Growing fodder for chickens

[Fire Ant Farm]

No! You are NOT off-base! Like I said, experiment! Remember...YCMV! and your fodder may vary. Adjust accordingly.

Agree!!!! THat's why, while I understood the frustration of the newbie, I wanted to say that there ISN'T one way!

(E.g., you are in Montana. I am in South Texas. That alone drastically changes our approaches...)

 

[MigraineMan]

I pretty much did exactly what mobius did. We used an aluminuminum pie pan with a moist paper towel for the first three days. Initially we did the "the-cat-is-misbehaving-again" spray bottle, but that was ineffective, so we changed to the soak-and-drain twice a day. The pie pan sat on the kitchen table where it got indirect sunlight in the afternoon.
Day 1:

T: +48h

T: +84h (3.5d)

T: +108h (4.5d)

T: +120h (5d)

T: +144h (6d)

 

[mobius]

Of course. Also I do mine indoors tho, and I don't have a lot of chickens.. .but i have family in Austin so I get it!

 

[mobius]

I pretty much did exactly what mobius did. We used an aluminuminum pie pan with a moist paper towel for the first three days. Initially we did the "the-cat-is-misbehaving-again" spray bottle, but that was ineffective, so we changed to the soak-and-drain twice a day. The pie pan sat on the kitchen table where it got indirect sunlight in the afternoon.
Day 1:
View attachment 1041860
T: +48h
View attachment 1041861

T: +84h (3.5d)
View attachment 1041862

T: +108h (4.5d)
View attachment 1041863

T: +120h (5d)
View attachment 1041864

T: +144h (6d)
View attachment 1041865

View attachment 1041866

View attachment 1041867

Great pics of the process! That looks like mine exactly! It is not that hard and there is a bit of a rhythm to it, I feed my dogs twice a day so that is when I rinse my fodder!

Nice job!

 

[ECarter1217]

im gonna try this

 

[The Ricker]

In the interest of spreading my poultry feed budget, I'm growing fodder for my flock during the winter months. So far, for every one pound of seed, I'm getting 6 1/2 pounds of green fodder. They eat the seeds, the roots, and the green shoots. I prefer to use barley, but I haven't been able to get bulk barley this year so I'm growing wheat with a handful of black oil sunflower seeds per flat. Anybody else grow fodder for their birds?

Please tell me how you are doing this.

 

[MigraineMan]

im gonna try this

Definitely do it, there's not a lot of risk or effort required. I purchased 5 lbs of whole barley seed for about $10 (incl. shipping) from a vendor on eBay. We have a local feed supplier who will sell me a 50 lb bag of barley seed, but I wanted to start a little smaller.

In the morning, I would soak the barley while I was making a pot of coffee. When the coffee was ready, I drained the water off and put the pie plate on the kitchen table. Just put your hand on the seeds and tip the pie plate sideways into the sink. I did a similar routine in the evening while making dinner. We had a teeny bit of mold growth early on ... but that was when we were using the spray bottle (and The Wife was spraying several times a day, unbenownst to me.) Doing the soak-and-drain twice a day seems to be plenty, and once the root mat is established, they'll take-up any residual water left in the pan. Just make sure you drain the bulk of the water out.

 

[chick watcher]

Just got back from the feed store, 50 pounds of wheat for $7.67. I'm sure the chicks will love this.

 

[mobius]

Sweet! Let us know how it goes!

 

[Richard Pryor]

Will these grow in a thin layer of soilless medium such as peat moss?

I want to grow these but it seems that you need temperature to be less than 70 to not get mold. I'm growing mealworms in the only area that I could grow these and the worms like it between 75-80.

I figured with peat or coco they could grow while temps are higher and not get mold.