Homemade cold weather scratch to save money!

[RandomDucks]

Over the winter, I've sprouted wheat berries and barley for my chickens. You should be able to source from feed stores, baking supply, or any bulk grain source.

Azure Standard is a "co-op" thing that might have a delivery point near you and could be an economical choice. I've also ordered from Palouse Brands directly and found their hard wheat berries to sprout well.

Wheat berries (what whole-wheat grain is called) come in "white" or "red" colors ("red" is said to have a richer flavor; "white" milder), "hard" or "soft" ("hard" has a higher protein content), and "winter" or "spring" ("hard" berries are typically also labeled "spring", "white are typically labeled "winter").

 

[RandomDucks]

I suppose the question may be ‘What scratch do you use through the long, cold winter with no greens or bugs to forage.

I find the chooks love the sprouts as enrichment! I usually sprout in trays and then break the big "mat" of sprouts down into smaller chunks that I scatter in the coops.

But you can also toss unsprouted wheat berries/barley for scratch or buy "scratch" from local farm/feed stores.

Cracked corn is a nice winter treat because it is high-carb and energy dense, and a lot of "scratch mixes" made for poultry seem to include it.

 

[TooCheep]

New to this! Where would I buy the wheat and barley to sprout?

If you use this combination, it will take ~9 days to go from seed to full-grown fodder. I use ½ cup of mixed grain and it produces enough for 7 chickens for two days.

-Rinse the seeds to remove dust and chemicals
-Soak the seeds for ~12 hours
-Spread seeds into a tray with small drain holes and add water/drain twice per day. I keep them in the dark and the sprouts stay white.
-When they get to about 1 ½ inches, I put them under lights to green up.
-They are ready when they grow to 3 ½" to 4" tall

I have a series of trays that I rotate so they get some fodder every day. The girls love them.

 

[saysfaa]

New to this! Where would I buy the wheat and barley to sprout?

Many health food stores, stores that specialize in organic foods, high end grocery scores, and bulk food stores carry seeds for sprouting for people to eat will have wheat and may have barley.

A much, much, much less expensive source is any ag supply store that carries these grains for feeding horses. They won't be as carefully cleaned as for sprouting for people but the chickens won't mind some dust, hulls, or bits of chaff.

Less expensive than horse feed is wheat and barley meant to be planted. These will be unhulled and very dusty so you can't compare price per pound directly. And you would be wise to ask if the seeds were treated with anything. I've gotten these at a few different co-ops and none carried any grains that were treated except some of the seed corn was treated with antifungal. Hm, I got them for planting and then fed some to the chickens as scratch; I haven't sprouted any so there may be reasons grains from this source don't work as well.

 

[RandomDucks]

My method is to use 16-oz, wide-mouthed canning jars with "strainer lids" for the first two-three days, then spread into trays for the remaining days, keeping them covered until the spouts start to push the covers off.

Beware of letting sprouts grow too tall if you are using one of the trays that come with strainers to make rinsing them easier: the roots will become enmeshed in the strainer and you may need to cut them off to get the tops out of the strainer tray. If you do cut the roots off, just thrown them to your chickens along with the tops and they'll get eaten, too!

I usually put about 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup each of barley and wheat into each jar (or about 1/2-2/3 of a single grain) and I tend to have multiple jars (2-3) per feeding, plus I have different "sets" of jars going on a rolling basis so I can feed sprouts on consecutive days.

The multi-jar method also works if you are fermenting feed, btw.

After about 3 days, you want to be sure to get your sprouts out of the jars or they will tend to form a rooted mass that may be difficult to decant!

Small-chain "Hardware" stores like your local Ace or True Value typically carry canning supplies and may carry sprouting supplies economically as well.

You can also go to your chain discount store and buy plastic storage boxes in whatever size works best for you. You can drill holes in the bottoms of some for DIY straining trays and stack them in undrilled bins to collect the draining water...

 

[U_Stormcrow]

If you keep your eyes open, you can often find "deer plot" type seed mixes available on clearance once season ends (or close to it). As mentioned above, dusty, plenty of hulls, but they do tend to sprout reasonable well.

The last one I grabbed was wheat, rye, and oats. I've seen plenty of them with clovers as well.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

You can also go to your chain discount store and buy plastic storage boxes in whatever size works best for you. You can drill holes in the bottoms of some for DIY straining trays and stack them in undrilled bins to collect the draining water...

Walmart often has discount nesting storage totes in sizes between the canning jar size and the big box storage, sometimes dirt (sorry!) cheap.

I picked up a set of these on clearance 4 containers for $10 (Ok, I picked up several packs of these). If you put some gravel in one, and drill holes in the bottom of another, you can place one inside the other, have a little more than a square foot of sprouting area, and can see when there is either too much water, or your soil is getting too dry. In theory, you could make a hardware cloth "lid" for it for them to peck thru. Its around 8" tall, so you can have 4" or so of soil and be confident the chickens won't eat it all the way to the ground.

Also have some smaller ones (6 qt), which I use for storage, but would work for open top sprouting trays. They are too shallow to cover with hardware cloth and protect the sprouts.

 

[MichaelDJ]

Azure Standard has just about any grain you would want for your flock. Both animal grade and food grain, organic , non GMO, or just standard grain for reasonable prices. Free shipping to boot. Only catch is you have to pick it up at the nearest drop point. Mine happens to be less than 10 minutes from my house.

 

[K0k0shka]

I honestly don't see a need for any of this. My chickens don't free range and live in the same grass-less run year round, so there isn't much of a difference between the seasons for them, except for temperature. We don't even get deep snow anymore. So I don't change anything about their diet specifically for winter. I avoid scratch, because I have Orpingtons and they are prone to developing obesity. They are like those unfortunate people who put on weight simply by thinking about food. Scratch is just candy anyway, and not nutritionally necessary if you feed a complete formula commercial poultry feed. So anything I give them in addition to the feed is just for fun, it's not something they *need*. It's a lot cheaper and easier to occasionally buy them a cabbage or a head of lettuce for a dollar something at the grocery store, than sourcing or growing fancy things. Maybe when my kids fly the nest and I retire, and I have nothing else to do with my time, I'll try growing or mixing gourmet chicken snacks myself, but right now I don't have the time, money, or energy for that. My chickens are content and healthy, with fluffy, shiny coats, and are doing just fine in a run and on poultry feed (Purina Flock Raiser) with the occasional bonus vegetable from the grocery store.

 

[RandomDucks]

I honestly don't see a need for any of this. My chickens don't free range and live in the same grass-less run year round, so there isn't much of a difference between the seasons for them, except for temperature. We don't even get deep snow anymore.

That's valid and I'm glad it works for you. I consider my chickens somewhere between livestock and pets and enjoy doing things to enrich their environment. My area does get some very cold days/nights and deep snow occasionally.

I mostly have Icelandics: The hens would love to free range, but I'm tired of so many disappearing when they do. So I only let the "extra" roosters free range these days. (I also like the ease of collecting eggs from next boxes in enclosed runs/coops.)

I currently have about a dozen extra roosters: they are colorful, don't fight with each other, keep down pests, roost in trees, and patrol for predictors. I consider them my first line of defense. (I also have electric poultry netting around my coops because of a bear raiding them in April.)