Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[foreverlearning]

I wouldn't feed it continuously...but then, I would never feed dry feeds on a continuous ration. Some breeds will graze that continuous supply of feed until they put on enormous fat layers around their organs that can seriously shorten their laying life and their actual life. No animal should have continuous access to grain feeds if you want them to live a healthy and long life. Some may be able to subsist on that kind of diet for years with no ill results but most cannot.

For some reason people have gotten it into their heads that offering continuous feed to pets equals good care and love, but most serious breeders of quality animals of any kind do not offer continuous rich foods to their animals...not if they want them to perform well and live naturally long and healthy lives. Obese pets are now the norm and I'm seeing the results of this type of feeding in the many posts on this and other poultry forums as well~egg bound, sour crop, bumble foot, poor immune systems, early death, poor feathering, over stressed animals that fight, peck and kill one another, have poor laying, abnormal laying, ect.

Regular meal portions that keep your birds trim and in good condition are the best approach, be it feeding dry or fermented feeds.

Mine are all normal weights for their breeds. I want what is best for them and if that means limiting their feed than so be it. I didn't realize that too much feed could cause that many problems, thank you for the information. Do you feed your birds once or twice a day?

 

[bruceh]

Mine used to go threw about 50 pounds a month, then the ants and quarter sized frogs moved in the yard. A lot less feed consumed but their crops are full at night and empty by morning. I figured they just got most of what they wanted or needed from the yard. Until they found FF that is, they can't seem to get enough of it. I have 7 hens and 3 roos.

my birds are on pasture not tractors but a little over a 1/3 acre and are dual purpose breeds. i feed 45-50 any given day. i go through about 50 lbs a week.
the young birds are penned at the moment til they get big enough to go with the big ones. my feed is about 18% and fermented. i feed 1 x per day at late afternoon. there is usally enough left for a snack in the am but not much at all..now if i could get them to jump and eat the misquotes .

 

[foreverlearning]

Rain, rain, rain again today! I bet we got at least 3" this afternoon/tonight, maybe 4". Every dip and ditch was running full. I'm thinking about putting my coop up on stilts!

I have mine 2' off the ground, but every time it rains here my property mildly floods.

 

[foreverlearning]

my birds are on pasture not tractors but a little over a 1/3 acre and are dual purpose breeds. i feed 45-50 any given day. i go through about 50 lbs a week.
the young birds are penned at the moment til they get big enough to go with the big ones. my feed is about 18% and fermented. i feed 1 x per day at late afternoon. there is usally enough left for a snack in the am but not much at all..now if i could get them to jump and eat the misquotes .

Mine will only eat the misquotes if they are near the barn wall. Mine are on pasture as well, runs just seem so small to me. I have found that the vanilla car fresheners seem to keep them away, we get them bad here. I also changed from pine shavings (not good in humidity) to sand in my coop and haven't seen one in there since.

 

[RoseMarie1]

It doesn't increase the total proteins but increases the total nutrients absorbed or utilized by the digestive system. From what I can understand from all the material I've read, the carbohydrates in the grains are changed into a more useable form, as are the minerals as the phytates are removed by the fermentation process. I can only go by what I've read on the studies done and I'm no scientist, by any means, so I'm not really into the fine details. Found a few articles that explain the benefits of fermentation on the grains when it comes to monogastric digestive systems like ours..and chickens.



More about the role of phytases in increasing the nutrient value of grain feeds for nonruminants...



From what I understand, the enzymes that are increased in the small intestine by the ingestion of the LABs and prebiotics of acetobacter bacilli, have the ability to actually produce proteins that are absorbed and utilized as nutrition by the host animal on a cellular level. Now..this is where I get lost and stay lost and will willingly never try to find the rest of the reasoning behind all the microbiology behind it all.

Here's a link to the information on conjugated proteins..they are about half way down the page...

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Principles_of_Biochemistry/Amino_acids_and_proteins

Suffice it to say that it appears that total nutrition absorption is changed by the simple act of fermentation and it's not just the protein, but all the minerals and vitamins as well from what I can gather from all the scientific gobbledy gook. I'm not one to look beyond a certain point on the why of things when the results are easily visible, so I'm not one to explain it all nor do I want to really know but maybe someone out there with more interest in the microbiology side of it all can help you with this.

Me either Bee on not one to look soooooo deep. When it feels right it just feels right and I go by common sense and once I have researched it and it feels right and makes sense to me, and I can SEE the benefits I go for it. Last fall I also started fermenting a lot of our food as well. March was a year ago I started doing milk kefir but not doing it now but do have some in the freezer to restart when I'm ready to do so. We just wasn't consuming it so I just stopped doing it for awhile. Anyway thanx for sharing this. I shared it with our states Facebook page for poultry since there's some interest in this there to.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Rain, rain, rain again today! I bet we got at least 3" this afternoon/tonight, maybe 4". Every dip and ditch was running full. I'm thinking about putting my coop up on stilts!

lol it rained like that here yesterday. Good thing I'm up on high ground! BUT our land does slop down hill toward the chickens pen so we had to do a little ditch at the front door to make the water go around that way and not right through the middle of their roosting area.

 

[Beekissed]

Mine are all normal weights for their breeds. I want what is best for them and if that means limiting their feed than so be it. I didn't realize that too much feed could cause that many problems, thank you for the information. Do you feed your birds once or twice a day?

Once a day. I free range like you, so I feed in the evenings during good foraging months to encourage more foraging for nutrients that are healthier for them than we can provide with grain based feed rations. In the winter I feed once in the mornings but it's enough for two good meals.

Al (an old chicken expert who is a member here) used to tease me about having old birds who lay like gumball machines well past the age when birds should be doing that and I would have to agree with him...I've always had birds with exceptional health and laying, no matter the breed. I cull for these traits and so keep the flock at optimal performance but I feel it has a lot to do with their overall health and nutrition also and it isn't anything fancy...just plain ol' layer mash, sometimes some cheap whole grains, free range, exercise, and limited portions of feed.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

Here's an interesting little paragraph or two that explains it even better without all the scientific jargon...



And a lovely graph!!!

And more cool facts....

Love the graph. This has me wondering what fermented oatmeal would taste like.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[RoseMarie1]

Love the graph. This has me wondering what fermented oatmeal would taste like.

Now THAT'S too cool! THIS is the kind of stuff I like since I am a visual person. Thanx for sharing this! Gotta share this one on the Facebook page as well. I have never liked oatmeal but I used to put it in my hamburgers when I would mix them up just so we could consume some oatmeal because they said it was soooo good for you. BUT that was the only way I could eat it. That and cookies that is.