Wheat berries...

[Momagain1]

I'm thinking about looking into wheat berries to feed the chickens...

I know they can have it...Also, what is to sprouting the wheat berries????

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Sprouting seeds is really healthy. I'm sure you could sprout wheat berries, here's how you do it:

1. Wash the berries in a strainer.

2. Keep the wheat berries in the strainer, then fill a bowl half way with water (make sure the strainer can fit inside the bowl)

3. Put the strainer w/ the berries half way in the bowl, and cover with a cheesecloth till you start to see little white vines coming out of the wheat berries which could be a couple days.

Note: Check on your berries everyday and if they start to get grimy, throw them out and try again.

Hope this answered your question. I would suggest double check my answer on Google (haven't sprouted for awhile), and if any BYC members contradict me with a better answer I don't mind.

 

[Momagain1]

ok..that sounds easy enough; but I was hoping to sprout a LOT at once..as I have 31 chickens almost full grown and 16 chicks still...

 

[CaroleW]

I usually soak the wheat berries overnight and drain and keep them in a jar for the day and the white tails are there already or by the next morning.

You can also grow them into wheat grass by spreading in a tray (usually on a growing medium -there is one called 'baby's blanket' sold at the sprout growing websites- although I don't bother with it anymore since I don't grow it into grass- it gets eaten before it gets that high). In the tray you water it from the bottom or dribble it in and it will form a mat of all those root tails and then grow grass over the next few days. You don't want to water it so much that it stays completely wet and forms mold but just keep it moist.

My pullets love the just barely sprouted wheat berries!

I'm soaking chicken scratch to see if anything will sprout out of that too. I don't know if any of the seeds are alive in the scratch or not.