Fermented feed question

[Angiebubs]

ca i have read both covered and uncovered as well. ..so not sure. i would suggest posting these questions on naturalchicknkeeping site they answer pretty quickly and are the most knowledgable

 

[leesbunny]

My ACV making jar is loosely covered. I just put the lid on a gallon glass jar and don't close it tightly. My fermented feed is always uncovered.

 

[Angiebubs]

ca urban...i asked and found out that with lab ff it should be covered with a lid and at least an inch of water as it is anaerobic!! hope this helps

 

[CA-Urban-Farmer]

Thank you Angiebubs. That does help!

 

[IAFarmGirl]

For those of you that want to ferment but don't want to do so in the house. Have you considered building a small insulated box big enough for your ferment bucket and a heat lamp? That would keep it warm enough to continue fermenting.

 

[Angiebubs]

I have found that keeping it in the barn/coop works fine. I just add a couple of quarts of hot water once a day. And with the weather warming up here soon ( I hope!) I should be able to stop that soon as well. I am very paranoid about using heat lamps as I hear almost weekly about another fire caused by heat lamps. I literally used nails and zip ties to make sure my heat lamp with my 5 wk olds can't move.

 

[pebcrb]

ca  i have read both covered and uncovered as well. ..so not sure. i would suggest posting these questions on naturalchicknkeeping site they answer pretty quickly and are the most knowledgable

I left the lid closed on my lacto-fermented feed and it built up pressure from the gasses and Luckily I noticed before it had to much pressure.

 

[Homestead girl]

I have been fermenting for about a year now and absolutely love it and so does my flock. I started doing it for my meaties. Well, my layers were jealous. It is not my sole source of feed though. I always leave out free choice dry food. The more fermented they eat, food consumption goes down considerably. I just have a pail of fermenting feed in the laundry room. It was in the garage until it got too cold out there. I also have another pail of fermenting scratch that is their bedtime treat.

The pail is an old pail from deck screws, about two gallons. I add about 2-3 glugs of raw ACV, and the rest water. Cover the feed totally with water. You may have to add more as the feed absorbs. I also throw in calf manna or catfood, depending on what I feel the flock needs. I do not cover it with a lid or cloth or anything. If I go through the laundry room, I stir it around. Sometimes when I am making more ACV, I throw some of the mother in with the feed. I drain it into a wire colandar, because I don't make so much. To encourage the layers to eat it at the beginning I through a little bird seed in when serving.

I think the problem that everyone has with it going bad is that it needs to be stirred every once in awhile. The smell should not be horrible, but what is horrible to some is not to others. I read once it should smell like pickled corn, but I have no idea what that smells like.

Now, we are on the second batch of meaties. They are almost 3 weeks old. I have been feeding the fermented feed from day one. About every other day I mix in a couple hard boiled eggs and mashed garlic. They get a big bowl of ferment about 3 times a day, but also have dry food avail at all times.

When I have chicks or meaties, the ferment is meat maker or chick starter, or both. When I only have the layers, then I ferment the layer. I also want to add that the overall health of my entire flock has improved on this method.

P.S. Angie, I only live about 10 minutes south of you in P.F.

Hi, I bought my first bag of scratch, I am going to do my first batch of FF. When I was buying the feed at the store the sales clerk I deal with never heard of FF before so I explained it to him and he gave me the strangest look. I was going to buy layer feed to ferment but he said it would just fall apart in the water and be mush . S
So my question is how does you layer feed turn out when you ferment it ? My chickens are dual purpose and I also have roo's . So I was wondering will it be okay to just feed them the FF and not layer food or should I feed them both ?

 

[Angiebubs]

lots of people feed chick grower feed when they have a mixed flock and keep oyster shell out for hens. i use layer crumbles and yes its mush lol but they love it. check out www.naturalchickenkeeping..com has all the info on ff

 

[pebcrb]

I have chicks and am amazed at how ff improved their stools! I free feed dry store bought chick starter and feed fermented home made whole grain chick starter a couple times a day. I just throw a scoop or two of the ff out into their run, works out great!