FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

Pics
Date sort Score sort
kpgoldstar said:
Mine exploded when I first started too. Some feeds will expand more than others and it probably also has something to do with environmental conditions. Glad your birds are liking it so well already. Mine have been on it since 2 weeks old, they are just over a year now and do not have any access to dry.
Click to expand...


I won't be feeding out the dry once this initial fermentation is finished and never intended to give the mash but I was out of storage options and wasn't going to let it go to waste. It's good to know I'm not alone in creating feed explosions! Lol
 
RoseMarie1 said:
Speaking of ff.....I had put me a order in for some heritage Rhode Island reds and he told me his girls wasn't laying much since it was soooo hot here and it might take a month to get the 10 chicks I wanted. So I told him OK so the day he called I was like oh dear I NEED to get some ff starter going for these chicks and mega fast since we were going after them the next evening. I already had some layer ff so I said I know what I will do, I'll get about 1/2 cup or so of that and get it started with. I knew that SMALL amount wouldn't hurt the baby chicks since I was doing at least 1/2 five gallon bucket for em. So I have had them for about 2 weeks now. They're growing like weeds to. LOVE the ff. A few of them were already a month old and used to dry crumbles and I was like HOW am I going to get them to eat the FF? So I put like a tea. of it on the floor of the pen and they started gobbling it up. Kept doing that for a little bit that day and then put it into their bowl and they've been gobbling it up ever since.
gig.gif
Click to expand...
Hey RoseMarie, good to see you. I did the very same with my chick starter. Waited too long so took a bit of layer ff and added it. It's so great isn't it?
yippiechickie.gif
 
islandgirl82 said:
Last night I began my first attempt at fermentation. I woke this morning to find the feed had expanded so much it exploded all over my kitchen floor, including covering my newfoundland (who didn't seem to even notice). I had no idea it would expand SO much! I fed some to the flock, which they ate quite happily, to make more room in the bucket and scooped some into additional containers. I placed all containers/bucket outside in the sun while I cleaned up the mess and left it out for the day. I'm very pleased to see it's already bubbling and it's not even been 24 hours.

In hindsight, as amusing as the morning's mishap was, I should have tried this with a much smaller batch but I'm also kicking myself for not have done this much MUCH sooner. I've had chickens for several years and only started reading about FF recently. The difference in volume alone is worth it and I'm eager to see the other benefits in time.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is amusing.
gig.gif
But I think that a lot of us have been there, done that. I fix mine in a 5 gallon bucket and go about 3/4 full. Next morning, it's almost to the top. I have overflowed a time or two Look at it this way, now you have a lot to feed out. I make big and it fed my 37 birds for 3 days. THEN I sold or gave away 27 and still have a good portion of my bucket after almost a week. Great.
 
LindaB220 said:
Yes, it is amusing.
gig.gif
But I think that a lot of us have been there, done that. I fix mine in a 5 gallon bucket and go about 3/4 full. Next morning, it's almost to the top. I have overflowed a time or two Look at it this way, now you have a lot to feed out. I make big and it fed my 37 birds for 3 days. THEN I sold or gave away 27 and still have a good portion of my bucket after almost a week. Great.
Click to expand...

I also made mine in a 5 gal. bucket and only have 7 birds. I've been feeding it out since I started the fermentation process a few days ago and they're loving it even more the longer it sits. I'm excited to see how long this bucket will last. It doesn't look like I've even made a dent and I've been feeding it out twice a day.
 
So, I've been feeding the FF for about a week now. I left the feeder of dry food in their coop for them to free feed until it was gone and they haven't touched it since I started feeding the fermented. They also haven't been laying. At all. I have one 3 1/2 yr old hen who is molting so no surprise there but everyone else had been laying faithfully until I made the switch (one 4 year old hen who has still been giving me 4-5 eggs each week and three 7 month old pullets one of which will lay for 9-10 days straight before having a day off). They're all still carrying on as they normally do, just not laying. I didn't think much of it the first couple of days because it had been rather cold so I expected a reduction but not such a drastic one from my pullets. The last several days have been quite warm, especially for mid-October in Maine and yesterday I did get one egg from one of the pullets. I do keep them in their run until about noon; after my Hamburg has laid so she's not hiding her eggs. Everyone else returns to the coop to lay even after they've been let out to free range until they put themselves to bed each evening. With the foliage dying off now, it's very easy to see that there aren't any hidden nests anywhere either.

Maybe this has been asked before but with 527 pages to weed through in this thread, I'll have to apologize for asking again. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there an adjustment period for them to get back on track or should I just be chalking it up to seasonal changes and the feed change/egg decrease is just a coincidence?
 

Similar threads

Bkaye
    • Like
Avian diseases and fermented feed
Replies
9
Views
2K
Bkaye
Bkaye
H
    • Like
Fermented food?
2
Replies
10
Views
2K
Chickengirl209
C
J
    • Like
Fermenting feed mixture
2
Replies
14
Views
2K
SirSquirrelNutz
S
TexasBlues
Fermenting feed basics
Replies
9
Views
2K
Cwilke
C
C
Recurring Diarrhea in 3 out of 8 hens
2
Replies
11
Views
969
Cmonk66007
C

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom