FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Jensownzoo]

Thought I would share my ferment stir stick, nothing fancy, my BF cut it for me. It works well except food gets stuck in the tube. Also got back to fermenting a couple months ago, I feed on stumps in the run. I just set up a flat stump for our 4 day old chicks who also are getting fermented feed as well.

Love it. My "fancy" stir stick is a four foot length of scrap wood trim...it's enough like a paddle that it works really quickly to stir things up well.

 

[Tikkijane]

You assert this often, but it is patently false otherwise you wouldn't ever have to worry about overweight chickens.

Humans have around 10,000 taste buds. Chickens have 20-30. They most certainly are not going after taste.....

 

[Tikkijane]

WOW,  you think I'm just pulling legs, spreading false information?
DO your research.
I have, and I know a few livestock nutritionists that will agree that chickens eat to fill there caloric needs.

Here is just one of may quotes that back my information.
It a quote from a article that High-Line Genetics posted. Maybe you've herd of them there a leader in poultry genetics and produce some of the best egg production fowl in the world...


When referring non-meat type chickens, over weight chicks is do to improper and or imbalanced diet.
I (like many, many others) full feed chicken, I have feed in the feeder 24-7, 365 days a year and I don't have a fat chicken on my farm.

And- feed consumption changes depending on temperature. Anyone who's had chickens for any real length of time {and has bothered to observe with both brain and eyes engaged} will have no doubt noticed that chickens slack off feed intake during higher temps, and eat more when it's colder. They actually do build their fat stores in preparation for winter.

Chickens are fat, imo, because we make them that way. Confined chickens get bored-and eat. {Kind of like many people, I think.} When we prevent them from having an environment which allows their natural, instinctive behaviors from being able to help regulate their weight, this is what we're left with.

And then there are the folks who don't understand the concept of 'treats'......

 

[Tikkijane]

Here is a example --

Yellow Feed Corn is around 1540 Kcal/lb. where as Fish Meal is 1080 Kcal/lb.
It will take more fish meal than corn to fill a birds caloric needs.
Now there is around 460 Kcal/lb. less in fish meal than corn but there is nearly 48% more protein in fish meal than corn.

Some protein can and will be used as a "fuel" and help meet the birds caloric need BUT the extra is stored as fats..

I like to think of this in terms like a hamburger vs potato chips {or a candy bar}. I always cringe {and usually keep my mouth shut} when people rave about how "healthy" their confined, corn-fed only chickens are......

 

[Tikkijane]

With chicks, I put some dry down on the paper towels or a shallow cardboard box top, or what ever  the first day, as I think it supports their natural tendency to be picking at little tidbits they find on the ground.  I also give them a plop of FF.  Be sure to make it very small.  They will play around in it, and eat some.  When they are eating well, I take away the crumble on the floor and give them just their FF.  Depending on how many chicks, I either put it in a shallow dish, or just plop it on a lid, or a piece of cardboard.  When the first plop is gone, I give them more.  I don't like chicks to go without food, but, if you're using the heating pad system, they will not eat at night in the dark.  The important thing is to keep the container appropriately sized to the chicks.  If it's soupy, it would be possible for them to fall in and get trampled.  Dry is better!

I also feed 24/7, but in very shallow amounts. Small birds {bantams, keets} can actually get stuck in it and have disastrous results. Small amounts; replace when fed out.

 

[Chris09]

And- feed consumption changes depending on temperature. Anyone who's had chickens for any real length of time {and has bothered to observe with both brain and eyes engaged} will have no doubt noticed that chickens slack off feed intake during higher temps, and eat more when it's colder. They actually do build their fat stores in preparation for winter.

Chickens are fat, imo, because we make them that way. Confined chickens get bored-and eat. {Kind of like many people, I think.} When we prevent them from having an environment which allows their natural, instinctive behaviors from being able to help regulate their weight, this is what we're left with.

And then there are the folks who don't understand the concept of 'treats'......

Yes- feed consumption does change some depending weather/ temperature but that's do to there caloric needs changing. In the summer months a chicken has a lower caloric need than in a cold winter.

In my 30 +/- years of raising poultry and my 10 +/- years of showing them I've done a fair share of experimenting with them. One thing that I have found is if you raise the energy amount of the feed in the winter you can bring there feed intake back down to what it would be in the summer.
On the same token if you adjust there protein intake from say a 18 to a 20 percent protein feed in the winter you can also lower there feed intake since proteins take longer to digest and produces more "heat", in the process the birds in turn have less of a caloric need to keep them "warm".

 

[Tikkijane]

Supposed to be fed once a day...some folks feed it twice a day.  It doesn't "go bad"...it's fermented, which kind preserves things rather than spoils them.  It works best with chickens that have not been spoiled by too many choices, too many treats and too much continuous feed.  In other words, it works on hungry chickens. 

And the probiotics won't give much similar benefits at all. 

I still feed twice a day- BUT not everyone is eating both times. Given the size of my flock {around 150; mostly chickens, 20ish guineas and now 14 ducks, although the ducklings haven't been turned loose yet}, some take right off for the day and don't hang back. The 'early to bed' kids usually hang back and feed in the morning and are already hunkered down by the time I feed in the evening. The guineas, however, are ALWAYS the last ones in {and they never eat in the morning} and coming back to feed is a good way for me to get them cooped at night.

I'm on a never-ending bucket, too.

 

[Tikkijane]

Yes- feed consumption does change some depending weather/ temperature but that's do to there caloric needs changing. In the summer months a chicken has a lower caloric need than in a cold winter.

In my 30 +/- years of raising poultry and my 10 +/- years of showing them I've done a fair share of experimenting with them. One thing that I have found is if you raise the energy amount of the feed in the winter you can bring there feed intake back down to what it would be in the summer.
On the same token if you adjust there protein intake from say a 18 to a 20 percent protein feed in the winter you can also lower there feed intake since proteins take longer to digest and produces more "heat", in the process the birds in turn have less of a caloric need to keep them "warm". 

This is exactly what I do. It has to be REALLY cold for me to offer any scratch. And feed consumption for me generally stays the same year round, but my mix varies. My kids think I'm weird.

{And to quantify "really cold" because I'm a transplanted Southerne now, really cold has to be anything under freezing temps. If daytime highs are single digits, scratch grains may be put out in addition to feed. I've got a few fatties in the group, but by-in-large, it's just picked at instead of inhaled. It's my compromise to avoid knitting them all sweaters.

}

 

[Beekissed]

Yes- feed consumption does change some depending weather/ temperature but that's do to there caloric needs changing. In the summer months a chicken has a lower caloric need than in a cold winter.

In my 30 +/- years of raising poultry and my 10 +/- years of showing them I've done a fair share of experimenting with them. One thing that I have found is if you raise the energy amount of the feed in the winter you can bring there feed intake back down to what it would be in the summer.
On the same token if you adjust there protein intake from say a 18 to a 20 percent protein feed in the winter you can also lower there feed intake since proteins take longer to digest and produces more "heat", in the process the birds in turn have less of a caloric need to keep them "warm".

I do just the opposite. I cut the regular laying ration in half with barley or oats during the winter months and add a little BOSS, as my birds are less active and producing less(I don't do lighting). They still don't consume a lot of feed...usually just the usual 1/2 c. wet feed per bird.

Of course yours are consuming less overall feed as you are paying extra to increase the protein levels. That's not even a no brainer...that's a well, duh!

 

[Chris09]

Quote:

I do just the opposite. I cut the regular laying ration in half with barley or oats during the winter months and add a little BOSS, as my birds are less active and producing less(I don't do lighting). They still don't consume a lot of feed...usually just the usual 1/2 c. wet feed per bird.

Of course yours are consuming less overall feed as you are paying extra to increase the protein levels. That's not even a no brainer...that's a well, duh!

Yes, The per pound cost of the feed is a little more BUT the over all winter feeding cost is about the same or maybe a little less.