FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Elyrian1]

1. Yep
2. About two weeks now
3. I use a 5 gallon bucket and keep adding more feed and water to a starter quantity. Stir it daily, more than once preferably but time constraints are what they are. Can't say I'm fond of the smell, but the chickens don't care.
4. My normal organic layer pellets
5. The first couple of days the girls were not all that interested, they'd pick at it, and finish it really reluctantly. They absolutely mob me at the gate now. Yesterday one of them jumped off the ground and landed on the side of the coffee can I use to bring the feed out. Joke was on her when a second one jumped up and landed on the back of her neck, shoving her whole face down into the feed. No harm done thankfully, just hilarious to watch.

I think it's still to early to judge results. I can't say I've seen any positive improvements on anything except the feed costs. Which I will happily take. Organic feed isn't cheap but its how I keep my best buyers on the line, and so long as the girls keep laying, they're paying for it, not me, lol.

I'm hoping to begin supplementing their diet soon with wheatgrass, increasing my cost savings and perhaps turning the equilibrium of sell eggs/buy feed a little more in my favor.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

Yesterday one of them jumped off the ground and landed on the side of the coffee can I use to bring the feed out. Joke was on her when a second one jumped up and landed on the back of her neck, shoving her whole face down into the feed. No harm done thankfully, just hilarious to watch.
I think it's still to early to judge results. I can't say I've seen any positive improvements on anything except the feed costs. Which I will happily take. Organic feed isn't cheap but its how I keep my best buyers on the line, and so long as the girls keep laying, they're paying for it, not me, lol.

 

[igorsMistress]

My chickens also pass on the feed first thing and head for the yard. When I go out for the feeder late in the day it's usually empty. If it's really hot they don't eat as much.
I haven't seen a reduction in the amount of ff eaten, but they have free choice dry available and that lasts longer.

 

[FlyWheel]

If the birds are given FF on a regular basis, and not as a treat, they will initially pig out on it. But, then, their consumption will go down to a base line: level out. IMO, the initial pigging out is b/c they are working to replenish nutrients missing from their system when fed a dry ration. Same feed, but the bacterial and yeast action actually produces some vitamins.

Uh yeah. When exactly does this start? They've been on strictly FF for nearly three months now and they still go crazy over it. You'd think i've been putting heroin into their mix!

 

[lazy gardener]

I can't quite figure out whether you are complaining about your feed conversion rate or not. How old are your birds? When did they start laying? Did you do a 30 day feed conversion analysis before starting the FF, and after they had been on the FF for a while? Were all other factors the same? Same feed, same number of birds? Birds not actively growing? Were they laying before starting the FF, and are they still laying? Were they getting only feed, or supplementing with free range or other goodies?

 

[mobius]

OK i have some rough figures for how much my chickens eat of FF. The results are the dry amount. I estimate I go through 1 50 pound sack of dry organic feed every two months. Cost: $15 per month.

Then I broke this down further and if six chickens are averaging (and this is over the last eight months BTW) 25 pounds of food per month, they are each eating the dry equivalent of 2.23 ounces per day.

Does this sound right? Any input?

I have been supplementing with fermented alfalfa for these eight months (About dry equivalent of 1-2 cubes per day) and in the last two months, about equivalent of 1/2 cup (for six) of dry barley seeds (grown into fodder) per day.

Barley: $14 per 50 pound bag (nowhere near gone) so $2.00 per month.
Alfalfa cubes: $10 per 40 pound bag (maybe 1/2 gone) let;s say, so $0.62 per month.
They have the dry feed in a feeder in the coop to free feed but this is only filled (four gallons) every 2-3 months and is included in the above estimate.

Grand total: $17.62 feed costs per month or $2.93 per bird. Seems ike that would be about $1.50 per dozen eggs. (not counting of course bedding and so on, but that is pretty low cost).

(Before the barley they went through a bag of scratch over the winter, so lets call that even approximately)

Got carried away with the math here, of course!

 

[FlyWheel]

@LazyGardener: not sure what you're asking. I have one two year old hen, four 14 month old hens and five 9 month old hens. The 14 month olds started laying last autumn, the 9 month olds this spring. Once each generation outgrew chick mash all have been been fed dry Purina Flock Raiser until about three months ago when I started fermenting it. I have crushed oyster and egg shells in a separate bin on the side that they can peck at as needed.

I have no idea what "Feed Conversion Analysis" is, I just know that when I was giving them dry feed they would munch on it throughout the day, so that after 24 hours there was just a small amount left in their feed bins. This is how I knew how much they needed per day. Now that I'm fermenting it they wolf the whole batch down in less than 15 minutes. I am using the same amount of dry feed per day in the ferment as I was when I was giving it to them dry.

With the exception of the occasional treat, usually a couple handfuls of mealworms (20% protein as per the label) spread out so they can scratch and peck at it, and a "corn~yata" every now and then this is the only feed they get. I cannot free range them because of the dogs.

Does this clear things up any?

 

[mobius]

Well @FlyWheel everyone's situation is SO different. How about this? if your dry and your fermented amount is the same based on dry feed, how much are you feeding per day?

It is hard to assess because you have several of different ages...and still growing...but possibly a per chicken per day might help...not sure if that is what @lazy gardener is asking though!

I can't do a dry to FF comparison myself because i started with FF when the flock was about two weeks old...

 

[mobius]

Also would add that if say, I (or others) posted (like I did above) my feed amount and costs per chicken, and folks CONSIDERING FF would post THEIR dry feed cost per chicken, we might have something good to go on. Do remember to post your cost per pound of feed or cost per bag of feed with poundage....this makes the playing field more level....helps if others participate so we are comparing chickens to chickens, not chickens to ducks .

I am more than happy to help with this kind of analysis. It might look like this:

# of chickens (say POL and later to keep it consistent, let's not do babies except separately)
How often you go through a bag of feed
Pounds of feed in bag
FF or dry
Cost of bag of feed: not necessary, add if you like
Layers or meaties (consider duals layers for our purposes)

AND if your flock free-ranges, just mention it, Yes or No, I can covary it out if we get enough data points. and if not, we will still have interesting data.

I can run the numbers if you would rather I would, if you post the above...!

 

[lazy gardener]

@LazyGardener: not sure what you're asking. I have one two year old hen, four 14 month old hens and five 9 month old hens. The 14 month olds started laying last autumn, the 9 month olds this spring. Once each generation outgrew chick mash all have been been fed dry Purina Flock Raiser until about three months ago when I started fermenting it. I have crushed oyster and egg shells in a separate bin on the side that they can peck at as needed.

I have no idea what "Feed Conversion Analysis" is, I just know that when I was giving them dry feed they would munch on it throughout the day, so that after 24 hours there was just a small amount left in their feed bins. This is how I knew how much they needed per day. Now that I'm fermenting it they wolf the whole batch down in less than 15 minutes. I am using the same amount of dry feed per day in the ferment as I was when I was giving it to them dry.

With the exception of the occasional treat, usually a couple handfuls of mealworms (20% protein as per the label) spread out so they can scratch and peck at it, and a "corn~yata" every now and then this is the only feed they get. I cannot free range them because of the dogs.

Does this clear things up any?

A couple of posts back, it sounded like you were thinking that FF does not provide any benefit, either in savings or improvement of flock's diet. Forgive me if I mis-interpreted. The average dry feed rate/bird, according to Blue Seal data is .20 - .25#/bird/day. That would be assuming that the birds were not free range. (I think) The last time I did a feed/bird/day analysis, I found that my birds were eating around .18#/day.

So, if you are not seeing any benefit, I'm just wondering why you are fermenting. Again, forgive me if I am mis-interpreting your post.