In your opinion - chicken feed

[freemotion]

I am only sprouting oats now, because it is all I can get. You can sprout any whole grain that hasn't been crimped, rolled, or heated too much in drying. I love barley, because the protein goes up so much in the early sprout stage. Oats, barley, wheat, rye....you can mix the small grains and sprout them all together.

I use a 4 or 5 gallon pail, drill small holes (too small to let the grains out or let the grains plug them) all over the bottom and a couple of inches up just on one side.

I soak the grains for 24 hours in a regular bucket (fill 2/3 - 3/4 with grain, then cover them an inch or more higher with water) then dump that into my drilled bucket to drain. Then I run clear water over them and let them drain again. I rinse them once a day (twice if I am sprouting in hot weather, which I generally don't unless we have a weird hot spell early in the spring) until they are all fed. I start another bucket soaking 2-3 days before I use up the last batch.

I feed these to all my poultry and the goats who need more than just hay. They get the sprouts in several stages, as I soak enough to feed for 2-3 days.

I never have more than two pails going, with 5 goats getting a bit of grain, and 20-25 birds getting sprouted grain in the morning, whole corn in the afternoon.

You can throw some BOSS in there, too, but don't throw it in on the first soak as it sprouts much faster and you'll practically have sunflowers by the time you finish feeding a pail!

 

[farmerlor]

I am only sprouting oats now, because it is all I can get. You can sprout any whole grain that hasn't been crimped, rolled, or heated too much in drying. I love barley, because the protein goes up so much in the early sprout stage. Oats, barley, wheat, rye....you can mix the small grains and sprout them all together.

I use a 4 or 5 gallon pail, drill small holes (too small to let the grains out or let the grains plug them) all over the bottom and a couple of inches up just on one side.

I soak the grains for 24 hours in a regular bucket (fill 2/3 - 3/4 with grain, then cover them an inch or more higher with water) then dump that into my drilled bucket to drain. Then I run clear water over them and let them drain again. I rinse them once a day (twice if I am sprouting in hot weather, which I generally don't unless we have a weird hot spell early in the spring) until they are all fed. I start another bucket soaking 2-3 days before I use up the last batch.

I feed these to all my poultry and the goats who need more than just hay. They get the sprouts in several stages, as I soak enough to feed for 2-3 days.

I never have more than two pails going, with 5 goats getting a bit of grain, and 20-25 birds getting sprouted grain in the morning, whole corn in the afternoon.

You can throw some BOSS in there, too, but don't throw it in on the first soak as it sprouts much faster and you'll practically have sunflowers by the time you finish feeding a pail!

Really? So I could get 50 pound bags of barley and oats from the feedstore and just sprout those puppies and give them to my turkeys? And the sunflowers will sprout too? That is SO cool!!!! I've been so worried about my turks because it's too expensive right now for me to buy greens at the store for them and they just don't care for the alfalfa and I want them to get busy breeding soon so they need some kind of greens. This is excellent. Going to the feedstore on Thursday to get me some sprout starter! Thanks so much.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I think I would sprout grains if I lived in a place where there is snow and ice. We have plenty green stuff growing in the field at this time of year and plenty of seeds sprouting on their own for the chickens to scrounge up. And they do. So I feed the grains in the evening more as a treat and to keep them warm at night.

I might consider sprouting seeds for the goats though, since they are hopefully pregnant and will need better nutrition.

 

[freemotion]

I don't sprout much when there are greens growing and bugs for the hens and turkeys. But the increased protein is great for the lactating goats, also for growing babies. Ginger was weaned too early when I bought her, and she wouldn't drink milk after nursing from her mama for the first 5 weeks of her life. She would go out to the pasture all by her tiny self and graze, crying while eating. When I started giving her a small handful of sprouted barley twice a day, she stopped crying all the time. Whew. She's my biggest, hardiest goat now.

 

[Javamama]

Making a mental not of Free's method for keeping baby goats alive Very good thing to know just in case...

 

[freemotion]

I have yet to have an easy baby goat. I've only had four in my adult life...the babies we had when I was a kid myself were completely trouble free. No worming, no minerals, no alfalfa, no nothing. Sheesh.

The soaked grain also got weight on my old mare when nothing else would. Just a couple of cups twice a day and she put on weight and made it through her last winter in good condition. I'm convinced that the combination of the probiotics that build up with this method, and removing anti-nutrients and irritants from the grains, were the key for her.

The longer I use this method, the more good things I see happening with my animals. AND it is CHEAPER!!!! Go figure!

 

[Buster]

Free, I have copied, pasted, emailed, and printed your system for future reference. That is some great information. I had never thought of sprouting stuff for my goats and chickens. I have ordered some whole grains from our feed mill to try it out.

Great stuff.

 

[i_am2bz]

I've tried my hand at sprouting things for my chickens since all my grass/weeds have died in this sucky weather...

Everything I tried I bought from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (the TSC here has nothing I can use)...the green lentils work the best, they sprout after 2 days of rinsing. The raw sunflower seeds work okay, too, just take a little longer to sprout.

The oat groats never sprouted, & I ended up throwing them away because I didn't like how they smelled. The raw, green pumpkin seeds haven't sprouted either. :/

I bought some rye, but haven't tried them yet.

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Well, I'm about to change the way I feed mine.

I found a closer feedmill only about half an hour away. A farmer friend of mine who raises cattle buys mostly cottonseed meal by the ton. I'm going to see what I can get.

Redesigning my feeding program (for all the critters) was near the top of my to-do list. When I bought my high-protein pellets last week, the cost has jumped by about 30%. Cost is TOO high. Other feeds are up too.

Mine eat firstly what they can find. I'm not sure exactly what that is but they sure do dig around excited to find it. I also give them a grain mix of cracked corn and millets. I give them pelleted high protein layer feed (high protein was 25 cents extra when I first saw it so I figured it was an ok deal for 20% protein instead of 16). I also give them all my scraps, especially meat and eggs ... Some of the veggie stuff goes to goats and geese. And they have oyster shell. Clean up dropped rabbit pellets too.

I'm about to set up my houseplant "hospital" winter shelves, where I plan to start seedlings too. I have plenty of jars so I'll plan on doing sprouts there too.

Really, though, my chickens most prefer what they can find and eat very little pellets. My farmer friend is raising about 100 chicks (egg breeds) and feeds 50# a day. I buy a 50# bag maybe just over once a month for just under 20 chickens.

My banties probably eat no pellets. Their eggs are super orange and tasty. I LOVE the banties' eggs. I bought them as incubators, but I'm seeing so many traits in them that I'm going to incorporate their chicks crossed with my RIR into my flock, if all goes well.

 

[freemotion]

I've tried my hand at sprouting things for my chickens since all my grass/weeds have died in this sucky weather...

Everything I tried I bought from the bulk bins at Whole Foods (the TSC here has nothing I can use)...the green lentils work the best, they sprout after 2 days of rinsing. The raw sunflower seeds work okay, too, just take a little longer to sprout.

The oat groats never sprouted, & I ended up throwing them away because I didn't like how they smelled. The raw, green pumpkin seeds haven't sprouted either. :/

I bought some rye, but haven't tried them yet.

The stock at WF may be heat treated for bugs. It takes some processing to get the hulls off oats....try whole oats from the feed store.