FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[ivy crew farm]

BeeKissed I heard of the brown sugar additive from Chris09 who is on here

 

[Beekissed]

BeeKissed I heard of the brown sugar additive from Chris09 who is on here

Wonder what his reasoning behind adding sugar to the ferment would be...the grains have enough natural starch/sugar in them to promote fermentation.

The chooks sure don't need any extra sugar, that's for sure.

 

[thailand]

Just a couple quick questions if I may..

My chickens are a varied bunch when it comes to ages....3 between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old (not laying), 1 x 9 month old who is laying 9 days straight and counting (yaay!), 5 x chicks that are 27 weeks old (still waiting for the first egg). 2 x young roos in that 27 week old age group, and lastly a group of 4 x 9 week olds.

Should I be feeding them layer or grower rations? (Taking into account the couple of roos and the fact all but one is laying!)

And, if adding grains to the fermented mix cuts the ration....is this something I want to be doing or not?

Sorry if I'm overthinking things or getting myself confused. Just trying to figure out why only one is laying....they've been on fermented feed for months already.

 

[Beekissed]

Just a couple quick questions if I may..

My chickens are a varied bunch when it comes to ages....3 between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old (not laying), 1 x 9 month old who is laying 9 days straight and counting (yaay!), 5 x chicks that are 27 weeks old (still waiting for the first egg). 2 x young roos in that 27 week old age group, and lastly a group of 4 x 9 week olds.

Should I be feeding them layer or grower rations? (Taking into account the couple of roos and the fact all but one is laying!)

And, if adding grains to the fermented mix cuts the ration....is this something I want to be doing or not?

Sorry if I'm overthinking things or getting myself confused. Just trying to figure out why only one is laying....they've been on fermented feed for months already.

Your older gals are probably in molt right now, so they may not be laying for that reason...and, depending on their breed, they may be on the downhill slide of their laying life anyway.

The youngsters are not old enough to lay and the roosters...well....you'll be waiting a long, long time for them to lay. Don't be holding a carton under those guys...

I'd be feeding them all a layer ration mixed with a lower protein grain because no one is laying except one! They don't NEED all that super nutrition if they are not producing and the youngsters don't need all that protein either just to grow up...unless you are trying to turn out show birds for a competition coming up, they will do just fine on regular, lower proteins at that age.

Now, you'll hear different opinions from other folks and you'll have to choose your own way on all that...I'm just telling you how I do it and I get good growth, good laying, good health on a lower protein at this time of year than most people feed. Actually, I get all that on lower proteins at other times of the year also.

For some reason people got it into their heads that more protein produces more eggs and healthier chickens and that's simply not so...not even remotely so. If you have a high production animal and you don't mind what it does to their health, you just want as many eggs as possible, as quickly as possible~darn the cost and the bird's lives~then high pro is the way to go!

If not, slow down the roll on chucking high protein feeds in those bird's mouths and realize that athletes, hunting dogs and race horses get high proteins because they are actually moving at a fast pace and doing a lot of work every day.

Chickens are not and their systems cannot take high pro feeds without eventually showing some really poor results in health and laying. I'm not saying go drastically in the other direction and cut out proteins, but if your birds are confined and they are not producing right now, they don't need high pro feeds.

If they free range and they have good forage, they are getting great protein out on the pasture and the feed ration is merely a supplement...and if they are not laying right now, they don't need anymore proteins than they are getting on forage and in regular rations...even mixed with some whole grains.

 

[thailand]

Wow, thanks Bee for the quick reply.

Thanks also for speaking your wisdom....really needed that to boot all the silliness out of my head!

For clarity's sake - you would even feed the fermented layer to the 9 week old chicks?

 

[Beekissed]

I even feed it to day olds...and have done it for years upon years.

The 6 yr old birds in my flock were started on layer mash and they are still healthy and laying, though some have taken a break for molt right now. The 4 yr olds were started on chick starter for 2 wks and then went to layer/chick starter until the starter was gone and then right into layer. The 4 wk. old birds I have were started out on layer/chick starter as well and moved right into layer.

 

[Michelle82]

So you feed fermented layer to day-old chicks... ? Layer has a lot lower protein content than starter. It also cost a lot less.

So 3 Questions

1.) If you do this do the chickens still start laying at 25 weeks ?
2.) Ideally, how long should you ferment a layer mix ( powder ) for it to be ready to feed?
3.) What is your mortality rate between hatch and 25weeks ?

 

[Beekissed]

So you feed fermented layer to day-old chicks... ? Layer has a lot lower protein content than starter. It also cost a lot less.

So 3 Questions

1.) If you do this do the chickens still start laying at 25 weeks ?
2.) Ideally, how long should you ferment a layer mix ( powder ) for it to be ready to feed?
3.) What is your mortality rate between hatch and 25weeks ?

1. If they so desire...the breeds I get usually lay between 5-6 mo. but I've had a few that took off sooner(4 mo.) usually production breeds.
2. Same as any other feed.
3. Over the past 6-7 yrs., of the chicks~approx. 155 chicks ~I've had 3 chicks die from unknown causes, total. Don't know the exact percentage of that, but I'm thinking it's on the low end compared to most folks raising that many chicks.

Not to mention, those chicks that lived have been producing longer and living longer than most other people report their birds doing, so I'm thinking that, combined with other animal husbandry methods I am using, it just MAY be working!

 

[shabychkpoultry]

Hello all! I am new to FF, have been feeding it for about eight weeks, and LOVE the results so far. BUT, I have question if feeding FF helps reduce, or eliminate sour croup? Was just reading up on Sour Croup on another thread, and thought I would ask the experts here too!

 

[RoseMarie1]

I think I asked this on the other one but didn't think they get sour crop when ff is done or should I say if it's done right. ???? Was curious about that to. ??