Whole wheat ok for chickens

[Dorothy1324]

hey we just had 3 6 gallon buckets of whole wheat given to us and i am just wondering if it is ok to feed to the chickens i gave them a handfull and they gobbled it up

 

[tvtaber]

That is a great food for them! I recommend, however, that you buy a grain grinder of some sort and use that to make flour. I paid almost $6 for five pounds of flour the other day!

 

[Dorothy1324]

I was actually thinking that as it is food grade wheat but what a lot of work unless i could find some sort of electric grinder but the chickens will love it

 

[ole-crone]

The question is "how old is it?"

Wheat does have a shelf life - especially if you want to grind it for bread. Unless it is very recent, it doesn't rise as much.

Here is Food Storage Country, chickens get fed old wheat all the time. I don't know how much nutrient is in 20+ year old wheat but the chickens seem to do fine.

 

[bayouchica]

My chickens love whole wheat, go crazy for it. Just don't give them alot at one time.

I made that mistake

& a couple ended up with impacted crops.

 

[foxcrossing26]

How about sprouting those wheat seeds and feeding the sprouts to your peeps? They will benefit from the greens and the nutrients. Old seed should still sprout. The oil might be rancid, which argues for sprouting the seed rather than feeding it whole.

You could also cook it like oatmeal and feed it that way -- again avoiding the problem of impacted crop. I dont feed too much whole grain at one time. I like to mix whole grains with greens (lettuce, broccoli leaves, fresh grass clippings) and/or leftover people food, such as cantaloupe seeds, pumpkin innards, giant zucchini, bread heels, etc.

 

[chickiebaby]

foxcrossing, I'd gladly eat dinner out in your coop! That's fine dinin'!