Fodder

[ABGhomestead]

So I've never grown my own fodder, but been doing research. I'm wondering though...if I make my trays and then cover them with chicken wire or screen can I give them to the flock and leave them in the tray to regrow after they've eaten what grows above the screen? Also should I use soil instead of just water?
Basically what I'm asking is if anyone has done this with success???

 

[PirateGirl]

https://www.attainable-sustainable.net/diy-grazing-boxes/

So Fodder is what grows from the seed with the nutrition that is available in the seed. It's generally fed somewhere in the 5-7 day time frame. At this point the seed runs out of fuel to keep the plant growing.

If you want to sustain a system beyond that point, yes, you will need soil and water and sunlight to keep the plants growing. Essentially you will be building "grazing frames." I have included an article link for reference. I hope this helps!

 

[snow5164]

No we talked about it, but our list is always long . I ended up sprouting grains , started a year or two ago . I mostly do green lentils and sunflower seeds , lentils are cheap and sprout easily, sunflower seeds work well but cost more.

I literally pick a bucket of grass each day for each of my flocks .. sometimes two.

Hens pulled out all the grass around their perimeter of the run by the roots .. I can’t see how growing it in wooden boxes will work over and over again ... good luck

 

[ABGhomestead]

Ok I gotcha, thanks for the link, that's exactly what I was looking for, I just wanted to be sure it could work before I went through the work of building/making them, plus a guide always helps, thank u again!

 

[ABGhomestead]

I've seen them do that too, along with listening to someone tell me oh yea let the chickens in the garden -_- needless to say my garden suffered this year and I was not happy to find my crops destroyed. I'm just trying to cut down on feed, now that they're 6+ months old they eat quite a bit

 

[Cindy in PA]

People do this by putting grazing frames in the run & planting the seeds right in the dirt. The chickens can only eat what comes above the 2 by 4 & hardware cloth frame & can't scratch it up, so it keeps growing.