FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[enola]

Monkcat, I do add stuff to my All Flock before I ferment it. I am not very scientific how I do it, but I think I can explain it so you can understand it. And I am not being sarcastic either.

I mix my feed by volume, not weight.

2 cans of All Flock + 1 can of scratch + 1/4 can alfalfa pellets

Pour enough water on it to soak it completely until it is soupy. The feed will soak up the water and be pretty stiff. It ferments for 3 days, then I feed it.

I have not washed my fermenting buckets since last summer. I put a spoonful of FF from the next day's bucket of FF in the bucket and start all over again.

I used to ferment for 4 days, but one of the bucket handles broke and I haven't replaced yet. I will replace it one of these days.

You can modify my method by using any size or kind of measuring utensils you have at your place. The stirring spoon I have is stainless steel from the camping section at Wal~Mart.

 

[monkcat]

Thanks for the explanation. I have picked up a starter crumble at TSC. Small bag.. Figure I'm not sure enough of what I'm getting started with to commit to a big bag yet. I am ready to start a small amount fermenting. I know I can just add water, stir a couple times a day for a few days and it will ferment. I can add a small amount of mother from kombucha to kick start it as well. Any pros or cons either way?

I figure down the road, if I stick with this, I'll add stuff if needed.

Thanks again.

 

[aart]

A cautionary tale:

Before I begin I want to start by saying I am not condemning fermented feed or anyone's feeding practices, I'm just relaying my experience.

I want to breed Heritage chickens and I want feed my chickens the best food possible. I came across the thread on fermented feed. I figured the most natural food possible was also best so I bought grains and fish meal and we mixed our own food and fermented it. Here's the mix we were using recipe: 32oz ea: cracked corn, rolled oats, steamed barley, wheat germ, alfalfa pellets; 6oz ea boss, fish meal. We adjust the amount but use the same ratio.

Egg production was very poor this winter from our mixed flock (horrible predation ended our plans to breed Heritage chickens for the year and I’m not going to attempt to breed again until we have large protected enclosures built, [we had free ranged the year before with only two losses, but not last year, there was one day we lost six chickens!). Weeks that went by this winter were we didn’t get any eggs, I couldn’t figure out what the problem might be. Still as of the beginning of April no eggs (imagine if I had been trying to breed).

The other day this toothless old man (Pop) came by the house to thank my wife for the cookies we sent to him and his injured wife. Pop told my son the story about the time when his son wanted some chickens: He went to a local guy he knew had some chickens and bought some, the guy he got the chickens from explained to him that he wasn’t going to get any eggs from the chickens; they’re free loaders. The guy showed him how he fed the chickens: this grain mix in a bucket with some water that sits for a while. He said it was the best thing for them even though they’re free loaders and don’t even deserve it! Well, Pop got the chickens anyway cause his boy really wanted some chickens. Not one to fuss with anything and being a practical man, all this fancy food was too much for Pop. Pop wasn’t about to do anything more than he had to for free loading chickens. So he just fed um some chicken food and don’t you know: they started laying eggs like little egg laying machines!

When my son told me the story a 5000w light went off in my head. So I bought some Poulin grain chicken food and guess what? Four days later our chickens started laying again! And now they're laying like little egg laying machines.

The thing is most breeders, even those that breed prize-winning heritage-birds, just use commercial feed.

I don't know what went wrong, too many variables. Maybe my fifteen year old screwed the feed up. I do know that when our breeding program is in full swing there was no way we were going to feed hundreds of chickens fermented feed and to be honest most people that raise chicks are going to use a commercial chicken feed as their primary nutrition.al source.

Again I’m not bashing fermented feed, I’m not bashing whole grains. I’m just saying if you get it wrong…

@Rhinoman
There's a couple things I see, and I am not a fermeted feeder myself:
-no balanced vitamin/mineral mix in your recipe.
-birds often lay poorly in winter, especially those past one year old.

It's not that fermented feed failed you.......
....it's that you failed to ferment the proper ingredients.

 

[Tikkijane]

A cautionary tale:

Before I begin I want to start by saying I am not condemning fermented feed or anyone's feeding practices, I'm just relaying my experience.

I want to breed Heritage chickens and I want feed my chickens the best food possible. I came across the thread on fermented feed. I figured the most natural food possible was also best so I bought grains and fish meal and we mixed our own food and fermented it. Here's the mix we were using recipe: 32oz ea: cracked corn, rolled oats, steamed barley, wheat germ, alfalfa pellets; 6oz ea boss, fish meal. We adjust the amount but use the same ratio.

Egg production was very poor this winter from our mixed flock (horrible predation ended our plans to breed Heritage chickens for the year and I’m not going to attempt to breed again until we have large protected enclosures built, [we had free ranged the year before with only two losses, but not last year, there was one day we lost six chickens!). Weeks that went by this winter were we didn’t get any eggs, I couldn’t figure out what the problem might be. Still as of the beginning of April no eggs (imagine if I had been trying to breed).

The other day this toothless old man (Pop) came by the house to thank my wife for the cookies we sent to him and his injured wife. Pop told my son the story about the time when his son wanted some chickens: He went to a local guy he knew had some chickens and bought some, the guy he got the chickens from explained to him that he wasn’t going to get any eggs from the chickens; they’re free loaders. The guy showed him how he fed the chickens: this grain mix in a bucket with some water that sits for a while. He said it was the best thing for them even though they’re free loaders and don’t even deserve it! Well, Pop got the chickens anyway cause his boy really wanted some chickens. Not one to fuss with anything and being a practical man, all this fancy food was too much for Pop. Pop wasn’t about to do anything more than he had to for free loading chickens. So he just fed um some chicken food and don’t you know: they started laying eggs like little egg laying machines!

When my son told me the story a 5000w light went off in my head. So I bought some Poulin grain chicken food and guess what? Four  days later our chickens started laying again! And now they're laying like little egg laying machines.

The thing is most breeders, even those that breed prize-winning heritage-birds, just use commercial feed. 

I don't know what went wrong, too many variables. Maybe my fifteen year old screwed the feed up. I do know that when our breeding program is in full swing there was no way we were going to feed hundreds of chickens fermented feed and to be honest most people that raise chicks are going to use a commercial chicken feed as their primary nutrition.al source.

Again I’m not bashing fermented feed, I’m not bashing whole grains. I’m just saying if you get it wrong…

I'm fermenting commercial chicken feed. Most of us are.... and from the sounds of it, the feed that man left in the bucket was fermented, if he left it wet for a couple of days.

 

[Tikkijane]

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

A cautionary tale:

Before I begin I want to start by saying I am not condemning fermented feed or anyone's feeding practices, I'm just relaying my experience.

I want to breed Heritage chickens and I want feed my chickens the best food possible. I came across the thread on fermented feed. I figured the most natural food possible was also best so I bought grains and fish meal and we mixed our own food and fermented it. Here's the mix we were using recipe: 32oz ea: cracked corn, rolled oats, steamed barley, wheat germ, alfalfa pellets; 6oz ea boss, fish meal. We adjust the amount but use the same ratio.

Egg production was very poor this winter from our mixed flock (horrible predation ended our plans to breed Heritage chickens for the year and I’m not going to attempt to breed again until we have large protected enclosures built, [we had free ranged the year before with only two losses, but not last year, there was one day we lost six chickens!). Weeks that went by this winter were we didn’t get any eggs, I couldn’t figure out what the problem might be. Still as of the beginning of April no eggs (imagine if I had been trying to breed).

The other day this toothless old man (Pop) came by the house to thank my wife for the cookies we sent to him and his injured wife. Pop told my son the story about the time when his son wanted some chickens: He went to a local guy he knew had some chickens and bought some, the guy he got the chickens from explained to him that he wasn’t going to get any eggs from the chickens; they’re free loaders. The guy showed him how he fed the chickens: this grain mix in a bucket with some water that sits for a while. He said it was the best thing for them even though they’re free loaders and don’t even deserve it! Well, Pop got the chickens anyway cause his boy really wanted some chickens. Not one to fuss with anything and being a practical man, all this fancy food was too much for Pop. Pop wasn’t about to do anything more than he had to for free loading chickens. So he just fed um some chicken food and don’t you know: they started laying eggs like little egg laying machines!

When my son told me the story a 5000w light went off in my head. So I bought some Poulin grain chicken food and guess what? Four  days later our chickens started laying again! And now they're laying like little egg laying machines.

The thing is most breeders, even those that breed prize-winning heritage-birds, just use commercial feed. 

I don't know what went wrong, too many variables. Maybe my fifteen year old screwed the feed up. I do know that when our breeding program is in full swing there was no way we were going to feed hundreds of chickens fermented feed and to be honest most people that raise chicks are going to use a commercial chicken feed as their primary nutrition.al source.

Again I’m not bashing fermented feed, I’m not bashing whole grains. I’m just saying if you get it wrong…

 

[Beekissed]

@Rhinoman
There's a couple things I see, and I am not a fermeted feeder myself:
-no balanced vitamin/mineral mix in your recipe.
-birds often lay poorly in winter, especially those past one year old.

It's not that fermented feed failed you.......
....it's that you failed to ferment the proper ingredients.

Agreed. Everyone goes around saying there's no wrong way to raise chickens, feed chickens, hatch, etc. but it's simply not true as many of the failed experiments in doing so can attest.

When I say keep it simple, ferment the balanced ration in a bag it's exactly what I mean. When I say make sure if you add whole grains that you keep your feed at least 50% layer ration and only do that in the winter if you are feeding layers...they need the calcium and phosphorus in that layer ration, it's exactly what I mean. When I say it's not necessary to get into complicated feeding mixtures, it's exactly what I mean. When I say you don't have to cover the mix with water to get LABs, it's exactly what I mean. When I say you don't have to cover it tightly with a lid, it's exactly what I mean. When I say you don't need some kind of starter like kimchi, yogurt, bread yeasts, etc., it's exactly what I mean. You just DON'T need it, so why add it? It's futile and it doesn't make the mix any better than it was as it will simply convert to whatever it was originally going to be in the first place, primarily LABs with some acetobacter along side.

My success with this method has encompassed those very things and I cannot guarantee success with any other way of doing it.

Follow instructions. They count. Ask any teacher.

 

[enola]

You mention another thing people are guilty of, skimming the threads.....

Why in the world would someone interested enough in feeding FF want to go to a thread on the subject, and then 'skim' the thread 'because they don't have time to read it all'?


Is that how they do all of their 'research'? I hope not!

 

[hennible]

There is a search feature here, few seem to use it. If you want a quick answer use the thread search tool.... Many threads are painfully repetitive, the same question asked every few posts.... Personally I don't want to read any thread in its intirerty because of the repetitive nature, not when I can search it instead.
Or look for an article on here. Those are more to the point than many threads....

 

[Beekissed]

You mention another thing people are guilty of, skimming the threads.....

Why in the world would someone interested enough in feeding FF want to go to a thread on the subject, and then 'skim' the thread 'because they don't have time to read it all'?


Is that how they do all of their 'research'? I hope not!

I've been guilty of doing that very thing and then getting things wrong because I didn't read carefully....I suspect we are all guilty of it, and going on the thread and asking the same repetitive question is okay if the thread is really, really long and the answer is buried in the middle...but it's nice if they at least try to read the first page and then ask a question before saying, "I saw how long this thread is and didn't even bother to read anything, so I need to know EXACTLY how to do this".

When it's as simple as this is, there is really no need to get fancy with it....just add feed, water, stir and wait....build or devise a trough they can eat from. Simple.

What really bites is that they won't let a person edit the first page after some time with the thread open...on these learning threads that is highly detrimental in being able to relay what has happened in the method and what folks have learned along the way...the OP should ALWAYS be allowed to edit the title and first post..always. It would solve many, many issues if they would let us edit that first page so we could post a list of FAQ or even a link to TikTokk's blog site so they can read about what we've learned.

TikTokk's site should be a sticky link at the top of the feed and watering section since this method has grown like it has and essentially has spread around the world.

Usually, when someone asks a question here, they get a good, quick answer.

 

[hennible]

You could probably ask a mod to let you edit your first page. You never know, I know mods have the power.