Growing fodder for chickens

[keirys]

Do you feed the entire piece of fodder or break it up?

Either or I do both depends on the day.

 

[DebraM]

Wow! Now I am feeling very inspired and quite foolish for not thinking of dong this earlier. Here in Western NSW Australia It is very dry and we haven't had rain for weeks and weeks. I have really felt sorry for my "girls" who love to get out and scratch around eating the grass and there is just none left. I am really keen to start this ASAP and it must be meant to be......I got a small hot house for tomorrow (Mothers Day) and it will be perfect for sprouting. Thanks everyone for your inspiration.

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

WOW!!

Impressive! How many in your flock? Can you do pics? would love to see your mini green houses. I'm going to try to post pics of my setup. Just need to figure how. It's been a while since I posted any.

Hey,

Currently I have 10 LF Chickens, 6 Bantams, 16 Call Ducks, 15 adult Geese, aprox 50-55 Ducks, about 25 goslings of mixed ages, 10 Guineas, and a trio of Peafowl. Plus a few other random hatchlings.

Besides the fodder I'm also fermenting whole grains for my flock(s). I'm doing a mix of whole oats, whole barley, red & white milo, and some other grains. My youngest goslings are getting Chick Starter/Grower and fresh greens daily. My oldest goslings are eating fermented whole grains and fresh picked grass daily. My Peafowl will peck around at the whole grains and fodder, but they aren't thrilled with it. For them I'll probably have to buy a gamebird feed, just so I know they are getting enough to eat. Everybody else loves the Fermented Grains and fodder.

My big ducks free range all day just about every day, I feed them one in the morning and once in the evening. They eat aprox a gallon of feed or less daily..yes all 55 ducks eat about a gallon of feed or LESS. My geese, chickens, peafowl, call ducks, and guineas are all locked up in breeding pens so they cannot free range, they eat aprox 2 1/2 gallons of fermented whole grains daily.

I haven't fed any of my fodder that I'm growing for them yet, just whole grains but on average a tray of fodder will feed everyone on the place for one meal, and sometimes I will have some leftover.

My eggs from the ducks are super dark yellow/orange (they get much darker when I feed them fodder...) and scrumptious! I have about 30-40ish female ducks. About 10 of them are still juveniles, some are molting, so I'm averaging anywhere from 6-9+ eggs daily from them. My chickens are completely on strike, I've gotten two eggs from them this week (slackers!). There are about 5 dozen duck eggs in the 'fridge currently, I can sell their eggs for about $4.00-S6.00 a dozen for eating, and that is how I'll pay for my feed this week by selling their eggs. In summer everyone eats much less, so in the winter time my feedbill will be more, but this fall I'll be going through my juvenile goslings, and such and will be able to cut down on my numbers some.

I have to go feed everyone now..when I come back I'll try and upload some pictures of my fodder operation.

Cheers

~ Aspen

 

[mzgarden]

I may have missed this so I'll apologize in advance. Where do you purchase your seed? I'm interested in wheat, barley and BOSS, but I'm a little confused about all the different places that sell online and the big differences in prices. I have 25 chickens thus far and planning to add more plus turkeys so I need more than one pound at a time. Where have you found best to buy seed?

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I may have missed this so I'll apologize in advance. Where do you purchase your seed? I'm interested in wheat, barley and BOSS, but I'm a little confused about all the different places that sell online and the big differences in prices. I have 25 chickens thus far and planning to add more plus turkeys so I need more than one pound at a time. Where have you found best to buy seed?

You can get the best variety and prices (and buy in bulk) of grain at a local mill. That is where I buy all my grain, when I have the chance. The only problem is the mill is 2 hours away. Off the top of my head I know my local mill sells white millet, barley, BOSS, wheat, oats, milo, corn, and other grains.

When I bought grain last week I paid $12.45 for a 50lb of wheat. The time before I paid $12.95 per bag.

Hope this helps : )

~ Aspen

 

[h4farms]

What is the bleach to water solution to clean the seeds? And after you soak in bleach water to you switch to just water? And how long do you soak?

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

What is the bleach to water solution to clean the seeds? And after you soak in bleach water to you switch to just water? And how long do you soak?

I know nothing about it, but I personally would never soak my seeds in bleach. I would use a food grade hydrogen peroxide and water solution to soak or spray your seeds with instead. That is just my personal opinion.

~ Aspen

 

[SigningChickens]

Please tell me no one is really using bleach? That is really scary!
Aspen- can you please explain the reasoning behind cleaning the grains? I'm new to this. Are they dirty? Is it hurtful to not clean them? I did soak them overnight.

 

[h4farms]

How do you mix the hydrogen peroxide and water, like how much. And signingchickens, it's to prevent mold

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Please tell me no one is really using bleach? That is really scary!
Aspen- can you please explain the reasoning behind cleaning the grains? I'm new to this. Are they dirty? Is it hurtful to not clean them? I did soak them overnight.

I soak my grains for 24 hours (overnight), then the next morning I rinse them all really good until I notice the water is clear, instead of brown. Then I lay them in my sprouting trays and stick them in the green houses.

The grains I buy from my mill probably are dirty, so I try and clean them off the best I can. You soak them to germinate the seed. Then once they are finished soaking, I give them a good rinse to get some of the shaft and such off. You do not have to clean them, it's just a personal preference.

I assume people are soaking their seeds in bleach to protect against them growing mold and other things. If you were going to soak or spray them with something to help prevent mold, I would use something natural, like the food grade hydrogen peroxide solution.

~ Aspen