FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[wlhtx]

Mine is usually more of a thick oatmeal type consistency. But if yours are only 2 days old, they probably do not have much of an appetite yet since they still have the nutrients in them from the egg prior to hatch.

You can sprinkle a little dry on top of the mash and sometimes that helps them figure it out.

 

[Beekissed]

Agreed! They are still living off of yolk nutrition at that point and won't show as much interest in food...give it a few days and they will eat the pan it's being served in.

 

[rawheid]

I am currently feed 17% layer dry. How would I go about switching to fermented feed? There isn't a mill close around here that I'm willing to support. My feed comes bagged to the feed store (not a mill). I do know farmers but I don't want to start pestering them for certain grains. I could buy some from my Dad, but he's 2 hours away. Not economical. All he has is wheat, barley and canola. So.... Can you ferment layer ration?

 

[RoseMarie1]

Agreed! They are still living off of yolk nutrition at that point and won't show as much interest in food...give it a few days and they will eat the pan it's being served in.

You are SO right Bee, you had me chuckling out loud on that one! Hubby was sitting out there earlier on the porch swing drinking his coffee and he said they were wanting his coffee.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I am currently feed 17% layer dry. How would I go about switching to fermented feed? There isn't a mill close around here that I'm willing to support. My feed comes bagged to the feed store (not a mill). I do know farmers but I don't want to start pestering them for certain grains. I could buy some from my Dad, but he's 2 hours away. Not economical. All he has is wheat, barley and canola. So.... Can you ferment layer ration?

yes that's what I ferment, just plain layer crumbles. Nothing else but non chlorinated water. You can sit some jugs of water out to let the chlorine get out of it for like 24 hours. That's what I do but just make sure you leave the lids off the water.

 

[wlhtx]

Mine's still chlorinated when I use it, Rose! It doesn't seem to hurt the fermentation at all.

One thing I also do, though, is I use warm tap water - not cold. We have one of those handheld spray things on our shop sink, so I just turn on the hot water and use the sprayer to fill up my bucket. I think that also helps kick start the fermentation. Should really help the process when the temps get cold - I think.

(It also makes rinsing the insides of the bucket super easy, so giblets don't stay stuck to the sides as I use the FF.)

 

[Beekissed]

I am currently feed 17% layer dry. How would I go about switching to fermented feed? There isn't a mill close around here that I'm willing to support. My feed comes bagged to the feed store (not a mill). I do know farmers but I don't want to start pestering them for certain grains. I could buy some from my Dad, but he's 2 hours away. Not economical. All he has is wheat, barley and canola. So.... Can you ferment layer ration?

Ditto what Rose said...I feed layer ration and whole grains as well, but sometimes just layer mash. You can ferment any grain based feed you can get your hands on. Just watch the condition of your birds after making the switch because it can take regular feed and turn it into some super fuel and it can make your birds fat pretty quick. You'll want to monitor feed intake so as to not get them too fat for good laying, health and mobility.

 

[skitzkle]

Bee- I think you have mentioned before that you feed layer feed to your chicks is that true? How did they do? We have had some unexpected financial crisiss this week and I won't be able to buy any feed till Friday & my chicks hatched Saturday. I am currently feeding my older pullets that are just staring to lay a mix of grower & layer feed with just a little scratch grains, fermented of course.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee- I think you have mentioned before that you feed layer feed to your chicks is that true? How did they do? We have had some unexpected financial crisiss this week and I won't be able to buy any feed till Friday & my chicks hatched Saturday. I am currently feeding my older pullets that are just staring to lay a mix of grower & layer feed with just a little scratch grains, fermented of course.

They do great! The older members of my flock were fed layer mash as new chicks..they are currently 6 yrs old. They've enjoyed wonderful health and a very productive life all these many years, so I've seen no side effects from feeding the layer mash.

My granny always just fed her chicks corn meal!

 

[rawheid]

This is super interesting. Do i just feed it once a day? I currently have hanging feeders with feed always available. How should I transition? Keep the hanging feeders? what do you put it into for them to eat? Does this replace the ACV in the water?

Can you tell I'm a rookie at this?