FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Miss Lydia]

If you paint it, they will simply eat the paint off it. If you seal it, what ever you use may react with the feed or leach into the feed. Natural wood is non toxic, and would be a much better choice. I'd simply use some cheap screws, and screw it together. When it rots, if it ever does, replace it. If you let them peck it dry once/day, it will be just fine. It will be fine even if they don't peck it dry, I'm betting. I simply go to the dollar store, and buy 3 or 4 cheap dog bowls. Plop the feed into them, and spread them around in the run, or set a couple in the coop, one on their feeding station, and an other one on a hay bale. I simply have not bothered to make a trough yet, though may need to in the spring.

This time of year I have to use heated dog bowls to feed ff. in summer I have the heavy plastic goat troughs from TSC. works great. The troughs keep the chickens from getting into the ff and scratching it out all over.

 

[lazy gardener]

Quote: Bee, you beat me to the punch. I'm hot blooded. But, after finishing lunch, I can almost always plan on being a bit chilled. And have always been told it's b/c blood supply is being diverted to the gut. IMO, simply feed your birds adequately year round. Increased calories in the winter due to increased metabolic demand.

 

[RezChamp]

I didn't read all 754 pages.gee, I only glanced though 40ish. I'm taking a short cut. Maybe someone will see past the humor and I'll get an answer.

I don't feed fermented feed. I'm sick of drunken chickens with the munchies. A fat hen's laying rate cuts back by almost 75%. That kinda hurts the wallet when you got 30 or 40 hens.
To top it off, if I don't give them their daily buzz they start getting really cranky.
Have you ever seen hungover chickens scrapping? I didn't believe it till I saw it a number of times but it's true that hungover females are meaner than hungover males.

Yessiree ....no more fermented berries, fruit, veggies, grains or grasses or even leaves(cabbage, lettuce etc) for me. I'm getting too old to refferee scraps.

I just want peace in the coop.

I suppose I could just do it every Saturday and sell ringside(fence side) tickets for the SundayFights.

Am I using too much water? Leaving it too long? Too hot? Too cold? Should I leave the lid off the drum/barrel? Should I scoop off the froth? ????????

 

[Beekissed]

I didn't read all 754 pages.gee, I only glanced though 40ish. I'm taking a short cut. Maybe someone will see past the humor and I'll get an answer.

I don't feed fermented feed. I'm sick of drunken chickens with the munchies. A fat hen's laying rate cuts back by almost 75%. That kinda hurts the wallet when you got 30 or 40 hens.
To top it off, if I don't give them their daily buzz they start getting really cranky.
Have you ever seen hungover chickens scrapping? I didn't believe it till I saw it a number of times but it's true that hungover females are meaner than hungover males.

Yessiree ....no more fermented berries, fruit, veggies, grains or grasses or even leaves(cabbage, lettuce etc) for me. I'm getting too old to refferee scraps.

I just want peace in the coop.

I suppose I could just do it every Saturday and sell ringside(fence side) tickets for the SundayFights.

Am I using too much water? Leaving it too long? Too hot? Too cold? Should I leave the lid off the drum/barrel? Should I scoop off the froth? ????????

Don't know if you are being serious or facetious, but no one is really having the results you report that I know of, so maybe you are feeding too much? If you have overly fat hens, cut back on the feed. There is no alcohol effect in the FF, so if you are having fighting chickens, it's a good bet they don't have enough room in their living space and it's stressing them. My chickens never fight other than the occasional peck here and there of the order and show no overly aggressive behavior to one another...could be your breed?

If you don't feed fermented feed, but you are tired of the effects of feeding fermented feed that you don't feed, it would seem you are merely here to pick a fight......so why are you here?

 

[RezChamp]

Bee, you beat me to the punch.  I'm hot blooded.  But, after finishing lunch, I can almost always plan on being a bit chilled.  And have always been told it's b/c blood supply is being diverted to the gut.   IMO, simply feed your birds adequately year round.  Increased calories in the winter due to increased metabolic demand.  

Also quoting what you quoted from EggSighted4Life

In the winter my Nana usta hang frozen rabbits about 2 feet or so from the floor of the coop. The chickens had to jump to peck at it.
Smart old lady. I miss her quiet wisdom and mannerisms. Too bad there ain't more people like that in the world.

In retrospect I don't recall ever having witnessed a "froze to death" chicken from her uninsulated coop.
Where we live routinely gets -30*C with blasts of -50*C.

 

[Molpet]

I didn't read all 754 pages.gee, I only glanced though 40ish. I'm taking a short cut. Maybe someone will see past the humor and I'll get an answer.

I don't feed fermented feed. I'm sick of drunken chickens with the munchies. A fat hen's laying rate cuts back by almost 75%. That kinda hurts the wallet when you got 30 or 40 hens.
To top it off, if I don't give them their daily buzz they start getting really cranky.
Have you ever seen hungover chickens scrapping? I didn't believe it till I saw it a number of times but it's true that hungover females are meaner than hungover males.

Yessiree ....no more fermented berries, fruit, veggies, grains or grasses or even leaves(cabbage, lettuce etc) for me. I'm getting too old to refferee scraps.

I just want peace in the coop.

I suppose I could just do it every Saturday and sell ringside(fence side) tickets for the SundayFights.

Am I using too much water? Leaving it too long? Too hot? Too cold? Should I leave the lid off the drum/barrel? Should I scoop off the froth? ????????

most of us use this method and NO DRUNK CHICKENS LOL 3 days is not enough to make alcohol ( or I would be rich selling it to winos)

leave the lid off
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, you beat me to the punch. I'm hot blooded. But, after finishing lunch, I can almost always plan on being a bit chilled. And have always been told it's b/c blood supply is being diverted to the gut. IMO, simply feed your birds adequately year round. Increased calories in the winter due to increased metabolic demand.

I'm likely the only person on BYC that decreases protein levels of the feed during winter months.

I cut the layer mash with oats or barley and then cut it a little more with some BOSS, so as others are increasing proteins fed, I'm sort of cutting them down. My birds are less active in the winter, so all the calories they would normally consume for running around doing their thing can be diverted towards body heat and they normally slow down on laying in the winter too, so they don't even need more protein for that job. I cut the total protein and increase the fats and the ones that lay still lay and they all seem to fare very well all winter long. Even recover from molt very well on that diet.


I figure the wild birds aren't getting a lot of high protein feed out there right now either, so if they can do it on seeds and nuts for fat and without a cozy shelter and someone bringing the food directly to them, my birds can too.

 

[WPFarmstead]

Be warned, sealed fermentation = Boom! Since this post is about vitamins, I'm thinking that perhaps I should add some scratch feed to the mix, or give them some separately in the evening wouldn't be a bad idea, that way they can get the extra carbs to keep warm at night? And would adding scratch to the mix make it less likely for the gasses to push the top layer of fermenting 'crumbles' out of the bucket? I'm getting rather tired of waking up and finding half their feed attempting to escape leaving a mess on the counter top!

I think she was referring to the now popular one way airlocks used in lactose fermenting mainly, but also in alcohol. Those allow gas out, but not back in.

I started feeding chicks fermented feed at that age. Here is a pic of the feeder I designed for the six chix: I made this because otherwise the FF was everywhere and all over them. Obviously you would bend any prickly edges down into the container or cut them off... Re: Chicks...use the chick starter, not the layer feed. I am also learning that layer feed has too little protein for most all chickens regardless. BTW, everyone I am warming their fermented feed in the morning, in the microwave for about a minute since it is so cold here! Thoughts? It just gets slightly warm...would that kill the good stuff?

Actually, layer feed follows the guidelines for chicken feed. It's not the total protein that matters at all, but rather specifically the amino acids in the protein that are important. Feeding more protein than what they can use actually just means they will poo out more protein. I did tons of reading into feed development before I started mixing my own feed.

 

[Leahs Mom]

This time of year I have to use heated dog bowls to feed ff. in summer I have the heavy plastic goat troughs from TSC. works great. The troughs keep the chickens from getting into the ff and scratching it out all over.

I wish they made a heated trough...rather than the round bowls.

 

[FlyWheel]

It would be great if you could get a video of the chickens getting 'dumped'. That is hilarious!

I could make a video of how it works, alas, the chickens have already learned the futility of trying to roost on the roof though. Sorry.

@LazyGardener: Thanks for the info. I would like to find some wider crocks anyway; I'm thinking the ones I have may just be too narrow and the feed/mash just doesn't have the room to get out of the way of the rising gas so it gets pushed up and out.