FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[pegm]

So far the ff has not gone over very well here, does it matter if they get their ACV via the water vs the feed?

 

[niqueie]

I just started a new feed called feather fixer yesterday. It smells so bad this morning. I also added for the first time garlic (minced). I'm wondering if it's the new feed or the garlic or possible both together that is making my ff smell so bad. Smells a little like sulfur/gas (human) stink. It definitely isn't bad like mold or anything. Have any of you added the garlic into the feed. I put 2 tablespoons into 6 liters of feed. It does not have a fishy smell. It has stunk up my whole down stairs. I really smelled it walking into the front door. My DD said it made her want to throw up as she carried it up the hill to feed the chickens.

 

[beverly evans]

So far the ff has not gone over very well here, does it matter if they get their ACV via the water vs the feed?

Mine either. Everyone who knows says stick with it and they will come around and come to prefer it. Put some ACV also in the water. It is that good for them and us too.

 

[neopolitancrazy]

I just started a new feed called feather fixer yesterday. It smells so bad this morning. I also added for the first time garlic (minced). I'm wondering if it's the new feed or the garlic or possible both together that is making my ff smell so bad. Smells a little like sulfur/gas (human) stink. It definitely isn't bad like mold or anything. Have any of you added the garlic into the feed. I put 2 tablespoons into 6 liters of feed. It does not have a fishy smell. It has stunk up my whole down stairs. I really smelled it walking into the front door. My DD said it made her want to throw up as she carried it up the hill to feed the chickens.

my ff does have fish meal in it, and smells like rancid vomit when well and fully fermented, so I moved it out of the house into the garage. I haven't tried garlic, so can't tell you what that smells like.

 

[ak rain]

It sounds beautiful and amazing there ak rain. Maybe your deep litter will start keeping more warmth because you don't flip it. What are normal lows at night for January?

It always amazes me how adaptable Gods creations are. I grew up with ohio weather. COLD winters and hot summers. Now I live in San Diego and I have so adapted to here. I feel so cold now at 40 degrees. My sister who grew up in ohio with me, lives in Tucson and she starts shivering at 65 degrees. Everything is relative.

Everything thawed again I added shavings to DL and turned a little with some scratch so the chickens turned more. With much excitement that I had to change water out. My water bib frozen so I had carry into house. January nights 25 to 35. We drop to teens at a cold snap. We are on the coast so this holds us level and not too extreme. It's the inland Alaska that stays at 20below in winter and 80 in summer. Chickens seem fine but they don't like walking on snow. They do fly.
Ak rain

 

[kpgoldstar]

So far the ff has not gone over very well here, does it matter if they get their ACV via the water vs the feed?

I don't use ACV at all, neither in my feed or water. My chicks are 7 weeks, I have had them for 5 weeks and started them on the ff the first week I had them. I simply use Chick Starter with water to get my ferment going. It is still pretty warm where I live, supposed to be close to 90 today. I keep the ff in the house in a foodsafe plastic container and only fill as needed to last a couple of days. That is usually a cup of dry food added to whatever ferment and liquid is already there and occasionally I have to add maybe 1/2 c. of water if the dry will absorb what is left in the bucket. I only have 4 girls and they get about a full cup at daybreak for breakfast which they usually finish I think by midday or 2:00 maybe. Then they get a small snack in the evening when I am home from work and they have playtime on the lawn, about 5:15 - 6:00. When they go to bed I put the small container of whatever snack they didn't finish in the roost with them. It has usually barely been pecked on again by morning.
So every 3 days I am using 1 cup of dry which ends up making probably 4 - 4 1/2 cups of total feed. They seem to love it. What makes you say it has not gone over very well? Are they not eating it? Are you offering other things like treats or scratch that they find more appealing? Are you making your ff from pellets or something that may take longer to ferment? So far my chicks have not been interested in anything other than chicken food and herbs from the garden.
The only downside to ff is the crusty chests from the feed being wetter than granules. I started serving a much drier form of ff after their heads, necks and upper backs were also encrusted LOL! Now that I drain it super well and don't keep a layer of water over the feed, it is isolated to the chest area which they can rub off when they dust bath.

 

[pegm]

I had an issue with how wet it was also, it doesn't drain very well as the crumbles plug the holes. I just threw out a bunch of fine wet "mash" from the bottom of the second bucket (the one without holes), not all of it BTW, as it was keeping the holy bucket from settling down in the liquid. I am going to change to just fermenting the grain, and adding the crumbles before I feed, and stirring it in to moisten it. Maybe moisten it the evening before and then adding to grain, I am going to experiment. I did that a few days ago, added the crumbles the evening before, and the consistency was perfect. But of course, that only lasted one feeding because then you stir it up and it all gets mushed up together. I am not giving up yet. But I wanted to know if I give up on ff, if giving it in the water was sufficient.

 

[pegm]

KP, (I am retired military, so your name has a whole different meaning to me, altho the Navy called it Mess Cooking) They eat a little then go do other things and scratch dirt/sand into the feeder. They are doing a little better the last couple of days. I do throw a tiny bit of scratch out with meal worms to get them to scratch about, but I really probably don't need to throw the scratch. They get kitchen scraps and grass clippings, I do have dry crumbles/scratch mix also in there, but they do finish the ff by the late afternoon. I have 4 hens and give 1/2 cup each in am only. Still having an issue with runny poop. Hope it gets better soon. I am noticing a reduction in smell.

 

[kpgoldstar]

KP, (I am retired military, so your name has a whole different meaning to me, altho the Navy called it Mess Cooking) They eat a little then go do other things and scratch dirt/sand into the feeder. They are doing a little better the last couple of days. I do throw a tiny bit of scratch out with meal worms to get them to scratch about, but I really probably don't need to throw the scratch. They get kitchen scraps and grass clippings, I do have dry crumbles/scratch mix also in there, but they do finish the ff by the late afternoon. I have 4 hens and give 1/2 cup each in am only. Still having an issue with runny poop. Hope it gets better soon. I am noticing a reduction in smell.

KP is my initials and gold star is the name of my awards business. My chicks poo is super solid, not runny at all and there is almost no smell whatsoever. Mine won't eat any kitchen scraps at all yet but they are still young. They get grass when they are out on the lawn in the eves and on weekends and they seem to eat a ton of it. They do scratch dirt and sand into their feeder during the day, but I just take it as getting their natural grit. By the time I get home from work, the feeder is dry as a bone, not a speck of food and some rocks and dirt in it. When I let them out of the run, they race to where I give a snack but I make them forage around the yard before I give in and feed. I think it is more of a habit for them than being hungry. I am convinced I am feeding them way too much!

 

[kpgoldstar]

I don't do the 2 bucket method so not sure about having the wet mash at the bottom not allowing the top bucket into the water. I would have kept that mash and added some to each feeding over the next few days. I use a fine strainer to get my feed out of my container and I shake it really hard to extract as much moisture as possible so it is really clumpy and almost a consistency like thick grainy oatmeal.
I guess I don't understand that you are wanting to ferment the grain and add crumbles the night before or when you feed? What grain are you talking about? Do you have 2 different types of feed you are mixing together? Mine is all in one container, just feed and water. I scoop out what I need with my strainer, try to get it as dry as possible. Then when it starts to get low, I add another cup of feed and enough water that it will bubble again by morning.
Maybe this weekend I will try to video what I am doing and maybe it will help. Did you see Bee's 2 videos a couple pages back on her process? It helped me to realize you don't need nearly as much water as I was using originally.