Growing fodder for chickens

[Wednesday]

Funny thing is that he wanted to switch completely
to fodder to save on food costs over commercial
feed because of the cost savings claims. We have
talked through how it can reduce commercial food
cost by displacing some of it. Cost is a big driver since
he owns a poultry butchering business. Time and money
are scarce resources.

 

[Miss Lydia]

yup, just soak the seeds overnight, drain them, rinse three times a day.

Hi Amiga fancy meeting you here.

 

[tillyita]

For now, I'm basing the value of non-commercial feed supplements (including fodder) on how much it stretches my commercial feed amounts, cost savings, and the health/happiness of my birds. I have A LOT of birds so if I can save some money here and there it makes a huge difference. Since I started this thread I've fine tuned my feeding program a few times. My fodder recipe is a base of wheat and a small portion of black oil sunflower seeds and lentils. I grow my fodder to the six day point before feeding. My adult birds also get whole grains (sometimes I ferment it....sometimes not), and commercial feed. When I have an abundance of eggs, I hard boil eggs and smash it all up with the shells. I'm happy with the results. The only thing I'd love to add is a sustainable source of animal protein. I tried raising meal worms but it never really worked for me since I don't have a good place in the house for them. My husband wasn't too keen on bugs in the house, either. 

You could try earthworms - in a worm farm. Or if your not squeemish maybe breeding mice (I don't advocate this BTW, but when I upset a mouse nest the chickens are all in there eating the pinkies) .

 

[tillyita]

Does anyone use burlap to grow there fodder on? I remember someone posting about using burlap bags their bulk rice came in. the trays I'm using the holes are too small and draining isn't working and I have some growing trays I am going to try but thought it might work out to put the burlap down on top then spread out the seeds.Does your seeds get stuck in the larger holes and make draining hard? I know when I first started FF  I used a bucket with holes placed down into a bucket with out and the holes would get clogged up so I went to no holes and no draining.

you could try some flyscreen material - basically would act like a big sieve and should wear well.

 

[tillyita]

I don't think anyone is considering just feeding fodder only and nothing else. I'm not, at least. But fodder can be the base for a completely home made diet with no commercial feed involved. For instance, my chickens will be in my small back yard- not a lot of forage options. So I'll feed them fodder as the base, but also make my own seed/grain mix and ferment it. Plus fresh vegetables and fruits, herbs, bugs I will farm, and raw meats and organs. No need for commercial feed at all. Not everyone is looking to cut back on feed costs, some of us just want to feed our animals fresh, healthy, natural diets. I personally believe that animals fed raw, whole foods are healthier in the long and short term than animals fed kibble/pellets. And especially if I am in turn eating meat or eggs produced from said animals, I want them to be eating as naturally and healthily as possible!

Commercial poultry operations will never use fodder. Even if the cost of feeding it was cheaper, they then have to pay someone to make sure it is watered and growing properly, pay someone to take it out of trays and hand it out to the birds, and pay someone to soak/rinse and start new batches. Commercial feed can be completely fed by automated machines and just needs to be refilled in the storage area occasionally. As you said, commercial operations are all about the $$$... and paying someone to feed chickens costs money.

I don't know of any poultry operations who use fodder but I do know of sheep and cattle operations that do, so it is not inconcievable for it to be adopted (at least for those operations that "free range") - and just as an aside - with the big commercial units you don't soak or rinse new batches. I never do, never have and probably never will. You put the seed out on a tray and it gets watered 24 times a day, it pretty much acts as its own rinse as it starts to grow.

 

[pawtraitart]

You could try earthworms - in a worm farm. Or if your not squeemish maybe breeding mice (I don't advocate this BTW, but when I upset a mouse nest the chickens are all in there eating the pinkies) .

Would you happen to know the nutritional value of earth worms? My husband wants to put worm beds under the rabbit cages.......so this is a very possible solution if the worms would be good for my chickens to eat.

 

[tillyita]

Would you happen to know the nutritional value of earth worms? My husband wants to put worm beds under the rabbit cages.......so this is a very possible solution if the worms would be good for my chickens to eat. 

To be honest I'm not sure, I do feed worms - from my worm bin to my chickens. There has been a lot of research done - if you search the net but from a "scientific" point of few there are not many "%" as such just studies comparing them to other protein sources. As a supplement to get them through winter and such I dont think they will be any better or worse than other protein sources.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/smallflocks/Feed_ingredients/Alternative_ingredients.html#Earthworms

 

[MaPa26]

You could try earthworms - in a worm farm. Or if your not squeemish maybe breeding mice (I don't advocate this BTW, but when I upset a mouse nest the chickens are all in there eating the pinkies) .

I would love to do this, if I had the time and energy. Circumstances don't allow me to spend a lot of time on making up for the lack of goodies that my hens got all summer, out in our yard. When my infant granddaughter starts walking and going to daycare, I can spend more time at home and on our chicken hobby.

I see people mention giving their chickens meats. This wouldn't be hard for me to incorporate. When organ meats are suggested, which ones? Liver? Kidneys? And then, how MUCH? I would hate to be giving my hens too much protein and put stress on their system. Right now, I am not getting enough eggs from them to feed them back (cooked, of course, if I had enough). I only have six hens and sometimes just get two eggs per day.

During the summer, my five year old granddaughter would help me dig up worms and grubs for the hens. We also bought them in the Sporting Goods dept at walmart. They don't have them right now.

 

[SavageDestiny]

I would love to do this, if I had the time and energy. Circumstances don't allow me to spend a lot of time on making up for the lack of goodies that my hens got all summer, out in our yard. When my infant granddaughter starts walking and going to daycare, I can spend more time at home and on our chicken hobby.

I see people mention giving their chickens meats. This wouldn't be hard for me to incorporate. When organ meats are suggested, which ones? Liver? Kidneys? And then, how MUCH? I would hate to be giving my hens too much protein and put stress on their system. Right now, I am not getting enough eggs from them to feed them back (cooked, of course, if I had enough). I only have six hens and sometimes just get two eggs per day.

During the summer, my five year old granddaughter would help me dig up worms and grubs for the hens. We also bought them in the Sporting Goods dept at walmart. They don't have them right now.

Liver and kidneys will be the easiest to get, but pancreas and spleen are good too. In the raw feeding world, heart, lungs, gizzard, etc. are not considered organs. I would say maybe a few teaspoons a few times a week wouldn't be too much. Organs are pretty rich!

 

[MaPa26]

Quote: I'll try liver. When I thought about it, I realized that I've never seen kidneys in the store. I have no clue where to get the other organs. I just remembered that one store sells "bait" shrimp. I bet they would like that. Tomorrow I plan to start making a little container of BOSS sprouts.