FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[LeslieDJoyce]

Would free ranging cause chickens not to eat much of the ff? I was leaving dry food in too .. I took the dry food out thinking they were eating the dry bf I let them out in morning... It was pretty full too... So either they arnt eating or they are getting full on grass... Any ideas? FF smells sour.. Looks right..

Now that my birds are ranging a little more cuz there are more bugs and we've increased their area a bit, they are eating less poultry feed. They tend to ignore their feed for most of the day, then snack on their way to bed at night and then finish off the troughs of feed in the morning. We've cut back in their portions to compensate. If they pick their troughs clean before bed we'll increase their serving the next day.

The Feeding Poultry book says that in general, birds that range eat less feed. It can mean fewer eggs or slower weight gain of meat birds, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you keep an eye on their condition and tweak their feed & ranging time accordingly. It's a bit if a trade off, because fresh air and sunshine and fresh greens are really great for the birds even if ranging means they get fewer calories ...

 

[kpgoldstar]

So you are saying it takes 3-4 days to get a good fermentation? I'm using 1- 5 gallon bucket for 31 chickens. When it gets low, I add some water to it and let it sit for a few hours. It looks like it has scobey on top when I add the feed & more water. It then sets overnight to be fed the next day. So my feed might not be fermented enough? I used to keep 2-5gal buckets going, but had to use one to store sap in when we made maple syrup back in march, and I just didn't start it back up. Maybe I should. I assumed that if the feed left in the bucket was fermented and the little bit of water I used to cover it had a scobey on top, and it sit for 10-12 hrs or more, it would ferment. I will check mine as I have to mix more today. Just thinking.

In my opinion when you backslop (add new water and feed to the existing FF that has gotten low) it is fermented and ready to feed again in about 12 hours. Mine does tend to get more sour the closer I get to the bottom of my bucket so that is "more" fermented than a newly refreshed batch.

eta: I think the 3-4 days reference was for initial fermentation.

 

[triplepurpose]

Anyone doing this for ducks?

I know ducks, being waterfowl, seem to respond well to having their food moistened, and it helps them swallow, digest etc. I'm moistened feed before, just before feeding, especially for very small ducklings, but never fermented it.

Would an ACV fermentation work for ducks too, or are there risks involved with fermenting for ducks? Ducks aren't quite as indiscriminate eaters as chickens and hogs... If it would work safely though, I'd like to try it--my muscovy meat ducks go through a lot of feed during the growout stage...

 

[n3kms]

Got a question. I get some different things from a place called Bulknaturalfoods.com. They do pickups of different types of food stuffs and have drop off places where you go pick it up. It will be things like, wheat and other grains, fruit in season and such. A while back they started getting organics animals feeds. So since I got my little chicks I orders some "Organic Layer Starter 17% protein" That was pretty much all I knew about it.It came yesterday and it looks pretty good but it has a lot of dried cultures in it such as; Dried yeast, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Pediococcus cerevisiae fermentation product, dried Bacillus licheniformis fermentation product, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentatio extract, and dried bacillus subtilis fermentation extract.. There may be a couple more but you get the idea. Am I supposed to still soak this? The company is called Big Sky Organic Feed out of Fort Benton, MT. My Manna -Pro chick starter doesn't have any of that stuff.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

Anyone doing this for ducks?

I know ducks, being waterfowl, seem to respond well to having their food moistened, and it helps them swallow, digest etc. I'm moistened feed before, just before feeding, especially for very small ducklings, but never fermented it.

Would an ACV fermentation work for ducks too, or are there risks involved with fermenting for ducks? Ducks aren't quite as indiscriminate eaters as chickens and hogs... If it would work safely though, I'd like to try it--my muscovy meat ducks go through a lot of feed during the growout stage...

I see nothing but good things happening if you feed FF to the ducks, it will not harm them!

 

[Beekissed]

Got a question. I get some different things from a place called Bulknaturalfoods.com. They do pickups of different types of food stuffs and have drop off places where you go pick it up. It will be things like, wheat and other grains, fruit in season and such. A while back they started getting organics animals feeds. So since I got my little chicks I orders some "Organic Layer Starter 17% protein" That was pretty much all I knew about it.It came yesterday and it looks pretty good but it has a lot of dried cultures in it such as; Dried yeast, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Pediococcus cerevisiae fermentation product, dried Bacillus licheniformis fermentation product, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentatio extract, and dried bacillus subtilis fermentation extract.. There may be a couple more but you get the idea. Am I supposed to still soak this? The company is called Big Sky Organic Feed out of Fort Benton, MT. My Manna -Pro chick starter doesn't have any of that stuff.

I'd still ferment it...containing probiotics is different then fermenting a grain to convert it to something more usable and digestible to the chicken. The probiotics in the FF are a pleasant by-product of that whole process but are not necessarily the goal. The goal is to help a monogastric animal extract all the nutrients they can from grain, which they would normally not be able to do.

Anyone doing this for ducks?

I know ducks, being waterfowl, seem to respond well to having their food moistened, and it helps them swallow, digest etc. I'm moistened feed before, just before feeding, especially for very small ducklings, but never fermented it.

Would an ACV fermentation work for ducks too, or are there risks involved with fermenting for ducks? Ducks aren't quite as indiscriminate eaters as chickens and hogs... If it would work safely though, I'd like to try it--my muscovy meat ducks go through a lot of feed during the growout stage...

Many folks on here are feeding it to ducks and geese and reporting the same benefits for them as they have had for their chickens. I'm currently feeding it to a little Khaki Campbell duckling and will be feeding it to more of the same soon. I've noticed the duckling will not eat it much if it's too soupy or wet and prefers it crumbly but damp. He also rushes right over to the water after each bite, even though the feed is damp.

Would free ranging cause chickens not to eat much of the ff? I was leaving dry food in too .. I took the dry food out thinking they were eating the dry bf I let them out in morning... It was pretty full too... So either they arnt eating or they are getting full on grass... Any ideas? FF smells sour.. Looks right..

Yep. Causes them to not eat as much of any kind of feed...and it's why I do it, along with the benefits of them having a more natural diet, clean soils underfoot, better health and freedom to just be a chicken out on the land.

 

[n3kms]

I'd still ferment it...containing probiotics is different then fermenting a grain to convert it to something more usable and digestible to the chicken. The probiotics in the FF are a pleasant by-product of that whole process but are not necessarily the goal. The goal is to help a monogastric animal extract all the nutrients they can from grain, which they would normally not be able to do.

That sounds reasonable. I wasn't sure if I was trying to ferment something that was already fermented. Like trying to ferment yogurt which is an already fermented milk product. But I guess since it is dried bacteria in a dry food it is just an additive. It just really threw me off seeing all that on the ingredients.

 

[LindaB220]

Probably. Just move to a bigger container for your feed...they sell very large totes at Walmart for reasonable prices, that will hold more than your ice chest and in which you won't have to refresh the feed so often.

Here's a 32 gal. one for $14 http://www.walmart.com/ip/HOMZ-32-Gallon-Tote-Gray/25864294

It's like using a large trash can, like Kassaundra does, but it's not so very tall and easier to dump feed and water into and also for stirring.

This is a great idea. Cheap too. Thanks so much.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Got a question. I get some different things from a place called Bulknaturalfoods.com. They do pickups of different types of food stuffs and have drop off places where you go pick it up. It will be things like, wheat and other grains, fruit in season and such. A while back they started getting organics animals feeds. So since I got my little chicks I orders some "Organic Layer Starter 17% protein" That was pretty much all I knew about it.It came yesterday and it looks pretty good but it has a lot of dried cultures in it such as; Dried yeast, Lactobacillus acidophilus fermentation product, Dried lactobacillus casei fermentation product, dried Pediococcus cerevisiae fermentation product, dried Bacillus licheniformis fermentation product, dried bacillus subtilis fermentation product, dried aspergillus niger fermentation extract, dried aspergillus oryzae fermentatio extract, and dried bacillus subtilis fermentation extract.. There may be a couple more but you get the idea. Am I supposed to still soak this? The company is called Big Sky Organic Feed out of Fort Benton, MT. My Manna -Pro chick starter doesn't have any of that stuff.

There are some AZ folks on this forum (Arizona Chickens thread) who get the Big Sky feed on a co-op pickup deal. I am too far away from the big city to participate. I know many of them do FF with that feed so I would assume it is good to go!

 

[Bethel3330]

That sounds reasonable.  I wasn't sure if I was trying to ferment something that was already fermented.  Like trying to ferment yogurt which is an already fermented milk product.  But I guess since it is dried bacteria in a dry food it is just an additive. It just really threw me off seeing all that on the ingredients.

I had the same question. Those ingredients look similar to that in Hiland non-gmo that I bought.