Ever wonder how you can get your chickens access to fresh, healthy green matter in the dead of winter when everything is dormant, frozen or snow covered without the added expense of buying it from the grocery store in the produce aisle?

Sprouting is a wonderful and nutritious way to get a lot with just a little and it goes a long way too.  One of my favorites and the easiest things to sprout is wheat.  In about 5-7 days you’ll have fresh greens they will love!  1 quart jar gives plenty of fresh greens to my 12 chickens and 1 ducks for 1 day.

Here’s how:

~Start with a large mason jar with ring, fill bottom with about a half inch of raw wheat, fill the rest of the jar with cold water.  Put cheese cloth over the opening of the jar and secure with ring.  Let sit in a cool dark place, in a kitchen cabinet works well, or like me, I leave mine behind our coffee pot on the counter, be sure to keep it out of direct sunlight.

~After 24 hours drain water, rinse, drain again and let sit.  Rinse and drain every 12 hours after that. This step is very important! Without at least 2 rinses in a 24 hour period, mold will start to grow and you do not want that!!

~On the second day you will start to notice tiny little white fibers emerging from the wheat.  These are roots and they grow quick!

Wheat Sprouts after 2 days.

~On the fourth day, the roots will be much longer and the “grass” will start to emerge.

Wheat sprouts day 4

~Day 6 your wheat sprouts will now have grown into wheat grass, full of nutrients!

Many other seeds can be sprouted as well as legumes.  I have found that black beans do not sprout well, but still have plenty of nutritional benefits.

Wheat grass day 6