FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[lazy gardener]

I just got my first bag of layer pellets and have been feeding it to the 5.5 month olds for just under a week, fermented of course. Well, the ferment is very different than the grower/finisher was... but it's wet, anyway!
The chickens seem very un-interested in it. Three of the four have just started laying.
In the last 5 days they've only finished up their dish of food once. Usually it's eaten up every day!
They get a small amount of veggie scraps, but otherwise don't get tons of treats. They don't free range but they have a large open pen. Do I just need to wait it out?

IMO, most chickens prefer chick starter, multi-flock, and grower b/c it's higher protein. Must satisfy their protein craving better. They'll eventually come around to eating the layer. The ONLY reason I feed layer instead of multi-flock is b/c it's cheaper.

F2f chick starter? I am concerned the medicated feed will be altered...which I guess it will but sis the medicated stuff that imported to keep as is?

I've never used medicated feed, and never intend to. For the first several years, I had to fight with the feed store staff about medicated feed every time I picked up feed. They told me that I'd kill my chicks if I didn't give them medicated feed. I told them that if they didn't have non medicated feed available, I'd just have to go elsewhere. Finally, this year, they've started stocking non medicated. Seems that a lot of other folks wanted to kill their chicks with non medicated feed also.

Nope. Your chicks are better served by the use of the cultures in FF than in the medication in the feed. No worries...ferment away. In the future, you can skip medicated feeds altogether, as they serve absolutely no purpose.

Agreed! Listen to this lady folks... She's got a lot of experience behind her words.

I have never had a chick that was eating fermented feeds get coccidiosis. Can't make the same claim about other feeds.

I've never had a chick with coccidiosis... period! I do ferment, and get them a plug of sod to munch on during their first week. Get them on the ground ASAP!

The last bag of grower feed I bought was medicated because I couldn't find unmedicated at the time. It fermented just fine and the pullets loved it.
Still having trouble getting them to eat the fermented layer feed we just switched to. They are slowly getting used to it.

When I can't find unmedicated starter, I buy a bag of multi-flock. They love it b/c it's high protein.

 

[bustedchicks]

Quote:
See Post #2 on page 1

Hi. Thanks for replying but I already know how to make FF and have been doing it for over a year. Post #2 does not have information in regards of an enclosed system. I can not move the ferment station but it causing problems with the other things the shed is designated for. I need ideas on a closed bucket ferment. Thanks. If I missed something in post #2 then please copy and paste. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Beekissed]

Closed bucket ferment is easy...drill a hole in your lid and there ya have it. The hole will allow the FF to breath and nothing can get in except a few fruit flies or bugs....which just add protein to the feed.

 

[bustedchicks]

Hi beekissed, thanks for your experience and expertise with the FF. I am more concerned with the yeast escaping and causing powdery mildew to develop on the plants growing in the area in which the FF is in. Also I believe it caused some unwanted soil fungus so I am trying to avoid any problems. I will try a lid with a hole but will try it with a air gap.

My place of employment recently got chickens and I want to do FF there but we have some curious rats in residence so I'm trying to figure out how to keep them out of the FF

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Beekissed]

Hi beekissed, thanks for your experience and expertise with the FF. I am more concerned with the yeast escaping and causing powdery mildew to develop on the plants growing in the area in which the FF is in. Also I believe it caused some unwanted soil fungus so I am trying to avoid any problems. I will try a lid with a hole but will try it with a air gap.

My place of employment recently got chickens and I want to do FF there but we have some curious rats in residence so I'm trying to figure out how to keep them out of the FF

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Since the only yeast in the mix will be captured from wild yeasts in the air or already on the grains, I'm thinking it won't be the cause of any extraneous molds or yeasts in any plants nearby. Molds and yeasts are two different types of fungi...the primary type of fungi that causes is powdery mildew is called Sphaerotheca fuliginea, whereas the primary yeast that grows in grain fermentation is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Now, I'm not a microbiologist but I'm thinking one does not have anything to do with the other. I could be wrong, so someone with more expertise than I could chime in, but unless you are fermenting chicken feed in the same building you are trying to make wine, it shouldn't cause any trouble in your environment...particularly with the usual stop gaps they have available to keep yeasts out of the wine vats.

 

[Exotica]

Okay, so I believe that maybe my Splash Isbar chick passed because of my stupidity with feed. I've been having all my older girls on fermented grower for months and they are all THRIVING! I decided I'm introduce this batch of chicks to FF as well and fermented some starter. All was going well and they were all vivacious little one's until their feed ran out yesterday. I should also add that I have normal dry feed in there just in case. Well, I wen tot go check the starter feed and by now it's been outside for perhaps 2 weeks. I made a bit too much so I decided to just keep stirring everyday. Yesterday though, there was a bit of a different smell. It didn't smell rotten but definitely was worse smelling than before.. Everything looked fine though. No mold, no bugs, nothing. There was that normal thing layer of white on top. I keep reading on here that a bit of a smell is okay, but I've been really confused. None of my other chicks have passed so maybe it's not that but I decided to come here and ask anyway for future reference. 1) Feed should be completed after a few days and not sit out for longer than a week, right? 2) Was that smell an indicator that it "went bad" even though everything looked fine?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Beekissed]

By "sit out" do you mean sit out in the feeder or in the FF bucket? Not sure what you mean by that. That smell is just a deepening of the ferment and it didn't "go bad", just fermented more deeply than you are used to experiencing. Sort of smells like vomit...after someone has been drinking all night. Still good to feed out...mine smells like that most of the summer.

If you left it sit out in the feeder for a week, then it may have grown mold and that's not the best of situations but still probably didn't kill your chick....as evidenced by the rest of them being hale and hardy. Chicks die sometimes and if it had happened to more than one you might suspect a management problem or even a genetic source problem, but since it's just one, I'd day it was a bird problem. Just that one.

 

[bbhorsefly]

Okay, so I believe that maybe my Splash Isbar chick passed because of my stupidity with feed. I've been having all my older girls on fermented grower for months and they are all THRIVING! I decided I'm introduce this batch of chicks to FF as well and fermented some starter. All was going well and they were all vivacious little one's until their feed ran out yesterday. I should also add that I have normal dry feed in there just in case. Well, I wen tot go check the starter feed and by now it's been outside for perhaps 2 weeks. I made a bit too much so I decided to just keep stirring everyday. Yesterday though, there was a bit of a different smell. It didn't smell rotten but definitely was worse smelling than before.. Everything looked fine though. No mold, no bugs, nothing. There was that normal thing layer of white on top. I keep reading on here that a bit of a smell is okay, but I've been really confused. None of my other chicks have passed so maybe it's not that but I decided to come here and ask anyway for future reference. 1) Feed should be completed after a few days and not sit out for longer than a week, right? 2) Was that smell an indicator that it "went bad" even though everything looked fine?

Thanks everyone!

Could the chick have eaten dry after/before the fermented and the dry feed expanded in the croup and burst it? Or caused vomiting and aspirating? It is common to feed dry and have water available and not have that happen so maybe that's a completely silly concept. But if it only happened to the one, I wouldn't assume it was a problem with your feed. I've had the same ferment going for months in a two bucket system. I just feed out down to the last quarter bucket and add more water and feed and set aside for a couple days while I feed out of the second bucket. Sorry for your loss!

 

[smccully]

I wanted to share our method of FFing. We love FF because our girls look so healthy and are active and lay everyday. We use a gallon milk jug filled to almost half way. We have a rubber trash can mixed with 1 bag cracked corn and chicken feed. I used a large butter tub to scoop it up and With a funnel pour the feed into the milk jug. Finally we place a balloon over the spout of the jug but snip a very tiny hole to help event the air. Hope this method helps someone else. We feed 7 hens and 1 duck 1-2 a day. Mostly we only need to feed once but I don't like putting them up at night with an empty dish. One other thing. We only store a few days worth at a time. Right now we have 10 jugs.

 

[Beekissed]

Curious as to why you go through putting it into a milk jug and using a balloon and all when it's easier to just mix it in a bucket and scoop out of the bucket each day?