Growing grass

[gratefulchick]

Hi-I'm new here but have had chickens for about 2 years. I was wondering if anyone knew the best way to grow grass in containers and which grass would be best. Our altitude is about 9200 so we can't really grow anything in the rock we live on. Thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

You might consider sprouted grains. You can take just about any whole grain and grow sprouts within 3 days. The nutritive value is better than feeding the actual grain itself, plus it saves on the amount of grains you are using. Rather than trying to sprout and grow grass in containers, it may be quicker and more productive to sprout grains for your chickens.


Do a search over on www.sufficientself.com to see how some folks are doing this....

 

[spook]

Use caution when growing grass for your poultry as they can eat to much, to fast and before you know it, impacted crops. I grow food grade (dunno if it makes a difference) but the wheat, oat and winter rye that you can buy, we grow it for the cats in plant pots, I will cut a handful for the girls and just be cautious.
When the birds get impacted crops, you have to remove the "plug" and from what I gather, its often a surgery that is expensive and/or one of those I don't want to do.
If you look under emergency's and illness, you will find a "impacted crop" for you to see what it intales.
Good luck- but in the mean time, lettuce, cucumber peelings and all those veggie peels are great for them. I also cook my potato peelings and left over cooked veggies with Oatmeal and left overs.
Hope I helped...oh, you can also sprout seeds, they love them!

 

[gratefulchick]

Thank you! Since they do get a lot of veggies and scraps, now I'm thinking that maybe I don't need to grow anything in addition.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I grow wheat and oats in pots, during the winter. Grass can also be grown in garden flats. During the growing season, my chickens eat yard grass, pasture with clover in it and a lot of other native plants during the day. They love chard, more than anything. Chickens also like spinach, kale, collards, dark green leafy lettuce, beet greens and any kind of vegetable or fruit. Any of these can be grown in pots, too.

I just gave them some wheatgrass I had cut, the other day. I snipped it into pieces, just to be on the safe side. I've never had a problem when they're grazing and can snip bites off the growing plants.

 

[gratefulchick]

Thanks again for the info!

 

[Akane]

I use to grow grass for my guinea pigs in the winter. They can't make their own vit c so need greens year round. I took large plastic storage containers, put down a layer of gravel or sand in the bottom, fill with potting soil, moisten, and then throw down a layer of grass seed. Keep moist but don't over water or it will mold. You can get big bags of blue grass at many feed and garden stores. If it's indoors you may also need a light which you can get cheap plant lights from walmart or just get a shoplight at the hardware store and put a daylight spectrum bulb in it.

 

[sandypaws]

here in the desert nothing grows either.. i have tiny patches of "bermuda grass" hay from the horses feed,, i pullit once in a while and give it to the chickens as a treat..
also what about growing "wheat grass" like people (me) do for their cats.... or alfalfa sprouts.. you can usually get small amouts of seeds from the health food stores..

 

[gratefulchick]

That's exactly what I was thinking-the grass containers for cats only on a larger scale. I only have 13 ladies but I imagine they'd eat it in a day. I might just stick to scraps and veggies since it seems that's ok too.