Fermenting feed for layers?

[earlyredrooster]

Is my fermented feed supposed to have a white skim on top of it?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Yes.

 

[earlyredrooster]

Yes.

K thanks. I was unsure. My girls love it plus egg production is up and runny poo is in the past.

 

[vpatt]

Does it take a while for the chickens to adjust? This is day two and they do not seem overjoyed with it.

I believe fermenting my own food is really healthy for me so it seems it should be great for the Chickie girls.

 

[Beekissed]

I am curious about fermented feed because my brother has been giving me spilled corn from his harvest. It usually has gravel in it so it can't be ground to make it more digestible. Chickens can sort out the rocks so that is not a problem. Sometimes the corn I get is wet and drying it on a small scale is problematic. I was wondering if fermenting it could be a better solution. I tend to get more than I can quickly use at harvest time. Can you only make what you can use quickly? or will it keep once it is fermented.

Thanks

It will keep as long as there are available sugars in the grain to feed the microorganisms involved in the fermentation process. That's a good long time...just stir it good each day before you feed it and you'll do fine.

The simple recipe I follow is: each morning, take 1/2 quart mason jar of feed and cover to the top with water. Set on the counter. That is day one. The natural lactobaccilus bacteria will begin the anaerobic process of fermentation safely as long as all feed is covered by water.

Repeat with a new jar on day two.

On day 5, the first jar will be ready to feed your girls.

They love it. The probiotics are good for their gut and the fermentation makes the food more easily digested.

This will happen whether your feed is covered by water or not. In the vocabulary of microbiology, lactic acid bacteria are “facultative” in that they that do not require oxygen, but are not inhibited by its presence; in contrast, certain other bacteria (for example Clostridium botulinum) are “obligate” anaerobes that require a perfectly anaerobic environment.

For the thousandth time on this thread, folks....you do not have to have your feed submerged in water to get fermented feed with the LABs in it. Think about it....what is the molecule composition of water? H2O...the "O" being an oxygen molecule. Your feed grain also has oxygen in it on a cellular level. You will not escape the presence of oxygen in this process, so be assured that you don't need to escape it, as explained in the previous paragraph.

My concern is I have more than a weeks worth of grain that is damp. I either need to dry it all or ferment it all at once. Fermenting sounds easier and more digestible for the flock. If I ferment it all at once, will it keep until I can get it fed? This process sounds similar to making silage except (if I remember correctly) that takes longer. Is it the same process?

Thanks

Yes, it will keep until you get it fed. My buckets get fed out over a period of two weeks but could go longer than that without any problem....just add new feed eventually to keep the process going and you should be fine.

 

[mattsanity]

I started this with my layer feed a little over a week ago, so I'm definitely not an old hand nor would I say my results are of statistical significance. I still leave them dry feed in the coop and hanging in case someone didn't like the new stuff, but that's not been an issue. I take out a giant aluminum pan (because that's what I have available at the moment) of the stuff every day at 3 or so with the idea being they can go to bed with super full crops. There's some leftover every day and I've been leaving that and they finish it when they're let out the next morning. They seem very enthusiastic about it at the very least. I have new layers that just started last week a few days after doing this. They were about to start anyway so I can't credit the feed with starting egg production. As for poop, it hadn't been runny in the past and it still isn't. There does seem to be more of it and it's got more liquid in it, which makes sense. At the very least I do feel better about them being okay until I let them out in the AM since I don't leave water in the coop. I don't know that the food can really be hydrating them, but I certainly feel better about it.

My ferment bucket is down in the basement and I just portion it out with a smaller bucket that has holes drilled in the bottom to drain. It doesn't seem to sieve really well so I'll sometimes toss a little more dry feed in to make it more oatmeal than gruel. Maybe I could drill more holes in the bucket or maybe the mixture is not that wet. When I mixed it, it didn't get actively fermenting until 3 or 4 days later, but I just used the natural air method as opposed to an ACV or some other starter. The smell is pungent when I lift the lid, but it really is not rotten. It's like THE sourest sourdough ever, lol. I don't mind it, but some people might. For what it's worth it doesn't stink up the basement or anything and you wouldn't know it's there until you lift the lid on it. I throw in feed and a few scratch grains here and there with enough water to keep the whole mix covered, or saturated at the very least. I think it will take more experience from me to really get a feel for how much to add.

I've only been doing it a short time so I can't say if it'll cut down on feed costs yet and I don't have anything to compare my eggs to since they're new, but the yolks take up more of the egg than a store bought egg and they are orange. I can continue to report on that if it's helpful to anyone. There's not much for me to offer in the way of knowledge as a chicken newbie and being even newer to this method, but I thought I'd share my experiences thus far in case anybody else new stumbles on this and might want to give it a try. Sorry I wrote a book here!

 

[lazy gardener]

Are you feeding them in the aluminum pan? Just my opinion, but the acid of the FF will etch the aluminum, leaching the metal out into the feed, which is not good for your flock to be ingesting.

 

[akhadley]

Alright...

I tried fermenting some feed and ran into a few problems... guess I put too much in the container and the feed expanded out of the container and got the liquid all over some stuff in the closet!

I was reading specific "rules" on a website - said to stir it every 2-3 hours or as often as possible... but I've read on this thread to stir just once in the morning and once in the evening...

Read not to feed it if it smells like beer... kinda thought mine smelled like beer... ended up throwing it out. I'm afraid I won't do it right and it'll be bad then I'll make my three chickens sick

Can I just get a really basic, simple, step by step process on how to do this... I only have 3 chickens (1 EE, 2 RIR) so I don't need to put much feed in a container I would imagine... and they seem to have some stomach/digestive issues maybe so I'd like to do this fermenting method to see if it helps with their poo situation.

I just want a Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 schedule haha. I like to keep things simple. Any suggestions would be great.

 

[Beekissed]

Alright...

I tried fermenting some feed and ran into a few problems... guess I put too much in the container and the feed expanded out of the container and got the liquid all over some stuff in the closet!

I was reading specific "rules" on a website - said to stir it every 2-3 hours or as often as possible... but I've read on this thread to stir just once in the morning and once in the evening...

Read not to feed it if it smells like beer... kinda thought mine smelled like beer... ended up throwing it out. I'm afraid I won't do it right and it'll be bad then I'll make my three chickens sick

Can I just get a really basic, simple, step by step process on how to do this... I only have 3 chickens (1 EE, 2 RIR) so I don't need to put much feed in a container I would imagine... and they seem to have some stomach/digestive issues maybe so I'd like to do this fermenting method to see if it helps with their poo situation.

I just want a Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 schedule haha. I like to keep things simple. Any suggestions would be great.

Could be you are reading in the wrong places....

http://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Noodlynoo]

Ive been fermenting my feed for some time now and it is always eagerly tucked into! Because I dont use pellets but a wheat free mix, plus various seeds such as black sunflower seeds, millet, etc, they take a while to soak up the liquid.
Over the summer I have definately saved money as the feed trebles in size so they need less!
I also add as much whey as I can from kefir that I make and purposely over ferment to get as much whey as possible. So far, i have had no health problems within my girls!