BOSS question...

[Lil Chickie Mama]

Too bad the dog salon down the street that advertises hot oil treatments don't do goats.

HAHA I'd almost try this to see if they would! Then again a goat (prey animal) in a room full of dogs would probably be too stressed out... Wonder if you could just go to the beauty supply store and get some hot oil treatment and bring it home...or if that's a bad idea too, I wouldn't know.

 

[the simple life]

That would be funny to walk into a dog shop and try to pass a goat off as a dog. A very, very rare breed, in fact that is why they have never seen one like it.
I could act all insulted when they question me about it.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Also...to Mini-M...duly noted on the solid black vs. striped varieties. I'll be sure to double check.

The gray strip sunflower seed would be GSSS, not BOSS. It's a different type of seed, so if you buy black oil you're golden.

 

[cmjust0]

Here's a dumb question....anybody ever try to plant BOSS in the garden?

My wife usually grows a big patch of sunflowers, mostly for the heck of it, but she also cuts them down to bring the goats as a treat..

They whole sunflower stalks..

I know it wouldn't be economical to try to actually produce BOSS for yourself since it's so cheap to buy, but if we're gonna grow some mostly for the goats anyway...and if we already have the BOSS...reckon it might work just to plant some of the BOSS and bring those in to the goats?

Part of me doubts the germination rate would be very high, but then again, I've seen some pretty weird stuff come up in the soil around birdfeeders..

 

[ksalvagno]

Certainly couldn't hurt to try. If you are going to plant them anyway, may as well be ones that are really good for the goats. We were thinking about it but will have to see if we have any room left once all the veggies are planted. Our first year for planting a larger garden with several vegetables.

 

[freemotion]

simple life, could it be that your supply of BOSS got a little mildew on it, which you wouldn't see because BOSS is black? I had that happen to me once.

I decided to grow some a couple of years ago. I figured they are cool looking and fun, and I could hang the heads from the rafters to dry if I didn't feel like rubbing all those seeds out.

I planted 50 or 60 and they sprouted very quickly. I got the seeds in packets, though. But I've sprouted BOSS from the birdseed bag in the past, and it sprouts quite readily.

The squirrels ate almost all my seedlings. One survived and grew a gigantic flower, the biggest I've ever seen. This plant was more like a tree!

I excitedly cut it down in the fall and set it in the garage to dry, out of the fall rains. I checked it daily, just in case the mice or squirrels were to find it.

One day, I saw some seeds on the floor near it, and turned it over to find that a mouse had worked on one corner. Yet the missing seeds were nearby and intact.

So I opened a seed. Empty. Opened another. Empty. The entire seed head contained huge, empty shells!

Biology 101: Flowers need to be fertilized by another flower in order to make seeds.....

 

[cmjust0]

Biology 101: Flowers need to be fertilized by another flower in order to make seeds.....

Very true!

We don't get much 'predation' of seedlings or plants the garden.. Coons eat the corn ears sometimes, but we don't get much in the way of deer or squirrels or rabbits or whatever messing around with the actual foliage...

The birds do work on the sunflowers, though. If we plant BOSS, we might do the paperbag thing to keep the birds off.

My wife grows really interesting sunflowers every year.. Red and other multicolored ones, giant ones, varieties with HUGE flower heads.. We had sunflowers last year that were easily 12'+ in height and had stalks that were 4-5" in diameter at the ground..

Our goats love it when you cut off a flowerhead before the seeds harden, break it into pieces, and hand feed them.. Greedy little om nom noms, the lot of'em.

 

[lupinfarm]

My chickens sprouted some BOSS seeds by accident last summer LOL. My little EE's were terrified of the BOSS and wouldn't eat it and I couldn't just pick it al out of the bedding so I left it, and the last week they were in the little coop I just left the bedding so I could take it out after and the boss started to sprout! And of course, that is when the chickies decided to start eating it LOL. It sprouted in pure chicken manure!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Here's a dumb question....anybody ever try to plant BOSS in the garden?

The wild birds have planted plenty BOSS in the flowerbeds for me. The seeds that fall from the feeder sprout really well. We moved last year, and I threw my bird feeders in the bed of the truck. Seed spilled everywhere. Didn't think anything of it, and later loaded the truck with mulch. Let me tell ya, I ended up planting quite a bit of seed in the mulch. Here's a picture of one section of it.

 

[cmjust0]

WOW!