FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[kpgoldstar]

I am in Central Arizona and SW Colorado.

I had issues with my FF going bad if I didn't keep it wet enough. Its not really a hassle to drain the liquid, I have an easy system that takes me all of about 30 seconds to do, and the reserved liquid is used to jumpstart my new batch daily.

You have 2 homes? Do you spend extended periods of time at both? Do you have chickens in both locations? Who takes care of your chooks when you aren't at one place or the other?

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

I used to keep mine fairly wet as well and strained before each feeding. It worked just fine. Over the course of the past year I have kept it drier and drier. When mine was wet my girls necks would get covered from the over-splash and I was having to give baths! Either way works fine.

I don't have any issues with messy chickens, lol. I pour my FF into a draining tray, most of the liquid is reserved, and they get only wet, not soupy, FF to eat. I don't want to be bathing all my hens! Lol.

 

[kpgoldstar]

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to give this thicker not covered by water FF a try. I was backslopping but not sure if over night was enough time for all the benefits of FF. Please correct me if I'm wrong, backslopping is fine if you already have a good ferment going but waiting 3 more days after backslopping would be better. Also where do you all keep your FF? I really don't want to keep mine in my kitchen. Can it be kept in the garage or shed during the winter?

I think I addressed this already, but I backslop from a batch that has already been fermenting 4-5 days. When I add the additional feed/water to my small amount of FF left in my bucket it is fully fermented and ready to feed out by the next feeding. It gets very sour toward the end of the cycle then calms down with the refresh.
I keep mine in a discreet bucket behind a decorative piece in my entryway. Kitchen would be the same only I have a miniscule kitchen. I live where it doesn't freeze so can't answer about the winter although others on here have kept it in a cooler in a shed or the coop.

 

[enola]

I prefer the drier FF method. My hens made such a mess of themselves and all around the feeding station when I fed the 'wetter' mix. Living in SC, I can ferment feed nearly year-round right out in the barn. During cold weather I use 3 buckets so I can rotate them. This method gives the ferment more time to work in the colder weather.

If the weather is too cold for the feed to ferment, then at least it is wet. I think the hens waste less feed if it is wet.

 

[kpgoldstar]

OK here's some pics so bear with me.

Susie is the red one, sex link or RIR i don't know. i think she looks ok and she does have a great appetite but they always look on the scrawny side TO ME when i look at them from the front.

Betty the EE looks okay, the other EE Thelma is the one i question, i think she's shy with the food and gets aced out a bit but there's NOTHING I CAN DO about that, like..right now they're free ranging and i brought some of their FF out to them (they're way too stupid to go back into the coop to eat, drink water or lay--they do all that out in our yard while they're free ranging) and they gobbled it (i did add some pelleted feed to the ferment last night and of course it's dissolved so maybe they like the taste of it in combo) and i offered Thelma in a separate dish which she ate but then the others came over. I cannot babysit them so she's going to have to figure it out. I cannot expend anymore energy right now (have human health crisis going on right now)

but anyway, here's their pics (keep in mind camera intensity and saturation of colors can vary and may not necessarily be TTL)

i also do really think they've been through a molt, there were feathers everywhere and there's still odd little feathers sticking out of them.

THELMA



SUSIE




LUCY she looks good, she likes food FF



BETTY looks ok



Here's another shot of THELMA below





THELMA



FOOD DISH i just cleaned

I agree with the others that your hens look great and healthy. Thelma definitely does not have a full crop. When my girls have finished their FF they look pregnant and about ready to burst. The amount I feed varies. I do twice a day. If they clean the tray completely I might increase just a tad the next day. If there is some left over I cut back.

I feed out of these, desk organizer things you get at the hardware store for about 2 bucks. I give them breakfast in the coop and I fashioned this holder out of scrap acrylic from my engraving store. Even though I only have 4, there is a definite pecking order and my alpha is SO bossy! Feeding in the coop allows for everyone to get their fair share. When I give the afternoon meal I do that on the patio where they free range all day. Bossy will chase everyone off if fed on the patio for both meals and she will explode while the others starve. My lowest gal is definitely the thinnest but she still gets plenty to eat. I also add BOSS into my FF each time I refresh, about a cup or so to 2 gallons of feed. My summers are so hot I think the extra protein from the BOSS helps them with the stress.

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

You have 2 homes? Do you spend extended periods of time at both? Do you have chickens in both locations? Who takes care of your chooks when you aren't at one place or the other?

We travel back and forth between both locations, mostly in AZ. The chickens travel with us in a specially designed Mobile Chicken Coop my husband built out of one of his old tool trailers (he's a general contractor). The girls go to roost in the mobile trailer and and are released in the other location the next day. They have been doing it since they were chicks so it's not big deal for them. They get so excited to forage for all the new bugs that moved into their run while they were away.

 

[BY Chicken Lady]

I have a few different varieties of chicken and I've found that the size depends on the variety. My 3 Lohman browns are very scrawny looking, the mixes are huge and fat, and the others are in between. They all eat the same and get the same exercise ( they free range over 8 acres all day ) just popping back every now and then to have some fermented feed. One of the lohmans is alpha chook so she's not missing out on food, it's just their breed. I think your chooks look ok, and if you know they're eating and don't have worms I wouldn't worry about their size. As a matter of fact, I had to take my big fat freckles, who only eats fermented food and some dry fine layer mash as a treat, and all the grubs she can forage, to the vet with bumblefoot, and the vet said she's overweight and I should put her on a diet. Well, I don't know how I could do that, and I certainly won't be changing their very healthy diet. They don't get any scraps, only some pecan nuts as a little treat when they run to greet me.

Maybe you need a Chicken Treadmill for Ms Freckles. LOL. I to would find it hard (if not impossible) to put one hen on a diet while having some scrawny girls in the bunch.

 

[LindaB220]

FF cannot be overstirred.

{there are folks using cement mixers without issue, and electric drills, much like one would use for big buckets of grout or thinset, for example. ...}

Water on top is NOT necessary.

It's better NOT to refresh as you go.

Certainly, everyone is welcome to feed however they desire. I like things easy and not sloppy.

This is absolutely the best way to go. Why? I'm lazy and I want to do it the simple way. No two buckets, no straining, no covering in water. I just get it to thick oatmeal consistancy and it's ready the next morning by adding water first to the backslop and stirring. before adding feed. You stir in the morning when you feed and that's it. Bekissed started this thread years ago and started out doing the two bucket and strain method. After she learned to do it this way, she never looked back.

 

[ReillyJ]

If they are eating it and you don't know what they weigh, why are worried?!

Weigh your birds. Get a scale and weigh them.

Adults need 1/2-1 cup of FF 1-2 times day. That's it. Measure the food out and start at the top of range.

I know it can be hard to feel like they are not starving when you compare intake of FF to dry. If you are fermenting complete chicken food {commercial, nutritionally balanced}, they WILL NOT STARVE unless you are feeding less than the 1/2-1 cup 1-2 times a day {which I have actually seen someone do}.

I feed about 1/2 cup a day for each {which will increase some as winter is coming} and they are hefty. Like *heavy* hefty. The only reason I haven't put them on a diet yet is because winter is coming....

My problem is i never had chickens before 4 months or so ago and am on a huge learning curve and i'm way ahead of most people in that i care about them and am buying organic feed (when i can't afford it myself) and going the extra mile to ferment and trying to learn everything i can...most would throw pelleted food out, provide water and not even care if they're free range.

Also..these birds have only known me for a few months, i can barely touch them, a couple of them will sometimes squat and let me pet them but that's about it. Only way i've kind of been able to handle them is if they're on the roost, to haul a scale out there, haul them off the roost and try to keep them still on a scale wouldn't benefit them and also there's NOTHING I CAN DO to make any of them eat the amount of food required except put it out there. i don't have time to stand and babysit and see who eats the most as they don't gobble all of it up in one block of time.

I guess things are just going to have to be what they are.... i kind of wish i didn't rescue these hens because when i get animals i give them everything i've gone, sometimes to the deteriment of myself and well being. But i do appreciate people on this forum bearing with me and patiently answering questions--some i imagine will continue (the questions). Also like i said it has been frustrating not to see them relishing every morsel like most on here have seen *SHRUG*

I also agree with you about "backslopping". It was your website that encouraged me to start FF and just recently i got a much bigger bucket so that i wouldn't have to refresh with new food and water for at least 3-4 days because i want everything to have time to ferment..also the days are certainly getting colder where i live!! I also have drier ferment than wet and i as much as i can thoroughly stir and it's getting HARD because of the amount of food but i feel i cannot be adding/backslopping every other day, to me just not enough time to really get the ferment going especially with the temps lowering.

 

[ReillyJ]

I agree with the others that your hens look great and healthy. Thelma definitely does not have a full crop. When my girls have finished their FF they look pregnant and about ready to burst. The amount I feed varies. I do twice a day. If they clean the tray completely I might increase just a tad the next day. If there is some left over I cut back.

I feed out of these, desk organizer things you get at the hardware store for about 2 bucks. I give them breakfast in the coop and I fashioned this holder out of scrap acrylic from my engraving store. Even though I only have 4, there is a definite pecking order and my alpha is SO bossy! Feeding in the coop allows for everyone to get their fair share. When I give the afternoon meal I do that on the patio where they free range all day. Bossy will chase everyone off if fed on the patio for both meals and she will explode while the others starve. My lowest gal is definitely the thinnest but she still gets plenty to eat. I also add BOSS into my FF each time I refresh, about a cup or so to 2 gallons of feed. My summers are so hot I think the extra protein from the BOSS helps them with the stress.

Thanks!

Unfortunately i can't do anything about Thelma...can't make her eat or try to feed her separate from the others.. they just come running and horn in so i guess it's going to be what it's going to be...i threw some pelleted food out for her before roosting time and she ate some of it, she's just the way she is, doesn't seem unhealthy or anything.

I don't really know how much i put out, i think in the morning at least 2-3 cups and since it's moist there's always some leftover--almost always and then later in the day while they're free ranging i'll put some out and they'll eat a bit of it. I guess this is the best i can do barring also providing dry commercial pellets.

i am thinking of buying more commercial layer pellets (although IMO a HUGE step down from their organic 20% layer feed they have now, fermented) and throwing it into the FF to ferment also. Maybe i won't, maybe i'll just figure they can figure it out themselves and not worry about it anymore :\

OH..i got 2 of those acrylic thingies a month ago, all happy that it was deep enough that they wouldn't walk in their food. NOPE, they knocked those over too. So now i have to expend more energy to figure out how to stabilize them, LOL

BTW their run is concrete and they mash that crap all over the concrete, i have to hose it down every day. Thrills!