Birds wasting soybean meal

[farmerbrowne]

First please no lectures on soybean meal. I'm having troubles getting my birds to eat the small granualsin their feed as mixed. They almost think it's leftover dust. Any ideas on a binding agent that would let the powder stick to the larger feed?

 

[azygous]

Water.

Ferment your ingredients. Just cover with water, add a glug of ACV to jump start it, place it in a warm place, stir a couple times a day, and in around 48 hours you will have a delightful ferment, smelling like yeast dough, and your chickens will adore it. The process makes the feed even more nutritious.

Add more dry ingredients to achieve the desired consistency. Many of us like it to be like biscuit dough, stiff and not soupy. There is zero waste with fermented feed. If you use a cup of the previous batch to start the next batch, it will ferment in 24 hours. Keep two buckets going and you will never run out.

You will need to feed it in dog dishes or build a trough. Regular feeders won't work.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Feed a pelletized layer. The pellets often use blood meal to bind the ingredients together and this increases the palatability of laying pellets to those little Vilostoraprers in your back yard.
Chickens totally despise feeds containing un-processed legumes or peas and beans like soy. I don't really know why but maybe legumes give chickens flatulence like beans do to humans.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Water.

Ferment your ingredients. Just cover with water, add a glug of ACV to jump start it, place it in a warm place, stir a couple times a day, and in around 48 hours you will have a delightful ferment, smelling like yeast dough, and your chickens will adore it. The process makes the feed even more nutritious.

Add more dry ingredients to achieve the desired consistency. Many of us like it to be like biscuit dough, stiff and not soupy. There is zero waste with fermented feed. If you use a cup of the previous batch to start the next batch, it will ferment in 24 hours. Keep two buckets going and you will never run out.

You will need to feed it in dog dishes or build a trough. Regular feeders won't work.

X2
For a larger flock, I use plastic guttering cut into 5' or 6' lengths.
For small flocks, I use two or four quart black rubber feed tubs.

 

[Molpet]

I ferment the feed too
I feed it in goat trough that hang or gutters on the ground or black rubber bowls I can bring in.
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Kiki]

X3 on the water.

 

[farmerbrowne]

I tried to do fermented feed but quickly realized it doesn't work too well when it's minus 30 out. My flock takes their time eating just like when I cook them oatmeal. Tons of it freeze before the others get some

 

[Molpet]

I tried to do fermented feed but quickly realized it doesn't work too well when it's minus 30 out. My flock takes their time eating just like when I cook them oatmeal. Tons of it freeze before the others get some

when it was below zero I feed 60+ birds 3x a day.. a bunch of black rubber bowls, what they will eat in about 20 minutes... but I am retired and home all day... Processed some labor day birds in Jan thaw and they had tons of fat.. so I have dropped to 2x a day

 

[azygous]

With fermented feed, in winter it's not going to be constant access. The chickens will scarf down half a day's worth of food in five minutes. Then I feed again before roosting time to send them to bed with full crops. The feed doesn't have time to freeze.

With FF, chickens are not eating all day long, but twice a day, consuming the food very quickly.

 

[rebrascora]

I ferment some of my feed and have dry pellets available in the feeder free choice. The hens go at the fermented feed like it is a treat.
I have reservations about chicken feed that is not micronized as chickens can selectively peck out individual components of course mixed grain/pulse feeds and as you are finding, leave the less palatable bits which are often the higher protein ones. That means your birds are not getting a healthy balanced diet. I appreciate that heavily processed foods like pellets/crumbles have their drawbacks but at least it guarantees that your birds are getting a balanced ration, whether you ferment it or feed it dry.
There have been a number of posts recently about birds that are fed on these mixed grain feeds having health issues like prolapses and two cases where necropsies identified Fatty Liver Haemorrhagic Syndrome. One of those owners was feeding too many treats but not the other. I have a theory that chickens select their favourite bits from these mixes and leave the less appealing ones, sometimes billing it out to facilitate this and perhaps leaving rats to clear up the remainder. Birds higher in the pecking order may be more likely to get their choice of the best bits and lower birds, the remainder. This imbalance can lead to them getting fat which is hard to notice with all those feathers and then lead to health and laying issues. Other birds that may be getting the "left overs" could be getting too much protein and perhaps suffer kidney issues. I have seen birds foraging and pecking at the tiniest specks in the dirt so I really feel that them picking and choosing what to eat in these grain mixes is like a child eating their meat and leaving the veg if there isn't a parent prompting them to eat it all....
.... this is just a theory on my part. I use a pellet because there is less waste which makes sense both financially and from a rodent aspect.