FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Katt66]

Okay thats what mine looks like now. Thanks

im just now at the point where im.figuring out how much to put out so they eat it all before it freezes.

Mine looks pretty much like that too.



Looks kine of wet in that picture but it's got a fluffy sandy texture. I just mix it up really well before feeding, throw 3 scoops of feed back in the bucket and add water till it looks right, give it a stir and let it be till tomorrow.
Has a nice vinegarish sort of like a cross between pickles and sourdough mother smell to it. I've also noticed that, yeah, it freezes much more slowly if it's drier. And they don't get it all over themselves as much.

 

[fenwickchic]

Me, too. My mix doesn't have a completely liquid part, so instead of backslopping the leftover liquid, I "back slop" the last bit of ff as starter for the next batch. I have more than one batch going so I can let the refreshed batch ferment while I feed the previous batch down to just enough to use as a starter for the next batch. Each batch is bottomless.

I simply cannot get by without using two containers because I must wash one every week. If I don't mold begins to grow on the sides. I had the same problem with the bucket system I was using. Somewhere someone said if you have a bit of mold in your home/air your ff will eventually pick it up? The house was built in the 60's so it's possible there is mold somewhere in the house particularly since I did not have this problem in the summer and early fall when the house had the windows open most of the time. This is NOT making me feel good about the air quality in our home. I think I need to buy a bunch of plants to improve the air. I definitely need to keep it upstairs. My mud room is too cold.

 

[niqueie]

Indoor air quality is hard in the winter. I live where it's warm, but we had a fire last night and our fire place is crummy. It always is smoky inside the next day after the fire is out. My fireplace must down draft after the fire has cooled. I'm lucky that it warms up during the day time. I was able to open the windows and use my whole house fan to pull the soot smell out of the air. I have to sweep the firebox out to avoid any ash smell.

What should I do with the ash as far as the chickens go? Do I put it in their dust bath area. It doesn't seem like they like the dust bath much. I don't see any of them use it. If I put a bird in it they promptly leave as soon as they can get out of the dust bath area. They try to dust bath in wood chips and straw or the pine mulch/pine needles. Should I put some of the ash in the nest boxes?

 

[roostereggs]

Thanks for the photos!! I have been making mine way too soupy! I will add more feed today to thicken it up.

 

[Beekissed]

Indoor air quality is hard in the winter. I live where it's warm, but we had a fire last night and our fire place is crummy. It always is smoky inside the next day after the fire is out. My fireplace must down draft after the fire has cooled. I'm lucky that it warms up during the day time. I was able to open the windows and use my whole house fan to pull the soot smell out of the air. I have to sweep the firebox out to avoid any ash smell.

What should I do with the ash as far as the chickens go? Do I put it in their dust bath area. It doesn't seem like they like the dust bath much. I don't see any of them use it. If I put a bird in it they promptly leave as soon as they can get out of the dust bath area. They try to dust bath in wood chips and straw or the pine mulch/pine needles. Should I put some of the ash in the nest boxes?

Just put it directly where they usually dust bath and stir it in good so they won't be able to tell you did it. My chickens are strange like that too...they will never use the dust bath I devise for them and they will move if I disturb their regular bath spot by adding materials to it...I have to be very sneaky and even then sometimes it doesn't work. They are mighty picky about their bathing, if not about the food.

 

[kpgoldstar]

One of the benefits of living in a dust bowl is that I don't have to designate a dust bath area for my girls. This is an unplanted portion of my vegetable garden that is adjacent to the coop and run. They just pick a spot and start digging. Pretty soon they are all in the divot they created and throwing dirt everywhere.


As you can see here, Leticia wanted nothing to do with the dust bath!

 

[Beekissed]

Mine do the same when it's not winter time, though our soils are not as loose as yours....we have clay based soils and the clay is lying on top of flint rock. They usually find shallow places under brush piles or next to the house to fluff up a little dust but they cannot dig too deeply here to create more dust. We are a dust deprived climate.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Mine dust bathe everywhere, too. They dig holes in their coop ... out in the run. They shunned the actual dust box for a while, but finally did start using it. Recently I get a little green egg present every day in the dust box.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I simply cannot get by without using two containers because I must wash one every week. If I don't mold begins to grow on the sides. I had the same problem with the bucket system I was using. Somewhere someone said if you have a bit of mold in your home/air your ff will eventually pick it up? The house was built in the 60's so it's possible there is mold somewhere in the house particularly since I did not have this problem in the summer and early fall when the house had the windows open most of the time. This is NOT making me feel good about the air quality in our home. I think I need to buy a bunch of plants to improve the air. I definitely need to keep it upstairs. My mud room is too cold.

I had that problem when I was trying to grow fodder in the house. I'm VERY glad I don't have the problem with FF ... I was very worried I would. I keep my batches of ff stirred up so the acidic nature of the LABs probably take care of any competing colonies.

I had really wanted to do the FF in glass containers because this seems so much more non-toxic to me. I have two batches of FF going right now ... right next to each other in the FF station of my kitchen ... one batch is in a huge glass pickle barrel (about 5 gallon, maybe more ... I really should measure), the other in a 5 gallon food-grade plastic bucket. In general, the one in the plastic bucket does better, so I am now resigning myself to the plastic for when I expand the FF operation.

The pickle barrel has a narrower opening and there are indented bands around the circumference of the barrel ... I find it more difficult to "scrape down" the sides of the glass container because of this and also because the feed seems to stick to the glass more than to the plastic. It is also more difficult to stir and scoop through the narrower opening of the barrel shaped container. I tend to get ff nearly up to my elbow ... which I compulsively have to rinse off.

Therefore, I'm going to be retiring the glass pickle barrel soon. Maybe I'll use it for ... home-fermented pickles.

 

[Beekissed]

Now, that's a thought!

I too just keep the sides of the bucket scraped down and this keeps the secondary mold growth in check. I live in the mid-Ohio Valley...mold is our milieu...if I had to try and avoid it I'd have to live in a bubble. The FF is stronger and so I can just scrape that little bit of mold into the mix and stir it in, feed it out. It's like it never was. Occasionally I'll beat the mold out of the back of my scoop handle or scrub it out, eventually. The last time I did I found a sprouted BOSS in there!