Growing fodder for chickens

[tillyita]

Question: Besides calcium, do you feed your chicken only growing fodder? If not, what is the mass ratio between growing fodder and commercial chicken feed? Do your chicken lay well?

i don't feed additonal calcium. I add chia (or alfalfa/lucerne) to the fodder mix. It is naturally high in protein and calcium. My chickens also free range so get a good range of bugs (mainly dung beetles at the moment) and other goodies. There are only three things that stop my chickens from laying - excesive heat, moulting and going broody.

 

[Miss Lydia]

i don't feed additonal calcium. I add chia (or alfalfa/lucerne) to the fodder mix. It is naturally high in protein and calcium. My chickens also free range so get a good range of bugs (mainly dung beetles at the moment) and other goodies. There are only three things that stop my chickens from laying - excesive heat, moulting and going broody.

Do you feed a commercial feed tillyita?

 

[tillyita]

Do you feed a commercial feed tillyita? 

Only if I have no fodder or scraps, and then generally just a grain mix. Maybe once or twice a week - more if my fodder unit isn't running - like when I go on holidays and someone else has to look after my flock. The only thin shelled eggs I've ever got is with new layers and they only last a week or so.

 

[dolfi]

So I soaked wheat last night and today 24 hours later I washed it and put by the windows. I guess tomorrow I should see something coming out of them

 

[nguyenkinhphuc2]

Only if I have no fodder or scraps, and then generally just a grain mix. Maybe once or twice a week - more if my fodder unit isn't running - like when I go on holidays and someone else has to look after my flock. The only thin shelled eggs I've ever got is with new layers and they only last a week or so.

i don't feed additonal calcium. I add chia (or alfalfa/lucerne) to the fodder mix. It is naturally high in protein and calcium. My chickens also free range so get a good range of bugs (mainly dung beetles at the moment) and other goodies. There are only three things that stop my chickens from laying - excesive heat, moulting and going broody.

So I guess other high protein source + growing fodder + some source of calcium. What is your ratio of growing fodder / chia?

 

[tillyita]

So I guess other high protein source + growing fodder + some source of calcium. What is your ratio of growing fodder / chia?

For every 1kg of barley I add a tablepoon of chia (sorry don't know what that is in pounds). A little bit goes a long way.

 

[Fancychooklady]

For every 1kg of barley I add a tablepoon of chia (sorry don't know what that is in pounds). A little bit goes a long way.

I find that quinoa is higher in protein and calcium than chia.

 

[nerd0geekboyz]

All I know is, mine love it!

I have got some picky hens (five). They have access to worms from my compost pile and I recently fed them sprouted wheat and sprouted Alf Alfa. They do eat a bit of the sprouts but more often graze on my lawn.
They do love the Costco Organic Steel Cut Oats, however.

 

[chixmix]

Mine just ate 13 pounds, it was 2 pounds of seed to start with.

 

[Chachi]

If you are like me, I will give my girls whatever they will eat as long as they eat something green during the winter. Now I do give them cabbage, but it has to be cooked "la dente" and well seasoned. They will not it raw cabbage. If there is some extra warm broth left in with the cabbage they just love it. I tried growing some fancy grasses from seed and they would not go near it. Although they ate up my blueberry plants down to the woody stems in just one day. I had to fence off my succulents and herbs or I would not have had any plants left. I also found out that they love the leaves from the sweet potatoes/ yams. They won't eat the sweet potatoes/yams but they will make a meal off the leaves.