Hi,
I considered growing some grains for my chooks, and came across this book "Homegrown Whole Grains: Grow, Harvest, and Cook Your Own Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, and More" by
Sara Pitzer (you can find it on
ebay). It tells you how to grow, plant, harvest and store grains for your own use. I don't really have the space ATM to make it worthwhile, but am planning on growing a little bit just so the girls have something to scratch about for.
Also a thought about getting hold of non-GM corn. Buy some organic GM free corn where you get your veges from, then dry it and plant it next spring. A single corn cob had my parents, my brother, his two kids, his GF and myself, plus gave the girls a couple of days of peck, feasting on corn for about two weeks...and I saved another cob for the next season for my 1sq meter patch. I do the same with sunflowers.
My girls get all the kitchen scraps from my parents and myself, they free range in my backyard and compost heap, and get about 1 1/2 cups of layer mix. I treat them with off dairy products that get lost in the back of the fridge, mixed with pollard (about 2 cups worth). They have a bucket of shellgrit, plus I crush all my eggshells in a blender and stick that out on the garden. They probably get a bit of minced kangaroo once a month when the cats haven't finished their evening meal (which is very high protein and low fat...and much better for our aussie environment than beef or lamb), and any fridge scraps that are getting a bit iffy. All up I reckon I spend about $5 a month feeding 5 chickens (brown isa's and highline's).
When I move out of town, I'd like to try my hand at growing lucerne, wheat, rye, oats, barley, and amaranth. I'll probably keep buying the pollard, since I can't be bothered with the steaming and grinding that would be required to make it myself. If nothing else it'll improve the pasture for the other grazing animals I hope to have.
BTW, wheatgrass is just wheat. You can either soak the wheat and sprout it, or plant it and let the girls eat it as it shoots...then if it makes it to full height without having been decimated by the chooks you'll still have grain to harvest for next year. You would have similar results doing the same with barley,oats and rye. I'd try the different grains and see which works best for the girls in your area.
Feeding a horse wheat and oats gives a short frenetic burst of energy, whereas barley and rye is a more sustained source of energy. Sheep can become ill if they eat too much spring growth of rye. lol, I wish I'd learnt more about feeding chooks when i grew up on a farm.
Kate
