Do Ducks eat Silage?

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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.

• http://smallfarmcanada.ca/2014/making-forage-on-a-very-small-scale/

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)

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:

 

[Kiki]

Oh my....are you not worried that it is going to mold in this bag?

 

[duckduckgose]

yes they will eat it i tried this a few years back it boosts egg laying production i would recommend feeding it out right before feeding time as they will be hungry and more inclined to think of it as food

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Hi friends! Sorry for not reacting to all your answers, somehow i did not receive any alert for this thread and thought it was orphaned.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

yes they will eat it i tried this a few years back it boosts egg laying production i would recommend feeding it out right before feeding time as they will be hungry and more inclined to think of it as food

Will try that in early November, i don't think it is fermented enough.

 

[tokies]

Will try that in early November, i don't think it is fermented enough. View attachment 1565870

what happen with it did they eat it? you should also grow azzola and duck weed. I need to see if it fermits after drying like corn does at some point.

 

[Miss Lydia]

@WannaBeHillBilly

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@WannaBeHillBilly

Thank you very much for the ping!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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.