Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[OHhappychicks]

Thanks mlowen! I will do that

 

[OHhappychicks]

A few more questions, please. How often do you feed this to the chicks? We leave the dry feed out all the time. If the chicks eat this all at one sitting, do I feed them a 2nd time? Or do I fill up and let them eat as they will. How long can it set out before it starts to go bad? They are 3 wks old and are out in the chicken tractor where they can eat whatever. Also what I started this afternoon hasn't done anything, (fermenting I mean). Should I be concerned, or does it usually take a while? I used up/acv. Not sure how much I used. Maybe 3-4 tblsp to about 1 to 1-1/2 gal of water. Is that enough? Like I stated before, I'm using purina medicated (

) grower/starter feed. This should work, with the meds? I just bought a new bag, or I would have changed feed.
THanks Everyone! Have a great night!

 

[maryhysong]

A few more questions, please. How often do you feed this to the chicks? We leave the dry feed out all the time. If the chicks eat this all at one sitting, do I feed them a 2nd time? Or do I fill up and let them eat as they will. How long can it set out before it starts to go bad? They are 3 wks old and are out in the chicken tractor where they can eat whatever. Also what I started this afternoon hasn't done anything, (fermenting I mean). Should I be concerned, or does it usually take a while? I used up/acv. Not sure how much I used. Maybe 3-4 tblsp to about 1 to 1-1/2 gal of water. Is that enough? Like I stated before, I'm using purina medicated (

) grower/starter feed. This should work, with the meds? I just bought a new bag, or I would have changed feed.
THanks Everyone! Have a great night!

I feed my chicks two to three times a day, what they will mostly clean up in a couple hours. When they are tiny babies I try not to let them go too long without food in front of them. By the time they are 6 weeks they clean up breakfast pretty quick, scratch around for bugs and stuff and get more in mid afternoon. By the time they are 6 months and go to layer mash they get fed breakfast only, with occasional food scraps or greens in the afternoon.

Others here have said the medicated feed isn't an issue. May take a couple days to get your ferment going to begin with, then just leave some feed in the bucket, refresh with more water and feed as you use it. You can also add some good plain yogurt, adds some different probios and at least for me, helps boost a slowing down ferment.

 

[RedRidge]

A few more questions, please. How often do you feed this to the chicks? We leave the dry feed out all the time. If the chicks eat this all at one sitting, do I feed them a 2nd time? Or do I fill up and let them eat as they will. How long can it set out before it starts to go bad? They are 3 wks old and are out in the chicken tractor where they can eat whatever. Also what I started this afternoon hasn't done anything, (fermenting I mean). Should I be concerned, or does it usually take a while? I used up/acv. Not sure how much I used. Maybe 3-4 tblsp to about 1 to 1-1/2 gal of water. Is that enough? Like I stated before, I'm using purina medicated (

) grower/starter feed. This should work, with the meds? I just bought a new bag, or I would have changed feed.
THanks Everyone! Have a great night!

When my are chicks... under 4-6 weeks old... I feed twice/day.
After that I feed only once a day.
It doesn't go bad if there's a little left the next day... if there is some left I simply mix it in with the next older group of chick's feed.
I have a LOT of chicks right now so this is easy.

If you know how much your chicks or chickens were eating before, calculating how much FF to feed is easy because you simply use the ratio that you used the first day you calculated how much wet your dry weighs or measures compared to your wet.
My ratio is 2.25 lbs - everyone's is different... I mix my own grains and then add my premix after the grains are fermented.
I keep a chart showing how much to mix, and then how much to feed each group according to their age up to 20 weeks.
After 20 weeks they are all the same.
So for me... if a group of 1 adults was getting 3 lb/day a day before... now they will get 6.75 if FF each day.

Have never used medicated feed, or fermented bagged feed... but I can say that for chicks if it has fish meal in it then it must smell horrible when fermented. ick!
You will like not fermenting all of the ingredients better since there's no benefit to fermenting things like limestone and fish meal anyway.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Thank you maryhysong & Red Ridge! So much good info! I will add some yogurt to speed up fermentation. No fermentation this morn but I think I will give them a little of the gruel as something different for them. Thanks again!

 

[RedRidge]

Thank you maryhysong & Red Ridge! So much good info! I will add some yogurt to speed up fermentation. No fermentation this morn but I think I will give them a little of the gruel as something different for them. Thanks again!

Hmmm Yogurt? That's a different type of fermentation...
If you've added ACV with mother then you will see good ferment within 3 days.
In the meantime... feeding it prior to that is just fine... it's simply soaked grains and not fermented grains. Somewhere there is the good link to the two different types of fermentation... it's important to understand the difference between the two.
I feed a lot of clabber and whey, but that has nothing to do with my ferment.

 

[ramblinH]

A few more questions, please.  How often do you feed this to the chicks?  We leave the dry feed out all the time. If the chicks eat this all at one sitting, do I feed them a 2nd time? Or do I fill up and let them eat as they will. How long can it set out before it starts to go bad? They are 3 wks old and are out in the chicken tractor where they can eat whatever. Also what I started this afternoon hasn't done anything, (fermenting I mean).  Should I be concerned, or does it usually take a while?  I used up/acv. Not sure how much I used. Maybe 3-4 tblsp to about 1 to 1-1/2 gal of water. Is that enough?

I am fairly new to this also but here is a link that you will find helpful...

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/03/benefits-of-fermenting-feed-for.html

This is a 3-part series that explains the who, what, when, where and hows very well.

My chooks are just over 2 months and free-ranging. I only feed ff to them in the evening, figuring they get their fill on the good stuff during the day. Have not done so lately but believe checking their crop will confirm.

As far as going bad, don't believe it can if you keep it maintained. My 1st batch of starter ff was 2 months old when I finished it off to start their grower ff. I just make sure to keep it covered with plenty of water and if it gets to smelling bad (covered in link above) add some ACV or LAB (lactic acid bacteria). They say it takes anywhere from 24 hrs to 3 days but I just go ahead and start feeding it right away, letting the process take care of itself.

Hope this helps and don't worry about asking to many questions that may have been covered previously. I'm with you and don't have time to read through 5000 posts to get my question answered, ha!

Good day!
 

 

[barkinghills]

Hi,

I have been fermenting mixed whole grains with ACV as a starter...this worked great over the cool months but we had a week of 80-degree+ weather in May and noticed that my fermented grains smelled very spoiled after two days or so. It was a very different and foul smell, clearly different than a safe fermented batch of grain.

Do other people have trouble with spoilage in warm weather? Any tips? I have given up the fermenting for now but want to start up again.

 

[OHhappychicks]

I am fairly new to this also but here is a link that you will find helpful...

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/2013/03/benefits-of-fermenting-feed-for.html

This is a 3-part series that explains the who, what, when, where and hows very well.

My chooks are just over 2 months and free-ranging. I only feed ff to them in the evening, figuring they get their fill on the good stuff during the day. Have not done so lately but believe checking their crop will confirm.

As far as going bad, don't believe it can if you keep it maintained. My 1st batch of starter ff was 2 months old when I finished it off to start their grower ff. I just make sure to keep it covered with plenty of water and if it gets to smelling bad (covered in link above) add some ACV or LAB (lactic acid bacteria). They say it takes anywhere from 24 hrs to 3 days but I just go ahead and start feeding it right away, letting the process take care of itself.

Hope this helps and don't worry about asking to many questions that may have been covered previously. I'm with you and don't have time to read through 5000 posts to get my question answered, ha!

Good day!

Thank you ramblinh! That's why I like this place, we learn together! Everyone is so nice to share their knowledge. And yes 5000 posts is ALOT to read thru!

And I am reading thru, slowly but surely! I read the link you sent to me, and that really helped! Thanks again!

 

[Demosthine]

Have never used medicated feed, or fermented bagged feed... but I can say that for chicks if it has fish meal in it then it must smell horrible when fermented. ick!
You will like not fermenting all of the ingredients better since there's no benefit to fermenting things like limestone and fish meal anyway.

You know, that explains why I've had a different smell recently. I just switched to the organic food from a co-op that is delivered here and it has fishmeal in it. We ordered the Big Sky Chick Start-Gro and I started using that for the fermented feed a little over a week ago. It never crossed my mind that the fishmeal would cause a different smell. I was concerned that the batch went bad, but it still looked right and didn't smell horrible. It just smells different. The clan is devouring it just as much as they did their old feed.