Author Topic: Sprouting wheat for greens (Read 2831 times)

Penninehillbilly · « **on:** January 12, 2022, 11:03:27 am »

Hi, i have some whole wheat, I currently soak some for the cockerels and a treat for the hens.
Hens are in the polytunnel for lockdown, eaten everything green.
I'm thinking of sprouting the wheat, hoping maybe to 1inch high? For a bit of green, maybe every other day depending on time needed to grow?
Any thoughts and if anyone does this, advice and photos please? Would appreciate it, TIA.

Just thought, OH bought some sacks of bird seed (reduced drastically at s/market

) to help local pheasants over winter, would this be better/quicker than wheat?

Forestlens · « **Reply #1 on:** January 12, 2022, 02:26:56 pm »

We have an old Aquacrop machine (no longer available) in which we sprout wheat for our chickens. They love it. The machine is basically a heated cabinet with a lamp. We have to water the trays of wheat by hand as the original spray nozzles have broken (it could originally be plumbed into a water supply to make it automatic but it’s not much effort to sprinkle the wheat with water twice a day). We soak the wheat in a bucket of water for 24hours and then put it in seed trays and at chits by the next day. By day 3-4 we have sprouts about 1-1.5” long and a mat of rootlets. If you leave it in too long you’ll get white mould forming. Once you’ve started it’s easy to have a continuous supply (as long as you remember to soak the seed!) Using bird seed should work, however germination will be at different speeds and things could get messy, the advantage with straight wheat is that it should have a uniform rate of germination.

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #2 on:** January 12, 2022, 02:32:53 pm »

That's great forestlens, just what I wanted to hear.

I did soak the 2 lots I've got on the go, only 4 hens and 2 males so just using plastic trays.
Just gives them something different.

Anke · « **Reply #3 on:** January 12, 2022, 05:42:16 pm »

Mine just get the outer leaves of cabbages, kale etc - straight after harvest and before going into the kitchen (in case DEFRA is listening in...). Only the ones not suitable for the goats though, so not that many.

Forestlens · « **Reply #4 on:** January 12, 2022, 06:07:47 pm »

Ours get greens too, I’ve been talking nicely to our local supermarket and get a box of out of date cabbage etc (they even like Brussels sprouts when shredded!) when available.

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #5 on:** January 12, 2022, 08:05:27 pm »

I'm so used to goats getting the few brassica trimming we get, must remember to share more

Penninehillbilly · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2022, 02:49:17 am »

We are getting some plastic sweet jars given.
My idea is to leave them on their sides with soaked wheat, on the conservatory floor, it has underfloor heating (only room that has it!). Currently only the cat benefits from that, so I thought it would gently heat the wheat overnight.