FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Beekissed]

I think too it would depend on the nature of the feed being fermented. If one were feeding highly processed feeds they are going to ferment faster, whereas the less processed mash with cracked and whole grains included in with finer particles is going to ferment at a more uneven rate, with some particles being fully fermented more quickly than the merely cracked or whole grains. At that point, one cannot fully determine what is the average ferment time of the feed in the bucket and cannot pinpoint at what day it would start to degrade nutritionally, I think it would be fair to say.

 

[ReillyJ]

UGH, there are rats in my hen coop, droppings and what looks like some food hoarding on the headboard of the 2 doors leading out to the run. NO WAY is there to keep them out. What's weird is it looks like they've been taking the FF and putting it on the board HOW i don't know but it's disgusting.

Which means...i'm going to have to get out of bed early in the a.m. and start again putting the food out then, i had stopped that to be able to get some sleep and put it out in the run at night. I don't keep their food in the coop but secured in the run.

 

[triplepurpose]

I'm not sure ( didn't look anything up ) but with fermented pickles or sauerkraut there are nearly no calories left they all get converted by the bacteria into vitamins etc...

Anyone ever feed their birds scobies? The fungal growths from kamboutcha? ( pardon my spelling )

I used some overripe kombucha as a "starter" once for a while for making ff. The results were similar to acv, but it smelled like kombucha. I'm pretty sure a couple of half formed baby scobies got poured in with it a few times... And I've also tossed extra scobies into the run with the rest of the slops.

Now I use a homemade lactic acid bacteria starter culture though. Like this: http://theunconventionalfarmer.com/recipes/lactobacillus-serum/

Works great and has all sorts of other home/farm uses as well.

 

[triplepurpose]

UGH, there are rats in my hen coop, droppings and what looks like some food hoarding on the headboard of the 2 doors leading out to the run. NO WAY is there to keep them out. What's weird is it looks like they've been taking the FF and putting it on the board HOW i don't know but it's disgusting.

Which means...i'm going to have to get out of bed early in the a.m. and start again putting the food out then, i had stopped that to be able to get some sleep and put it out in the run at night. I don't keep their food in the coop but secured in the run. 

No reason to get up earlier than you want to. The important thing is to get them used to a schedule and then stick with it (as much as possible)... I've heard of people only feeding once a day in the afternoon, who actually believed it was healthier for the birds that way--IMO not sure I agree, but just goes to show how flexible things can be I guess.

 

[ReillyJ]

No reason to get up earlier than you want to. The important thing is to get them used to a schedule and then stick with it (as much as possible)...

Well the reason for getting up early again is to have no food out for the rats to get into, had been putting food in at night so i wouldn't have to get up, i think i'd rather have no food out and get up early than to have rats in there with the hens. NASTY things.

 

[jbkirk]

No reason to get up earlier than you want to. The important thing is to get them used to a schedule and then stick with it (as much as possible)... I've heard of people only feeding once a day in the afternoon, who actually believed it was healthier for the birds that way--IMO not sure I agree, but just goes to show how flexible things can be I guess.

Sorry for my ignorance but what does IMO mean?

 

[glib]

So the nutrition can be used up by the bacteria, who convert it to CO2?
So longer ferment is not harmful but may be less nutritious than a 'newer' ferment?

Yes. And the nutrition that is being used is all macronutrients (carbs and proteins). I have to expect that carbs get burned before proteins, but both are burned, for cracked corn, over several days to weeks at least. All those numbers on the feed bag, are very rough. At some point in the ferment there are more absorbable carbohydrates, and at some point more absorbable amino acids, than the bag implies. It gets very complicated, considering that a feed has multiple components. For example buckwheat has large amounts of phytase, and rye a good amount. These are enzymes that break down phytates and release minerals. So you have a feed with a bit of these grains, and the available minerals are significantly more than a nearly identical feed without. Note this does not even need bacteria, it just needs the feed to be in a solution. And keep in mind that your ferment has easily 20 significant bacterial species, and different bacteria do very different things.

 

[hennible]

In my opinion

 

[Beekissed]

I feed once a day. In the winter, it's sometime in the morning...no routine or specific time, just whenever I roll on out there. In the warm months I feed in the evening...same thing, just whenever I get around to it and as long as it's before roosting time. My birds are healthy...never had any illness in any of my flocks, so I guess it doesn't hurt them at all.

Keeps rats out of the coop too, as there is not one speck of feed to attract them left over after the chickens have their say about it.

 

[jbkirk]

I was wondering if Fermented Payback would be OK to feed to chicks?
Thanks MK