Growing fodder for chickens

[bbdal]

When it comes to choosing seeds to sprout, it seems like I read not to buy regular BOSS meant for wild birds because it could be sprayed with something. Where do you guys get your seeds? What about, as mentioned above, buying seeds meant for other wildlife or meant to plant for deer plots, etc.? Is that okay? My chicks are 3 weeks old now. Could I go ahead and start some for them? Are they old enough?
Thanks!

 

[maxximo]

Hi everyone

Any tricks on not getting starch to gunk up the water pump, I had the pump seiz up a couple of times, I had to shake it to get it working again.

 

[corancher]

Hi everyone

Any tricks on not getting starch to gunk up the water pump, I had the pump seiz up a couple of times, I had to shake it to get it working again.

I have not had mine in long enough yet to have a problem. Looking at the water after a couple of days I can see why there would be a problem. I have to work at getting a holes in the crate top for the pump pipe and drain area because I am told exposure to light will cause algea to grow. I currently don't have it covered.

Hope someone that has a pump will let us know their experience.

 

[erinszoo]

When it comes to choosing seeds to sprout, it seems like I read not to buy regular BOSS meant for wild birds because it could be sprayed with something. Where do you guys get your seeds? What about, as mentioned above, buying seeds meant for other wildlife or meant to plant for deer plots, etc.? Is that okay? My chicks are 3 weeks old now. Could I go ahead and start some for them? Are they old enough?
Thanks!

We use deer spike grains for our fodder. The only trick to it is that the oats in it don't sprout as fast as everything else. We do ours in bowls right now so it isn't a problem to just leave the slower sprouting stuff in the bottom of the bowl as it washes out of the mat of other shoots. When we move a tray system we may have problems with it not being sprouted as far as everything else when it gets fed, but the birds don't really care. They eat it anyway.

3 weeks old is fine for feeding fodder to. We started our ducks at one week and our turkeys at two weeks on it and they LOVE it just as much as our big birds do. They only thing I would suggest when feeding little ones is to chop it up so it's shorter in length so they don't risk getting sour crop.

 

[nxb161]

Wow, it looks like I made it through to the end of the thread. I think a month got skipped over somehow, but oh well. Very interesting to read and see some with large scale automatic setups and others using takeout containers. I had some BOSS leftover so I just did a quick setup with an old tray I had laying around. It just started to sprout and I'm of town so ill be curious how it does under her care. It is more experiment than anything since I'm not even getting my 3 hens until March. I just wanted to see something grow.
I am in NE Pennsylvania so winter is fairly cold. My coop and run is just about ready to go. I have mealworms going as well, but only 2 weeks into that. I've been reading up on FF and think ill try that as well. My local feed store sells laying pellets 21percent protein and I don't see soy in the list either. I think I'll be serving them a little bit of everything for variety. Just wanted to say I enjoy reading this thread.

 

[corancher]

Wow, it looks like I made it through to the end of the thread. I think a month got skipped over somehow, but oh well. Very interesting to read and see some with large scale automatic setups and others using takeout containers. I had some BOSS leftover so I just did a quick setup with an old tray I had laying around. It just started to sprout and I'm of town so ill be curious how it does under her care. It is more experiment than anything since I'm not even getting my 3 hens until March. I just wanted to see something grow.
I am in NE Pennsylvania so winter is fairly cold. My coop and run is just about ready to go. I have mealworms going as well, but only 2 weeks into that. I've been reading up on FF and think ill try that as well. My local feed store sells laying pellets 21percent protein and I don't see soy in the list either. I think I'll be serving them a little bit of everything for variety. Just wanted to say I enjoy reading this thread.

Wow. You are prepared. I think most of us jump in first with the birds then try to get everything in place. Good Job.

 

[nxb161]

I must admit I bought a prefab coop that came with a run. The run is only 29H 40W 59L. So I built an 8' cube to attach onto it. If I could go back I'd rethink the 8' height. Oh we'll I just didn't want to have to cut off all the vertical 2 by 4s. Had to get help just to move the individual sides. I want to take a shot at building a custom coop this summer, but wanted to get the hens now. Oh so I'm not totally off topic. My feed store sold me wheat feed that she said people use for folder 10# for $3
I'll wait til I have the hens before I mess with that.

 

[ms4runr]

I find that my girls like the wheat fodder best when the green shoots are about an inch long. Here's a treat bowl given to my girls today (I have a very small flock currently - only four). The bottom is moistened layer feed, topped with fodder and meal worms. They loved it. By the way, the mealworms are very easy to grow. I just got a starter batch a month ago, and they seem to be doing well with very little effort on my part.

Please give info on growing meal worms!

 

[sueblack]

Please give info on growing meal worms!

There are two threads on BYC that I have looked at for growing mealworms, they are: Growing Mealworms and Mealworm Farming. Also, look at Amy's web page on mealworms. Her site is www.westknollfarm.com

 

[sueblack]

My first attempt at sprouting barley for fodder failed. I found out the barley was two or three years old, so I used it up in fermented feed.

I have gotten a fresh supply of barley (harvested 2012) and have started soaking some. Can anyone who has sprouted barley successfully tell me what the conditions were under which barley seemed to sprout the best? Temperature, humidity (if applicable), thickness, rinsed how many times per day, days to sprout, etc?