FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Clucksandgiggle]

Quote:
Well....I've been throwing out the good stuff also! Something that smells like vomit (very accurate description) just goes against what you would think to be good to feed to animals. Buy hey, if chickens will benefit from vomit smelling mush, I'm all for feeding it to them! I'm a little ticked that I've been throwing it away all this time when it was just getting good! Well, it's definitely always a learning experience!!

Thanks Bee!! You, as always, are a blessed fount of information for us to learn from!

 

[deedles]

Great video, Bee. Thanks much. I'm going to be doing the deep litter and I also like how she emphasizes ventilation as key.

 

[Sidhe13]

Hey guys. I am going away for a couple weeks and have scrapped out my buckets. The chooks will be on plain old boring pellets while I am away. The scrappings have yielded an ice cream container of FF that I will use to restart the buckets when I get back.

What is the best way to store this?

 

[Beekissed]

In the fridge...will keep nicely until you take it out and warm it up again.

 

[Sidhe13]

@Beekissed Terrific! Thanks!

 

[Skink]

I've been feeding fermented since April, and at that time I got a variety of new chicks. I love it, and they love it too (provided I don't make it too watery, they hardly pick at it if it gets in to slorpey territory) but I've got a bit of an issue I don't know how to tackle! I've got a Silkie and a Polish. As they've grown, they get absolutely filthy when they eat... the polish's crest is all gunky, very difficult to clean as it won't come free with just water, and the silkie's face is dabbed with rough spots of fermented feed. It can't be healthy for them to have acidic bacteria cultures smashed on their faces 24/7. Anyone out there have either of these breeds on fermented and have a solution?

They are both part of my house chicken flock (4 members strong now) so giving them a feeder only they can access is possible. I've thought about restricting their feed access ports to an even smaller size, but if they can't get their faces in they're going to get hardly anything of worth. I wish gravity feeding with this stuff was possible... didn't succeed with that in a jar feeder, at least.

 

[enola]

The thicker the FF the better. Try putting less water in the feed.

 

[Skink]

The thicker the FF the better. Try putting less water in the feed.

I currently try to put only enough water to wet all the feed and keep it from being too heavy to stir all the way from the bottom. I'll try wetting it a bit less if I can, or maybe I can take their serving and squeeze it drier with cheese cloth. I'm eager to learn, why is thicker better? I know through trial and error that they prefer the taste, but I'd be happy to know the real reason for it. I've tried parsing this whole thread to take notes but it is a bit of a project at 600+ pages!

 

[aart]

Quote: Because it makes a mess of their faces?

Quote:

 

[Skink]

Scratch and Peck is a dusty food, it's whole grain and contains mineral mix and fish meal. Any amount of moisture is going to make it gunky, so if feeding it drier just to avoid gunk forming is all that's done, that would amount to not feeding it fermented. Feeding it dry encourages them picking out just what they want and leaving the other important ingredients behind, so that is not an option. I thought they had an actual reason for saying thicker is better, no need to talk to me like I'm simple.

Anyone have any actual experience with this particular problem able to tell me what you've done for yours?