Growing fodder for chickens

[Kassaundra]

Looks fairly easy. I just watched a video on you tube on sprouted grains and they said they heard that oats cause chickens to go into molt. Anybody ever hear that? I don't know if I believe that because scratch has oats and I feed my chickens scratch as a treat all the time. and they just go thru a normal molt in the fall.

I have been feeding mine sprouted and femented oats and wheat for 2 years w/o problems

 

[crazyaboutchickens]

Looks fairly easy. I just watched a video on you tube on sprouted grains and they said they heard that oats cause chickens to go into molt. Anybody ever hear that? I don't know if I believe that because scratch has oats and I feed my chickens scratch as a treat all the time. and they just go thru a normal molt in the fall.

I've heard once on this forum that oats cause poorer feather quality on birds, but never found any evidence or other posts to back it up, so I don't really believe that. It makes as much sense as the old wives tale about the oil in BOSS causing feathers to fall off.

I have the same experience with it as you do. My chickens go through a lot of Nutrena scratch, and half of it is oats. Their feathers are just fine and they moult at the normal intervals.

 

[whisperinghopef]

First of all I want to say a big thank you to all of you who have contributed on the large fodder thread I read here on BackYardChickens. I have learned so much from what people have tried and what works best. For several months now I have been successful in growing fodder. I have researched on a cheap way to grow fodder and one that does not take a lot of hands on time. I like my system and have added onto it several times. I grow mine in my 4 1/2 ft. crawl space under my house because summer and winter it stays the perfect tempature. I leave the lights on during the day to help it grow. I went to Lowe's and bought the black shelving without any holes in it. I drill small holes and cut down the leg size. Then I recycled some square poles that someone got rid of to set the shelving on. I use some large very heavy duty bunny pan trays that I used to have on my bunny cages to put under the shelving. The first 24 hrs. I soak the seeds (wheat, barley, and rye). Then I put them on the trays. I add some bleach to the water and only have to pour it on the top of the shelving. Falls all the way down thru and then I just pull out the bunny pans and get rid of the water. I find if I am busy and don't get to it once a day the fodder has enough moisture that it doesn't hurt it. I have had great success with the fodder. We do not have big lush pastures summer or winter for all our animals so it makes me feel good to feed them fresh green grass that smells so good and nutritious. We are gettting free spent grains from the brewery so I don't feed it to the chickens anymore but I feed the fodder to my goats and sheep - the pigs even like it. My hay cost has gone down. I really enjoy growing the fodder for my sweet animals.

I would like to grow something for my family and would like to start out with tomatoes and lettuce. Any ideas on how I would grow them hydroponically as well?

 

[Aphrael]

That looks like a really great set up!

 

[AletaG]

I would like to grow something for my family and would like to start out with tomatoes and lettuce. Any ideas on how I would grow them hydroponically as well?

Great use of space.

Tomatoes I've only done once successfully indoors, one year we had a south facing window in CO Springs, CO. I tried it with lots of lights in the basement, that plant never set fruit. You'll want to find a hydroponics shop and you will be using lots of space blankets and electricity Good luck!

 

[Catfish267]

You can use just regular feed that you get form TSC right? What works the best for chickens?

 

[AletaG]

You can use just regular feed that you get form TSC right? What works the best for chickens?

Are you referring to fodder? Fodder is sprouting grains to be anywhere from just sprouting, to full fledged greenery. So you need clean, untreated, seed that will sprout. When you say what works best, do you mean which type of seed? Usually what grows well in your climate, they'll eat almost anything.

 

[JesNflock]

You can use just regular feed that you get form TSC right? What works the best for chickens?

WoW I noticed all those mealworms in your avatar! Do you raise them also?

 

[Bitterroot]

So do you have a pic of your day 5 fodder that you are feeding out?

Got a couple pictures for you today. I guess this is probably closer to sprouts than fodder for the birds.





I've successfully grown it much thicker and greener than this, too, and plan to start doing that soon for the cows and rabbits. Our well water obviously has no chlorine, so I alternate between bleach and GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) in the rinse water. I do my initial soak in water with GSE too. Not sure how much of a difference that makes, but I've never seen any mold. For anyone curious, the GSE ratio I use is 3 drops per half gallon of water, and the bleach ration is .1 ML per half gallon of water.

Love the rack shown above. Pictures like that are worth their weight in gold. Thank you! I'm getting ready to put together a fodder rack so that I can do larger sheets and will keep the shelving idea in mind. Those things are cheap and virtually everywhere.

 

[Kassaundra]

Got a couple pictures for you today. I guess this is probably closer to sprouts than fodder for the birds.





I've successfully grown it much thicker and greener than this, too, and plan to start doing that soon for the cows and rabbits. Our well water obviously has no chlorine, so I alternate between bleach and GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) in the rinse water. I do my initial soak in water with GSE too. Not sure how much of a difference that makes, but I've never seen any mold. For anyone curious, the GSE ratio I use is 3 drops per half gallon of water, and the bleach ration is .1 ML per half gallon of water.

Love the rack shown above. Pictures like that are worth their weight in gold. Thank you! I'm getting ready to put together a fodder rack so that I can do larger sheets and will keep the shelving idea in mind. Those things are cheap and virtually everywhere.

Thanks for the pics, yes I agree closer to sprouts then traditional fodder, but for birds that is perfect. The bigger grazers (and rabbits) would probably like a little more green blade.