Oat - how to give it to chicken?

[Maiahr]

I found Oat is cheaper than wheat here. I read raw oat is not good for chicken digestion. But is has more protein than wheat.
Boiled - will it lose the minerals and vitamins?
Sprouting is difficult as I don't have enough space for large quantities (I have a large flock).
Grinded - will it still be bad for chicken digestion?

 

[Debbie292d]

I use whole oats with other whole grains for fermenting. I've cooked them some rolled oats a time or two on the colder winter days.

Whole oats are okay in treat amounts, but too much would be hard for them to digest. Ground or rolled oats, I'd just feed as treats too, so not too much.

I'd never just feed oats, as there are not enough nutrients in them.

 

[VaDutch]

You can soak them.

 

[Perris]

"Poultry
Oats are a source of energy for poultry due to their large amount of starch, but the presence of hulls, fibre and insoluble and soluble polysaccharides make them more suitable for pullets and breeding birds than for meat poultry (Blair, 2008). The ME value of regular oats is close to the ME of barley (Svihus et al., 2002), while the ME value of naked/dehulled oats is higher than that of wheat (Perttila et al., 2005; MacLeod et al., 2008). In some experiments, broiler meat showed a moderate increase in fat stability as the level of oats in the diet increased, due to the nature of oat lipids (Blair, 2008).

Because soluble polysaccharides increase intestinal viscosity and reduce digestibility, the addition of enzyme preparations is recommended. Enzymes added to oat-based poultry diets enhance their digestibility by about 4%, as well as weight gain and feed conversion efficiency (MacLeod et al., 2008; Palander et al., 2005; Friesen et al., 1992; Jozefiak et al., 2006). In laying hens, good-quality oats replaced barley without any negative effects on egg production. Enzyme supplementation increased the average ME of the oat diet from 11.8 to 12.1 MJ/kg (DM basis) and improved feed conversion efficiency by 3% (Aimonen et al., 1991). When naked oats were introduced (up to about 70%) in pelleted diets supplemented with enzyme preparations, growth performance was equal to that obtained with traditional diets (Farrell et al., 1991; MacLean et al., 1994). Naked oats can be included in laying hens diets up to 60% to replace maize, soybean meal and fat. The total weight of eggs produced when naked oats were included at up to 60% was equal to that obtained with a maize-soybean diet, and were reduced by only 4% in a diet with 80% naked oats and no soybean meal (Burrows, 2004).

It is recommended to avoid the inclusion of oats during hot weather because of a higher heat increment during digestion, which can result in reduced feed intake and growth rate (Blair, 2008)."
https://www.feedipedia.org/node/231

If you go to that linked website (Feedipedia) you will see tabs for Description, Nutritional Tables, and References, where more info is available. You can also use the search button on that website to look up any other feedstuff you might contemplate using.