Fermenting feed

[barred2rock]

This morning a woke up to a layer of white mold on top of the FF in the bucket. Is this just part of the fermenting process or toxic? I threw it out, just to on the safe side and I'm gonna restart. Chickies are getting just wet feed today.

 

[mobius]

Lol fella that is your SCOBY...just mix it back in...I find the same and while initially I was alarmed by it too, it is not mold or bad stuff...it is the good stuff...very thin white layer right?

 

[Nathan J]

Lol fella that is your SCOBY...just mix it back in...I find the same and while initially I was alarmed by it too, it is not mold or bad stuff...it is the good stuff...very thin white layer right?

Yeah that was what I was thinking. Unless it's actually hairy it's not mold, I believe. There's more to it than that, but that's a good indicator.

 

[barred2rock]

Yeah that was what I was thinking.  Unless it's actually hairy it's not mold, I believe.  There's more to it than that, but that's a good indicator.

On second thought, it did appear a bit "hairy", although it smelt fine.

ETA: Looked like the following image, but a bit less prolific.

Google image, not the actual feed.

 

[haunani]

I have a FF question.

My chicks, now 2 weeks old, used to LOVE their FF I gave them twice daily. In the last 1-2 days, though, they ignore it completely in favor of the plain old dry crumbles. It doesn't look/smell any different than it did when they were devouring it.

I started fermentation on 3/11, and have simply added food/water to it when it got low, so it's in a continuous fermentation. It's covered by a thin layer of water and has that nice sourdough smell to it. I mix it up at least twice each day.

Any ideas why they're all of a sudden ignoring it?

 

[barred2rock]

I have a FF question.

My chicks, now 2 weeks old, used to LOVE their FF I gave them twice daily.  In the last 1-2 days, though, they ignore it completely in favor of the plain old dry crumbles.  It doesn't look/smell any different than it did when they were devouring it.

I started fermentation on 3/11, and have simply added food/water to it when it got low, so it's in a continuous fermentation.  It's covered by a thin layer of water and has that nice sourdough smell to it.  I mix it up at least twice each day.

Any ideas why they're all of a sudden ignoring it?

Could it be too wet? Mine prefer the FF on the drier side. Maybe you could strain out some of the water when you put it into the feeder or add some dry feed to the top of the wet? BTW, you don't need to keep a layer of water above the FF, that's a misconception.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I have a FF question.

My chicks, now 2 weeks old, used to LOVE their FF I gave them twice daily. In the last 1-2 days, though, they ignore it completely in favor of the plain old dry crumbles. It doesn't look/smell any different than it did when they were devouring it.

I started fermentation on 3/11, and have simply added food/water to it when it got low, so it's in a continuous fermentation. It's covered by a thin layer of water and has that nice sourdough smell to it. I mix it up at least twice each day.

Any ideas why they're all of a sudden ignoring it?

Could it be too wet? Mine prefer the FF on the drier side. Maybe you could strain out some of the water when you put it into the feeder or add some dry feed to the top of the wet? BTW, you don't need to keep a layer of water above the FF, that's a misconception.

barred2rock is correct - I used to make my FF "wet" with a layer of water but have since changed to keeping it drier (like oatmeal), less messy & my girls seem to prefer it better. There are days the gobble it up so fast and other days they just pick at it. I was so worried but not anymore, like us there are days they're not as hungry. You'll be feeding/using less feed when fermenting, that's one of the benefits saving & no waste of feed. I feed just FF, remove the dry feed.

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: Agreed with BTR, and CN13