Winter Feed Cost and Growing Fodder

[tc4]

It is winter here in New York. My flock has been cooped (pun intended) up inside for the past month and a half. They are going through food like crazy and not laying eggs. I need a solution to this and I found two options, fermenting feed and growing fodder. I already have the fermenting process working but one issue that has arisen is because of the cold temperatures, the feed freezes if the chickens don't eat it fast enough. Any suggestions on this would be helpful!
Growing them fodder is my next excursion in chicken keeping. I have read around the web looking for inspo and articles on how to do it. I found a few that use aluminum pans, I got those today. I understand the process of growing the fodder but finding the grain is where I'm having issues. The articles that I have read on fodder don't say where they get the said grain. Most of them say that they get their grain from their feed store but TSC neither Runnings sells grain like that. The few articles that do state where they get the grain online, it is usually very expensive. I found that the articles say that growing fodder is economical. From what I am seeing, it isn't. Where are you all getting your grain? I would prefer to grow wheatgrass/ wheat berries but I am having no luck finding them. I have also seen people suggest using BOSS in YT videos and in articles. Would BOSS work well? I could easily find this inexpensively as a worst-case scenario. Thanks for all the help

Do you have any local grocery stores or restaurants that can give you their green scraps (from when they taking the outer leaves off to make them look good on the shelves.) Ask them if you can pick them up to save them throwing in the trash? I have three stores I do that here in CA plus the homeless shelter kitchen for their leftover food (this one I have to sort more because the chickens can't eat some of the stuff but it sure saves on food and i just put on a pair of gloves to sort through. I get a lot of vegetables from them and some proteins also, fruits like blueberries, melons, oh and squash which they love. You just have to be reliable to pick it up when you say you will

 

[Robeenop]

It is winter here in New York. My flock has been cooped (pun intended) up inside for the past month and a half. They are going through food like crazy and not laying eggs. I need a solution to this and I found two options, fermenting feed and growing fodder. I already have the fermenting process working but one issue that has arisen is because of the cold temperatures, the feed freezes if the chickens don't eat it fast enough. Any suggestions on this would be helpful!
Growing them fodder is my next excursion in chicken keeping. I have read around the web looking for inspo and articles on how to do it. I found a few that use aluminum pans, I got those today. I understand the process of growing the fodder but finding the grain is where I'm having issues. The articles that I have read on fodder don't say where they get the said grain. Most of them say that they get their grain from their feed store but TSC neither Runnings sells grain like that. The few articles that do state where they get the grain online, it is usually very expensive. I found that the articles say that growing fodder is economical. From what I am seeing, it isn't. Where are you all getting your grain? I would prefer to grow wheatgrass/ wheat berries but I am having no luck finding them. I have also seen people suggest using BOSS in YT videos and in articles. Would BOSS work well? I could easily find this inexpensively as a worst-case scenario. Thanks for all the help

You can buy the seed for deer forage plots. Great stuff and available a TSC. I had gotten mine at a local feed store, but had to buy 50lb bags. I found winter wheat seed, my birds love! When straw bales would sprout, they go nuts. That's how I figured that one out.

 

[Robeenop]

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. And you can't begin to make it economical unless you have lots of land, the equipment to till it, and buy your seedstock in bulk. Even then, do you honestly think you can compete at the scale of the commercial farms supplying the commercial mills providing the commercial feeds?

Sprouting trays, etc are great for enrichment (activities), and when carefully sellected, minor dietary adjustments (I like growing fenugreek, for instance, because of its relatively high methionine percentages for a green growing thing), but at the volume of feed a moderate flock of birds eats daily, its likely beyond the available space and time commitments of the typical backyard grower.

Best to treat it as treats, not more than 10% of the daily diet, by weight.

Even then, the math doesn't work. I can make a 20% protein feed for my birds (by mixing commercial bags) for around $0.28/lb right now. If I want to save labor, I can buy 18% protein at about $0.276/lb right now. With, lets pretend, 60 birds (my flock is in the sig, below), feeding 15# per day on average, to replace 3 months of feed at 10% substitution would be 1.5# per day times 92+/- days. About 150# of feed. Or $45.

Once you've bought the trays, built the frames, obtained your seed (economically, Amazon Prime, 50# bags), obtained soil, done the labor, raised the greens (and keep in mind, they are full of water, not near so nutrient dense as a commercial feed AND prone to freeze damage), are you really under $45 invested?

I feed, actually, between between 10# and 13# per day to my flock, seasonally dependent. How??? I've invested a few $Hundred$ into building a biodiverse polyculture of plants coming into season at differeng times of year which are a mix of forbs, legumes, herbs, grasses, grains, and even fruits. "My Acres of Weeds". and I happen to be in one of the most forgiving growing zones in the US. What works for me likely won't work well for you.

/edit and, fwiw, I'm likely throwing another $100 or so worth of seed into the pasture this spring, in hopes of adding still more diversity. How I'm going to keep my birds from eating it before it sprouts is a complete mystery to me. Likely trying "Cereal" Rye (not rye grass, seasonal or perennial), Buckwheat, and Sorghum (I have a small amount of native sorghum already growing, but its being edged out by other plants). If it saves me 6% on my feed costs over the course of the year, I break even. If the birds eat all the seeds, or we have another weird rainfall month, and nothing sprouts, then it cost me the equivalnt of almost 300# of feed, essentially a months worth.

 

[Robeenop]

I don't think I did a good enough job of explaining my situation. I want to grow fodder as a treat and to give my chickens some fresh food because it is winter. I'm not planning to use it as a substitute for their pellet feed.

How many birds do you have? I can't get me feed cost that low, over several years of trying with 65 in a mixed flock.

 

[TOPChickens14]

Do you not let them out of the coop in the winter? I live in PA and we have the cold weather same as you. I lock them in the coop in the evening and open the door in the morning. I receive 6eggs everyday. I have 6 birds. I also supply heat in the coop via a heating lamp and a radiant panel heater with a heated waterer. Maybe you should let them out into their “run” for a few hours a day. If you leave the coop door open they will go in if they get cold. Let me know. Good luck!!

I let them out every morning unless it is windy and below zero

 

[TOPChickens14]

How many birds do you have? I can't get me feed cost that low, over several years of trying with 65 in a mixed flock.

Not sure what you're asking here but I have 44 hens.

 

[TOPChickens14]

Do you have any local grocery stores or restaurants that can give you their green scraps (from when they taking the outer leaves off to make them look good on the shelves.) Ask them if you can pick them up to save them throwing in the trash? I have three stores I do that here in CA plus the homeless shelter kitchen for their leftover food (this one I have to sort more because the chickens can't eat some of the stuff but it sure saves on food and i just put on a pair of gloves to sort through. I get a lot of vegetables from them and some proteins also, fruits like blueberries, melons, oh and squash which they love. You just have to be reliable to pick it up when you say you will

Good idea!

 

[TOPChickens14]

Just sharing some thoughts on egg laying , helping to keep the girls happy in winter, and well fed.
My girls continue to eat after dark, I put two camping lanterns one very cheap $5 TSC was selling last year that has far exceeded my expectations in working, and another I had from camping. I set the lanterns down near the food and one water bucket. It was intended for the ducks since they tend to roam alot and I had a young one that needed the extra feed time. Whether it's the extra food or the light my girls are laying every day and temps in NJ have been in the teens. It's actually more than I need and I wish they would slow down and take a break for them to rest.
I also do make a warm tea for them each morning.. warm water, honey, tsp apple cider vinegar in a gallon bucket. They love it and need water for egg production which in winter is tough with frozen buckets every day. I also cook organic oats for them and serve warm with honey and fruit or just cinnamon. Oats I think help fill them up just like us.

I don't use heaters but I do put straw down in trails as well as buy a hay bale to encourage them to be outside in the sun. I put up straw bales in the run as well as my Christmas tree (2nd life for it also) to block wind.

I think just giving them some extra love in the cold goes a long way and keeps them happy and giving eggs in return maybe

Thanks for the input. I love your operation. The last picture is so cute!

 

[TOPChickens14]

I hate to tell you all that our hens in Ca continue to lay through the Winter and even increased their production. We feed layer ration in the morning, they are pastured, and in the evening get a snack mixture of scratch, BOSS and black soldier fly maggots. The maggots are expensive, about $50/ 5 lbs but that lasts an entire month.

Lucky you!

 

[Bill752]

It is winter here in New York. My flock has been cooped (pun intended) up inside for the past month and a half. They are going through food like crazy and not laying eggs. I need a solution to this and I found two options, fermenting feed and growing fodder. I already have the fermenting process working but one issue that has arisen is because of the cold temperatures, the feed freezes if the chickens don't eat it fast enough. Any suggestions on this would be helpful!
Growing them fodder is my next excursion in chicken keeping. I have read around the web looking for inspo and articles on how to do it. I found a few that use aluminum pans, I got those today. I understand the process of growing the fodder but finding the grain is where I'm having issues. The articles that I have read on fodder don't say where they get the said grain. Most of them say that they get their grain from their feed store but TSC neither Runnings sells grain like that. The few articles that do state where they get the grain online, it is usually very expensive. I found that the articles say that growing fodder is economical. From what I am seeing, it isn't. Where are you all getting your grain? I would prefer to grow wheatgrass/ wheat berries but I am having no luck finding them. I have also seen people suggest using BOSS in YT videos and in articles. Would BOSS work well? I could easily find this inexpensively as a worst-case scenario. Thanks for all the help

I can't help you out with advice on the feed but I see some good suggestions here. Are you aware that they need a certain amount of daylight to lay? We gave ours a night light, 75w bulb, to keep an owl away & so far this month they beat their record number of eggs for 3 months last year during the Summer. By the end of this month they could exceed their monthly average of last year. I was late turning the light on one evening & that's when I noticed the owl & got the light turned on just in time. We convert table scraps into eggs as much as possible. I read somewhere to boil potato peelings before feeding them to the chickens because they're toxic to them.