FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Leigti]

I would assume that it is the east. But also because you are adding water to natural ingredients it makes sense that it would smell better then when you add it to processed feed.

 

[Pendragonz]

What do you FF experts make of this; I decided to try fermenting my feed this morning and it bubbled and started smelling yeasty no more than a couple of hours after I added the water. This feed is my own blend of commercial scratch,soybean meal, pumpkin, sesame, sunflower and millet seeds, nutritional yeast, oyster shells and cod liver oil. I added maybe a 1/4 teaspoon of powdered probiotic, which started to foam the moment it hit the water.
My water is from a deep well and is untreated. Is it maybe the nutritional yeast just coming back to life? I wasn't expecting to see results this quickly. I won't soak my feed more than overnight before feeding as I think it would go haywire quickly.

ShanandGem,
I think it may be the yeast to some extent, but I really think it has more to do with the powdered probiotic. I realize it wasn't much of the powdered probiotic but I do think that was it. The heat will really kick things up a notch also. I can have a little bit of FF left in my bucket, add another coffee can of feed and water and by the next morning with the heat we're having I've got the white yeasty looking culture growing all over the top. All I did when I started mine was the feed and water and let it sit for 3-4 days before my chicks arrived. I make it up and use it for the next 2-3 days. FF it's the gift that keeps on giving!

 

[islandgirl82]

Quote:

I use a serving bowl and spoon to bring out to the run where I feed them and after each feeding (twice each day), I rinse the bowl and dump the water back into the bucket of FF, add another scoop of grain, mix it up and by the next feeding the culture is all over the top again. I do add ACV to mine but just a slash every few days.

 

[Tikkijane]

that's a lot of chickens. I have been doing for Manteen for about a year and a half. I use the one bucket method. I feed scratch and pack, or H and H brand. Fermenting allows me to get the more expensive food. My chickens also free range in the yard during the day.

This makes me giggle.

My first flock, when we lived in town, started off at 9. That was the first year. By the time we moved, we were up to 22.

Now we're in the country. . We've also got ducks and guineas. Chicken math is real, y'all.

 

[Leigti]

This makes me giggle.

My first flock, when we lived in town, started off at 9. That was the first year. By the time we moved, we were up to 22.

Now we're in the country. . We've also got ducks and guineas. Chicken math is real, y'all.

so true. I started with three, two years later I have 12.

 

[AuntNomi]

We started with 8, we now have 46. And eggs in the incubator! My husband tells my son "Don't let your moma get any more chickens today!" He hasn't figured out that it's mostly my son. LOL

 

[Tikkijane]

so true. I started with three, two years later I have 12.

Well, I've got over 150. To be fair, though, only 25-30 of those are not chickens.

 

[write2caroline]

I started with 3 within a year I had 55, over the course of 7 years now I have 0 but I ordered eggs and plan to incubate them and feed them FF when they hatch.

We had a neighbor who thought it was funny to let his dog attack my birds. Got him on Video doing it. he is gone now but what an adventure in chicken keeping.

Caroline

 

[TexasLisa]

I started with 3 within a year I had 55, over the course of 7 years now I have 0 but I ordered eggs and plan to incubate them and feed them FF when they hatch.

We had a neighbor who thought it was funny to let his dog attack my birds. Got him on Video doing it. he is gone now but what an adventure in chicken keeping.

Caroline

What a sick SICK neighbor! I hope you made him pay.

Good luck on the incubation. Please keep us posted.

 

[Kiki]

I started my 12 day olds chicks on FF yesterday!!!
I am so excited...they LOVED it!


I just used the starter crumbles, water and ACV....let it it over night and feed them it this morning.

I am investing in a bucket method soon...right now I am just using some mason jars.