Skip to main content

Grain Sprouting Update

New and Improved Seed Station

Or, protecting and taking the stink out of the seeds. 

 My last post was about the idea of sprouting seeds for our chickens gastronomical pleasure.Since then, I have run into a few problems that I think I have solutions for, we'll see.

This is my Sprouting station as built:
A standard set of big box store shelf racks set up on the ground near a water source. Seeds soaked in a bucket for 24 hours (convenience, as they need only 8-10 hour soaks) then spread out in an even layer on a 10" x 20" garden tray with pre-punched holes.
Problem 1. Water distribution. Dry seeds in one side, flooded on the other.
Problem 2.  During the night rats and during the day the birds  are getting to the seeds eating and fouling the trays with husks and their waste. Between the two shifts, I am losing almost half the seeds to these scavengers.

This is my Sprouting station as it is today:

We added 5 more shelves, a larger water recovery tub for recirculating the water, added more trays as we have upped the grain feed to three trays a day, and a direct water line from the pump to the emitters. More on that below. We added a Bamboo floor decking under the station to level the rack out, added a cage surround to keep out the seed marauders, and an inner window screening liner in an attempt to keep out the fruit flies that have become Problem 3. We are now employing a more chemical deterrent for the fruit flies, pheromones. The  hope is that by enticing them away from the seeds, there won't be a cloud of insects when I open the door. They are also stinging the seeds and perpetuating their kind right in the cage. Not something that I want.
I am also changing the way I water the Station. Initially I thought using a pump to recirculate the water from a collection tub up to the top trays and let it trickle down through the subsequent trays would be awesome. And it is, but there is a major set back. The odor that builds up over a day or two. The water rinses the seeds and washes all the carbohydrate rich dust off them and no matter how many pre-rinses I seem to do before setting them out in the trays, the water reeks after two days. This is the current system and how I am going to change it.

I'll be taking the pump out of the system altogether, using a direct bottom up flooding system rather than the top down system I am using now. It is said to promote better root growth with lower fungus and mold growth by not wetting the greens from above. The double trays means that in the lower tray, holes placed only in the lower front of the tray allows the tray to fill for a time period dictated by the size of the holes. With the upper trays having lots of holes the seeds and roots have time to soak up the water and still allow drainage to avoid over soaking.

I am not sure at this point if there will be any method to take 100% of the odor away from this kind of thing. I notice that most people sharing their systems online are either avoiding the smell issue or discounting it to a single mention. I am determined to decrease the smell to as close to zero as possible. I bleach the system every day I drain it using a supermarket strength 5% bleach solution cut further to 1:10 so it won't poison the seeds nor the chickens. The residual bleach will dissipate within 24 hours when left open to air so an 8 day growing cycle should allow enough 'airing-out time' for their safety.

 Next post: Garden Update

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Coop Build Part Three

Installation Time Or, the real business of Construction Okay, the garage build was prep time for making panels, now is the time I consider that the real building got started.  I didn't take a lot of Photos so it looks like a lot happened, which it did. Making each wall a panel allowed for fast assembly. This photo shows the piers in place and the floor set on them. It was sturdy, but a bit too wobbly for me knowing I had a few more feet of building going up soon. So I then cut (2) 2x4 braces for each pier and screwed them in using 3" gold screws, not real gold, but they are called that. Not sure why other than their color. We then attached the linoleum.  Sure we risked it getting damaged from adding this early, but by placing it under the bottom plates of all the walls, we figured less water penetration into the floor this way. So far so good- no big gouges yet. These walls went up in less than 20 minutes and I was working alone this day. By allowing an overhang...
2 comments
Read more

Update

Update Chickens are growing Big news, right? Well, it has been a while since I posted here and a lot has happened. Yes, the chickens have been getting bigger; the Cornish Cross are insanely huge and the Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock hens are now officially old enough to be called pullets.  Their Foster Moms have abandoned them, meaning they are no longer protective of them and instead are making sure they (the hens) are getting the pullets inducted into the flock's 'Pecking order'. The pullets are basically on their own, though chickens really don't need to be taught much. The pullets are finding a pecking order of their own, fussing at and with each other as it should be in the natural order of chickens. The Cornish Cross are amazing. We purchased them three weeks after the pullets and they caught up in size in just two weeks. At three weeks old, the Cross chicks were taller than the Pullets at 5 weeks. Tomorrow they will be 7 weeks old, and they are...
2 comments
Read more

Is Smell Free, Fly Free Pig Farming Possible?

I have to find out more! I thought farms and flies/smell were synonymous, but Hawaii being the paradise it is, I heard it just might be possible. I needed to find out how we can do this. Fast. Our farm, if we are 'allowed' to call it that, is a single acre in a semi-residential community of one acre lots that are zoned Ag. It's actually a 135' x 330' lot of wavy undulating lava rock with a smattering of cinder soil that can support some grass, a few trees and some local Hawaiian plants. Our current placement of the chickens is in the far right hand corner away from the main house (NE corner) and takes up 20' x 20'. We have 30 chickens, 15 full grown and 15 adolescents and 10 young growing turkeys. They have plenty of wing room right now, but we are getting ready to move the poultry by enlarging their pen to one that is 120' x 20'. We are planning to fence in the entire rear of the property and let them roam in a large pen with both goats and p...
Post a Comment
Read more