How To Grow Black Oil Sunflower Seeds for Chickens and Livestock
Would you like your farm to be more self-sufficient? Keep reading to learn how to grow black oil sunflower seeds for your chickens and other livestock!
Black oil sunflower seeds (sometimes abbreviated as “BOSS”) are different from other types of sunflowers. Most often grown for oil or birdseed, they are higher in healthy fats, more nutrient-dense, and have a thinner shell that is easier for poultry to crack and livestock to digest. Although chickens can have any kind of sunflower seeds, other livestock should only be fed the black oil type.
How to Grow Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
1: Start with non-GMO black oil sunflowers, which have a thinner shell that is easier for livestock to digest
2: Plant black sunflower seeds about 4″ apart, in rows 18″-24″ apart, after danger of frost
3: Apply a layer of mulch around the base of the plants to eliminate weeds and keep the moisture in
4: Once the heads have flowered, start checking them every day to make sure wild birds don’t beat you to them. Let the heads dry on the plant as long as possible.
5: When the heads are mostly dry, cut them off the plant and bring indoors to finish drying
6: Use black sunflower seeds for livestock feed or make your own sunflower oil
Growing Black Oil Sunflower Seeds for Chickens
Black oil sunflower seeds are a great addition to your poultry’s diet, adding protein and making their feathers shinier and more water-resistant. Black oil sunflower seeds for chickens will increase egg production in hens, and promote weight gain in meat birds. Growing black oil sunflower seeds for chickens also increases the nutrients in the eggs and meat.
Feeding Black Oil Sunflower Seeds to Dairy Animals
Black oil sunflower seeds make a great substitution or supplement to grain for milk cows and milk goats.
For my heritage milk cow, I fed a combination of black oil sunflower seeds and flax seed, with nettle leaf and other herbs to promote milk production. She was given a few cups a day of this mixture, along with grass in the summer and grass/alfalfa hay in the winter. She was never given grain. On this diet she produced about 6 gallons of milk a day, quite a bit for a heritage breed.
Besides aiding milk production, the black oil sunflower seeds gave my cow a beautiful glossy coat, and helped her maintain a healthy weight while producing all that milk.
Feeding Black Oil Sunflower Seeds to Horses
Black oil sunflower seeds can help hard keepers maintain their weight. Beside adding nutrients to your horse’s diet, they promote a shiny coat and mane and tail growth. For an easy keeper (a horse that gains weight easily) I feed 1/4-1/2 cup per day in the winter only. For average to harder keepers I feed 1/4-1/2 cup in the summer, and 1/2-1 cup in the winter. I don’t exceed 1 cup per day for horses.
Horses should not be given other types of sunflower seeds, as the hard hull is difficult for them to digest. Black oil sunflower seeds have a thinner, softer hull than other types of sunflower seeds.
Interested in Making Your Own Sunflower Oil?
Black oil sunflower seeds can be pressed or boiled to extract sunflower oil!
How to Grow Black Oil Sunflowers
Wondering how to grow black oil sunflower seeds in your garden? I plant my black oil sunflowers about 4″ apart, in rows 18″-24″ apart, after danger of frost. I like to put a thick layer of unsprayed hay around them to keep in moisture and keep out weeds. Growing them close together means they stay a little shorter, so I do not stake mine or give them any special care.
Harvesting might be the most challenging part of learning how to grow black oil sunflower seeds! Once the heads have flowered, start checking them every day to make sure wild birds don’t beat you to them. Let the heads dry on the plant as long as possible. If you have problems with the birds getting to them before they are ripe, they can be covered in cheesecloth or fine netting.
When mine are mostly dried out, I cut them off and bring them inside to finish drying in a well ventilated place. A fan is helpful to dry them faster. Be sure to harvest on a dry day as wet sunflower heads can mold.
Chickens can be fed a whole sunflower head, and will enjoy pecking out the seeds.
Note: if you are saving seeds to plant for next year, be aware that black oil sunflowers are insect pollinated and can cross with other types of sunflowers growing up to half a mile or more away.
Where to Find Black Oil Sunflower Seeds
You can find black oil sunflower seeds in the birdseed section in feed stores. Most sources agree that black oil sunflower seeds are not genetically modified at this point in time.
You can buy organic black oil sunflower seeds in bulk from Azure Standard, which has the best pricing I have found. They are a natural food co-op that delivers across the US, and are also where we get most of the food we don’t grow ourselves! They offer 1lb, 5lb and 25lb bags.
You can also buy black sunflower seeds intended for microgreen growing from Amazon. An 8oz package will have thousands of seeds to get you started growing your own!
So far I haven’t found any seed companies offering black oil seeds; if you find one please let me know!
-Kait
15 Comments
Shari
Thanks for the information! My chickens and rabbit love black oil sunflower seeds, so I decided to plant some this past summer. What I wasn’t thinking about is that the deer, squirrels, chipmunks, and birds that share these hills with us love them too! I wasn’t even able to get them to germinate before they were dug up and devoured! We have tons of chipmunks, so I will definitely be figuring out how to cover the seed beds. I can’t afford to wait for flowering to cover them. If you have any tips for protecting the seeds, I would be interested.
admin
Hi, Shari! Yes, covering the seed beds until your sunflowers are up and growing well is probably your best bet. You could use some kind of fine mesh and place it diectly on the ground, or make a frame out of 2×4’s (or use old tires or something you have laying around!) to hold netting or chicken wire higher off the ground. Starting the seeds indoors is another option. Good luck!
Crystal
What brand or breed of cow is a heritage cow???????
Kait
A heritage cow is an older breed, such as Jersey, Brown Swiss or Guernsey to name a few. For various reasons, heritage livestock breeds often do better on small farms and homesteads than the modern commercial breeds. Heritage breed cows actually have a different kind of milk protein that some people tolerate better than the protein in modern cow’s milk.
Bob
Can I plant black sunflower seeds that are meant to be fed to animals?
Kait
Yes, you can!
John
Black oil sunflower seed at green cover seed dot com Great farm seed supply
Lindsay
Thank you for the info! I just picked up some black oil sunflower seeds at True Leaf Market. They sell them for growing microgreens, but I also plan to use them for growing them to maturity.
Irene
Hosstools.com carry Black Oil Sunflower seeds
Megan Burger
Where do you get the nettle leaf, flax seed? What herbs do you feed? What ratios is used for your dairy cow?
Kait
I get nettle leaf and flax seed from Azure Standard. They deliver to most of the US for free, you just have to be available to meet their trucker at the designated time and place for your city. You can also find bulk flax seed in the bird food section, and nettle is available at most herb stores, such as Mountain Rose Herbs.
This is the recipe my dairy cow ration was based on: https://gardenofglory.blogspot.com/2010/03/healthy-dairy-cow-ration.html. I omitted the grain and also omitted the watermelon seed just because it is hard to find. So the base was half flax seeds and half sunflower seeds along with the supplements and herbs listed in the original recipe. Fed with grass/alfalfa mix I got really good dairy production with this mix. I believe I was feeding 1lb at each milking with molasses on top, but the amount needed will vary with each cow, just like with grain. Right now I am milking goats and have found that I need to add some whole oats to the mix to get good production from Nubians.
Hope that helps!
Kait
The number one herb I feed for dairy animals is raspberry leaf, which can be found at Azure Standard or herb stores. Now I harvest it from my raspberry patch. Second would be nettle (also great for milk production!). Beyond that I feed herbs that are in season on my property or supplement with dried herbs for specific health concerns.
Bill
I’ve been allowing my chickens to free range the neighborhood for the past 2 years. This past week has been hell. A neighbor lost a duck and I’ve lost 3 chickens to predators. My son and I have clipped their feathers but they are still able to fly out of the run. The chicken run is 14’x30′ and the fence is 4′ high a combination of pallets lined with chicken wire and chain link. I just purchased poultry netting and considering covering the run to keep them in. I’ve added PVC tubing to raise the netting to about 8′ high. After reading the article on growing BOSS I’m considering growing the BOSS in the run and not have to worry about the wild birds or squirrels. My concern is keeping the chickens away from the area from scratching the seeds up or eating the young plants.
Any thoughts on keeping the chickens out of where the seeds are sown.
Kait
Predators can be a constant challenge for chicken keepers. We regularly loose birds to raccoons, foxes, skunks and hawks. Last year we planted a variety of plants inside the chicken run for our flock. We actually fenced off 3/4 of the run and let them free range while the crops were growing. If your run is large enough, you could temporarily fence off a section at a time to get some things growing!
Max Becher
Johnny’s Seeds sells black oil sunflower seeds.