Growing fodder for chickens

[UrbanFarming]

Of course You can give anything to chickens, well most anything, I throw all sorts of stuff out in the compost, they will scratch through and find tidbits. I'm not sure how nutritious it would be, maybe it would be like Fermented feed!

Thank you!

 

[jphendrix]

I'm sooooo jealous!!!!!!

I am glad I live here, I would love to visit where there is snow!!!!!!

 

[ChickInnKeaper]

Hello everyone, my name is Albert. FIRST, I wanna thank everyone for sharing their trials and tribulations about raising chickens.

I am new to keeping chickens this year and have been reading this thread from the very beginning. I have started a 12 tray fodder system for my 20 hens and my babies absolutely LOVE fodder. My problem is I am not sure how much to feed them each day. I use the plastic trays from Dollar store and put 3/4 pound of barley, which takes 9 days to grow. I have searched and searched but can't find the answer to this quandary.

Any help?

FYI: 12 of my chickens were born August 12 and 8 were born September 25. Currently, I am happy to report 8 eggs a day. :<)

 

[ArtGirl]

I just put the fodder in the pen and let them decide how much to eat. Anything that's left they eat the next day. It actually stays green for a long time in our snowy pen.

 

[Fancychooklady]

[COLOR=0000CD]Hello everyone, my name is Albert. FIRST, I wanna thank everyone for sharing their trials and tribulations about raising chickens.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000CD]I am new to keeping chickens this year and have been reading this thread from the very beginning. I have started a 12 tray fodder system for my 20 hens and my babies absolutely LOVE fodder. My problem is I am not sure how much to feed them each day. I use the plastic trays from Dollar store and put 3/4 pound of barley, which takes 9 days to grow. I have searched and searched but can't find the answer to this quandary.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000CD]Any help?[/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000CD]FYI: 12 of my chickens were born August 12 and 8 were born September 25. Currently, I am happy to report 8 eggs a day. :<)[/COLOR]

Hello Albert.
I feed a tray every other day and supplement with a mix of layer and grain on the other days.
A tray that size feeds my 40+ birds, so yours should be happy .

 

[chixmix]

I have around 65 chickens, mostly Orpingtons, so they are larger than most breeds. I give them about 13-14 pounds of fodder every morning and then in the afternoon I give them as much pellets as they want.

This is the size tray I use.

 

[kile529]

What size are the drainage holes you all use??

 

[Sirracha]

I

...

What size are the drainage holes you all use?? 
[/quoted I'd use one size smaller than the smallest grain you're going to use. As the fodder develops roots, it will use less water and drain less. Hope that helps. Also I drill about 9 holes, each corner, center, and diamond shaped. Not all the water is going thru half the holes as the shelf is on a slant.

 

[ChickInnKeaper]

What size are the drainage holes you all use??

It depends on the seeds your turning to fodder. You probably would want the seeds to stay in the tray???

 

[ChickInnKeaper]

Hello Albert.

I feed a tray every other day and supplement with a mix of layer and grain on the other days.
A tray that size feeds my 40+ birds, so yours should be happy .

Fancychooklady, Thanks for your reply and warm welcome. I want to completely ween my chicks off of pellets and only feed them fodder year round. As I reduce the pellets I get a more aggressive bunch of fodder eaters. Anyone out there ONLY feed fodder to their chicks?