FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

Well, if anyone was every convinced that chickens are vegetarians, my girls seem out to prove the opposite.

I hear Fugly doing the 'hey babies, I got a treat for you' song...and discover he's carrying a tiny little songbird in his beak.

The girls went WILD for it, even the new barreds that just got introduced to that pen out of quarantine. :hmm
 
I have an amazing development from feeding FF for a week now!

Two and a half years ago I brought home four Speckled Sussex day-olds, and one of the chicks had pure liquid poops, very much like water. I thought she was sick or the brooder was too hot, or she might be having a reaction to the ACV in the water. In other words, I was extremely worried about her.

Up until this week, her poops have been little changed from that first day when I heard her first go,"splort!", but she's always been heathy otherwise. However, the last few mornings, I've seen solid poops on the poop board under the perch she uses. There's no chance that the poop is from another chicken since she's the only one who sleeps in that particular corner.

I was hoping for more solid poop from the flock in general, but I don't think I ever expected the poop from this hen to be so dramatically improved!

But, after being on FF for a week, I'm still seeing lots of cecal poop. When you all report on solid poop from feeding FF, does that include the cecal form? Is there any chance that evil, smelly, oily, curse from the dark side stuff will ever be anything other than the black pudding I'm still seeing? Or am I just hoping for the impossible?
 
Yay for solid poop!!!
woot.gif
And, no, the cecal poops are a fact of life and they still stink and look like a hot mess. Can't ever avoid that because those, basically, are not fully digested poops, nor do they have the fluid removed from them by the large intestines as would be with normal poops. Those are just partially fermented dry matter...plant fiber, bug shells, etc.
 
I'm really getting into this now! I'm thinking about two buckets now, so that the feed can get good and fermented before I feed it to the flock. Feed out of one while the other is percolating. What's the best way to start a second bucket? From scratch?

Has anyone covered adding raisins to the ferment? What will that do? I imagine it introduces a huge amount of sugar. Bee? Keep me from doing something stupid here.
 
Last edited:
I'm really getting into this now! I'm thinking about two buckets now, so that the feed can get good and fermented before I feed it to the flock. Feed out of one while the other is percolating. What's the best way to start a second bucket? From scratch?

Has anyone covered adding raisins to the ferment? What will that do? I imagine it introduces a huge amount of sugar. Bee? Keep me from doing something stupid here.

I'd just take some from the first bucket to start the grain in the second bucket to make it an easy thing. I'm sure someone out there is doing it and I can't see where it would hurt as along as they were in moderation.
 
I've been fermenting (single batch method) some of our bird's feed for several months now. The method is a bit different than one described here. I mix feed, molasses and a lactobacillus based starter called EM (effective microorganisms) and ferment it anaerobically for 1-3 weeks at room temp. It definitely gets sour smelling and the pH ends up 3.2-3.4. I start a new batch in a new container before using up the first one. I thought I would try the starter-free method described here and see if I and the birds liked it any more or less.

With the single or double bucket with no starter method, just water, has anyone ever tested the pH? Or had different results with different feeds? Mine has only been going about 6 days, but it's not getting sour yet. The pH is still pretty high, about 4.8. It certainly is bubbling, which is probably mostly from yeasts rather than lactic acid bacteria. It doesn't smell of alcohol (yeasts produce alcohol) and the birds seem to love the stuff, but I'm wondering if this is what others experience? I've been fermenting all sorts of things (except alcohol) for the last few years so I'm not completely new to it, but usually we get a lower pH/more sour by 6 days (it's 66-71F). I'm not too concerned about finishing off the rest of the batch I have. Perhaps the sour is in there and I just can't smell it and the test paper is showing a false reading for some reason. But I started a 1/2 bucket full of a new batch, using the molasses and EM method I've used above and will only ferment it for a week or so. We have well water, which has been wonderful for all the other ferments we've made (pickles, sauerkraut, sourdough, etc). Perhaps I am just being impatient and it will sour up in another day or two, but I am curious to know if anyone else has ever tested the pH.

FWIW, the EM folks recommend feeding the EM-fermented feed at a ration of 5% of their rations. So far I haven't been able to figure out if the reason for doing so was more economics or if feeding too much sour is not good for the birds in an on-going basis. In other words, just how sour are you all feeding it to your birds? Sour like pickle sour or something less so?
 
I've been fermenting (single batch method) some of our bird's feed for several months now. The method is a bit different than one described here. I mix feed, molasses and a lactobacillus based starter called EM (effective microorganisms) and ferment it anaerobically for 1-3 weeks at room temp. It definitely gets sour smelling and the pH ends up 3.2-3.4. I start a new batch in a new container before using up the first one. I thought I would try the starter-free method described here and see if I and the birds liked it any more or less.

With the single or double bucket with no starter method, just water, has anyone ever tested the pH? Or had different results with different feeds? Mine has only been going about 6 days, but it's not getting sour yet. The pH is still pretty high, about 4.8. It certainly is bubbling, which is probably mostly from yeasts rather than lactic acid bacteria. It doesn't smell of alcohol (yeasts produce alcohol) and the birds seem to love the stuff, but I'm wondering if this is what others experience? I've been fermenting all sorts of things (except alcohol) for the last few years so I'm not completely new to it, but usually we get a lower pH/more sour by 6 days (it's 66-71F). I'm not too concerned about finishing off the rest of the batch I have. Perhaps the sour is in there and I just can't smell it and the test paper is showing a false reading for some reason. But I started a 1/2 bucket full of a new batch, using the molasses and EM method I've used above and will only ferment it for a week or so. We have well water, which has been wonderful for all the other ferments we've made (pickles, sauerkraut, sourdough, etc). Perhaps I am just being impatient and it will sour up in another day or two, but I am curious to know if anyone else has ever tested the pH.

FWIW, the EM folks recommend feeding the EM-fermented feed at a ration of 5% of their rations. So far I haven't been able to figure out if the reason for doing so was more economics or if feeding too much sour is not good for the birds in an on-going basis. In other words, just how sour are you all feeding it to your birds? Sour like pickle sour or something less so?


I've never pH tested mine, nor would I ever bother. We just ferment and feed all the fermented feed as is, no added this or that or much over thinking the process of fermenting mash for livestock. It doesn't have to be that complicated at all and I'm not sure why anyone would go to those lengths to complicate this simple, effective feeding method but I guess some folks can't stand it when something is simple...so simple that any backwoods hick can do it without access to pH strips, EMs or lacto thingamabobbies.
idunno.gif


You might direct those questions to those folks who are messing up the simplicity of it all by putting such a weird spin on it...they seem to have all the answers.
wink.png
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom