Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[JoyfulPromise]

That's ok, thanks for looking anyway Beekissed! It is not that I doubt your results, or those of others on this thread, but I was kind of hoping to be able to count on that protein boost since I am trying to do soy-free feed and it is VERY hard to get a decent protein level without soy! Our meat chicks have been doing reasonably well so far anyway, so I will have to be satisfied with that for now.

Thanks again for all your help in pioneering the FF and sharing it with all of us!

 

[Beekissed]

I had never heard of trying to "get protein levels up" until I joined this forum. I never even checked the protein % on the bags of feed I bought all those years. My birds free range all the time so I just never really considered protein or any other nutrient as something that I needed to work upon.

The only time I ever deliberately increased protein levels on any livestock in the past was when we had 4-H rabbits and we needed to get them conditioned for the show at fair.

I guess I had faith that the guys at the feed mill were mixing the feed right or that the whole grains I bought were sufficient when paired with the free range. Probably had something to do with the fact that my grandma never fed anything but shelled corn to her flocks, so feed percentages just never entered into our husbandry efforts.

Then I joined here and there were whole threads devoted to mixing this feed or that one for the "right" percentages of nutrients. I've been puzzled by that ever since. Maybe most of the folks on here keep their birds in pens/runs and are worried about the quality of the feeds available to purchase where they live?

 

[Kassaundra]

The protien issue both w/ fermenting and sprouting, from what I have read, it doesn't increase the protien of the grain, it's not adding protien, it just breaks down anti-nutrients in the grains and allows more protien and other nutrients to be bio-available. At least that is what I get from wading through the technical sites (mind numbingly hard to get for me anyway) the only sites I've ever come across that say it "increases protien" and by the numbers you quoted have been "dubious" to say the least. The same sites that are either trying to sell you something or have "agendas"

 

[Beekissed]

Could be. Most of what I found indicated what you said, that the fermentation process just broke down the phitoproteins(?) to make them more available for digestion, particularly for monogastric animals like chickens and pigs. I guess that would indeed increase the amount of protein consumed or utilized as opposed to those proteins being expelled in the feces.

Most of the studies I found on that matter were concentrating on the actual total absorption of the available nutrients vs. nutrients that were not being utilized in dry feeds and consequently expelled in the fecal material. Hence the reason they can feed chicken litter to cattle as a cheap source of protein.

Could also be why my formerly chicken poop eating mutt left all the mutes of the CX alone this spring...wasn't even vaguely interested in consuming them. No protein to be found there.

 

[Jeanette56]

Is it normal for the top layer of FF to be off-color, grayish maybe?

 

[Beekissed]

Yep! Every single time I popped the top on mine it looked like that. No worries!

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Could be. Most of what I found indicated what you said, that the fermentation process just broke down the phitoproteins(?) to make them more available for digestion, particularly for monogastric animals like chickens and pigs. I guess that would indeed increase the amount of protein consumed or utilized as opposed to those proteins being expelled in the feces.

Most of the studies I found on that matter were concentrating on the actual total absorption of the available nutrients vs. nutrients that were not being utilized in dry feeds and consequently expelled in the fecal material. Hence the reason they can feed chicken litter to cattle as a cheap source of protein.

Could also be why my formerly chicken poop eating mutt left all the mutes of the CX alone this spring...wasn't even vaguely interested in consuming them. No protein to be found there.

Very interesting! I never thought about that being the reason behind the (disgusting) practice now in feedlots of using Poultry Poo (my title to feed beef cows!

On the protein note - I never thought about it either until we started mixing our own feed from whole grains to try and be soy-free, and when reading about that, learned the basic levels of protein needed for optimal growth, egg laying, etc. So obviously I want to supply our chickens with the best nutrition that I am able. Our 30 laying hens free range within a fenced acre of land, so they are getting some bugs and other protein, but I don't know how much. And our meat chickens are in 10x12 hoop houses moved daily to fresh pasture, but we don't have the land or fencing to allow them to free range right now.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I think that is some of the "mother" resting on the top.

 

[tuthillny]

Several months ago I came across this thread while trying to find out why my meat birds were scrawny little no gainers. . . I was very unhappy but I discovered fermented feed and decided to give it a try. I started with the pellet food in one container and then added grains in another container - all my birds go nuts and because of that they are driving me crazy. I think my fermentation is over the top because not only do I have the white layer with active bubbles underneath but when I stir it sounds like carbonation - all I hear is a lot of fizz. I find this to be cool but is this normal? I also read a lot were it has been commented that the poops have become more firmer? My problem is the opposite - normal poops turned into very loose poops. Is there something I can do about? On the good side they do not stink! Thanks

 

[MonsterClucker]

@Bekissed Do you start your chicks on starter crumble that you ferment right? How old do you start the grains?

I bought this bag of feed today. It has whole corn, whole grain sorghum, whole wheat, whole oats, whole barley and fish oil. It was $25 for 75lbs. They call it "Rooster mix" or "super scratch". If I wanted to cut my crumble with this, would that be ok?

The crumble I have is called Organic pride, its %20 protein. They say its good for the whole grow cycle. From chick to process