The fodder was all gone, the seeds were gone, they cleaned up EVERYTHING, so ask me now if I am for or against this whole fodder thing.
It used to be when I opened the coop door, they would all come running out. NOW when I walk to the run/coop they actually BACK UP so I can get into the coop, then they attack the fodder I put on the ground, they devour EVERYTHING.
And their (normal) feed is just sitting there, hardly being touched at all. And then I think back at all the trouble I went through to build their "old" feed tray, it makes me laugh. I sure wish I'd known about this earlier. I'd possibly still have all twenty of my chickens instead of just the ten I have left.
Skip
I started growing the fodder because I had been letting the girls out all day to free range. Something got all the chickens that were out one day (half the flock was allowed out at a time, ten chickens IN and ten OUT of the coop/run, staggered schedule) I lost ten chickens one morning and didn't let the girls out for weeks after wards, so I needed SOMETHING green for them.
I evidently left the coop door open once a few nights ago right after feeding the fodder. Then when I went back an hour or so later, the coop door was wide open, but all the girls were inside the coop (when they could have been outdoors). The fodder was all gone, the seeds were gone, they cleaned up EVERYTHING, so ask me now if I am for or against this whole fodder thing.
It used to be when I opened the coop door, they would all come running out. NOW when I walk to the run/coop they actually BACK UP so I can get into the coop, then they attack the fodder I put on the ground, they devour EVERYTHING.
And their (normal) feed is just sitting there, hardly being touched at all. And then I think back at all the trouble I went through to build their "old" feed tray, it makes me laugh. I sure wish I'd known about this earlier. I'd possibly still have all twenty of my chickens instead of just the ten I have left.
Skip
Last edited:
Great information, Skip. I think I am having that problem with putting my trays with holes inside the trays without holes to keep from dripping all over everything. I hope to be able to set up something with a shower pan and a water catching system that will allow me to just use the flats with holes and no mess.
It was almost freezing last night, so my tray of sprouts came inside and sat over the sink. They'll go back outside once it warms up a bit. I noticed there were a couple kernels of corn mixed in with the BOSS..they all had sprouted! LOL I'm not sure if my lil sprout tails got bigger or not over night. I hope they didn't get too cold. We shall see.
~ Aspen
~ Aspen
Walmart has the wheat seeds for delivery again! It is free shipping for 45$ or more but honestly didnt want 100 lbs..so i only paid an extra 5$ for shipping 52 lbs..cant wait to get it to start...my last tray of fodder i have has actually vines growing from the navy bean seeds!
Sonew, didn't I see some pictures you'd posted of your BOSS growing? Did you just sprout it and offer it to the birds, or did it grow into fodder??
~ Aspen
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