Those who raise their own feed, what do you recommend?

[kstaven]

We sprout wheat, oats, barley, beans, peas, and sunflower mostly. Sometimes we add other common sprouting seeds. Even a good quality wild bird mix sprouted will be a hit. I emphasize "good quality" because the rate of germination will be much higher.

We don't use anything fancy for sprouting trays. Just the plain seed starter trays like the ones in the link below with the clear lids that fit them.

http://bottingsonline.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1006036

Soak the seeds overnight in the tray, drain and rinse. Then rinse 3 times a day for the next 5 days. may take longer in the winter or if your house is cooler. We let the sprouts get to about 3 - 4 inches before giving them to the chooks. We normally have 20 - 24 trays going at a staggered rate to keep up with the chickens.

A pound of seed goes 4 times further or more doing it this way. Water consumption drops dramatically of course. Grains we sprout come from the feed mill. Nothing special about them besides being organic.

For small lots the stacking biosta sprouters are one of the best I have ever run across.

 

[professor_yellow]

I still use a layer ration but supplement with a lot of goodies. I get dry peas, wheat, and lentils at the train transfer yard, and use this as their scratch. I get organic juice pulp from a juice bar and they love it. I also get greens from a local market, which i dump in a pile every day. They love this and it gives them some play time. I rake it at the end of each day and put it into the compost pile.

with all these other supplements the layer crumbles go a long way, and the quality of the egg is superior to just manufactured feed.

For the ducks, i use a food processor to chop it up and made some feed troughs out of 6 inch pvc pipe that works great for the veggie matter.

 

[BirdBrain]

Quote:
Thanks for the clarification. That really helps.