A few more questions....

[AU-ChickenGuy]

So, in taking some of your advice, I took the rest of my chick starter and covered it with water in a plastic garbage can to ferment. I rigged up some empty cups that yogurt come in for my kids as feeding bowls, gorilla glued them to a piece of 1x6. I put some of the moistened feed in the cups and put in the pen with the chicks. They haven't touched it. Not even curious. They ARE picking at the leftover dry food one the floor of the brooder. Does it take them a while to try it? Should I clean up the dry food to FORCE them to try it?

 

[lazy gardener]

One thing you don't want to do is have chicks go hungry. Perhaps sprinkle some of the dry feed on top of the moist. Chickens hate change. By sprinkling the dry on the moist, they'll eat the dry, and get a taste for the moist. If they don't eat the moist feed, change it out regularly. Wet feed that is not fermented can spoil, if that makes sense... once it's inoculated with the organisms, it will be far less likely to spoil. Generally, I keep a ferment going and refresh it daily. At the most, I don't want more than 3 days worth of feed in my bucket, but other folks ferment longer than that.

 

[Folly's place]

It's fine to not ferment your feed; it's one more thing to deal with right now. I never have done it, and it's fine here. I'd recommend that you get more comfortable with what's going on already, and ferment feed later as another process, if it then appeals to you. Many different approaches to a healthy flock! Mary

 

[azygous]

Even though I feed fermented feed to my flock, the baby chicks get dry crumbles during the first few days sprinkled over the floor to teach them to eat. A broody hen especially needs this so she can easily pick up and drop tidbits for the chicks to try.

I offer the FF, but also sprinkle the dry around it. The chicks eventually notice the FF in the cups and will gradually switch over.

 

[AU-ChickenGuy]

They seem to have figured it out and are tearing it up!