DOES FERMENTED FEED WORK?

[Foodfromhome]

I’m starting the transition to FF tommorow. I cleaned my big coop yesterday the amount of crumble on the floor was just silly. I started fermenting immediately and will feed it for the the first time in the morning. It has to save some just off if food waste. I just hate waste as a principle lol.

 

[aliciaplus3]

I have been feeding a mash that is soaked for 24 hrs before feeding..... it bubbles like the reports say and smells good. I use a home made mix and add bone broth to it and my chickens are ready to eat every morning (usually get in the feeder before the feed makes it in), the little ones flock to us when we go in with food they Love being fed.
I feel it's working

 

[ChickNanny13]

Never thought of doing it with broth ....

 

[Acre4Me]

Technically I am not fermenting the feed, however, my chicks (12 weeks) LOVE the wet feed I give them daily. I put dry crumble in 2 plastic bins, add water, stir, add more water to a somewhat watery consistency. I place in the shade in the run - the Chickens RUN to it! They eat a fair amount, leave it be for a while, then eat more before bed. We do put any remainder in the coop overnight with them (add water if needed), partly because they are still young. Always "licked" clean by morning.

I only even tried it because my neighbor mentioned his chickens like wet feed (he does not ferment his feed). First exposure, they went WILD for it, even eating around and underneath the strawberry tops that I had put on top of the wet feed to entice them. I found it fascinating that they loved the wet feed so much from the first introduction. They have always had 24/7 access to dry crumble, which they ate well...so they weren't hungry.

Might make the next step to fermented feed, not sure at this time.

 

[Foodfromhome]

I started out this morning in my big coop. It has 7 laying hens and 8 16 week pullets. They attacked the trough like dinosaurs lol. I put 5 pounds in 2.5 hours ago and they have eaten half of it. if they empty it ill feed them more this evening until I figure out how much they need. So far so good.

 

[quackingdom]

I've been feeding my geese FF for several months now and I've noticed a definite difference in how much they eat when it's fermented as opposed to when it's not.

I just started feeding the ducks FF yesterday. I did a test a few weeks ago to see how much they are capable of eating when given non-fermented food completely free-choice, available 24/7. They ate 11 pounds a day, or 0.3 pounds per bird. Now I'm going to try the same thing, but with FF, and see how much less it is.

 

[KHBaker]

I did it for a few months, and just recently stopped. While it worked great when it was cooler, the fermented feed seemed to be "off" by the afternoon. The smell wasn't what it normally was or should be, and because of that, the chickens rarely finished it like they used to. For the summer, I am going back to dry feed.

However, the chickens did like it and I seemed to buy less feed, which was was nice! I am going to start what one of the previous poster's talked about, which is just wetting the feed to give them extra water during the hot summer and see how that goes.

 

[Starwise]

For anyone that is interested in FF, this has become the go-to reference: https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

That was the best reading I've done in a while. Great details of the benefits and really the effort is minimal. I will be trying this with my chicks.

 

[Trux]

At the time I started doing this I had 14 hens, laying about 7 to 9 eggs a day. I added scratch and sunflower seed in with my feed soaked it up. Come feeding time it was like getting in a cage of little dinosaurs. I used a rain gutter left over from a construction project for the trough and it was clean as a whistle about 2hrs after I put it down. After about 4 to 5 days of doing this egg production went through the roof 12 a day was not uncommon and sometimes 14. We are down to 11 hens now, had to cull 3 feather pickers so they are with another chicken keeper with JG and some Rocks, and we are still getting 8 to 10 eggs a day.

 

[ChickNanny13]

I did it for a few months, and just recently stopped. While it worked great when it was cooler, the fermented feed seemed to be "off" by the afternoon. The smell wasn't what it normally was or should be, and because of that, the chickens rarely finished it like they used to. For the summer, I am going back to dry feed.
However, the chickens did like it and I seemed to buy less feed, which was was nice! I am going to start what one of the previous poster's talked about, which is just wetting the feed to give them extra water during the hot summer and see how that goes.

It gets warm & humid here (HI), not sure what you mean by "off". I agree that the smell sometimes smells different when it's really warm and the girls don't finish off their ration. I just put it aside for the next day, found my girls eat alot less during the warmer weather so I just cut back.

At the time I started doing this I had 14 hens, laying about 7 to 9 eggs a day. I added scratch and sunflower seed in with my feed soaked it up. Come feeding time it was like getting in a cage of little dinosaurs. I used a rain gutter left over from a construction project for the trough and it was clean as a whistle about 2hrs after I put it down. After about 4 to 5 days of doing this egg production went through the roof 12 a day was not uncommon and sometimes 14. We are down to 11 hens now, had to cull 3 feather pickers so they are with another chicken keeper with JG and some Rocks, and we are still getting 8 to 10 eggs a day.

I only limited to 6 hens, last I had were 4BOs and they laid 3.5 eggs per day! Did have a extra dish on the side with Oyster Shells, I've noticed their shells were really "thick". I thought my imagination but a friend whom I gave eggs to, commented at how "clean and strong" the shells were. They do lay cleaner eggs