Saturday, February 8, 2014

Re: [CHICKENS-101] barley - was cabbage (was /snow)

 

GMO wheat is not on the market.  While there was a scare in the field of the farmer who found gmo wheat, GMO wheat seed is not sold nor planted commercially.  Oats are not GMO either.  You separate the hulls off from the barley or use hull less - my warning was for the hulls.   
Cathryn  rainbowsilkiesTM  in  Michigan







On Saturday, February 8, 2014 1:24 PM, Sara Mandal-Joy <smjlist@valnet.net> wrote:
 
We use barley. When sprouting barley, you need the whole grain, which
means either a hull-less variety or unhulled. If it has been separated,
the part of the seed that germinates is often damaged. You can ferment
dehulled barley, but not successfully sprout it. When you sprout the
barley, the hull washes off once the germ has grown. You rinse out the
growing sprouts several times a day, and the hulls all wash off. I grow
mine to about 3 inch green sprouts (about 5-6 days). Its not officially
called fodder till the blades are over 5 inches tall. But they get
some green, and lots of yummy roots and sprouted seeds. It has a better
protein content than some of the other grains you mentioned. Some say
one shouldn't feed more than 7 % of total diet as barley. It has
something that chickens don't produce the enzyme to fully digest.
However, my chickens also get kefir regularly, which gives them what
they need to fully use/digest the barley. And they are very healthy.
They are still getting pellets as well - but the barley is probably over
50% of their diet. Wheat is almost impossible to get non-GMO. I
wouldn't use it. I do occasionally use oats. Sara



__._,_.___
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2)
To post a message to the list go to
CHICKENS-101@yahoogroups.com
.

__,_._,___

No comments:

Post a Comment