Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChocolateMouse]

Sorry, this thread gets a lot of people who have no idea what a healthy ferment smells like (which can be pretty gross). I'm glad you know what you're doing. It's good to not feed a sick hen spoiled food. You might wanna try some scrambled egg (normally I would suggest raw, but why chance it with a sick hen) to help get her along. If she's still laying, mash the egg shell in there too. You could even mash some FF in with it. It seems odd, but an egg is perfect chicken food. You could also try some BOSS or moderate amounts of cracked corn. And electrolytes in the water (you can make your own with some brown sugar and sea salts). Good luck!

 

[Beer can]

It's been my experience that crumbles/pellets ferment with much more stink than ground and cracked grain mash. I wouldn't add any ACV.

 

[spurrer]

could you post the recipe for the brown sugar and sea salt ?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Uh, sure, for a gallon of water I'd use about a tablespoon and a half of dark brown sugar, packed (can be subbed with a little over a tablespoon of sugar & a half tablespoon of molasses. Do not sub with raw sugar or light brown sugar.) and a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt (only use some form of natural sea salt). I'll be honest, I just eyeball it. I also like to toss in a bit of U/P ACV (about 1tsp) and some probiotic powder if I have it (about 1 tsp), but those aren't really key. Electrolytes are just minerals, mostly sugar, salt and potassium. Molasses gives sugars, potassium and other trace minerals. The sea salt is salt and other trace minerals. The sugar is just extra energy. It's not as "good" as a professional elecrolyte mixture but it's a great second choice.

 

[Darkangael]

I have photos of my fermenting set up in my signature and i wanted to just update them with these photos. I drilled holes all along the top of the coleman cooler. And we keep a spray bottle of Brags ACV, which I spray on all surfaces inside the cooler every day after we feed the birds
This keeps the mold issue down to zero.

You are evil.. your message made the Captain Planet theme song play in my head for hours .... Captain Planet he's our hero, gonna take pollution down to zero.... ARRRGGGHHH

Very nice setup though although I may never forgive you for the theme song...

 

[jnr005]

So I'm about to forage into this FF world. About a year ago I got organic apple cider, put it in 2 carboys added yeast and let it go...and go...and go. (Life got in the way of hard cider) Needless to say I now have two 5 gallon carboys with what must be vinegar (I'll smell it tonight). If so, from what I can tell, I should be able to use this to start my FF on track. Not sure what I will do with 10 gallons of this stuff, but at least I can say I used some of it

 

[Beekissed]

Keep it...it won't go bad. If you have any other livestock or pets, put a dab in their water each time you change it out or fill it up. You'll see wonderful results.

 

[crescentson]

I guess I'll be starting my first batches of FF tonight. I fermented small batches of wheat seed in coffee cans, and my birds loved it, so time to turn some crumbles. What I won't do for them...

 

[wesgef9]

Hello, I was wondering what grains or feed you use to ferment feed. Do you give them whole grains only or can you use pellets?

 

[Latestarter]

Ferment the feed (pellets) and add cheaper grains to the mix to "stretch" your feed costs out. Depends on what feed you're fermenting. Feeds are pretty well balanced nutritionally so "cutting" them with added grains is going to change the basic nutritional values. I was buying a high protein feed mix and adding several grains to the ferment to bring the protein back down.