FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Beekissed]

Crs1, do you find that your dominant girls are hogging the scratch grains? I recently bought a 50# bag of feed that is pellets mixed with whole grains and I can't wait to finish with it - the top girls slurp up the grains and leave the pellet ferment for the others. I'm worried their diet is unbalanced. I'll go back to feeding fermented crumbles or pellets and scattering fermented grains separately.

Try feeding once a day and in a long trough. They will be so busy just getting ANY food they won't have time to maneuver for the choice bits. They can't cover the whole trough's area either, so the other birds will likely get their fair share.

 

[All Ball]

Try feeding once a day and in a long trough.  They will be so busy just getting ANY food they won't have time to maneuver for the choice bits.  They can't cover the whole trough's area either, so the other birds will likely get their fair share. 

Thanks so much, Bee, for the suggestion! I would certainly go to a looooong trough (or gutter) feeding system if I was to stay with this type of feed...

 

[Crs1]

No I haven't noticed that when I ferment them together but when I give plain scratch grain to get them In there is a fight!

 

[lazy gardener]

Are you talking about giving scratch to get them into the run? If that's the case: I toss my scratch far and wide. It's spread over such a wide area that they can spread out, and where ever they happen to be, there's scratch to dig for.

 

[LilyandSparrow]

I happened to see we had a spare ice cube tray and decided to give it a try with the fermented chick starter (Scratch & Peck) and it's working great for my 2 week old chicks. The nice part is that they can't really step in the fermented feed because of the tray cube structure, so less poo and cleaner chick feet!

 

[Leigti]

I happened to see we had a spare ice cube tray and decided to give it a try with the fermented chick starter (Scratch & Peck) and it's working great for my 2 week old chicks.  The nice part is that they can't really step in the fermented feed because of the tray cube structure, so less poo and cleaner chick feet!

That's a great idea. I wish I would've thought of that.

 

[All Ball]

No I haven't noticed that when I ferment them together but when I give plain scratch grain to get them In there is a fight!

You are lucky then - wish I had the same experience!

 

[MandalaMaMa]

I loving feeding my girls fermented food. Have been doing it now for almost three years now. I learned about it here on this forum -- thank you everyone. I have just 12 chicks who are now two mouth old to my flock of 8. Total of 20 now. I know -- I have it bad. Love my chickens. How do I know how much to give them. I feed them twice a day, about 5 cups each feeding - morning 7:30 am and night 5:00pm. And it's gone in less than 10 minutes. Sooner at the evening feeding. They are currently getting some extra zuc and water mellow rinds in the morning and some scratch in the afternoon. They have access to a paddock that we just built but are still getting use to it. Am I feeding them enough?

 

[Jensownzoo]

Sounds about right. I give just under two gallons of the stuff to 20 laying pullets, 5 guineas, and 3 roos daily. They have access to a fenced in yard for ranging in the afternoon and also get occasional snacks. Egg production is great and no one is too fat/skinny. So for 8 adults and 12 growing chicks, you're doing about 1.25 gallons daily in comparison.


Edit: No, wait. Cannot math today. 10 cups = 5 pints = 2.5 quarts = little over a half of a gallon. You may want to consider increasing it a bit? Just because the younger ones may need a bit more for growth. I found that my younger growing pullets ate more in quantity than my laying pullets...presumably it takes more feed to make chicken than it does eggs?

 

[ShanandGem]

I think another thing that is great about FF is the water they consume with it. I change out everyone's water daily but I never have to worry about them drinking it all or their water bowls being dry because they hardly touch them, and I think it's because of the gallons of water they consume in the feed.