Do Ducks eat Silage?

WannaBeHillBilly

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Sep 2, 2018
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Hi Friends,

has anybody tried to feed silage to your Duckies?

I stumbled over some articles in the WWW where people explain how to make silage in small batches.
So last weekend i decided to try this too, as it is much easier than making hay. I mowed a piece of grass, stuffed the clippings into a transparent plastic bag (I want to observer what's going on) and added some of these bacteria (lactobacillus acidophilus)
20181007_182523.jpg
On Saturday i discovered that there was a duck-bill size hole in the bag and moved it into a new, stronger bag. It already smelled like lactic acid in the bag, the fermentation had started already. Curious where that will go. This is how the bag looks like now:
20181007_174905.jpg
 
Oh my....are you not worried that it is going to mold in this bag?
The plastic bag is actually the trick: Silage is made by compressing the air out of the grass and fermenting it under anaerobic conditions. Mold needs oxygen to grow, the fermentation is done by lactobacillei, the same bacteria that ferments milk to cheese. Those bacteria produce lactic acid which also suppresses fungi growth.
 
The results were disappointing:
  • The grass did not mold, but in fact turned into silage
  • Have you ever smelled silage? - It is a mix of vinegar, sweaty feet and goat-fart
  • Offered it to the ducks on multiple occasions
  • They gave me that »are you trying to get rid of us?« look
Tried it on the neighbors chickens and they scratched through it to search for bugs but did not eat it either. The other neighbors pigs however gulped it down like - whatever is the favorite food for pigs…
So i made real silage in a plastic bag, but the ducks don't liked it. Never tried again.
 

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