Winter Feed Cost and Growing Fodder

[Eden83_haaretz]

I actually have 44 hens. I also have a large family. The main reason I want to grow fodder is that it is the winter where I live and they are staying inside a lot and bored most of the time. I am also looking to feed them fodder to give them some fresh greens in addition to kitchen scraps.

Sounds like a great plan.

 

[Sylavash]

I've been trying to grow a little fodder for my flock but I keep getting gnats. I don't think the chickens mind but it is annoying. What am I doing wrong?
I soak the seedsover night. Rinse them in the morning, then rinse them evening and morning. About 2 days later I start seeing gnats. Any one else have this problem?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

My chickens (all 30 of them) eat grass and clover and other greens... And not because I thought of giving it to them, they roam free and eat it by themselves. Do not all breeds eat greens...?

Mine wont eat anything like that

 

[Eden83_haaretz]

What breed are they?

 

[NatJ]

Mine wont eat anything like that

Not even a nibble here and there?

 

[Poultrybonkers]

Not even a nibble here and there?

Nope only ones that eat is is my geese

 

[NatJ]

Nope only ones that eat is is my geese

That seems really weird to me, because I don't think I have ever seen a chicken that would not eat green plants-- and I've personally cared for hundreds of chickens, from over two dozen different breeds, over a period of several decades.

I've watched them eat grass and other green plants, and I've found those inside their crops at butchering time.

I've seen times when a chicken would not eat something new when they first saw it, but once they had time to think about it or saw the other chickens eating it, they did too. Of course they always had chicken food available too, but they always seemed to want at least a bit of green stuff in their diet if they could get it.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

That seems really weird to me, because I don't think I have ever seen a chicken that would not eat green plants-- and I've personally cared for hundreds of chickens, from over two dozen different breeds, over a period of several decades.

I've watched them eat grass and other green plants, and I've found those inside their crops at butchering time.

I've seen times when a chicken would not eat something new when they first saw it, but once they had time to think about it or saw the other chickens eating it, they did too. Of course they always had chicken food available too, but they always seemed to want at least a bit of green stuff in their diet if they could get it.

Never even found any in my crops at processing only glass and rocks etc now boiled eggs and stuff like that my chickens will eat...but healthy stuff...nah lol

 

[gtaus]

They lied.

No, really, THEY LIED.

Not only is fodder imbalanced - you can no more nutritiously feed your birds mass quantities of corn than you can wheetgrass/catgrass, actual cereal wheat, oats, barley, sorghum, etc than you can bags of scratch, boss, etc, - that's why a carefully selected mix of ingredients fill the commercial feed.

Have not read all the posts, but felt the need to respond to this statement.

I wrote the article My $10 Inexpensive DIY Fodder Tower with Dollar Tree Dish Bins and have had many positive reviews. My idea was to offer a way to grow fodder as a fresh green treat for my 10 chickens for the 6 months out of the year here in northern Minnesota when we have snow on the ground and no grass grows. I have never advocated feeding fodder as the sole, or primary feed for my chickens. It's just a fresh green treat for my chickens in the wintertime when they have no other options for greens.

I find my chickens love the fodder. It is special to them. Because of where I live, I cannot ferment my feed because it would freeze too fast. In fact, I cannot feed them wet fodder either for the same reason. My finishing bins of fodder are not watered that last couple of days so the root mat has a chance to dry out a bit. That way the chickens can eat the roots before everything freezes.

I keep a well balanced commercial layer feed available to my hens 24/7. That is their main feed. Fodder is only used as a treat. My fodder tower setup cost me $10 to build, and, at the time, I could get a 100# sack of barley seed for less than $10.00 to grow as fodder. My investment was minimal, as you can see. My results were great the first year. The second year the barley seed was of poor quality and did not germinate well. I had to mix that seed in with my chicken scratch. But I was able to get a new supply of barley seed for the last half of winter and was able to grow more successfully again.

The tower system I built only requires about 5 minutes of my time per day - with 2 waterings, once in the morning, and again once in the evening. It is very low maintenance and hardly any labor required. But I only had 10 chickens so I don't know how it would work if you had a much larger flock. A friend of mine has many chickens, and she does not bother to grow fodder for them. They only get commercial feed year round. That's OK with me. As I said, my fodder is only a treat.

Since COVID hit, our local barley grain supply has almost vanished. The quality has gone down and the prices have almost doubled. Growing fodder successfully requires quality grain at an affordable price, or it's just not worth your time, money, or energy.

I also advocate feeding my birds kitchen scraps as treats, but not their main diet. Again, I think a nice variety of food stuff is good for the hens morale, especially in the long, dark, cold winter days.

 

[NatJ]

Never even found any in my crops at processing only glass and rocks etc now boiled eggs and stuff like that my chickens will eat...but healthy stuff...nah lol

I would find rocks in the gizzard (in the middle of the chicken.)
I would find grass and other green stuff in the crop (sack at the base of the chicken's neck, where the food goes before it gets ground up.)

I have never bothered to withhold feed before butchering, so the crop has typically given me a good idea of what they ate in their last few hours.