FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[azygous]

Thank you both of you for the reassurance!

 

[kpgoldstar]

We just purchased a house that came w/ 13 chickens and a rooster. I'm really enjoying getting to know my new flock and learning how to keep them happy, healthy, and productive. We live a natural life in our home so my plan is to carry that philosophy into my chicken keeping, as well. I'm super interested in feeding fermented food. A couple of questions I have....If I put the FF into a trough (love the gutter idea) do I just leave it there until it's gone or do I clean it out after a few hours? How do I know how much to put in? (right now they have a feeder that they just eat from whenever they want and I have no idea how much that is per day) Do you feed FF every day or a few times a week? They have a very large chicken yard (probably 100x100) for days that I work. For days that I'm home they free range so they get a lot of forage opportunity.

Thanks for any advice/help/answers!

I feed only ff every single day. My mix is simply chick starter and water. I keep it just moist enough for me to see bubbles and I make my batches large enough to feed about 4-5 days. My chickens rarely get snacks or scratch (occasional apple or squash).They don't get any dry food to pick from during the day. I feed in the morning, enough for them to finish completely in about 2 hours. They get to free range in the afternoon, but I live in the desert so it is basically grass, weeds and leaves with not many bugs. I give them an evening snack of about 1/4 of their morning ration that they gobble up in about 30 minutes. They do not have access to any food once they are in their roost after dark. My 4 girls are about 13 weeks old and super happy and healthy.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Thank you both of you for the reassurance!

Depending on the number of pages you display, I took a pictorial of my process back on page 107 (I am showing 152 pages right now) or post number 1090 or somewhere around there. I keep mine drier than I did back then, but it gives you an idea of how the water seems to increase as the batch gets used up.

 

[azygous]

Thanks, KP, that did help seeing pics of your ferment. Now that I know what's going on, I have another question. I've fed the chickens from the soupy mixture lately, and their poops seem to have gotten runny again, with way more cecal than seems normal. Is there a relation between soupy-textured ferment and more liquid poop? They seem to be happy with FF that's soupy as well as when they get the drier, fluffier stuff. I, on the other hand, do not enjoy cleaning up soupy poop.

 

[Tikkijane]

I feed only ff every single day. My mix is simply chick starter and water. I keep it just moist enough for me to see bubbles and I make my batches large enough to feed about 4-5 days. My chickens rarely get snacks or scratch (occasional apple or squash).They don't get any dry food to pick from during the day. I feed in the morning, enough for them to finish completely in about 2 hours. They get to free range in the afternoon, but I live in the desert so it is basically grass, weeds and leaves with not many bugs. I give them an evening snack of about 1/4 of their morning ration that they gobble up in about  30 minutes. They do not have access to any food once they are in their roost after dark. My 4 girls are about 13 weeks old and super happy and healthy.

They actually do need grit. It's not food; it's not a treat- it's teeth.

Giving grit won't interfere with food consumption (kind of like free-choice oyster shell). They won't eat it until they need it, but it is important.

Erg- I read grit instead of SCRATCH, lol.

I have an EE cockerel who is a serious scratch junkie. I give the guineas a bit every night to bribe them to go to bed, and he's always in there loading up.....heh.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks, KP, that did help seeing pics of your ferment. Now that I know what's going on, I have another question. I've fed the chickens from the soupy mixture lately, and their poops seem to have gotten runny again, with way more cecal than seems normal. Is there a relation between soupy-textured ferment and more liquid poop? They seem to be happy with FF that's soupy as well as when they get the drier, fluffier stuff. I, on the other hand, do not enjoy cleaning up soupy poop.

Yep, there's a relation between the two...in order to eat their food they are forced to consume more water than they would normally consume, particularly at this time of year, so they naturally will excrete more urine and also have more fluid in the bowel content, hence the runny stools. Thicken your mix and it should clear that up.

 

[trinoc]

Thanks so much for the advice! I will start FF next Tuesday (I work from now until then and being gone 14 hrs each day that I work limits my time to start something new and observe results). Can't wait to see how it works out for my birdies.

 

[kpgoldstar]

They actually do need grit. It's not food; it's not a treat- it's teeth.

Giving grit won't interfere with food consumption (kind of like free-choice oyster shell). They won't eat it until they need it, but it is important.

Erg- I read grit instead of SCRATCH, lol.

I have an EE cockerel who is a serious scratch junkie. I give the guineas a bit every night to bribe them to go to bed, and he's always in there loading up.....heh.

My bedding in the coop and run is sand, so when they do get treats and scratch, they also consume some of the sand with it. They also cruise around in the garden and lawn area when they free range so they eat dirt along with the weeds and grass. I did research commercial grit and pretty much figured out that it is basically sand. The type of sand in my coop is coarse, like construction sand.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

My bedding in the coop and run is sand, so when they do get treats and scratch, they also consume some of the sand with it. They also cruise around in the garden and lawn area when they free range so they eat dirt along with the weeds and grass. I did research commercial grit and pretty much figured out that it is basically sand. The type of sand in my coop is coarse, like construction sand.

Grit comes in different sizes. I think sand-sized grit is great for chicks as I believe it helps keep them from "pasting up." I find that chick-grit disappears quickly as it just passes through the bird and they need to keep picking up more -- but I feel it is worth it until they are big enough to pick up bigger particle sizes. Bigger birds need bigger grit.

The grit also needs to be "insoluble." This means it doesn't dissolve in the gizzard like "soluble" oyster shell particles do, but sticks around so the bird can grind the food in its gizzard. I don't trust the particles in the soil here to be "insoluble," so I provide store-bought grit for my birds. Other people report being able to collect sand/gravel from the beds of rivers/streams on their own property to use for grit ... But you'd have to trust your source to not be too polluted ... that's why I don't offer construction-grade sand/gravel to my birds. I use commercial poultry grit.

I mix up various sizes of grit and combine them into my grit hoppers ... this lets the birds select the size grit they want/need.

Here is a great PDF that explains the different sized grits and at what ages they are appropriate. It has some photos so you can judge the relative particle sizes of the grit.

http://www.tccmaterials.com/pdf/CSpoultrygritdata.pdf

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Grit comes in different sizes. I think sand-sized grit is great for chicks as I believe it helps keep them from "pasting up." I find that chick-grit disappears quickly as it just passes through the bird and they need to keep picking up more -- but I feel it is worth it until they are big enough to pick up bigger particle sizes. Bigger birds need bigger grit.

The grit also needs to be "insoluble." This means it doesn't dissolve in the gizzard like "soluble" oyster shell particles do, but sticks around so the bird can grind the food in its gizzard. I don't trust the particles in the soil here to be "insoluble," so I provide store-bought grit for my birds. Other people report being able to collect sand/gravel from the beds of rivers/streams on their own property to use for grit ... But you'd have to trust your source to not be too polluted ... that's why I don't offer construction-grade sand/gravel to my birds. I use commercial poultry grit.

I mix up various sizes of grit and combine them into my grit hoppers ... this lets the birds select the size grit they want/need.

Here is a great PDF that explains the different sized grits and at what ages they are appropriate. It has some photos so you can judge the relative particle sizes of the grit.

http://www.tccmaterials.com/pdf/CSpoultrygritdata.pdf

Lots of sizes but for chickens it is primarily sizes #1, 2 & 3. #1 for chicks is only good for up to about 4 or 5 weeks. As you said grit too small will pass right through and have no benefit.
I didn't used to provide grit to chicks because I fed nothing but starter/grower which is already ground. When I did finally provide it they devoured it so I offer it for everyone now. For chicks #1. For mixed flocks #2 and 3.