FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[birdlady79]

I was thinking for people in really hot areas who are looking for ways to cool their flock down, that maybe portioning up a day's worth of feed the night before and refrigerating it would be nice for the birds. That way the feed would be nicely fermented (before refrigeration), but cool when served. I gather the feed would stop fermenting further when it got too cold. From what I understand about people who ferment outdoors where they have low night-time temps, having a cold phase of each 24 hour day doesn't stop the fermentation process entirely, but fermentation pauses it when it is cooler. 

Ok. Lol.... What I've been doing is after night feeding, I stick whatever is left over in freezer.... Then add fresh in morning..... It's usually not that much leftover.....but I will stop doing that....

 

[TwoCrows]

Holy Crow!....My chicks are going crazy on the stuff! Like they haven't eaten weeks! At first they were a bit shy to try it, so I sprinkled a bit of starter on top. Pretty soon they were all diving in and now, they will not even TOUCH the dry starter!!

Hens seem to enjoy the fermented layer as well. I have several tubs out of it and still I hear grunts and groans over the feed bowls.

Oh, and why is it that chicks feel the need to stand in it! LOL I solved the problem for now. As they grow, pretty soon they will be able to stand and reach inside of a chicken sized tub to eat.

I am happy!

 

[subhanalah]

Ok....so it is day 3 on my experiment with fermenting layer and starter feed. They both smell good but yeasty. No mold. Still sloppy and juicy looking. So is this it? Do I need to do anything to feed it?

I did go ahead and slop some of the layer in to a small tub this morning for the layers. I hope it is good to feed at this stage, as wow, they completely ignored their little mixed seed snack I give them first thing in the morning and were fighting over this tub of sloppy mash! I guess it is a hit!

But just want to clear it with you all to be sure there is not something else I should do with it before feeding.

Thanks everyone for all the help! I am sure I will have more questions about this, and I will try the fermented starter on the chicks this morning as well.

What I would do now is add more dry and incorporate it to make it like a dry paste. Sometimes I'll also add another thin layer of dry over top and pour water so it just moistens it.
It's really a trial and error thing, but adding dry will definitely make it easier to scoop out and handle.

I've been reading this thread on and off for a few weeks now, and I do have my girls on FF (I have four hens). I wanted to contribute to say that at first I took their FF out to them in a medium-sized ceramic trough-like bowl (it's the smaller one here: Bowls). They would eat it but they would leave some, and maybe come back to it. I discovered that when I tipped the food out onto the ground (I was thinking it was too wet and the liquid needed to drain off) they were more enthusiastic about eating it. So, now I just take the food out to them, "dust off" a patch of dirt - moving aside things I don't want them to eat like straw or poop, and then pour the feed into a pile on the ground. They are happy to eat it that way and don't leave any behind. I also make sure that I don't put it in their favorite dust bathing spots.

I do take them some in the mornings and evenings. But they aren't as into it in the mornings, probably because I have some hanging dry feed in their predator-proof run that they have access to all day, and especially when they get up in the morning they have it available so by the time I go out to let them out in the mornings into their larger space they have already had breakfast. They will eventually eat what I put out for them though. When I take them some of the FF in the evenings, they go after it right away. Maybe I should just take it to them in the evenings and skip the mornings. There really isn't a right and a wrong way to do this, though, as long as they are eating what I do give them. 

I fill up their bowl (I use a stainless steel dog bowl. I'll have to find a picture) and refill in the morning. I try to be sure they always have food, but they are mostly still just babies I feed twice a day, sometimes they eat more than others, I guess some day's forage is better than others.

 

[subhanalah]

Holy Crow!....My chicks are going crazy on the stuff! Like they haven't eaten weeks! At first they were a bit shy to try it, so I sprinkled a bit of starter on top. Pretty soon they were all diving in and now, they will not even TOUCH the dry starter!! 

Hens seem to enjoy the fermented layer as well. I have several tubs out of it and still I hear grunts and groans over the feed bowls. 

Oh, and why is it that chicks feel the need to stand in it! LOL I solved the problem for now. As they grow, pretty soon they will be able to stand and reach inside of a chicken sized tub to eat. 

I am happy!

I gave some chick's to a friend who insists on feeding dry and not fermenting. Her babies she got from me are dinky compared to the ones of the same breeds that stayed with me. I wonder if my chick's could be growing too fast?

I also have a not quite 16 week old pullet squatting for me...could this be the FF? She's an EE, they don't typically lay til 6+months I thought?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

20 weeks is standard for most breeds. Spring and early summer due to lengthening days, they can lay much earlier. I actually keep my pullets on shorter days to prevent laying till they're much older. I have 12 pullets that are 23 1/2 weeks. I got the first egg yesterday and it was 54 grams. Broiler breeder operations do the same thing so they can incubate the eggs as they're laid rather than wait for them to get bigger. They shoot for laying at 24 weeks.
I really don't think FF will make laying happen earlier since onset of lay is primarily related to photoperiod and to a lesser extent, protein.

 

[TwoCrows]

Quote: Thanks Sub! I did just that. Things are going well and everybody is eating their fermented feed. I added to the original mix from what I took out for today to keep the mix going. I have a hen that has a lot of trouble with slow and sour crop on bagged feed. I have tried so many feeds on her, eventually thinking she had some sort of problem. But for the past year I have been feeding my flock a homemade whole grain mix and she can digest the whole grains just fine, but still has issues with dry bagged feed. So I am really hoping this fermented feed will work for her. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[TwoCrows]

I had only put out a sample of food this morning for the chicks, (chickens got full rations) and when I went out about an hour ago, the chicks had nearly licked the bowl clean!!! I slopped some more in and they dove in like piranhas. LOL They are hooked!!

 

[Tikkijane]

Ok....so it is day 3 on my experiment with fermenting layer and starter feed. They both smell good but yeasty. No mold. Still sloppy and juicy looking. So is this it? Do I need to do anything to feed it?

I did go ahead and slop some of the layer in to a small tub this morning for the layers. I hope it is good to feed at this stage, as wow, they completely ignored their little mixed seed snack I give them first thing in the morning and were fighting over this tub of sloppy mash! I guess it is a hit!

But just want to clear it with you all to be sure there is not something else I should do with it before feeding.

Thanks everyone for all the help! I am sure I will have more questions about this, and I will try the fermented starter on the chicks this morning as well.

If it's too soupy, you can add a few handfuls of feed to thicken it up. If your SCOBY is good and it's past day 3, go ahead and feed.

 

[TwoCrows]

Ok....got a question....

First, yesterday was the first day of the feeding of the fermented layer feed to the layers. For the FIRST time in 3 years, my hen with the crop issues had completely solid healthy poop under the roost bar! I was completely shocked!!! She has had loose stool every day of her life. So this fermented feed is already doing wonders for this bird!!

BUT....I have a problem. My mash starts out as mash in the morning. It is wet and sloppy. We are in a very severe drought this past decade and our humidity averages daily around 6%. So I just can not keep the mash wet. It gets stickier as the day goes on, no matter how much water I add to the feed. By the end of yesterday it was such a thick paste and I am not sure they ate too much before roosting time because it was just too stiff.

Is there something I can add beside water to help it stay wetter and moister? Possibly AVC or something else? Apple sauce? Should I be brewing it with ACV originally?? Would this help? I can't be running up there every 20 mins to add water to the feed. And even still, it wants to paste up by the end of the day anyway.

Help!!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

This is just a thought but rather than try to keep it moist, try a dryer ferment by fermenting and then adding enough dry feed to make it crumbly. That way it will stay crumbly through the dry day.