FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Sally_O]

Wow, thanks, Beekissed! Just exactly what I needed to at least get started.

 

[Beekissed]

And to you all.....my wish for your holiday season and for the coming year! Stay safe and warm, give love in abundance and may it be returned to you, shaken and pressed down, overflowing!

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.”’ Numbers 6:24-26

 

[niqueie]

Merry Christmas to all! Thank you for your help and guidance with my wonderful chicken adventure. I'm so grateful for you and your caring attitudes. I hope the Prince of Peace fills your hearts with joy and love.

 

[Beekissed]

Merry Christmas to all! Thank you for your help and guidance with my wonderful chicken adventure. I'm so grateful for you and your caring attitudes. I hope the Prince of Peace fills your hearts with joy and love.

And to you as well!

I've had so much fun on these threads...it's like a gift to me!

 

[Tikkijane]

The only things I would add to Bee's fabulous info is that since your feed will double in size, as you feed, scrape down the sides. If you don't, you can get some mold.

I have also found using hot water when it's cold to be helpful.

I use a vinyl gutter for my trough. We got something like a 10ft length from Lowe's for around $6. I have 4 pieces, but since we moved coops, I'm only using 3.

Becaus I'm in the south, we don't have a hard freeze and I do put their trough inside at night in the event it gets cold and they need to eat.

One of my bigger issue has been keeping the dogs out of it, lol.

 

[trinoc]

We just purchased a house that came w/ 13 chickens and a rooster. I'm really enjoying getting to know my new flock and learning how to keep them happy, healthy, and productive. We live a natural life in our home so my plan is to carry that philosophy into my chicken keeping, as well. I'm super interested in feeding fermented food. A couple of questions I have....If I put the FF into a trough (love the gutter idea) do I just leave it there until it's gone or do I clean it out after a few hours? How do I know how much to put in? (right now they have a feeder that they just eat from whenever they want and I have no idea how much that is per day) Do you feed FF every day or a few times a week? They have a very large chicken yard (probably 100x100) for days that I work. For days that I'm home they free range so they get a lot of forage opportunity.

Thanks for any advice/help/answers!

 

[Tikkijane]

We just purchased a house that came w/ 13 chickens and a rooster. I'm really enjoying getting to know my new flock and learning how to keep them happy, healthy, and productive.  We live a natural life in our home so my plan is to carry that philosophy into my chicken keeping, as well.  I'm super interested in feeding fermented food.  A couple of questions I have....If I put the FF into a trough (love the gutter idea) do I just leave it there until it's gone or do I clean it out after a few hours?  How do I know how much to put in?  (right now they have a feeder that they just eat from whenever they want and I have no idea how much that is per day)  Do you feed FF every day or a few times a week?  They have a very large chicken yard (probably 100x100) for days that I work.  For days that I'm home they free range so they get a lot of forage opportunity.


Thanks for any advice/help/answers!

That is very cool! I feed FF every single time. I scoop out a big bowl in the morning and again in the evening. Today I gave an extra bowl because the cold front blew in and they needed it. I did leave feeders of both regular food and scratch out there overnight in addition to what was left in their feeders. When it's not cold at night, they only have what's left of their FF overnight.

I have no issues with them not gobbling it down. I started with a smaller amount to see how fast they would go through it.

My one silkie girl that had an entire bald back of the head has regrown nearly everything. I think I'm two weeks in. (Or us it 3??) Either way, I'm sold.

 

[azygous]

So far, my FF has been going well, no mold, and the chickens love it. But I have one question. After the first two days of a new batch, the fermented fluffiness is replaced by a developing wateriness. It gets soupier over time unless I add some more dry crumbles to the mash. I find I need to keep adding more crumbles in order to maintain that fluffy consistency. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong here?

 

[Beekissed]

We just purchased a house that came w/ 13 chickens and a rooster. I'm really enjoying getting to know my new flock and learning how to keep them happy, healthy, and productive. We live a natural life in our home so my plan is to carry that philosophy into my chicken keeping, as well. I'm super interested in feeding fermented food. A couple of questions I have....If I put the FF into a trough (love the gutter idea) do I just leave it there until it's gone or do I clean it out after a few hours? How do I know how much to put in? (right now they have a feeder that they just eat from whenever they want and I have no idea how much that is per day) Do you feed FF every day or a few times a week? They have a very large chicken yard (probably 100x100) for days that I work. For days that I'm home they free range so they get a lot of forage opportunity.

Thanks for any advice/help/answers!

1. You can leave it there until it's gone. If you are in a colder climate and worry about it freezing, only dish out what they can clean up before it freezes....if I check on mine in the afternoon and they haven't cleaned up that morning's breakfast completely, they get less the next day until that plate is cleaned up completely...and I mean completely...within a reasonable amount of time.

For meat birds I say, whatever they can mostly clean up in a half hour to an hour's time. For a laying flock, I let them have an hour to clean up most of it and then have a light snack later on, but mostly I can go up to the coop that evening and find it's been picked clean as a whistle. Apparently it doesn't stay long enough to freeze before they could eat it.

2. You'll have to play with it a bit. At first they will eat quite a bit and can't seem to get enough. Then, it seems they have satisfied the nutrient cravings their body had been deficient upon and they level out to a constant amount each day that is more reasonable. For 13 mature, large breed roosters I've been feeding 6-8 cups per day. For my layer flock of mature, large breed birds of 10 birds I've been feeding 4-5 cups. That amount will vary a little month to month and then when the seasons change it will vary greatly as they start having good forage once again. This summer I was feeding 14 birds on 1 and 1/2 cups per day in premium forage times.

3. I feed FF only and each day as their daily ration.

That is very cool! I feed FF every single time. I scoop out a big bowl in the morning and again in the evening. Today I gave an extra bowl because the cold front blew in and they needed it. I did leave feeders of both regular food and scratch out there overnight in addition to what was left in their feeders. When it's not cold at night, they only have what's left of their FF overnight.

I have no issues with them not gobbling it down. I started with a smaller amount to see how fast they would go through it.

My one silkie girl that had an entire bald back of the head has regrown nearly everything. I think I'm two weeks in. (Or us it 3??) Either way, I'm sold.

That is wonderful news! Good feedback...we love to hear success stories on this FF.

So far, my FF has been going well, no mold, and the chickens love it. But I have one question. After the first two days of a new batch, the fermented fluffiness is replaced by a developing wateriness. It gets soupier over time unless I add some more dry crumbles to the mash. I find I need to keep adding more crumbles in order to maintain that fluffy consistency. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong here?

It's normal and I'll tell you what is happening. When it first swells up, what you cannot see is there is a pocket of fluid between two layers of feed grains and it will separate off like that the first few days...and I can't really tell you why, but can only guess(could be some feed particles absorb water and ferment more quickly and so sink to the bottom, while others take longer and are buoyed up by the water until that process is complete). As you stir it each day, absorption becomes more complete, and fermentation deepens, the grains seem to settle down, having reached their full saturation level, and the fluid that was trapped in between is then at the top with all the grains lying together once again.

If I were you I'd add a little less water next time and see what happens. If still too soupy, a little less the time after that, etc. Soon you'll learn approximately how much water your type of feed will absorb and it will start to be a better mix. If you just add dry to a soupy mix, you'll never really learn your proper ratio of feed to water, so you will always be compensating. Try to learn, or "know", your feed/water ratio so you don't have to put so much guess work into it...it will just come automatic after that, and you dump in X amount of feed and X amount of water, stir and know the next day it will be what it is supposed to be.

I've found my type of feed takes almost equal parts feed to water, once all is absorbed, to yield the thickness and texture I want. That changes a little according to if I change up my feed formula by adding whole grains to it and it also depends on what whole grains I add, as some take on more water than do others...but that change is very little.

 

[kpgoldstar]

So far, my FF has been going well, no mold, and the chickens love it. But I have one question. After the first two days of a new batch, the fermented fluffiness is replaced by a developing wateriness. It gets soupier over time unless I add some more dry crumbles to the mash. I find I need to keep adding more crumbles in order to maintain that fluffy consistency. Is this normal? Am I doing something wrong here?

Mine also gets watery as I get closer to the bottom of the batch. I take that as nicely fermented liquid that I then use to start my new batch. Also, when I feed out I use a fine mesh strainer so I am feeding a mortar consisency and all the excess liquid remains in the bucket. I don't think you're doing anything wrong.