Wheatgrass for Bunnies, Chickens... and People
Back when we only had four spoiled chickens, we would buy flats of wheatgrass from a local health food store so that our ladies would have fresh greens in the winter. Here’s the logic: Feed the wheatgrass directly to the chickens, who would pile that extra nutrient load into their eggs, which we would then enjoy, bypassing the need to juice and consumer the wheatgrass ourselves directly.
Thing is, flats of wheatgrass from the health food store are not much cheaper than buying shots of the juice directly, and who knows where that grass came from?
These days, I sprout the grass myself using supplies from Sprout People. It’s pretty cost-effective, and now are bunnies get to help themselves to to the grass bar, mowing it down a bit before we pass it off to the chickens.
Here’s what you need:
Three plastic seed trays, all of the same size. One should have holes for drainage, and the other two should be holeless. Sprout People can hook you up here, or just pick them up from your local garden center.
Wheat seeds. A five-pound bag gets us through from late autumn to early spring. I’ve tried oat, alfalfa, etc., but wheat has consistently been the most successful.
1-quart canning jar with a mesh screen. Most of us can get our hands on a canning jar and ring (the circular bit that holds the round lid down). For the mesh, you can cut out a piece from an old screen, or buy the ring/screen combo here.
Growing medium. I like coir bricks, because they are affordable, and you can hydrate one in a bucket and have a bunch on hand at a time. They’re easy to find at a garden center, or here. You’ll also need to mix some fertilizer in there. Liquid kelp is the most versatile, and you can use it on your houseplants, too!
Here’s what you do.
Fill your glass canning jar up to the 8-ounce line with wheatgrass seeds. Cover the seeds with water and let soak overnight.
Next morning, with the mesh screen in place, drain the water from the containter. Fill with water again, swirl and drain. Do this three or four times. Drain the water compeltely and leave the jar out of direct sunlight. Repeat AM and PM until you see about 1/4 inch of sprout coming out of most seeds. This can take 2-to-3 days. If you miss a rinsing session, you’ll be fine.
Place the seed tray with holes into a tray without holes and put about a half an inch of fertilized growing medium evenly in the tray with holes. Do not compress. Spread sprouted seeds evenly on top of the medium, then cover the whole thing with the third tray, upside down.
Water daily, but leave these little sprouts in darkness until the grass is about two inches tall, or is pushing the top tray up. At that point, usually another 2-to-3 days, remove the lid and expose to light. The grass will green in less than a day. You can clip it like a tiny lawn and feed the clippings to your pets (or yourself), or just offer the whole tray to your chickens. They’ll gobble it up right down to the seed hulls still in the growing medium.
I’ve never failed to have something to give to my hens out of this process. Even if I forget to transfer the sprouts to a growing medium, and they grow into a big tangled mess in the jar, the chickens will still devour the sprouts. Happy chickens, yummy, healthy eggs.