Posted: 8/19/2013 8:07:38 PM EDT
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So I'm going to sprout a bunch of stuff to feed chickens, rabbits, and ducks.
I have 5 laying chickens, 3 female and 1 male duck, 2 female and 1 male rabbit. The ducks and rabbits are breeders. But all are new to me and I don't have any litters of young. Most everyone that sprouts for feed seems to use barley. I plan to use half barley and then mix it up with a bunch of other stuff just to try to make these little bastards the healthiest animals ever. I'm going to try corn, peas, wheat, oats, flax, sun flower, rye, etc. I've read a bunch and watched a few DIY videos on YouTube. A simple gravity system seems the easiest. I'll rig it with a timer to water it three times a day, and maybe rig a small pump for the sump on the timer also. I'm just wondering what people's experience here with sprouting is? |
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I guess no one sprouts fodder. Everything I've seen about it is amazing.
Hopefully it works! I soaked corn, oats, wheat, and black oil sunflower seeds night before last and they all have sprouts now. I just added flax seed today. Once I know the sprouting rates of the different stuff I can out them in a mix and sprout them all together I'm hoping. I really only want to give the flax to the chickens to try to up the good omega fats for their eggs. Otherwise the flax was expensive. Of cpurse the feed store had food grade flax not feed grade so next time I'll have to shop around. In one video I watched a girl compared soaking 30 minutes to 12 and 24 hour, no real difference, in fact the 30 minute stuff seemed a bit healthier. |
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They are just the standard seed trays. About 10"x 18"
That should be enough to feed five chickens, four ducks, three rabbits and babies. They don't really need light. Maybe the last day or so but thats debatable That's kind of the incredible thing the seed changes itself to create the sprout. In nature it doesn't use light to get the job done until after it breaks the surface. From my reading the digestibility goes from 40% to 80% after that change. Besides increase in protien levels etc. |
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Quoted:
They are just the standard seed trays. About 10"x 18" That should be enough to feed five chickens, four ducks, three rabbits and babies. They don't really need light. Maybe the last day or so but thats debatable That's kind of the incredible thing the seed changes itself to create the sprout. In nature it doesn't use light to get the job done until after it breaks the surface. From my reading the digestibility goes from 40% to 80% after that change. Besides increase in protien levels etc. The reason for using in the greenhouse was less about sunlight and more about leveraging the solar pump/hydro (planned) for watering cycles. I don't have spare time to do it manually at the scale I'd be interested in doing. My wife has been looking into a small scale kitchen sprouter (for salads and such) which I'm encouraging. Neat project though - keep us updated. |
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The reason for using in the greenhouse was less about sunlight and more about leveraging the solar pump/hydro (planned) for watering cycles. I don't have spare time to do it manually at the scale I'd be interested in doing. My wife has been looking into a small scale kitchen sprouter (for salads and such) which I'm encouraging. Neat project though - keep us updated. Quoted:
Quoted:
They are just the standard seed trays. About 10"x 18" That should be enough to feed five chickens, four ducks, three rabbits and babies. They don't really need light. Maybe the last day or so but thats debatable That's kind of the incredible thing the seed changes itself to create the sprout. In nature it doesn't use light to get the job done until after it breaks the surface. From my reading the digestibility goes from 40% to 80% after that change. Besides increase in protien levels etc. The reason for using in the greenhouse was less about sunlight and more about leveraging the solar pump/hydro (planned) for watering cycles. I don't have spare time to do it manually at the scale I'd be interested in doing. My wife has been looking into a small scale kitchen sprouter (for salads and such) which I'm encouraging. Neat project though - keep us updated. Oh I see, if I like how it grows and it's as easy as it seems in YouTube videos. I'll set up a shelving system and a timer and gravity water them, probably in my laundry room. Most people do somewhere between a 6 and 8 day system. |
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Here they are at 4.5 days.
Wheat seems on schedule The oats, sunflower, and corn is much slower but I couldn't find much info on sprouting them, so maybe they are doing what they are suppossed to do. The good things is they seem to be on about the same schedule which hopefully means I can do a try of them together. A couple videos suggested some bleach in the initial soak and I will do that next time as I'm getting a little mold. The flax I started two days after and according to videos it takes 14days. Maybe it will be on the same schedule as the oats and such. I think I had them too wet, I don't have a watering system I'm just soaking and draining and the draining doesn't seem sufficient so I'm just going to water once a day. Either that or I need to start spraying them instead of soaking. Someone suggested baking soda in the spray to kill mold so maybe that's the best idea. |
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One girl on YouTube did a test on soaking times and was getting fine results with thirty minute soaks
I soaked oats and wheat again last night. This time i used bleach in the soak. I also removed all floating seeds from the oats. That was a suggesting with the barley from one site. I'm thinking that may be one of the problems people have w oats. The hulls and such can only mold and rot and screw up your crop. I measured 3 cups to barely cover one pan with whet pat. I needed to do over four cups of oats to get three to cover the pan. I fed the floaters to the rabbits. I'm soaking one cup each of corn and sunflower. They seem to grow at the same rate. I'm mixing them for this experiment. I will sprinkle a flax on them once that are in the pan. I really want the flax for the chicken to boost the omega 3s I've read chickens can't get it very well from flax but I'm betting that's from the seeds not the sprout, as everything else I read about the bioavailabilty doubles after sprouting. I was just reading about pumpkin seeds and their natural ability to de-worm and loosen hairball blockages etc. Now I need a source for raw unprocessed seeds so I can supplement the rabbits with a little of them. |
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At what point will you feed it to the animals? By initiating the sprouting process you increase the feed value of the seeds rather than feeding them the straight grain? I'm way behind the curve on this concept  The wheat and barley (don't have barley right now) should be fed between 6-8 days So I'm going to give them all some wheat grass today. Protein levels increase substantially. In barley from something like 14% to 19% The fodder also goes up in weight by 6 times. Most of that is probably water im sure but that's good IMO feeding these animals dry food probably puts them in a constant state of dehydration like dogs and cats that eat dry. |
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Easiest tutorials w videos
http://fmicrofarm.com/diyprojects/ http://grannysbest.blogspot.com/search/label/%2877%29%20Growing%20Fodder%20%28part%207%29%20-%20Growing%20and%20Feeding http://pacapride.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/barley-fodder-from-trials-to-production/ |
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I just fed some to everyone, nobody seems to care much. Of course they already ate this morning.
Also from what I've read it takes a week of or more for them to realize they like it. So I'll take the next week or two and slowly replace their food with it. I'm thinking one tray of wheat/barley mix and one tray of other mix will last 4-6 days for my 12 animals. I just need to start a couple trays every few days and then feed them some at something like day 6, 7, and 8 |
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This is interesting. How much time do you spend on a daily basis? Approximately how much seed (weight) do you put in each tray?
Just for giggles, I set up a spreadsheet (with lots of assumptions) to get an idea of "feasible or not" for feeding my farm animals (horse, 3 goats, 3 cows) 100% of their daily requirements of feed. (I am not really considering whether it is a good idea, just feasible.) Looking at current commodity prices, feed requirements based on body weight (% of body weight), seed weight to "fodder weight" (in #, conversion ratio), guesstimate of 2# seed per tray, and days to maturation (first soak to feed time), I'm looking at needing 90 trays to feed the animals that I have. If the average time spent per day per tray is one minute for growing trays, that's 80 minutes per day. If it takes 2 minutes per feed tray, there's another 20 minutes. The seed costs would be about $50 per month lower than what we spend for supplemental feed (supplementing pasture now). As it is, I only spend about 30 minutes with them per day. Sure, pasture and bagged supplemental feed sure are more convenient. But, that doesn't discount that it "is possible".
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Look up the bigger systems people are using. Some guys use trays that are whole metal roofing panels. As far as time, your time is unloading the soaking bucket to the tray, reloading the bucket, and then feeding. that's it.
All the cost stuff I've read says people are reducing their bills to 1/3 of original. Lots of videos of bigger systems on YouTube. |
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Well being that I'm lazy and also work long hours on some days I'm not going to start new trays daily. I'll start a couple wheat/oats/barley 1-2 times a week and another tray of mixed about once a week.
It doesn't matter to me if I feed it on day 6,7,8 whatever it doenst need to be perfect. The wheat and oats are on like day 9 or 10 and look great. Ducks and chickens are still meh about it. I hope they come around. They are eating maybe half. I'm going to try putting the ducks food in trash or bowls as they maybe don't like it all over like the chickens Rabbits love it. |
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The experiment continues.
Growing wheat, rye, and oats mostly. A little flax and sunflower seed, the corn isn't working super well. The rabbits love it. The ducks and chickens, meh.. They are eating it but wasting it also. I need to figured out how to train them to eat all of it. I might need to starve them for a day or two :-( |
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my friend got a deal on unsellable spilled wheat by the ton. been using it at his farm pigs chickens horses everybody loves the stuff I need to get some from him when we tried out goats I looked into fodder but didnt get started Cheap is good! I'm not just trying to be cheap, I'm trying to raise the healthiest animals possible to eat. That's most my motivation for srouting. The time it takes: Pour soaking seeds into pan and rinse Fill bucket w new seeds and water Take tray of fodder to animals No matter how big the operation it's super fast. Lots of good YouTube videos on the subject. I'm still doing it manual, but I need to build a shelving system and watering system just to organize it and make it even easier |
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I think I figured out the duck and chicken trick
They like the stuff when it's still "seedy" like day 3-5 So once it hits an inch high I start giving it to them. Once it's grass like I give it to the rabbits. Chicken and ducks don't like rye but are digging just sprouted wheat and oats |