Growing fodder for chickens

[MaPa26]

I meant to say presoak. The napkin in top keeps it wet and under pressure speeding up the process. I get a 50# bag of wheat for $11 locally. I'm using an old metal shoe rack with three tiers and ten using a strong plastic bag at the bottom, zip tied to the corners to catch the water. I poke a hole in the middle of te plastic so the water doesn't go all over the place. I recycle the water until it looks yucky and use fresh water every few days.

Presoak. Okay, now that makes sense. Although the word "persist" does seem to apply to this endeavor! I think you got a great deal on wheat. The only seeds the Ag stores near me have are corn, oats and scratch. Maybe if I went to the CO-OP in the next town, I could find wheat like that. I may have to resort to ordering online like some other people have. Walmart has red wheat, twenty-six pounds for just over $20. Ridiculous. I think it is not planting seed, but sold for human consumption or sprouting? Maybe that's why it cost so much. I don't know. But if I don't get in gear and find something, Spring will be here and I won't have to worry about it. They'll have plenty of greens by the end of March. That is, unless the Polar Vortex keeps sending us polar bear weather.

Your set-up sounds great. I only wonder how often you rinse the seeds? I'm leaning towards at least three times a day, after seeing an article on Backyard Poultry. Two doesn't seem to be enough. And I plan to do the initial soaking just overnight. I bought little plastic containers and need to get holes put in them. The napkin idea sounds great. That would keep them from drying out too fast. It reminds me of how I've been taught to start peas and beans by putting them in-between layers of paper towels and keeping them damp until they sprout.

 

[MaPa26]

If you use tinfoil pans then you could heat them in the oven. I use bleach but if youre a purist and use plastic then boiling water or steam them. If you wash them and the tray feels slippery that is bacteria If you rinse 3-4 times a day it usually takes care of the problem.
I just picked up some wild bird seed at Walmart. I am going to experiment. It is a little pricey 8.00 for 20 lbs but has anyone experimented with this? I want to mix this with barley if it works. Let me know if you have experimented and your experiences. Thanks

I had been buying birdseed from Walmart for years and years. I tried to avoid mixes that had a lot of milo in it. Seems the cheap stuff has a lot of it and birds that I've fed eat milo as a last resort. When I threw scratch out to my hens, they went for the corn, mostly and left the milo. Then sparrows came in and pecked at the milo. In the last couple of years, I've noticed the bird seed NOW has a lot of what appears to be wheat (I really do not know what barley seed looks like or how to tell the difference between barley and wheat). I was still feeding wild birds last winter, before I got chickens. I had noticed that something appears to germinate under the feeders every year. It is the wheat. The birds throw it out! Instead of mowing it, this year, and getting a patch of yellowing, dying "grass", I talked hubby into letting it grow. Sure enough, it got tall and grew heads. The chickens started eating the wheat heads before they had even fully ripened. They absolutely LOVED it. Wish I had an area that was easily sown with it. It would be a gamble since I wouldn't be able to water it. I'd have to depend on Mother Nature.
Good luck with the bird seed. I am thinking of ordering wheat from Walmart, online. But it is $20 for 26 pounds. So if you thought BIRDSEED was expensive.....lol!
Copied from their website: (looks like it is meant for human consumption. But this is all I can find. They sell white wheat like this, in a bucket, too. A fifty pound bag was sixty-two dollars!)
Augason Farms Emergency Food Hard Red Wheat, 26 lb

• 256 servings
• Easy to prepare
• No refrigeration needed

Online
$20.83​

 

[tillyita]

If you use tinfoil pans then you could heat them in the oven. I use bleach but if youre a purist and use plastic then boiling water or steam them. If you wash them and the tray feels slippery that is bacteria If you rinse 3-4 times a day it usually takes care of the problem. 
I just picked up some wild bird seed at Walmart. I am going to experiment. It is a little pricey 8.00 for 20 lbs but has anyone experimented with this? I want to mix this with barley if it works. Let me know if you have experimented and your experiences. Thanks

Just being a purist - the slippery feeling stuff is more likely to be the natural growth inhibitor from the seeds rather than bacteria (although there is probably some bacteria there). Either way - you should wash it off as it will affect your next batch of fodder. A scrubbing brush when it is still damp from the fodder is the easiest way.

 

[Sirracha]

Presoak.  Okay, now that makes sense.  Although the word "persist" does seem to apply to this endeavor!   I think you got a great deal on wheat.  The only seeds the Ag stores near me have are corn, oats and scratch.  Maybe if I went to the CO-OP in the next town, I could find wheat like that.  I may have to resort to ordering online like some other people have.  Walmart has red wheat, twenty-six pounds for just over $20.  Ridiculous.  I think it is not planting seed, but sold for human consumption or sprouting?  Maybe that's why it cost so much.  I don't know.  But if I don't get in gear and find something, Spring will be here and I won't have to worry about it.  They'll have plenty of greens by the end of March. That is, unless the Polar Vortex keeps sending us polar bear weather. 

Your set-up sounds great.  I only wonder how often you rinse the seeds?  I'm leaning towards at least three times a day, after seeing an article on Backyard Poultry.  Two doesn't seem to be enough. And I plan to do the initial soaking just overnight.  I bought little plastic containers and need to get holes put in them.  The napkin idea sounds great.  That would keep them from drying out too fast.  It reminds me of how I've been taught to start peas and beans by putting them in-between layers of paper towels and keeping them damp until they sprout.

I rinse only three times daily and I'm a late riser. I just am careful to note the color of the runoff water. If it gets brown, it's time to change the water. I usually change the water about every other day. I've noticed the pan I've added a variety mix of wheat, soy beans, and sunflower has started to get slimy. Probably a better idea to just use one type per pan.

 

[Sirracha]

Has anyone tried cutting the grass portion of the fodder, like alfalfa, and fed the chicks this until the third or fourth growth and then feed them the whole thing?

 

[michaelf]

Good morning everyone!! Have a great Thursday!

 

[TERRY4]

Has anyone tried cutting the grass portion of the fodder, like alfalfa, and fed the chicks this until the third or fourth growth and then feed them the whole thing?

I did that with grass growing in the yard. I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[MaPa26]

Quote: Maybe it depends on the seed? There's a link to a great informative video that was made by a lady who grows fodder on a pretty large scale. She uses mainly one type of grain, but throws in a "handful" of peas and some corn (I don't remember how much). The video is 22 minutes long, as she goes through her routine explaining, in detail, how she goes about it. I will find it and edit this post, adding the link.

Here's the 22 minute "Fodder Feeding":

I think her main grain is barley, but should be the same routine for wheat, I suppose?

And, while looking for it, I ran across another video on growing barley (one hr long). I have not watched it, but here is the link:

We don't have the normal work schedules that most people have but we've worked out a system. We are late risers too, except that I started babysitting our youngest grandchild back in August, so five days a week I HAVE to get up early. But hubby still takes care of the morning feeding routine so I don't have to worry about it while I am barely functioning and trying to wake up and get going. He goes to work in the afternoon and I take care of the evening feeding and watering and collect eggs from any late layers. Sometimes it is already dark or getting dark, when I return home, so I can just close up the pen when I feed them. If I get home early, I feed them but have to go out later to put them to bed. In case I am so tired that I can't get back out there, I leave the back porch light on, so my hubby knows and he goes to check on them and close their pen. That system has been working for us. We got the chickens several months before I started babysitting the youngest grandchild. I didn't realize what a drain it would be on my energy, so I just can't spend so much time with the chickens as I was. Our coop/pen setup is in our fenced yard, so I don't worry too much about predators before he gets home. I don't like to leave their pen door open all night, though.

 

[mrstodd]

Hi Everyone, what a great thread!

The only grain I could find to try making fodder for my 6 girls where I live at the moment was purple prairie barley. Has anyone tried this?

 

[Sirracha]

Presoak.  Okay, now that makes sense.  Although the word "persist" does seem to apply to this endeavor!   I think you got a great deal on wheat.  The only seeds the Ag stores near me have are corn, oats and scratch.  Maybe if I went to the CO-OP in the next town, I could find wheat like that.  I may have to resort to ordering online like some other people have.  Walmart has red wheat, twenty-six pounds for just over $20.  Ridiculous.  I think it is not planting seed, but sold for human consumption or sprouting?  Maybe that's why it cost so much.  I don't know.  But if I don't get in gear and find something, Spring will be here and I won't have to worry about it.  They'll have plenty of greens by the end of March. That is, unless the Polar Vortex keeps sending us polar bear weather. 

Your set-up sounds great.  I only wonder how often you rinse the seeds?  I'm leaning towards at least three times a day, after seeing an article on Backyard Poultry.  Two doesn't seem to be enough. And I plan to do the initial soaking just overnight.  I bought little plastic containers and need to get holes put in them.  The napkin idea sounds great.  That would keep them from drying out too fast.  It reminds me of how I've been taught to start peas and beans by putting them in-between layers of paper towels and keeping them damp until they sprout.