can you feed barley

every animal on my yard is fed barley chop. pigs, chickens, turkeys, geese and the rabbits get some too. of course each animal is supplemented with grass and forage and a premix for the birds and scraps for pigs (well the rabbits eat grass and forage and get a little barley sometimes).
i am no expert all i know is everyone is happy and healthy, no ill effects, good butcher weights etc etc. i feed other grains as they come but barley is everyday.

I will be another odd man out. I feed what ever I happen to have but try to have a good choice for the birds. They are on full free range and are fed 50% barley 40% oats and 10% wheat, right now because that is what I have, all rolled. I was just smart enough not to tell the chickens they are not suppose to eat it, so they just chow down on what ever I pour out, and are doing fine. I used to feed all whole grains and still do on occasion but just fixed a old roller mill and am giving that a try as it breaks off a lot of the oat hulls which the chickens leave. When I feed straigh wheat they get to fat, when I feed straigh oats they grow slower. They like the barley. I want heritage chickens that grow and taste like they did years ago, therefore I feed the same as they did in old times. A variety of feeds, free range, and no store bought special rations to optimize production. That way they grow and taste like chickens are suppose to. If it is ready to eat in 57 days I don't want it. I am in no hurry and expect my chickens to take their time and do it right.

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Very interesting, just going to cook a lovely plump chicken, raised on grower for the first four weeks and switched over to rolled barley until we butchered on Thursday. Thats all he feeds, with some kitchen scraps and a bit of green grass etc.
He only lost 3 or 4 and one was to an owl, the others where just chicks......

HigginsRAT wrote:

Schipperkesue wrote:Tara, where do you buy your rolled corn? My feed producer refuses to roll corn saying the moisture used makes it go moldy too fast.

We buy "cracked" corn (put up in poly bags, paper product is way way too dusty and poultry don't seem to eat dust!)...is this what you mean, because to "roll" the corn, they inject moisture as in STEAM and we did fine for a few seasons here in Alberta with steam rolled corn (nice stuff but) and BONK!!...suddenly nobody could do the STEAM rolled CORN properly...that is a complete waste of time...it goes mouldy right in the poly bag (hot to touch...yikes!) even before you can get it home.

Please advise, you want steam rolled or cracked corn? Can't help you with sourcing the steam ROLLED product.

Tara

Sorry, Tara. I was reading the post on the previous page where you quoted your own article about feed. In the article you mentioned using steam rolled corn. I did not read the rest of your post where you said you no longer use it due to the mold issue. I can get cracked corn and it is always dusty no matter how it is bagged. I have an idea though. I was thinking I would sieve the corn, feed the big chunks and turn the corn powder that remained into a winter mash for the chickens with hot water and maybe some other grains. It would be eaten right away by those hungry gals and no waste would occur.

If/when I use cracked corn I always soak it to "capture" all the corn dust!

Great conversation.

good idea sue.

So how do you de-hull barley or oats, Isnt that where the offending beta glucans is located??

My old neighbor feeds chop to the cattle and the chickens get it too as a supplement. He has a feed mill that he puts the oats in .
I used to feed a mixture of 3 scoops layer ration, 1 scoop good quality wheat, and i scoop cob. Plus the chickens free ranged. They were all happy, healthy, plump chickens.