FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Beekissed]

Wow! The length of this thread is quite intimidating for a newbie like me. I am giving fermented feed a try on a very small scale and just have a couple of questions. I have 7 birds--6 standard hens and a bantam roo. Most of the posts I read through involve fermenting large quantities. I'd rather start small. How much crumble should I ferment for just one day's feeding? Secondly, should I use kefir or baking yeast? I don't have ACV. How much of it do I add to ferment one day's worth of feed?

http://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[LindaB220]

I know some folks on here do some long ferments and have healthy birds. But almost everything else that you ferment, like sourdough or kefir has to be refreshed every day or two or refrigerated to keep the good bacteria healthy and growing. What I do is feed down till not much is left and then mix up a new batch which gets an overnight ferment. I usually feed on that for 2 days and then repeat. It's all I have ever fed mine since I got them as chicks back in April. They have been healthy and I get 12-14 eggs a day right now from 16 pullets. Hope to start some meat birds in the spring.

Eggs? Your chickens give you eggs? Novel idea. Mine don't. But I'm lying. One of the pullets started giving me a blue egg twice this week. The other slackers are waiting me out. I have 7 pullets and 8 hens and those girls are doing NADA. Selling them tomorrow. Just the Cobb 500 hens. I don't have things set up to freeze or can yet so I can't process that many. I'm needing the space. for the 40 ISA brown pullets I'm ordering at the end of the month.

 

[LindaB220]

We are doing a little higher volume than sourdough or kefir and the whole mix isn't sitting in a long term ferment...as soon as it's refreshed, the very next day it's getting fed out, so all we are feeding has a good healthy and thriving bacteria feeding on a whole bucket of fresh feed over a 2 wk time period. It's not old ferment that has run out of things to consume....it has a whole bucket of fresh feed, whereas when one refreshes sourdough one might only return a cup or two of flour back into the mix, while the original mix is still deeply fermented as it's been being used for weeks, months and even years. This is no different, just a bigger vessel. A larger volume, larger amounts being fed out, larger amounts being added back to refresh the bucket, so it works out much like a sourdough mix.

If we were using unhealthy bacteria it would never ferment a whole bucket quickly enough to feed out the next day.

Hey Bee, still working to simplify my life. I'm moving all the feed out to the coop area and putting each bag in an 18 gallon gray tote. Much easier to make the feed. I'm also going to keep a tote of made up food in the layer coop when I get the girls up and laying. Another thing I wanted to do was to have plenty of feed and water available if I go visit Jenny in Vancouver for 10 days or so. And I found this sale. Super good deal.

http://www.sears.com/miller-mfg-co-3gal-plastic-poultry-waterer-pack/p-SPM10942639216

I bought 2 of the double packs and a pack of 10 of these.

http://www.sears.com/zhengzhou-mach...chicken-turkey-poultry-feeder/p-SPM7673742505

Total for 4 waters and 10 of the feeders shipped and sales tax was $111. Super good deal. I found it on Ebay. It diverted me over to Sears. I'm gearing up to do a lot of hatching and breeding in several small coops and these will come in handy.

Even though I will have the hanging feed containers in the coop, I will continue to make up a boatload of fermented feed. Never going back. I've been doing this since March and I've never had an illness in my coop. Never lost any. As long as you do your normal stirring to dip up the feed, I don't think it ever goes bad. At least mine hasn't. For those that are throwing out spoiled feed, I think you are on the right track to decrease the amount you make.

 

[TalkALittle]

http://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

Thanks for the link Beekissed. Most all of that info I had already gathered from other sources. So you say I can forego the starter agents. That's fine. Does 1 cup of dry crumble yield 1 cup of finished fermented feed or does it swell up? If, as I imagine, it does, how much? I don't want to end up with more of the stuff than I want.

 

[hennible]

it seems to increase in volume by maybe a third... But maybe that's just me

 

[TalkALittle]

Thanks. I'll plan for that expansion when I'm measuring out my batch.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks for the link Beekissed. Most all of that info I had already gathered from other sources. So you say I can forego the starter agents. That's fine. Does 1 cup of dry crumble yield 1 cup of finished fermented feed or does it swell up? If, as I imagine, it does, how much? I don't want to end up with more of the stuff than I want.

I wouldn't even bother with little dabs like that or you will be fussing with it all the time, which defeats the purpose of the simplicity of this method of feeding. I'd get a small bucket and keep it going, feeding out of it for a couple of weeks before refreshing. This will give you room to make the stuff, for expansion and everything else you'll want to do to manage it. Little dabby jars and fussy routines are just a waste of time and will soon get old...unless you like that sort of thing and have tons of time to devote to extraneous, fussy routines.

 

[FreeRanging Hen]

Does anybody ferment grains (not processed feed) for their chicks?
I'm looking to confirm my current recipe as I'm starting to lose chicks and just want to ensure it's not their feed. I doubt it, because they are 4 weeks old now but just want to get opinions on my mix.

I currently ferment a grain and seed mix, then mash it with a blender. I have been starting to slowly include un-mashed grain into the mash and somebody pointed out to me last night that I should supply grit with it, which my chicks haven't had access to since Christmas when I removed their sand tray but hadn't returned it (not realising grit was needed so young).

My mix is based on multiple recipes I found on various sites and threads online and is as follows:
3 parts wheat
1 part oats
1/2 - 1 part barley
1 part split peas and green lentils mix
2 parts black sunflower seeds
1 part millet
1 part sesame seeds
1/2 part flax

The chicks are also fed Greek natural yoghurt two to three times a week, fresh herbs every day, live crickets and grasshoppers as we find them in the yard.
Garlic water once or twice a week, raw ACV is also added to their water every few days.

I have posted this in the other fermented feed thread too, in hopes that somebody who does ferment grain for chicks will see it and have an answer for me

Thanks for any help or advice you may have to share.

 

[wolfpup]

Hi guys, sorry not been around for a while - illness, all sorted now.

I have now been fermenting for about a year I think, and have changed what I do quite dramatically since I first started with AVC. I now have 8 girls, I make my own LAB (lacto acid baccillus) and use this for fermenting a feed consisting of:

4 x non gmo layers mash
1 x wheat/oats/barley (organic)
1 x sunflower (BOSS) seed hearts (non gmo guaranteed)
.2 x golden flaxseed (non gmo)
.2 x lentils

Overall protein is 17.3%

In addition they get shredded lettuce and tomatoes daily - and warm porridge in the mornings whilst it is so cold, in addition during the winter months I sprout mung beans, lentils, alfalfa, red clover - and once a week I hang a cabbage in their fox proof section of the run.

Sometimes the mix turns out quite dry and sometimes its a bit on the sloppy side - so I just strain some overnight for their breakfast - and put another batch in the strainer for their lunch and again before they go to roost for the evening. I used to worry so much in the begining, but it becomes second nature and you learn not to fret over such small things.

I prepare using just the one bucket, - a 25 litre one - and the feed usually lasts around 5 days before needing to be refreshed, I have never had a problem with smell and I keep it in my understairs cupboard (where the central heating unit is so it is always warm - I prove my bread dough there as well)

Two sets of neighbours, within around 600 yards of me have had bird losses due to infections - I have been lucky enough not to have any illness which I put totally down to fermenting their feed (many, many thanks to Beekissed and this thread, as well as her road less travelled thread, as well as the fermenting feed for meat birds). It took me weeks and weeks to read them all the way through but was well worth the effort and I heartily encourage newbies to chickens to do the same.

I have been trying to get more people in the UK into fermenting - and have so far only managed to get three others interested - most of them don't see the sense in going that extra few hundred yards (not miles) to ensure the maximum amount of nutrition, and extra protection against diseases - they just don't seem to value their girls enough to want to try anything 'new' that is going to cost them a few minutes of their valuable time. They seem content to just buy any old pellet mix and fill the feeders once a week - and apart from collecting the eggs - appear to just ignore these adorable, valuable, funny creatures.

We feed ours two or three times a day, check them all over, and are constantly thinking of ways to enrich their lives, they give us so much more than healthy eggs (we average 6-7 a day from our 8 girls even now - 8 today, no artificial lighting), they make us laugh every day, and enrich our lives in so many ways that taking a little extra care of them is not a chore - its a privilege.

 

[TalkALittle]

Little dabby jars and fussy routines are just a waste of time and will soon get old...unless you like that sort of thing and have tons of time to devote to extraneous, fussy routines.

Not looking to establish a routine. Literally looking for single serving instructions. Thanks for looking out for me though.