Feeding Chickens on the Cheep!

Use Sprouted Grains

How much can I expect it to save me? 

Wow, that is a good question. In my last post I outlined what I was spending on the chickens to "save" money and I realized I needed to bring the feed bill down even further. I had a few options.

• Feed scraps only
• Feed commercial feed only
• Feed fermented food
• Feed sprouted grain

or a combinations of the above. Wait, before the comments go off on the "Free Range" options, we choose NOT to free range our birds for a number of reasons. Some are based in our laziness in not wanting every morning to be the Easter Hunt / Bill Murray Ground Hog Day debacle on our one acre, we don't want to chase the wild child chickens roosting in the trees, and now that we have turkeys, we know that is where they want to be (that is a story by itself!) and then there are the Mongoose that are invasive here.  Yesterday the girls killed a rat that somehow got in. So rats are not a real threat for the adult birds, but the

From Goodreads.com "Rikki Tikki Tavi"

Mongoose is a predator that is used to killing snakes and fast prey items. It is has a darker side to it somewhat like some of our baser human-kind selves. They have the tendencies to go off, caught up in the moment killing simply for killings sake not just for something to eat. Mongoose attacks are not common but when they happen, it's usually wholesale slaughter.
The biggest reason we keep the chickens in a pen is that we do not want our chickens to be our neighbor's dogs dinner. I have said this many times in the past, and I still mean it now, but because we won't have the chickens free ranging and foraging for most of their food, we'll need to provide it for them. 

We have 59 chickens and 10 turkeys right now and at 1/4 pound of food per chicken and 1/2 pound for each Turkey, that adds up to about 20 pounds a day.

We will be dividing up that number with the following ratios: 

• Commercial feed for us is 16 - 20$ for 40-50 pounds, Walmart vs. TSC or .40 cents a pound 
• Fruits and Grasses are free as we use over ripe fruit and collected grasses
• Sprouted Fodder is barley, one pound per tray and works out to be about .40 cents a pound

At .40 cents a pound and feeding 19.75 pounds that comes to $7.90 per day. How do I make that go down? 

From Pickytoplenty.com

We are already feeding the girls fermented feed. That is something we started a few weeks ago. One 6-8 pound bucket of layer crumble in a 5 gallon bucket, water to cover, and we add a bit of our Korean Natural Farming IMO and LAB solutions to the mix, cover and wait 2 days. I did this for 2 days before I started feeding it so I would have a bucket for every subsequent feeding. Every time we feed, we take 6-8 pounds of commercial feed, the previously fermented 5 gallon bucket and some of the fruit and scraps we saved from the day before and feed it to them in the morning. In the afternoon we take one bucket of 6 pounds of commercial feed to be sure they aren't hungry when we gather the eggs. At 14 pounds of commercial feed plus the fruit and grasses, they seem pretty happy. 

My sprouting station

From Agrodaily.com

Wanting to drive the $$$ output for these primal dinosaurs even lower, I looked into something I found on the internet, sprouting grain. Just plain ol' grain. Grains like wheat, barley, rice , oats, etc., can be used though the rice I hear is a bit persnickety. Just about any seed you want can be used.

I look up a few more articles on the subject and a quick trip to the feed store, H.D. (list of supplies needed is below) and a lighter wallet later, and I have the makings of a semi-automated feed sprouting station! 

From Amazon.com

The idea is simple: Add seeds to a tray, soak seeds till they sprout and wait till they grow their foliage up a few days. But its tougher than it seems since if the seeds soak too long, they can rot.

Not a nice "earthy" rot smell like good compost, but the foul, just-opened-the-cesspool kind of stench. The solution?

From Leanpub.com, "Fodder"

I use planting trays that are perforated that have holes well under the seed size in them but you can drill 1/8" holes in any tray you like. I use a shelf rack system to stack these trays one over the other so when I fill the tray with water, it slowly drips out of the upper trays  filling the lower trays until it gets back to a sump container under all of them. This allows me to essentially 'change' the water as often as I add water. This has to be done many times a day to make sure the seeds and the growing fodder don't dry out.

From HomeDepot.com

Since I am basically lazy, I opted for using a submersible pump and a timer that allows me to set the times I 'change' their water.  I chose a timer that I can set multiple on and off times so the pump comes on a total of 5 times during the day and once through the night. The pump is on for 5 minutes each time then shuts off, waiting for the next wetting. I do have to change the starchy water in the collection bin below the trays every other day or the water starts to smell a bit off- not good for the seeds or the chickens. 

 Here are the steps:

1. Scoop the seeds into an appropriate sized bucket. I use a 2 gallon bucket since I use only 1-2 pound of seeds in a tray. If you use more seed or need to seed more trays, you'll need to get a bigger bucket.  
2. Fill that bucket with water 1" over the seed level. Remove any chaff, debris or floating husks or seeds. Most seeds sink if they are viable for germinating. (but know your seed- that variety may all float) and soak for 12-24 hours. Do not soak more than 24 hours! 
3. Next day, empty that bucket into one of the clean perforated trays and allow to drain then spread in a thin even layer.
4. Set on your rack of choice and wait for the magic to happen! 
5. This does take a few days so make sure that the seeds are never dried out, but not swimming in water and in three days you should have both rootlets and small sprouts. 

 You are done at this point and can feed them to your chickens, ducks, etc. for sprouted feed, but I wait a few more days till they can get the full seed potential and the greens that can come along with the seed value. The photo shows my trays in different stages of growth, all one day apart. I did this for one week before I was able to take any fodder to the girls so it is a do ahead thing. 

Parts list for this project:

• soak bucket(s)
• shelf rack
• perforated sprouting trays
• submersible pond pump with head pressure of at least 6 feet 
• clear tubing to fit pump and related fittings (drip heads or spray will work)
• zip ties to hold the tubing in place
• timer
• seed

This is a satisfying project since it results in an increase of both feed weight and nutrition; the growth enzymes trigger nutrient blooms for anticipated plant growth, and the chickens go nuts for it! 1 pound of food is grown into 4-5 pounds which decreases the net grains usage for us, saving us feed $$$. 

Happy chickens, better nutrition for them and a fatter wallet for us? Win on all levels!