Ok, can chickens eat whole wheat???

[ToLiveToLaugh]

The working with wheat thing I understand- I just was confused! Lol. And I don't know about the wheat thing. Sadly, I've always just done the multigrain, feed store type feed.

 

[freemotion]

Yes, they can eat whole wheat! Mine eat only whole grains. My baby chicks were completely on whole grains by three weeks. I feed whole oats, barley, and gigantic corn kernels. I would feed wheat if I could get it for a decent price here.

Feed it as a supplement like scratch grains. If anyone reading this wants to switch to whole grains for their flock, you must do so gradually. It takes three weeks for crop strength to develop after they have been eating manufactured feeds.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I feed mine whole grains also and that includes wheat. After they've been on that kind of diet they scoff at the crumbles. I had to buy crumbles today, since I ran out of money (spent it at the vet for the goats) I could only afford a sack of the crumble.

 

[creamer111]

I Digged this thread to save it for future



Regards

creamer111

 

[TanksHill]

Thanks. Now back to the topic of spent grain. I received an e mail and the gentleman said he has 1200 to 1800 lbs per week. He would like to get 25 bucks for the 250 pounds in the barrel he has posted. That is a huge amount of grain.

Free you mentioned feeding a pig with it? Would this be supplemental for the pig as well? Obviously they would need other things? I am getting all kinds of ideas here.

gina

 

[Icu4dzs]

I have fed my chickens wheat berries for a long time and other than a little diarrhea in some of them, they appear to tolerate it quite well. Adding the corn and other grains certainly adds to their dietary variety as does soybean.

As for cost, check with the local grain elevator. The guy who wants $250 for his wheat is selling it at $10/bushel. That is really high. Most of the corn in this part of the country is going for around $3/bushel (58 lbs). If you and a couple of friends go in together and buy a hundred bushels, you'll have enough corn to feed chickens till the "cows come home" Adding wheat which will be substantially less than $10/bushel should do about the same thing. Interestingly, the fact about wheat is that if it is stored in a dry location and not allowed to get wet, it stores essentially indefinitely.

When I first moved to SDAK, I was broke and had no job. I went to the local grain elevator and had him fill the back of my P/u truck with wheat (winter hard wheat). I paid $133 for the entire amount and it came to about 2000 lbs. I figured, I might get tired of home-made bread (yes, I make that myself) but I won't starve. Between sprouting it, grinding the sprouts for juice and making bread and cereal with the wheat, I found that I would have a limited but really good diet. The roughage helped too!

So the answer is "Yes, you can feed wheat berries to the girls safely".

Don't buy a lot of grain from "retailers". They raise the price so high that you can't believe it. The farmer who works so hard to raise it gets very little for his effort. The elevator will sell you all you want (fill up your p/u truck) for very little money and you will have enough to last quite a while.

Getting it out of the p/u truck and storing it properly may be a little more challenging because you probably need your p/u truck for other chores soon after bringing all that grain home in it. That takes a little prior planning; but is worth it to be sure.

I heat my house with corn, and when the corn is low weight and the farmer is getting less than $2.41/bushel you can heat your home for about $240/year...yes I said a year. I go through about a bushel a day for heating my home.

So as I said, buy from the elevator, NOT the retail establishments. Even www.waltonfeed.com from whom I get many of my stored grains and beans charges a lot for their grains which they sell in 50 lb bags.

Being prepared isn't that hard if you know a few tricks. In the immortal words of Louis Pastuer, "Chance favors the prepared mind".
Best
Trim

 

[Icu4dzs]

Ooopps
I miscalculated that wheat price in the post above...it was $.10/bushel and that is REALLY GOOD.
IF he sells it in a barrel to you (and you get the barrel,) you have done extremely well. Just be sure it isn't wheat that has been treated with stuff to keep bugs off it when planted. That isn't good for anyone, not even the chickens.

 

[Icu4dzs]

OK, so I'm not a math major...that was $.10/pound which is about $5/bushel...still a good price for wheat, but not exceptional if it is old. So shoot me...

 

[TanksHill]

Just to clear things up. The 250 pounds of wheat the man was selling was spent, as in the spoils from making beer. So it was wet and probably sprouting.

I did not buy it. But I did add a 50 pound bag of wheat berries into my =scratch barrel. So the chickens now receive a big scoop of corn/ wheat mix daily.

Thanks for the help.

 

[tamlynn]

1st Shes Mormon so I think she knows about wheat.

gina

Is there a stereotype or factoid here I'm missing?

Most Mormons (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) have at least some long-term food storage. One year's worth is the goal. Most in the US will store wheat because it lasts so long.

I don't know how you could tell it would be too old to sprout, you could always test that opinion by trying to sprout some.

As for feeding it to chickens, it should be great! Just make sure they have plenty of acces to grit and stuff so they can grind it down in their systems.