Fermented feed

[Henriettamom919]

What on earth is fermented feed? I'm having images of drunk chickens.

Nope, not that kind! Think fermentation like that of yeast in bread or cultures in yogurt.

It's just left to break down and create live cultures that essentially break the food down making it more digestible and the probiotics have a whole truckload of health benefits!

 

[Nordiclaura]

What is this mysterious feeding that you talk about.

 

[chkva]

What is this mysterious feeding that you talk about.

This explains it all...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/amp/

 

[Nordiclaura]

Thanks.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I fed only FF for a couple years... NO savings as my flock already wasn't wasteful... and NO real health benefit.. IMO.

Lots of wasted time feeding a flock as large as mine.

I even tried fermenting my dog food!

My final assessment... simply making a mash creates as much savings as fermenting due to waste. It will help those who really need help... but for an average healthy flock... meh. Many feeds already have probiotics added in... and you don't get something for nothing.. Those little microbes are consuming the sugars in your feed.

Our formulated rations MEET the requirements needed for our birds by law. We somehow think we know more than the nutritionist who specialize in avian diets and work to alter the product they put together for us.

No increased hatch rate, egg size, earlier onset of lay or anything else people claim are all due to FF... Seasonal changes can account for most things and NO bird can go beyond their genetic potential.

My assessment.. FF hogwash.

 

[NNYchick]

I can't comment on the health benefits because I can not convince my flock to eat it. All my chickens get crumble made into a mash with water every morning to reduce the waste and fines but 3 separate times I have tried FF they refuse to eat it. I gave up got sick of throwing food out and wasting time and counter space.

 

[Fairview01]

I fed only FF for a couple years... NO savings as my flock already wasn't wasteful... and NO real health benefit.. IMO.

Lots of wasted time feeding a flock as large as mine.

I even tried fermenting my dog food!

My final assessment... simply making a mash creates as much savings as fermenting due to waste. It will help those who really need help... but for an average healthy flock... meh. Many feeds already have probiotics added in... and you don't get something for nothing.. Those little microbes are consuming the sugars in your feed.

Our formulated rations MEET the requirements needed for our birds by law. We somehow think we know more than the nutritionist who specialize in avian diets and work to alter the product they put together for us.

No increased hatch rate, egg size, earlier onset of lay or anything else people claim are all due to FF... Seasonal changes can account for most things and NO bird can go beyond their genetic potential.

My assessment.. FF hogwash.

X2 but you and I are in the scorned minority.

In an uncontrolled environment without the desired inoculating yeasts feeding FF could be potentially fatal if the wrong bacteria takes up residence and by the time the off odor of the feed is detected they've already been getting it. I sometimes wonder if the mysterious deaths come from FF.

But FF is an overall nutritional loss. Our feed starts with a certain nutritional level. Water is added, yeasts begin fermenting the feed by consuming feed nutrients. Yeasts are classified as decomposers in the life cycle. As opposed to earlier consumers in the life cycle the waste products of decomposers has no nutritional value. It is simply carbon.

So the nutritional equation is FEED + YEASTS = a nutritional value less than the original feed. Feed is costly as it is and I'm not spending my money to feed yeast.

Wasting feed is a management problem.

 

[paneubert]

So the nutritional equation is FEED + YEASTS = a nutritional value less than the original feed. Feed is costly as it is and I'm not spending my money to feed yeast.

The only flaw in this otherwise great post (that I deleted most of when quoting) is that you are not accounting for the nutritional value of the yeast itself. Nothing is ever created or destroyed, only changed..... The chickens are digesting the yeast and getting nutrition from that. Not the same nutrition as the feed, but nutrition nonetheless.

I am no rabid FF feeder, but just wanted to poke my head in here. I am in the "soak some feed the night before or the morning of and then feed it to them" camp. A lot less work.

 

[Henriettamom919]

And while FF has seemed to improve some issues my girls were having I still make sure they have a dish of regular feed available near the coop as well as turning uneaten dry seed into empty flower beds to be eaten sprouted.

Mine are getting their feed from all stages

 

[igorsMistress]

I used to feed only FF but now do a combination. Basically pellets all the time and then an overnight soak of the last bits in the bag fed as a treat over a couple of days.

Their favorite is when I use the overnight soak water from seeds I'm going to sprout to make a mash in the morning though.