FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Tikkijane]

Ok, I'm totally hijacking this thread back to FF for a minute e  I started my grower crumble fermenting Friday.  Just got home from work an hour or so ago and it's got that good yeasty, fermenty smell. Hoping the feed store still has the type of chicks I am interested in. If they do, will get them tomorrow.  Really looking forward to how this will all go.  Okay, I'm now back to 

I darn near wanted to video those first bubbles. Waiting was hard! Now I regularly use it as a science lesson to anyone uninitiated.

 

[monkcat]

I do have a tiny bit of experience with kombucha for fermenting. But it's ridiculous that I was so tickled it was ready tonight. Wanted to try the chicks on it when they get here. So I am glad it is ready and waiting. Fingers crossed for chicks tomorrow. Er, guess I should get to sleep!

 

[GerbilsOnToast]

One thing I've noticed is comments on how often people are stirring their ff. Stir daily, stir three times a day, stir, stir, stir. I don't do that. I back slop, add water, stir, add new food, stir, done. That's it. I do not stir again after I have set up the bucket. My buckets ferment for two or three days before being used, sometimes up to five days. I use a bamboo spoon to stir. After the liquid is soaked up it's too thick to stir with my spoon. I have never gotten around to getting something better to stir with. The food still ferments just the same. Sometimes I end up with thick layer of scoby on top. I just ladle it out. The chickens eat it just the same. No fuss.

I stir. When adding water for 'backslopping', when adding grain, before each feeding (2x/day), and sometimes when I'm near the bucket, just because it's the easiest way to check the moisture content in it Mostly because I feed a mix of whole grains and alfalfa pellets; if I don't stir, all of the BOSS is at the top, the alfalfa is in big clumps throughout the bucket, and most of the peas are at the bottom. Since they don't care for the alfalfa very much, I stir it to break up & distribute it (and everything else) throughout the mix. Because the different grains absorb water at different rates, and I'm not really measuring water or feed when I refill, checking it is the easiest way to make sure there's enough moisture there, so that the grains can absorb as much as possible. Lucky for me, I found a giant steel restaurant size cooking spoon at a thrift shop a while back!

When I fed the same mix dry, the alfalfa was never touched, the mineral mix stayed in the bottom of the feeder with it, and most of the oats were either left or tossed out on the floor - with it fermented, they eat everything. The only other way I've gotten them to eat oats is sprouted, and I just didn't want to mess with sprouting again this winter. (it's a quarter mile from the house to the barnyard and a steep grade - I prefer to keep it to two or three trips a day when there's snow!)

I'm really pleased with the results of it. They clean up breakfast before they go out, and when they come back in at night, even with their crops so full I wonder how they balance on the roost - they'll still hop down and clean up their bedtime snack. I have eight 4yo Leghorns, and three 5yo's, and I'm still getting nine to eleven eggs a day out of those eleven hens. The BO's and Freedom Rangers are almost daily as well. It's not much work and much less waste.

 

[monkcat]

Got my chicks! They are pigging outon the ff.

 

[Deerfield Acres]

Got my chicks! They are pigging outon the ff.

Congrats! Those chicks don't know how lucky they are!

 

[cjwaldon]

Finding the sweet spot for your own situtaion is the key. I was merely pointing out that stirring after you have a good ferment going is not necessary. Since I'm gone all day I can't stir mine throughout the day. I should also mention that I do not refresh. I feed the entire bucket, leaving enough to start the next bucket, and have several buckets going. Set it and forget it works for me and the food I'm fermenting.

My chickens won't touch the alfalfa pellets unless I ferment, or at least soak them. I made the mistake of buying alfalfa cubes the first time I bought alfalfa last summer. Those were so compacted they wouldn't soak up enough water in the ff. I had to soak them overnight before adding them to the ff. What I discovered is that the alfalfa bucket would be bubbling the next morning, too, fermenting on it's own with just alfalfa and tap water.

 

[monkcat]

Congrats! Those chicks don't know how lucky they are!

Thank you! I did a mini experiment. I put the crumbles they had been eating and the fermented crumbles (same brand). They by far preferred the fermented. Now if I could keep them from pooping in it!

 

[elizmartin]

Thankyou all for the experiences you are sharing….I now realize that i should cut my protein level down. ( Turkey grower)….I only feed mine FF as a side meal along with normal commercial feed (layer & Turkey grower mix). I have noticed since feeding the extra FF, that my birds are looking much better, healthier etc. I add ACV and the mixture usually has Payback 5 way scratch, TACO. I also give beer mash occasionally which of itself becomes a FF. I appreciate your information Beekiss and know my mixture is more than i need but i guess its our need to always try to do *more*..
I too have learned that without a balanced layer, just fermented grain will affect laying ability…. I am not able to allow free range except on special occasions because of a Bald Eagle that likes to dine in my neighborhood.

 

[farmerbrowne]

im not too good with some of this jargon, so simply put I am going to attempt to just put some of my chicken feed along with scratch in a pail of luke warm water. I shall let it sit for a week and see the progress it makes

 

[monkcat]

It should do fine. i don't even think it will take a full week. three days and mine was ready to go. Good luck!