Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[JulieNKC]

I have been feeding my 3 month old d'uccle chicks FF for around a month now. They are doing wonderfully with it. Honestly, my favorite thing about it has to be the fact I can feed my preferred mix without as much waste. I feed a combination of gamebird grower and grains, and the gamebird only comes in crumbles and so much got wasted no matter what I did. Now the bowl gets licked clean. I have only been fermenting the grower for them though, and mixing it with rolled oats as I feed instead of draining it to soak up the excess water. Now I've finally got a bigger container set up, and I plan on fermenting the grower, scratch, oats, etc for my couple of layers, turkeys, geese, and my ducks. I'm hoping it goes over well with the geese and ducks, I guess I'll find out soon. I never would have known/thought about fermenting their feed without this thread, thanks Beekissed!

 

[galanie]

Rolled oats is a great idea! I have been not wanting to wait till all the liquid is drained off either so I might be throwing in a few rolled oats. Oats are good for them anyhow. Though it would get expensive to feed them very much of that breakfast food type.

 

[JulieNKC]

Rolled oats is a great idea! I have been not wanting to wait till all the liquid is drained off either so I might be throwing in a few rolled oats. Oats are good for them anyhow. Though it would get expensive to feed them very much of that breakfast food type.

You can get bags of rolled oats at the feed store too. I think they are about $16 for a 50lb bag here. I just use the breakfast kind for the little guys, but will be picking up a big bag for everyone now that I'm switching them all to it.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm still slowly working my way through this thread and hit post 406 out of 1,313 and I am rolling on the floor laughing!! Too funny! Bee, you have a wonderful way with words.

Just getting geared up to mix up a batch of FF for my layers tonight. I wanted to read the whole thread before starting, but I don't think I can wait that long. My husband drilled holes in a bucket for me and we are ready to go. I try to avoid plastic because it leaches chemicals, but I can't seem to find anything else on short notice. So, I'm using two 5 gal "food grade" pails like yours, Bee. Does anyone out there still use those great old ceramic chicken feeders? I can't find one that is reasonably priced. They are heavy, but no leaching of chemicals...

So excited to start. Would a kombucha mother added to the mix do any good?

I think others have used kombucha on theirs. I used up a bottle of buttermilk in mine this week. Never had done that before, so will see how it all turns out.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I think others have used kombucha on theirs. I used up a bottle of buttermilk in mine this week. Never had done that before, so will see how it all turns out.

Since i have to confess i don't have time to read 1354 posts how do you keep it from going bad? you never change the water out at all? I just started mine on Sat. and just want to make sure I don't poison all my flock.

 

[Beekissed]

Providing fresh food to feed the good microbes is the best way of keeping ferment from going bad. Backslopping the water and some of the feed gives the fresh feed concentrated lactobacilli to start the feeding and fermenting process.

People have been doing this for centuries for pigs and poultry...I don't know that I've ever heard of any animals being poisoned by FF yet.

 

[bruceh]

Nope, why do you have some extra and want to get rid of it? never heard of feeding pidgeon feed to chickens.

i don'y have extra but it has a lot of good things in it. the cost is 27.00 per 50lbs

 

[Miss Lydia]

i don'y have extra but it has a lot of good things in it. the cost is 27.00 per 50lbs

Thats why I was asking about it, sounds pretty pricey but if you can afford it go for it.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Providing fresh food to feed the good microbes is the best way of keeping ferment from going bad. Backslopping the water and some of the feed gives the fresh feed concentrated lactobacilli to start the feeding and fermenting process.

People have been doing this for centuries for pigs and poultry...I don't know that I've ever heard of any animals being poisoned by FF yet.

Thanks Bee just want to make sure I do this right. So do you put fresh feed in everytime you take out FF? Sorry if this has all been asked.

 

[galanie]

Day 2 of "back to FF" and they can't get enough. I swear they're eating more now than ever! They really aren't, because for one thing my scoop for FF is a bit smaller than the dry food one, and two, it swells so much when fermenting. It just feels like they're eating so much. But that's fine with me! They were suffering so with the summer and starting to look better now and they can have all they'll hold!