Planting oats, wheat, barley in planting pots

[Urbansage_gardener]

Hi hg world

I live in Los Angeles and maybe next year or before the year is over I would like to plant oats, wheat, and other grains for our chickens and ourselves but I would like to plant them in pots I've seen some videos on YouTube but I would to know from different gardeners about there grain growing experiences and tips I need to knw and also if there can be an effective way of separating the wax from the oat will be awesome...

[rainbowgardener]

I thought at first "wax" was a typo, because I never heard of it. But I looked it up: epicuticular wax - a waxy layer on the surface of the cuticle in plants, also the thin, waxy outer layer of the insect exoskeleton.

But I can't imagine that anyone actually separates that. You do separate chaff from seed.

[applestar]

I don't know if this is related to what you are asking, but you could grow variety/type of oats called "hull-less oats" the grain can be squeezed out or beaten out in a pillowcase with a rolling pin on carpeted floor.

[digitS']

It's a tough row to hoe ... even if there is no hoe and it's pots in the row.

Mostly, it's the practicality of growing for chickens. Even light laying breeds eat .25# daily. Let's say you could expect 6,000# per acre. One laying hen eating 100#/year - the acre is only supporting 60 hens. The grain crops would have to be diverse to cover deficiencies of diet. An acre is 43,560 square feet. That is 40 times what most people would consider a large garden. In support of 60 hens ...

On a primitive scale, my only experience was with "hull-less" oats. Before I could even begin to prepare it for my table, I had to beat it with a board and toss it repeatedly in the air with a flat basket.

Wheat was much easier.

Barley. I'd be tempted to sprout, roast, and make into beer ...

Steve

[Urbansage_gardener]

Thanks everyone

To Steve
I will be starting small just to see if I would continue to grow it we are growing enough food for them to eat but you kind of sacred me a little lol with the amount of pounds they consume in oats making me second guess myself lol.

To applestar
Thanks for the different type of oats that would be easier to spar ate I will look into it

[sweetiepie]

I feed mostly wheat with some flax as needed. My 40 laying hens last winter went through 1000 lbs of wheat easy. That was just winter. I also incubate my own eggs and raise 150 butcher chickens in the summer. For a whole year I require 3000 lbs of wheat. I don't know how many chickens you have. But I can't imagine growing enough in pots. But then I am surrounded by fields and it just seems so much easier to just throw it in the ground. You will want to make sure your pots stay out of the wind or it will tip over easy in pots, I would think.

[Urbansage_gardener]

I have two now but next week I have two more baby chickens so four in total.

[jal_ut]

AS digitS' says, it takes a lot of space to make a bucketful of grain. You are not going to get much from a pot, or even a dozen pots.

Barley is for feeding cows and pigs, oats is for feeding horses. Wheat is for man. Here locally I can buy wheat either in buckets or bags from a couple of different sources. I have a wheat mill and grind the wheat for whole wheat flour for bread and pancakes. Look around for a source for some wheat. Farmers, farm co-op, wholesale distributors? Buy a bag.
Enjoy!