Growing fodder for chickens

[Lacy Blues]

If you're really interested in saving money (and making your birds healthier) you can ferment whatever feed you use. Preferably you use a good lay pellet. Fermenting it will save you about 1/3 in your bill. Getting whole grains and sprouting them will make those grains go a lot farther and have different nutritional qualities than the seeds themselves. Sprouting makes some of the nutrients more available and then if you can grow some other grains to fodder stage, the nutrients change more. Variety is the spice of life!

I try to grow fodder but I really struggle with keeping them from molding. I can do sprouts though and my birds really like them. At first they kind of just looked at them and at me. I just kept giving them and eventually you can start increasing amounts and they'll eat them. I only use about 25% sprouts when I have them which is not every day. Right now I'm sprouting BOSS, lentils and milo. I ferment barley and oats together to scatter in their deep litter so they have to work for those. This gives them exercise and helps them warm up in the morning. I ferment Feather Fixer and Game Bird Starter together will rolled barley and whole wheat for their actual breakfast served in dishes about an hour after scattering the whole grains. For their dinner, I mix in the sprouted grains, grated carrots, re-hydrated alfalfa and any left over food I might have on hand into the fermented pellet mixture. Sometimes I cut up some kind of fresh greens (like spinach, or turnip greens or beet greens) into their food. Also, cooked kidney and garbanzo beans, run through a food processor to grate them up and stir them in is something they really like. I try to serve a variety so they're not eating the same thing day in and day out, 365 days a year. I wouldn't like that so I don't want to subject them to it either.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds/13570#post_12608931

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...prouts-to-feed-the-chickens/620#post_12615014

 

[spiritchicken]

So there is no dirt in the trays just the seed??? Ever try and buy the seed online?? This is fantastic thank you.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Nope, no dirt. Although, I have considered trying it with dirt, I haven't yet.

 

[WHmarans]

Right now I give free choice feed and sprout about one and a half cups for about 20 chickens (one cup wheat and one half cup black oil sunflower seed).

My four adult laying chickens eat about half of this because I'm not messing with the little one's diet too much just yet.

They consume pretty much all I give them and it reduces how much commercial feed they eat but if I don't change their commercial feed to a higher protein feed the egg production will go down because this decreases their protein intake over all. So I started raising meal worms to feed with my fodder....But haven't built up the meal worm population enough yet to really supplement.

What I noticed (I'm just sharing observations I am no expert on this).. is if I feed an all flock 18% feed or a mixture of a little game bird 22% feed with all flock 18% along side the fodder (and oyster shell) the adults are getting.. they keep up with laying at the same rate that they do on layer feed which is about 16%. This could be completely wrong but so far that's what I've been up to. They are a layer breed and lay an egg almost every day.

I'm sure this all works out different for different breeds and different free range feed availability..

I estimate that my fodder I'm growing is something like 13% protein.

The crude protein of the BOSS I'm sprouting says 15% on the bag.

If anyone with difficulty with mold uses a needlepoint mesh basket like this



for sprouting and still gets mold I would be very interested to hear that it happened.

 

[Lenithecook]

We began sprouting sprouts for our hens and the two dairy heifer calves last Sept. We now have a frame in the greenhouse that holds 12 flats. We use oats cause we can buy them for $15 for 50 pounds. We soak the seed from 6-8 hours and then lay them in the trays about two inches thick - the trays are seed flats pierced with holes made with a drill - and then I just water from the top and all get a nice rinse once or twice a day. I had always sprouted red wheat for baking bread and mung beans for stirfry.

edited by staff

 

[dollbaby769]

at this point I would take any type of fodder. I have read somewhere that one may use lentil seeds from the grocery store. Does anyone know anything about that? rye? barley?

 

[dutchbunny83]

Awesome thread. I read the first few & the last few pages, when I have more time I will go through everything. I was also curious about dirt, it's pretty interesting you can grow without it.

When you plant seeds for your garden should you soak them like you do grains, or just put them in the dirt? (I know slightly off topic, but seemed like it could work).

We live in the sandhills in NC & I am constantly buying soil & rototilling it in, but I have the worst luck with veggies & grass



How many pounds of fodder per chicken per week???

 

[Brookliner]

Has anyone information on sprouting winter rye?

 

[ChickensRDinos]

The only thing dirt does for your plants is add nutrients and give the roots something to hold onto--as long as you provide those things you can grow a lot of different kinds plants all the way to adulthood with any soil at all. Sometimes you can actually get plants to grow faster without soil because you can better oxygenate the roots.

With fodder and sprouting you don't even need any nutrients, just water. I do a wheat/barley/BOSS mix and add .3 lbs of seeds per day for 6 hens, just as a supplement to their feed. They generally eat almost everything in one day. I have not weighed the finished fodder yet, just the dry seeds pre-soak but it turns into a good amount.

When you guys are weighing your end fodder to see your results are you letting it dry to avoid water weight or just weighing it damp? Also, have you found that light has much effect? I have been growing indoors but am thinking of moving outside as it is sort of dark in my tiny house.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

Is anyone growing fodder for meat rabbits? If so, I'd love to pick your brain.