Oh, okay. I'm a Southerner and take everything way TOO personally, lol! No worries!
Maybe you can help answer some questions I have? I feel like I've spent a lifetime reading everything I can about fermented feed, so I felt armed enough with information to try it - but I'm still really overwhelmed with it. After the first batch of gloppy mess I made (and threw out) I was just so excited to have something that resembled what I SHOULD have!
I think my main problem with fermenting the crumbles is that it doesn't work in the feeder. I have a 5 gallon bucket feeder in the run and a small PVC feeder in the coop (so I can hit snooze on the weekends). The wet gloppy fermented stuff doesn't work in the feeders. So how do you have food out 24/7 if you're fermenting the crumbles? That's the one part of fermenting feed that I just can't figure out.
I'm also scared of all the bacteria in fermented feed. Like I said, I have two chronically sick girls. That's another reason why I added that little bit of vinegar. I keep reading about the fermenting liquid turning to moonshine (like you said!) and I got scared I'd poison them with bad bacteria, or mold, or yeast, or whatever. So I figured if I kick started with ACV then it would help ensure that I had a lactic acid bath going and I'd be less likely to accidently poison them.
I don't plan to keep adding ACV - it was just that little bit to start. I'm hoping that the rotation system (letting a jar sit a full week before using it) will help get a good ferment going. Each jar makes about a week's worth, so I just planned to slowly empty the jar through the week, then keep the old liquid, fill it back up with fresh grain, & top off with water as needed. Then let it sit while I switch to the other jar. That's because I didn't really understand adding new grain each day - then you get a mix of really fermented stuff with non-fermented stuff, which didn't make sense to me (?).
I'm just so desperate to try anything that might help get my two sickly ones healthy. I'm awfully fond of those two (nicknamed "the pooper" and "the rascal" - one because she poops every single time you pick her up, and the other because she reminds me of kids I used to teach - the super-smart ones that always caused trouble but never got caught, lol!).
I'd love any advice you're willing to give. You can even shout at me if you want!
Go to tik tok site: http://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/ You cannot beat this one for the best information. It was recommended to me. It's very long, but so good that I printed it. This will answer all your questions and give you nice pictures. It will also put your mind at ease.........read it and just breathe! FF is really easy and you'll end up loving it, and it should give your girls a boost.
Now that being said, I am not a FF purist. I personally use the ff as my "base" feed. I am semi retired and have the luxury of visiting my chickens a couple of times a day, and I only have six hens. In the morning I give them approximately 1 and 1/2- two cups ff in a pie plate (if its too liquidy I add a little dry feed around the edges). I then place about 2 cups of dry feed in a hanging feeder for them to munch on all day. I go back out around 3 o'clock, and give them the other half of the ff which is again about 1 and 1/2 cups. (I then add 2 cups dry feed to my "dirty" container mix with water and let it rest overnight to make more ff.) They also have oyster shell in a separate hanging feeder. This is also when I give them treats, scratch, boss, leftover meat, table scraps, etc. Right now I have a lot of blueberries on the bushes. They have access to lots of grass and bushes, insects, and dirt all day By eight o'clock, they are roosting in their coop for the night, the pie plate is empty, if there is any dry feed left in the hanging feeder, I add it around the edges of the pie plate with the ff the next day (so I don't have it sitting in a feeder) .(I give them fresh water twice each day. with ACV for one week (7 days) per month.
You're correct; it's very hard to use ff with a feeder. My ladies love their pie plate ff.
