Hello all. I found a brewer on Craigslist willing to give me his used grains for chicken feed. Does

[vanderlander]

Hello all. I found a brewer on Craigslist willing to give me his used grains for chicken feed. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[sumi]

Hello and welcome to BYC

My DH home-brews and I feed the grains to the chickens as a treat. They love it!

 

[redsoxs]

I don't but I'd bet the chickens would love it - just basically cooked cereal. Best of luck to you and cheers!! Oh, and

!

 

[vanderlander]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I read a lot about sour grains, mold and such, what is your process? Do you dry the grains? Do you store them or just feed them as you produce your brew? Any details would be appreciated, I live in Denver and I have access to a ton of breweries.

 

[sumi]

We do small brews at a time and when DH is done with the grains he puts it in a big bowl, still wet, in a cool room where I scoop up some in the mornings for them until it's finished. It doesn't last long enough to go mouldy. He does rinse it thoroughly before he gives it to the hens though. It's nice for them, but the boiling does remove a lot of the goodness and sugars from it, so it's not a high quality, nutritious feed, just a treat, really. If you can get some for your chickens make sure you give them enough formulated feed as well, so they'll still get the nutrients they need and feed the grains as an extra.

 

[liz9910]

from California! A free food source is always awesome.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

Sumi is right on about the nutritional value, nice as an addition but the primary part of their diet should be a balanced feed.

 

[kidcody]

from washington state glad you joined us!

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us.

 

[vanderlander]

Thanks forall the replies. I got the grains and the chickens loved them.