Winter Feed Cost and Growing Fodder

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.
Yes I found them in the gizzard also once found 3 marbles in ones gizzard no idea how as I dont have marbles lol
 
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.
If you've now read thru the whole series of posts, you surely the know OP clarified their original request. They weren't seeking to grow fodder cheaply to replace their chicken's feed, they were looking to grow fodder not too expensively for purpose of entertainment/enrichment. Once we understood this was not another "how do I feed my birds cheap?" post triggered by fanciful claims found on a slick website, a number of us (self included) jumped in with ideas and sources for cheaper seeds than what OP had found on their own.

There had been some confusion regarding the original premise, that is all. Heck, I have a "chicken tower" made with scrap chicken wire and a pile of mixed droppings/spent bedding about 3' dia and 3' tall which I throw seeds at periodically - but I'm not trying to do fodder, and won't pretend I'm meaningfully supplimenting the diet, I'm just speeding decomposition. That's where my green kitchen scraps go - the bases of scallions and leeks (I already have more growing than I can eat), seeds from peppers, handfulls of methi (fenugreek), extra seeds from garden packets I've planted in the raised beds, etc.

But yes, we are largely in agreement that a combination of factors have made cost and quantity unreliable and impractical as a large scale feed substitute right now. Even before Covid, costs were high enough that I chose to focus on improving my pasture's variety, rather than an attempt at scale efficient farming for bulk grain - and I have acres to devote to the project.
 
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I ferment feed for my girls also, they won't eat their food dry. I use a heated cat bowl (I only have 2 girls) to keep the food from freezing. We have regularly gotten below zero temps this winter. I use a heated dog bowl for their water. I just buy organic wheat grass/barley grains and other organic microgreens (alfalfa, broccoli, clover...) from Amazon, and have it growing all over my house in whatever window has space, I just use the plastic containers that the organic salad greens or meat come in (washed thoroughly of coarse) those work well. I try to give my girls greens twice a day ... I also bought a plant stand with a grow light from "Gardeners Supply"- that was pretty expensive but it allows me to grow tomatoes in the winter for my husband and I as well.
 
OP clarified their original request. They weren't seeking to grow fodder cheaply to replace their chicken's feed, they were looking to grow fodder not too expensively for purpose of entertainment/enrichment.

Good enough. For some reason, this thread popped up on my radar, but it was already 10 pages long. I am glad that OP was not trying to replace chicken feed with fodder. I think fodder is best used just as a treat for chickens. Sounds like everyone was in agreement.
 
If it's cold enough that fermented feed is freezing, you either need to offer it in a container that can keep it warm (i.e. a heated dog bowl) or you'll need to hold off on it until weather heats up enough so it doesn't freeze.

Sorry I have no experience with growing fodder.
I don't necessarily ferment feed, but I do offer a wet mash at night. On those really cold mornings, it will be frozen. I found that my birds will still peck at it until it eventually thaws out. Serving it in a heated dog bowl is such a good idea. Of course I'd need to hold off at night or it might be problematic in a heated bowl overnight, I'm assuming. You know what they say about assumptions so I figured I'd ask 😉
 
I ferment feed for my girls also, they won't eat their food dry. I use a heated cat bowl (I only have 2 girls) to keep the food from freezing. We have regularly gotten below zero temps this winter. I use a heated dog bowl for their water. I just buy organic wheat grass/barley grains and other organic microgreens (alfalfa, broccoli, clover...) from Amazon, and have it growing all over my house in whatever window has space, I just use the plastic containers that the organic salad greens or meat come in (washed thoroughly of coarse) those work well. I try to give my girls greens twice a day ... I also bought a plant stand with a grow light from "Gardeners Supply"- that was pretty expensive but it allows me to grow tomatoes in the winter for my husband and I as well.
May I ask how long do you have the same batch available for them in the heated bowl? I don't ferment feed but I do add water to the feed and offer it wet at night. Some mornings their mash will be frozen but they peck at it until it thaws. I'm curious about offering it in heated bowl 😉
 
I feed fermented feed in 2 gallon buckets. Short enough they can get the feed. The outer couple of inches freeze but the center is not. I swap the buckets in the afternoon. If it's 18f or above it doesn't freeze as much. I bring in at night.
 
May I ask how long do you have the same batch available for them in the heated bowl? I don't ferment feed but I do add water to the feed and offer it wet at night. Some mornings their mash will be frozen but they peck at it until it thaws. I'm curious about offering it in heated bowl 😉
Since birds, unlike humans, don't seem to get up in the middle of the night for a snack, leaving feed out overnight is generally disfavored - it attracts critters generally not beneficial.

and most of us who don't free feed try to adjust feedings each day so that a bare minimum (if any) is out overnight, or available for more than 24 hours - though in most climates, it should be "good" (not contaminated to any significant degree) for several days, at least.
 
I feed fermented feed in 2 gallon buckets. Short enough they can get the feed. The outer couple of inches freeze but the center is not. I swap the buckets in the afternoon. If it's 18f or above it doesn't freeze as much. I bring in at night.
Do you offer the same batches until they're gone? I guess I'm mostly curious about the feed going bad. That scares me with feeding mash but my girls absolutely love it. I always make sure to smell it (? Not really sure if that is an indication of anything but it makes me feel better, I guess) and visually make sure it doesn't have a film or anything off with it that would be obvious. I've thought about trying to ferment feed as I feel like my hens would really like it
 

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