Germinating Bird Seed for the chooks

"Chooks", that's what they call chickens in Britain. I have some too, very young ones, only two weeks old. Exactly four Plymouth Rock females, four Red Star females from MyPetChicken.com and ten Buff Orpingtons of unknown gender incubated by me, so eighteen chooks all together.

Usually when I have young chickens I carry them by hand into the outdoor play area in the morning and then back again, by hand, into their brooder at night. But recently my work schedule changed where I have to leave early in the morning and come back home late at night. I did not want to deprive the chooks of needed vitamins and entertainment, so I came up with a plan that I would grow greenery for them in a container. The plan worked very well. I got a six-pound bag of bird seed from Tractor Supply for about five dollars, so it's less than a dollar a pound, and seeded it liberally in a container. The germination of it was exceptional, very thick and lush greenery as a result. Chooks loved it!

The good thing about the bird seed is that it contains a few different types of grain: wheat, milo, millet and even sunflowers. There are other ingredients as well, but I threw away the package so cannot recall exactly. Some people like to juice germinated wheat, and that's a good healthy thing. The point is that you can get your grains for germination pretty cheap; bird seed is sold practically in every pet department at WalMart or your grocery store. And you can even grow this bird seed for the future seed if you let a few plants mature and go to seed. Way to go, I am pretty pleased with that project.