Growing fodder for chickens

[Oakieridge]

When using the upside down shelves, which I think is awesome, do you have something on the floor to catch the excess water? Do you just water the top and let the water drip down, or do you water all the levels? I love the idea of the little squares already sectioned out.

I'm so excited to try this. I want my gals to have some good stuff to eat over the winter.

We have the shelves in our mudroom porch it is just big enough for 5 sets of the shelves. We drag them outside each morning to rinse them let them drain then put them back in the mudroom. Then in the afternoon do it again. We had been leaving them outside all day since it has been rather nice this week but the guineas found them and cleaned out 3 shelves of fodder before we caught them. So we can't leave them outside again.

 

[DMRippy]

I dry spent grains on a tarp and every time I do that AND let the guinea out I think they are going to eat it, but NO they NEVER even look at it

I will keep that in mind when I start the fodder.

 

[mg15]

i love the guttering idea also. where do you have this set up tho? yard, greenhouse, kitchen?
i live in az so it might be possible for me to grow fodder outside, but i had been planning on using small containers on my kitchen counter... until you suggested guttering! i've read about growing herbs and salad mix in guttering and plan to do that. i'm even thinking about installing guttering in my run about 8 inches from the ground so the chickens can eat their crumble, but not scratch it all over the floor and waste it. i just LOVE guttering!
hmmm, i only have 10 chickens so i wont need 5 feet. i bet i can get hubby to install it on a smaller scale in the kitchen and we can call it urban art, lol

you have a good sense of humor, I also like your avatar
mg

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Question---I have been feeding my girls the fodder every day for a week. The size is the greenhouse flat....and I have 29 girls, 4 of which are teenagers.

I put the whole flat out, and it seems like it may be too much. They pick at it for a few hours, then about 1/2 is left....then throughout the day they work on it, but by night time there are just a couple handfuls left. I want to be sure I am not giving them more than they should have. I still see them eating their mash/pellet mix. By morning when I take the new fodder out the old is all gone, so it is not going to waste, but do you think they are getting too much fodder? Just checking.

 

[pawtraitart]

Question---I have been feeding my girls the fodder every day for a week. The size is the greenhouse flat....and I have 29 girls, 4 of which are teenagers.
I put the whole flat out, and it seems like it may be too much. They pick at it for a few hours, then about 1/2 is left....then throughout the day they work on it, but by night time there are just a couple handfuls left. I want to be sure I am not giving them more than they should have. I still see them eating their mash/pellet mix. By morning when I take the new fodder out the old is all gone, so it is not going to waste, but do you think they are getting too much fodder? Just checking.

If they were free ranging chickens, they would eat what they wanted, a little here, a little there. I wouldn't worry about giving them too much. You have their regular feed available to them as well so I'm sure that they are happy with their choices. The only danger is if they have nothing to eat for a long time and then gorge. What you are describing is normal chicken behavior.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Ok Thanks for the quick response! Just making sure I had the quantity right. It really is saving me quite a bit on feed. The nursery flat takes 1 quart of dry grain...so I am only paying for 1 quart per day of wheat and they ate only 1/4 of the feed last week that they were eating before. Woohoo! And they seem to be laying better.

 

[Spangled]

Quote:
La Casa de Pollo, I'm going to agree with Pawtraitart because if what you are describing were happening here at my place with my chickens that do free range, I'd be perfectly happy.

I might suppose that after a couple of weeks there could be changes as the chickens make adjustments to their needs. Meaning, that my chickens might go back to eating a little more standard balanced feed. The weather can also play a part in how much fodder they eat.

If I had teenagers, though, I might cut back on the fodder a little until they were around 20 weeks just because I worry that teens won't get all the nutrients they need while their egg-laying girlie parts are growing, which affects their future egg-laying abilities. Since I have chickens for the eggs, their nutrition during their teen weeks is of utmost importance to me.

 

[La Casa de Pollo]

Good point Spangled. They are nearing three months old in a week, 2 polish and 1 naked neck. I have been putting starter out for them, through a small doorway only they can get to so the big girls don't eat the starter, and I have noticed they are not eating much of it since I started the fodder. Maybe I will pen them up with their starter while I start the fodder feeding in the big pen in the morning, (then let them out after a few hours) to increase their consumption of the starter. Glad you thought of this.

 

[TNBEARCHICK]

Per the fruit fly problem..... While "deep" cleaning this weekend I found that in the very bottom of my potato bin (which had no bad/unusual smell to it at all) There were 2 rotten potato's that just so happened to be harboring a whole flock of fruit flies- now the potato bin is all clean again but, now I have the stinking fruit flies all in my fodder. So all that being said... check the potato bin.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Just wanted to update you all on my fodder system--it's almost completely up and running with the rotation offering my 17 chickens 1/2 tray daily.

Neat setup! And that's just how my rye looks once it turns green. I like the reddish color it turns between the white and green stages, too.

I've been soaking mine in large stainless steel bowls, and resting them there, too, then sprouting them in sturdy black nursery flats with a grid bottom I found laying around the farm. But now I'm starting to stress about the plastic nursery flats not being "food grade." SO ... I'll upgrade to food-prep totes that I drill little holes in. This will be a bit more spendy, but I don't like stressing about stuff, so I'll probably invest. I can also make the holes smaller, which should save me some headaches.

This whole question of larger food-grade plastic containers (bags, barrels, bins) has been giving me a bit of a headache lately. Even at the commercial-ish food industry grocery store they don't have large food-grade plastic bags. And finding a reputable-looking source for "recycled" food-grade barrels (which I need for fermenting large quantities of layer feed) has taken me into some of the more frustrating corners of the Internet. At least I can get the food-prep bins there, though.