Growing fodder for chickens

[NotAFarm]

BOSS question. The only Black Oil Sunflower Seeds I can find are at Walmart and say "added vitamins and nutrients" is this normal? Is that the only BOSS out there?

The BOSS I use is the one sold by many stores for wild bird feeders. Shell on, whole black oil sunflower seeds will sprout fine. Look in the garden section of your favorite local hardware store (Ace/True Value), home improvement (Menards/Home Depot/Lowes) or feed store (Tractor Supply/Farm & Fleet/Rural King).

As to the disinfecting the sprouts for your chickens, I rinse my seeds really well at the beginning and then twice a day until I feed them. I never disinfect the sprouts, only the trays or bowls between batches. I was showing my daughter how long it took for different seeds while she was here for Christmas. We started kamut, barley and sunflower seeds on Wednesday evening. Soaked the kamut and barley for 5 hours and the sunflower seeds overnight. By Saturday, the kamut and barley sprouts were big enough to give to the flock. By Sunday the sunflower seeds were ready. I feed when the sprout just starts to show (the roots start the second day) which was three days from the kamut and barley and four days for the sunflowers.

YMMV-your mileage may vary.........the disclaimer that all car dealers used to put on their advertising...

....in other words, this is how is works for me but your results may not be exactly the same.

 

[ducks4you]

My flock keeps looking around for grass which they eat like spaghetti. Anybody ever grow grass for their birds?

 

[Kassaundra]

Is there any safe way to sanitize the sprouts before giving to your chickens? Something to soak them or wash them with that will not be harmful to my flock?

Sanitize???? Why????

 

[Greg Mann]

Hi, Ndestructable
If your sprouts look healthy (no visible mold or mildew) they should be fine...my hens are on the ground and they peck at all sorts of of things.
Young sprouts of Boss, Wheat and Barley are easy to grow and anything under 2 or 3 inches are readily chomped up by my girls ;o)
The Sproutmans book recommends using a spray of water like from a kitchen sink sprays to rinse the sprouts 2x/day with cold water. Your cereal grains prefer to be cool...
-=Greg=-

 

[Bryanshantel]

Yes it is called fodder and everyone has a different way to do is so I would do my research and experiment my self. From my personal experience don't go off chicken feed "cold turkey" wean them off slowly and keep a check on their weight I was still getting eggs so I thought my girls were fine then I picked one up a couple of months later and she was skin and bones poor thing. I'm still working on the right recipe. but they love it in addition to your commercial feed and it cuts down that cost drastically.

 

[Bryanshantel]

Hey Greg,

I agree that sprouted grains is better than growing fodder, which is better than unsprouted grain. But for soybeans specifically, can chicken digest either its sprouts or growing fodder? I ask so since raw soybeans contain something that chicken cannot digest.

I heard that soybeans sprouted or unsprouted were not a good source of protein for chickens. Try duckweed which is ridiculously easy to grow.

 

[Bryanshantel]

BOSS question. The only Black Oil Sunflower Seeds I can find are at Walmart and say "added vitamins and nutrients" is this normal? Is that the only BOSS out there?

I have no problem finding mine at my feed store where I get my commercial pellets. But if you can't find it there try the internet. I don't know if walmart does anything to them to stop them from growing. Worse comes to worse buy it from walmart it is for bird consumption anyway, and try to grow some should sprout with in 3-5 days if it doesn't feed as is to the chickens they will still love them even if they don't get the full nutritional value of sprouting.

 

[ChristineR]

If you can find it locally or on some pond or lake, gather it up and take it home. We collected duck weed from a neighbor's pond for months until the pond dried up for the summer. Our chckens, guineas, turkeys and ducks were crazy over it.

We haven't tried growing it ourselves yet, but want to. Here are several links that I have found to be helpful:
http://portablefarms.com/2013/domesticating-duckweed-the-food-of-the-future_aquaponics/
http://duckweedgardening.com/2012/03/07/duckweed-growing-tips-and-tricks/
http://www.offthegridnews.com/2014/...r-family-with-prolific-fast-growing-duckweed/
http://www.avianaquamiser.com/posts/Duckweed_as_chicken_feed/

If you can find it in the wild, go for it. If you don't have access to it growing in the wild, you can most likely buy a starter batch at a pet store. There are several varieties. The one most familiar to me has bright lime to slightly darker round smooth leaves that are about 1/8" in diameter, with a single root growing down from the center of the leaf. They multiply by sprouting new leaves from the sides of the original one, and will very quickly multiply to cover the whole surface of the container. There is an other variety which has a larger more oval, and hairy leaf. I think this variety grows in warmer climates.

Thanks! You know where I found it? Amazon.com!

 

[cream puff]

The lady I bought my chicks from recommended these guys for growing fodder:
http://www.whitetailinstitute.com/free-samples-1/

apparently they developed these seed varieties to attract deer, they are highly nutritious and high protein. I just ordered a seed sampler to plant in the spring to replace grass (outside) and will see how it turns out. There are varieties of brasica and lettuces, cereal greens, alfalfa, clover. I think the only thing I'd avoid is the soy plants.

The thing I like is these guys did all the research and testing and have whittled it down to some very densely nutritious greens in a wide variety, I'm hoping the variety will keep the chickens healthy and that I wont have to buy so much grain, plus I intend to supplement with black fly larvae and worm farms.

 

[tatertot]

Subscribing..I'd like to do this