how to ferment chicken feed

[jbirds2012]

how to ferment chicken feed
I've been doing this for over 6 Mo's now, and it seems to be working quiet well. our feed bill went from $300.00 a month to $150.00 witch i still think is way too high so we are growing food for them as well. the reason i am posting this is because i have to be away for a few days to get a tumor cut out and i needed to explain to DH how to feed the birds while I'm away. so i figured why not share it with everyone. so here we go !!!
first you take some bakers yeast, DH says we got 2lbs for $4.00 at smart and final.

to get it started i use 4oz of bakers yeast in a 5 gal bucket

then i add 2 1/3 coffee cans of chicken scratch. i weighed them full and they are 4lbs, so about 9.5 lbs chicken scratch

and 1 can or 4lbs of layer pellets second, because you want the pellets on top, otherwise you end up with a big mess in the bottom of your bucket

then you let it ferment for 3 days
here's my plan of attack i use so i can keep track of whats going on
we give our birds one 5gal bucket of feed a day and on the third day we give them two 5 gal buckets of feed
i use the white lid to tell me where I'm at.
the first bucket on the left is 1/4 full of fresh water and i use it to start my next batch of feed
when i see this in the morning i know that the birds get 2 buckets of feed today

when i am done today it will look like this, and in the morning i'll know this is a 1 bucket day

when i see this, it means it;s the second 1 bucket day

when i see this it is a 2 bucket day

so i take my bucket of 1/4 full of fresh water and set the strainer on it

and pour the feed in the strainer, then i let it drain for about 30 mins

then i dump it in a bucket

and do it again and give it about 30 mins

when you get to the scratch it drains faster

and before long your ready to go feed the birds

then, i always rinse out the bucket

and fill it 1/4 full of fresh water for tomorrows new batch

then i add to the water that i strained

2 and 1/3 cans of scratch


and 1 can of layer pellets on top so i don't make a big mess in the bottom of the bucket

then i place the white lid on tomorrows feed so i will know which one to feed them in the morning

a couple of pointers,
once you have your base yeast liquid right it will last several weeks.
you need to make sure that the feed is covered with water or it will mold
when one of my buckets starts to get a light grey foam on it i add 3ozs more yeast.
i clean out my new batch bucket every day
our hens went on strike for a few days when i first started feeding them their new food.
OK, so there ya go folks and DH i hope i made it clear enough fer ya. oh, and

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of
battle."

 

[HEChicken]

Thanks so much for the detailed step by step with photos - that is very helpful. I'm curious why they get 2 buckets of feed some days if one is enough for them the other days?

I tried FF about a year ago but I must admit I gave it up because of all the straining required, and reading your description of what you do…..it still sounds like a lot of effort, I'm afraid. I decided feeding dry pellets works better for me, as the gutter feeder I use, which is filled via a PVC pipe, works great with dry food but wouldn't work with FF, so I'd have to change that in addition to the feed. Plus, with the dry pellets, I can just fill the feeder once a day and control the amount they eat that way. When its empty, they have to go and forage if they're still hungry as it won't be filled again until the next day. Since I gave up the FF and started doing it that way, my feed bill dropped, as before I was feeding them as much as they'd eat - and it turns out they'll keep eating as long as there is feed available LOL. Yet the birds are still in good condition - not losing weight - so I guess they really didn't need all that extra feed they were eating anyway.

 

[jbirds2012]

yea, it's a bit time consuming. I'm not working right now so i have the time, but when i go back to work either DH will have to do it or we'll have to do it the easy expensive way till we are growing enough for them to forage on.