Feeding chickens wet feed?

[StephieSky]

Alright I'm interested in fermenting feed for my hens, but I'm also really nervous. It says you can smell a bad batch but is that smell something you learn over time or is it as obvious as soured milk? How obvious will bad ferment be to the rank novice?? Should I make a few batches up and toss them until I get a bad one for sure so I know the difference? Sorry to be a pest but this just seems so risky to me when I don't have a clue.

 

[StephieSky]

That's exactly the same as me! I also use a dog dish - and the bottom of the coop is wire, so my chickens purposefully swipe their heads, side to side, flinging food onto the ground... and then, it attracts pigeons (eww!)

I found a cure I bought this feeder:

I hung it under their little house:

I bought the water one too. Its a gallon capacity and works great.
I did put a safety chain up top so they can't get knocked down.

They were cheaper than the dang dog dishes! Only 6.99 and 9.99 at H&something feed in a small town up the road from me.
I have seen so many that were 45.00 to 65.00 and made for very large flocks. I thought I'd try these.
With my tiny scale chicken needs these are perfect though even smaller would have been better for the feed dispenser. I wanted them to be a matching set though.
The best part of all is Gracie isn't scattering her food all over the kennel! Yay!

 

[seminolewind]

What is the difference between fermented feed and feed that's been left out after it rained, and a day later it stinks?

 

[Haunted55]

What is the difference between fermented feed and feed that's been left out after it rained, and a day later it stinks?

Like wine, controlled ferment. I have kind of mixed emotions on this with last year's harvest of corn and all the aflatoxins. Depending on what you use for grains and the additives you're putting in....I make wine and would love to get my reds going but not with chicks in the house. Oh Lord!!! Can you imagine the possibilities of what could get in there? Same with the feed in a dish, who knows what it's picked up from the air.

 

[Haunted55]

Hello! For the past few weeks, I've been feeding my chickens wet feed as a change from dry feed. I heard that they get more nutritional value out of it when it is wet. I change it everyday. Is this OK? Will it grow mold in the course of a day? Is it any better than feeding chickens dry feed? It is wet feed - not fermented..

Thanks!

It can become moldy if the conditions are right. Wet feed, heat and humidity and some stray wild yeast or aflatoxin spore being airbourn. Even if the feed doesn't look moldy or smell sour, it could already be there and working. Making beer and wine at home has given me a really good understanding of how this works. I wouldn't feed my birds wet feed, unfermented, when the weather isn't cold. Just too much of a chance to take when you don't have to. If you're concerned about their bodies being able to use the feed better, give them a good poultry probiotic in their water or sprinkled on their dry feed. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Lorien]

I started feeding fermented feed a couple weeks ago. I put their regular feed in a bucket with some water kefir grains (some people use sourdough starter some use apple cider vinegar with the mother in it). My birds eat half as much feed now and look so much healthier. I may experiment with the feed mix a bit, but will never go back to dry feed. WOW!

 

[Haunted55]

I started feeding fermented feed a couple weeks ago. I put their regular feed in a bucket with some water kefir grains (some people use sourdough starter some use apple cider vinegar with the mother in it). My birds eat half as much feed now and look so much healthier. I may experiment with the feed mix a bit, but will never go back to dry feed. WOW!

The kefir, sourdough starter and the mother in the vinegar are all desirable yeasts. Once they start 'cooking', they are giving off carbon dioxide on the whole top surface of the mix. Almost like a force field, lol! This won't allow anything bad or undesirable to get into the mix.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

What is the difference between fermented feed and feed that's been left out after it rained, and a day later it stinks?

I guess it is a similar answer to the difference between rotten moldly bad cheese and yummy blue cheese. The answer is somewhere between not that much and quite a lot.

When food sits out and gets wet it smells bad because it is rotting and mildewing. Fermented feed should not smell bad and if any mildew forms then it is time to toss it out and start a new batch. Fermentation is a chemical progress of converting sugars to acids uses active bacteria. There are different ways to ferment -- the most commonly thought of one is alcohol but not all fermentation results in alcohol -- there is also pickling, yeasts, probiotics like yogurt and prebiotics like ACV. The key difference is that rotting makes things go bad and fermenting actually can be part of a process to preserve things and make them last longer. A pickle will last a lot longer than a cucumber for example and it is perfectly safe and great to eat a pickle as opposed to a cucumber that has been left out to rot and mold which will smell horrible and make you ill.

Here are some links to learn about the chemical process if you want to know more specifics:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermentation

http://chemistry.about.com/od/lecturenoteslab1/f/What-Is-Fermentation.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prebiotic_(nutrition)

 

[WoodlandWoman]

That's a really nice explanation.

 

[Adolfo11]

It's interesting that I just came across this thread. About 3 wks ago, I had a food dish get wet from some rain/heavy mist running off the roof. There was a second dish, that was better protected from the water and stayed relatively dry. I noticed my chickens went to the wet food dish and ate it first. I thought it strange and decided to wet one pan of food and keep the other dry. They always eat the wet pan 1st. Not exactly a scientific study, but I intend to keep wetting the feed. It hasn't had ill effects, that I can see and it does seem to prevent some food waste.
Adolfo11