DOES FERMENTED FEED WORK?

[EggSighted4Life]

Hi folks.

I did it for two years and no longer do.

Simply put yes, it will save you very little but some (less than 10% in my experience). Time is a factor when you have a huge flock and mix trash cans full of it with a boat paddle.

I think it's funny that people think their chooks get "more" water. They likely just drink less from the water dish.

Yes, I started even my day old chicks on it. They really never took to it right away and was QUITE the effort me. As stated they don't recognize it as food. Yes, the older birds often require many samples to start appreciating.

My BIGGEST issue is this... feed is ALREADY formulated according to very strict guidelines to meet the needs of our birds. By fermenting, because it "increases protein absorption", that just alters the formulation. It adds some vitamins and such, but it depletes or diminishes others. You don't get something for nothing. Those microbes are consuming sugars or something... in the beginning it smells nice and sweet. Leave it long enough it turns sour smelling the bubbles diminish as the yeast and bacteria run out of feed and start to die off. This is my assessment using reasonable deduction from my experience. I am not a scientist.

Also regarding probiotics.. yes some feeds do have them added already. But also, once your gut flora is in balance... that's about it I think. The body is this amazing thing that DOES have natural balance of good verses bad, assuming their are no current health concerns. Yes, the poo was different in the beginning and that was what made me stick with it for so long. The more people I talked to, and said my birds don't have runny poo... neither did theirs and they weren't fermenting. Since I stopped... poos I pick up on pasture are still plenty firm, in fact the same. There was NO significant difference in the health of my flock. And nothing has changed except the amount of time I spend feeding every day. If probiotics become more important to me then I will use raw acv in my water for a lot less effort. There was NO significant difference in my meat or eggs either.

I personally won't feed scratch and consider the potato chip of the chicken world. No point in doing everything I can to make them healthy and offer treats with minimal nutrients when I have better choices available.

To me you will get your biggest benefit from free ranging (if predators aren't an issue, otherwise saving may be super diminished). After that... I would spend my time sprouting or growing fodder before fermenting again. I might ferment as a treat. But NO, even with 82 birds... the savings wasn't significant enough. Mind you I read I would save 30%... so I got 30% more birds! Then I read I could save another 30% by free ranging so I got yet another 30% more birds. That's how chicken math works right? Yes I also use flock raiser crumbles which has a lot of fines. I leave the fines once they build up enough without adding new feed that day, and the birds eat it. I have considered fermenting JUST the fines as a treat. Raising feeders to the level of their backs does help avoid waste.

My final suggestion... ferment if you want to, it's fun to try an I'm sure has SOME benefit... I even tried fermenting dog feed (pretty gross don't recommend it), a couple of my dogs did enjoy it. But don't buy all the hype.

Adjust ferment time according to your weather.

 

[chonsey]

I was fermenting the food for my roos & juveniles to give them a change, supplement with sunflower hearts/seeds & oats for treats. Didn't think about their beaks - I don't want their beaks growing crazy from eating soft food all the time. My hubby wants me to feed them on the ground like his mom did to encourage them to free range away from the coop. So when I have days off, I will sprinkle some on the ground for them to peck at and not feed them all at once. They are foraging a lot more. That saves money. Late winter, early spring - I fermented my hens food and they loved it. But they weren't laying, due to the severe cold temps of winter. It saved money but found it saved more money if I added some oats & sunflower hearts/seeds that I found on sale, too. When I tried cheaper feed-they buried it under the straw in the coop. That was just a waste of money & they started losing weight. I splurged and bought Manna Pro's Egg Maker for my hens & Showbird for my roo's! My rooster's feathers are beautiful, it definitely agrees with their digestive system as well. My hens & eggs are beautiful. So for me - it is sometimes worth it to spend a little more and try to save somewhere else to justify it. So I'll be growing sunflowers & sprouting and fermenting here and there.
I came across a lady that sprouts seeds for her chickens and family in the winter. That will save a lil money. So I will be sprouting seeds this fall for treats - I think any fresh food in the dead of winter would definitely be a healthy treat!

 

[Audio51]

I fed FF for about 5 years and felt it did save some money on feed. I would use a 5 gallon bucket and use 3 scoops of the feed, a small amount of scratch and a scoop of BOSS. Lug that to the water, add it and stir, then lug the bucket to the back porch where it would be relatively safe from raccoons. Then I would lug it to pen in the morning give the 25 chickens I have about 1/3 of the bucket and lug the bucket back to the porch. I usually had 2 buckets going at a time. Each bucket with 3 scoops lasted 3 days. If I added too much water, the bucket would overflow and make a mess, then the dog would get it and get the runs. A few months ago, I was not feeling well and not up to all the lugging and mixing, the chickens still wanted to eat for some reason. So I just took the same scoop and filled it once and a little BOSS and filled the feeding trough with the pellets I had been fermenting. Guess what...it lasted just as long and the chickens were just as satisfied and didn't waste any more than they did with the FF. I no longer am lugging bucket...mixing food....dealing with spillage and the dog eating the FF. ANd...the chickens poop actually seems firmer. I amy have been saving a small amount on FF...but not enough to be worth the extra work.

 

[ChickNanny13]

BTW thank you for using this picture for the article That's Ehu eating from the chopstick and Dusk in the trough. Ehu was the only one that thought FF tasted better fed by chopsticks.

 

[Vivid Hatchery]

I started mine on fermented organic corn-free, soy-free feed from day 1. They go crazy for it every morning - much more so than the dry feed that is free fed all day. They're only 7 weeks old right now, and as babies with a new chicken mama, they wasted a lot of dry feed by throwing it around. But the fermented stuff, they lick the bowl. It's a good way to get them to eat the "fines" (the powdered vitamins in the feed), that stuff that might otherwise be left at the bottom of the feed bag.

what is your carb and protein source if you do not use corn or soy?

 

[Vivid Hatchery]

I watched a Dmall and backyard flock extention webinar where they have lectures by professionals from their given specialties, and one was from a PHD chicken nutritionist, and he stated that the short track of the chicken small intestine doesnt allow for bacteria to break down food in enough time for it to have meaningful difference. So gut flora does not imact digestion, as in us and other animals, but it can impact overall health if the bad flora outweigh the good. This may be different when fermented prior to entering, I did not look into that.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

what is your carb and protein source if you do not use corn or soy?

Often wheat is used instead of corn. Sometimes peas for protein. Some feed also include fish meal.

 

[lazy gardener]

I've been fermenting for at least 5 years. It has saved quite a bit of money. My best feed conversion rate was .18-.19#/bird/day. Right now, my conversion rate is .24. Last year, I was slow getting the hatchlings onto FF. Among the shipped chicks were some who were not thriving. They acted ok, but their poo was mustard yellow, and foamy. Within 24 hours of starting them on FF, their poo had completely normalized.

 

[Conan]

I have a small flock of chickens (12 birds or less at any given time) and about the same number of ducks. I tried the fermented feed thing and found that my birds would not eat it. I used scratch and peck layer feed - soy and corn free - and it bubbled away and smelled nice and sweet. I thought that they would just love it as they really gobbled up the spent grains from a beer project of a neighbor, but alas, they did not care for it. Turned their beaks up. Like many of you have pointed out, by the afternoon, the uneaten portion smells pretty sour so it ended up being a lot of wasted feed for me. Luckily, I have pigs so nothing really goes to waste!
I now get my feed from a friend who has it made from local sources (still corn and soy free) and much more affordable than the scratch and peck. My birds also free range on a couple acres so they really don't eat much feed anyways. Who knows, maybe they just love bugs most!
I find that ducks are much less picky than chickens and they really shovel down the fines. They were also not interested in the fermented feed, which I think is weird considering they love when it pours down rain and their food gets all soupy. Their tubs are always empty. Ducks are pigs.
All in all, I would've loved it had my birds been interested. Definitely worth a try!!

 

[EggSighted4Life]

All in all, I would've loved it had my birds been interested.

They are creatures of habit... so many things new takes time. When I introduced dry feed though... no adjustment time required.

As for the person who said their birds go crazy every time they bring the FF out... my birds do that for anything I bring out. And they did seem to go through more if I reloaded several times than if I left enough for all day because of that excitement. NO sourness did NOT happen by the end of the day... maybe by the end of the week. My weather is mild. That can be combated by not mixing more than can be feed out in a few days... yes the more sour it got the less they liked it. But you can add more feed and water to "freshen" it. My FF was free choice all day every day, collected at night to avoid free loader.

My best feed conversion rate was .18-.19#/bird/day.

That was also my best feed conversion rate... using flock raiser... which means the oyster shell that would be included in some peoples' conversion with layer feeds (2-3% more weight) is not represented in my #s. Meaning maybe my saving weren't as much as I thought they were at the time. It also include sun up to sun down free range on GOOD pasture with lots of bugs and greens year round. Now snow or dry as the desert season for us.

One important note for those who do FF... IF you need to treat "drinking water" for cocci... don't forget to include the amount of water in the FF that they would otherwise be drinking. Or you will be under treating.

Among the shipped chicks were some who were not thriving. They acted ok, but their poo was mustard yellow, and foamy. Within 24 hours of starting them on FF, their poo had completely normalized.

Definitely *more* beneficial for those who are otherwise compromised.

I thought that they would just love it as they really gobbled up the spent grains from a beer project of a neighbor, but alas, they did not care for it.

Were those spent grains dry? The wetter the mash the less the birds like it.