FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[bbhorsefly]

Thank you, both!  It sure means a lot to know others can benefit from things we put on this forum.  We never really know where that information goes sometimes, but this FF thing has went around the world, starting right here on this simple little chicken forum.  Kinda neat when you think about it! 

I'm another you can add to your list of willing students learning from this treasure trove of information you e gathered here. I wish we lived close because Id invite you over for some banana bread. I've only gotten through about 15 pages of this thread in the last few hours and I'm dying to go ferment our feed! I think I'll grab a bucket when I do my last check on the flock for the night. Have to start NOW so it will be ready to feed sooner! I've just started my life long dream of keeping chickens. And I want to be just like you "when I grow up"! You phrase everything perfectly and I follow the same thought patterns, but second guess myself from inexperience. We just moved our family to an old 10 acre farm to realize our dream of homesteading. Thank you ALL for contributing to something that brings so much help and information to those coming behind.

 

[bbhorsefly]

So I've been feeding fermented for 3 days now. I'm happy to report that they have all come to LOVE it and eat it voraciously after an initial "uh, what is this? No thanks. We want our regularly scheduled dry feed now." But they just had to get with the program or find themselves something else to eat. More of a challenge since I can't let them free range, but they do have a run with grass and bugs. Now, they can't get enough, though I do limit it somewhat so they don't just sit by the feeder all day.
I had two chicks they had become "puny." I noticed they were standing still all puffed out and not eating much. I picked them up and they were thin, and their crops were empty, even though all the other chick's were full. So I dropper fed them the fermented for the first two days. Now they are as enthusiastic as the others at the feeder! They will either put on weight and be all right, I'll discover them dead one day, or they'll start suffering and get culled.
I'm just adding more feed/water at each feeding so I have more than enough for the next feeding. It smells like sourdough. It bubbles and gets a chalky layer like the pictures. I like mine an oatmeal consistency so I adjust accordingly and I'm trying to work out the ratios as I go. Thanks for the information and inspiration! I think this is going to be a permanent part of my chicken husbandry!

 

[HeritageGoose13]

What do you do when the temperatures are below freezing?

 

[Beekissed]

You bring your feed bucket inside to an area where the scoby can still work. Then you feed in meals, as per usual. This year I found it helpful to place the feed right on the composting deep litter in my coop instead of the trough on the days when it was teens below zero...the DL kept it warm enough to not freeze and the birds really worked up my litter into a nice, dry fluffy and warm place for bird feet.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Yeah, I am forced to do deep litter... because it freezes solid for months! It doesn't make any heat, as far as I can tell, but maybe it insulates? Either way, I would have to bring the fermented feed inside. Thanks for the info, Beekissed.

 

[Beekissed]

Yeah, I am forced to do deep litter... because it freezes solid for months! It doesn't make any heat, as far as I can tell, but maybe it insulates? Either way, I would have to bring the fermented feed inside. Thanks for the info, Beekissed.

Forced to do deep litter????

I LOVE my deep litter! Something tells me you are talking about deep bedding but not necessarily a composting deep litter system, which does create warmth in the coop even in the coldest of weather. The temps at my roost level are 10 degrees warmer than the outside air and that's in a coop that is open to the outside in huge areas. All of that is due to a working, composting deep litter system.

There's a link to a vid in my siggy that shows what a working DL looks like in the winter months and this info could help you fall in love with your deep litter and never have to clean it out unless you want to place it directly onto the garden, no waiting for it to compost after removal.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

I like the deep litter, it's just that I was doing it before I had even heard of it. Believe me, it creates no heat. It is solid as a rock, I live up north. It is nothing like the mulch-looking material in your video. You couldn't break it apart unless you had a pickax or something (and even then I'm not sure)! It all sticks together, even the feathers freeze to it. I just add more and more bedding to it, but that freezes in 2-3 days, then it's another layer for me to add! I like it, saves me the time of cleaning it, except in spring when I have to clean it all out at once...

That takes days.

It does create heat in the summer, which is why I rarely use it then, as my birds overheat. Hot summers, cold winters where I live.

 

[Beekissed]

Do you just use pine shavings and nothing else? Pine shavings take forever to break down and need huge amounts of nitrogen to do that, more than a coop of chickens can produce. You'd have to treat it much like a compost pile~a variety of bedding materials of different sizes and types~ to keep it from freezing for the winter and if you did that, you'd not have to clean it out in the summer, just provide a lot of ventilation in all seasons and take out the composted material now and again if you wanted to use it on a garden.

 

[HeritageGoose13]

Mostly I use shavings. At first I used a mixture of shavings and straw, but the straw became moldy in days- humid climate. I really don't think it would work in my area, we get below zero temperatures. But what kind of things do you add to your bedding?

 

[Beekissed]

We are humid too and also get below zero temps here and it works wonderfully. The hardest places to have a composting DL seems to be in arid climates, as it doesn't get enough moisture to decompose in those areas.

I use leaves, pine needles, pine cones, shavings, bark, hair, twigs, sawdust, small smatterings of hay and straw when I clean out nest boxes and such...in the spring and summer I place any green clippings I can get and all our garden scraps. This year I'm adding a base of wood chips to all of that, to hold moisture in the bottom layers.

It really works if you have tons of ventilation, both winter and summer, and don't stir it up too often...just lightly flip dry bedding from one area onto the poop under the roosts. Eventually the chickens will dig it up anyway, but until then it really helps to trap moisture in the under layers if you don't stir it too often and let the flora and fauna that are working on the composting go undisturbed for as long as possible.