Barley is pretty easy to grow too. If it grows in Wyoming, it will grow anywhere... Actually most grains are pretty easy to grow. Get em good and wet (like flood wet), let em dry out, get em good and wet... Then after the heads come out around 45 - 60 days (generally the plant will be brown or heading that way), let em dry completely and they will 'plump' or store carbs in the seed in preparation for harvest. You can harvest it by hand, or let the chickens do it. You will also get a fair amount of volunteer regrowth if you water after the chickens have gone through. Planted 1st of may, the barley should be ready for harvest in mid July. You may be able to get two crops if your season is long enough, and you plant early enough. It's not even remotely possible here.
Here is a good trick to get your seeds to sprout quickly. Put the seeds in two quart containers (3/4 full), fill with soapy water and 2 table spoons of instant sweetened tea and put in the fridge for two or three days. drain them through a nylon sock thingy, and spread them out on news paper or sheet in the sun. You can plant them wet they just stick together. The cold makes them come out of dormancy like a shotgun, the soap softens the husk for easier germination. The sugar and the tea I honestly can't remember, but it works amazingly well.
If you have room, you can rotate runs or 'pastures'. We have a big strip of barren ground just growing weeds and that is what we are gonna do. Open up a different section each week after the barley is mature. After the first pass through each section we will water it to get the volunteers up and growing. If nothing else it provides winter cover.
If you know a farmer in the area, you can get a 5 gallon bucket of seed when they transfer it. Usually just sweep it up off the ground. Most those guys are pretty good about stuff like that. Just make sure to offer a $10 before you go.
