Growing Sprouts For Your Chickens

Growing sprouts for chickens is a super easy way to add lots of fresh greens to your flock's diet. If your chickens don't free range, or if you have a dry season like we do in California and they just aren't getting enough greens, it's important to supplement them. Chickens need greens. They naturally want to graze on grasses for hours every day. When they get their grasses and sprouts, you'll notice their egg yolks will become richer, darker and more flavorful.

Luckily, sprouts are super easy to grow. Especially this mixture from Barenburg on Amazon. It germinates very quickly and includes an excellent variety of super healthy grasses and clovers. Plus, it's non-GMO! Within a week of seeding it's ready to feed. All you need is some nice potting soil and something to grow them in. I like these plastic trays that are wide and flat so everyone can graze together. I can reuse them many times over.

To start, all you need to do is fill your trays about halfway with potting soil. Sprinkle the seeds (the thicker the sprinkle the more sprouts) all across the tray. Then, just sprinkle a thin layer of potting soil over the seed layer. Water them daily, and keep them moist but not saturated. Partial to full sun works great. You'll see them begin to sprout within a day or two. Wait until they're around an inch to an inch and a half tall, which takes about a week. Then, let the grazing begin!