If you are looking for a more natural feed alternative that costs less consider fodder. Fodder is a grain that is sprouted by many different processes. It can be as simple or as difficult as you like. With all the different type of livestock there are many different requirements. I am going to focus on feeding spouted grains like barley and wheat for poultry.
Sprouting chicken feed is very inexpensive. If you are looking to cut feed costs sprouting grain is the way to go. Every pound of grain will turn into 3 pounds of feed when grown. Currently I pay .11 cents a pound for wheat seed. I feed about a ¼ pound per bird per day. This means that sprouting one pound of chicken feed a day will end up feeding 12 chickens each day.
Cost to feed a dozen egg layers is.77 cents a week (at.11 cents per lb.). If you get 10 eggs a day from 12 egg layers then 70 eggs a week costs.77 cents a week. So you pay one to two cents per egg depending on production of your birds.
I found that I don't need to supplement the feed with anything other than the outdoors. I have a flock of Buff Orpingtons in a pen and just feed wheat fodder with the occasional leftovers. My neighbor is a life time farmer but now in his 80's. I bring him eggs and he told me they taste great but I should lay off the oyster shell. He said that the shells are to hard to crack. I don't even feed any oyster shell, so they seem to get enough calcium from the sprouting seeds.
You don't need soil either to sprout. The seed has all the nutrients it needs for the 7 day life cycle it will have. I just keep the seed moist and you will have a great source of nutrients for your birds.
The process may seem confusing but is really easy once you get the rhythm. As far as supplies you just need 8 "5 gallon" buckets and a drill gun with 1/8" drill bit.
One bucket stays untouched for soaking the seed.
Seven buckets should have about 10 1/8" holes drilled in there bottoms.
The process is as follows.
Day 1 fill the undrilled bucket half full with water and add one pound of wheat seed.
Day 2 take one of the drilled buckets and elevate it on some spacers to keep it off the ground then dump the soaking seed in it to drain. Put one of the other buckets with holes on top of it to give it shade. Now take the soaking bucket (rinse it out then) fill it half filled with water and add one pound of wheat seed to soak.
Day 3 follow the same process of day two and again through day 6. Every time you add a bucket and dump the new soaking seed in it will water all the buckets beneath it.
Day 7 take the bottom bucket which is 7 days old and just pull out the grass and toss it to the chicken. Then rinse out the bucket and continue the process.
This may sound confusing but after a couple of days you will get the practice down. You can also have more batches going depending on the quantities of chickens you have. The only issue you may have is some fuzzy stuff growing on the grass just spray it off till clean or pinch it off. Over watering will cause rot and fungus.
If the weather is really cold or hot out side you can have trouble growing the grass. Use a basement or under a shelf little light is needed to sprout.
"Poultry Farming Homestead Income" a guide that we wrote and really works.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Bogdanowicz
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8513150
No comments:
Post a Comment