Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Bee, I've been using FF for a little over a year now (THANKS for getting me started!), I have no plans to stop for as long as I have a flock.
I think the toughest thing about FF for me is having someone that does chores for me when I am out of town. I am gone to visit my children and grandchildren (they live out of state) on 4 day weekends several times a year. I don't like asking my "chicken buddy" to fool with the FF. I don't see it as a big difference in time, but I do it everyday and have my system down. I look at any added time I spend in the coop and chicken yard as an opportunity to check-out the birds and become familiar with them. Someone doing chores for me just wants to finish and go back home. If I was paying someone to do it just like I do, it would be different, but these are friends that have chickens of their own and we trade-off doing chores for each other. I don't worry about the ferment while I am gone since I make sure to "feed" and stir and leave it in a cool place. It is fine upon return and I stir it, and then feed the next morning. When I am gone, the flock has free access to crumbles and some scratch thrown around when they are let out each morning. They are always happy when I return and they get the FF back!
Money....not an issue since I believe it is cheaper than dry....use less feed overall so less cost.
Smell...In the late spring through late fall my FF lives in the barn with the chickens and cats. No complaints about smell. I keep mine in the unheated attached garage until it gets too cold then on my laundry room floor in the house for the winter and don't think it smells bad......I use Purina Game Bird Startena that has animal protein this time of year to give them some help finishing their molt before it is too cold. No fish meal products here from the time it moves indoors until spring when it moves back outdoors, but I can see how that it could be a problem inside for sensitive noses.

NAF, here's a handy solution...just dish out the same amount of FF you'd normally feed in 4 day's time and leave it when you go out of town and let the friends just check on your birds. I do it that way and it works out just fine. Fermented feed is the same stored in the FF bucket or laying out in the trough for the same amount of time, I have found. I used to do the same thing when I fed dry and so tried it with the FF and found it to have the exact same results...chickens consume the exact same amounts they would have if you were dishing it out each day.

That way you won't have to worry about putting them on dry feeds during that time frame and you can replenish your bucket after you dished out their 4 day ration, so you have a full FF bucket when you return of feed that's been percolating while you were gone and is just ready for feeding.

So glad you still like your FF!!!

 

[pipemum]

In re: to issues with FF, I've only had chickens since April. I've done FF on and off a couple of times...stopped in the summer when I felt temps were too high and I can't keep the stuff inside, but tried again at the end of summer (still over 100 every day) and realized FF did fine in the heat. I was mixing water to the feed anyway, so feeding FF is no more problematic than pouring a bit of water onto the mash grains. I go out of town on the weekends fairly often, and my chickens have to get by with dry food for a bit. Haven't had a problem with FF turning bad while I'm gone, but to be honest, the longest I was out of town (a week?) was during the middle of summer when I had stopped FF for the heat.

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote: Thanks Bee! I'll try that next trip. I have a plastic goat feeder that sits on the ground that I use for FF inside the coop but usually put some out in different places around the yard for the youngsters that the upper-order hens run off from the coop feeder. I don't leave feed outside at night since I don't have a LGD and don't want to encourage varmits! I'll just put it all into the trough and see how it goes in a couple of weeks.

I've posted pictures before of some of my flock and the gleam they have while feeding fermented feed. Here is another example of why I'll keep using FF......(oops....have to switch to Chrome to post a pic....be right back to add the pic.......)
Icelandic cock and Rhode Island Red pullet:


Same pullet.....top view:

 

[waltandlori]

Ok let me pose this question... For meatys while planning on processing in the 10-12 week range, how much feed do you give per day? I say meatys because they tend to eat more. Dry I have a 3 quart scoop 3x per day for 24 birds oh they would eat more if given. FF I have no way of measuring, I use a paddle to dish it out(just a 1x4 scrap wood). At 5 pm for the last feed of the day they do not finish right away.

 

[Beekissed]

I have 8 CX chicks, about 2 weeks old. I've been feeding them fermented chick feed since day 1. They'll have gone through a 40lb bag of food in the next week or so...I feed 2x a day and have had some feed waste due to various things ( spills, I've been extra butterfingers lately.). Does that much for 8 meaties seem normal, a 40lb bag of feed in about 3 weeks? They get some scratch and have "free-ranged" a bit, but at 2 weeks old they barely go 10' from the pen.

Yep...that's a lot of feed, especially at that age. Could explain why they don't go 10 ft from the coop for free range. I'd cut back on the feed and use a little in the morning...just a tad..and reserve the main meal for the evening and you'll see some foraging like you wouldn't believe!

Thanks Bee! I'll try that next trip. I have a plastic goat feeder that sits on the ground that I use for FF inside the coop but usually put some out in different places around the yard for the youngsters that the upper-order hens run off from the coop feeder. I don't leave feed outside at night since I don't have a LGD and don't want to encourage varmits! I'll just put it all into the trough and see how it goes in a couple of weeks.

I've posted pictures before of some of my flock and the gleam they have while feeding fermented feed. Here is another example of why I'll keep using FF......(oops....have to switch to Chrome to post a pic....be right back to add the pic.......)
Icelandic cock and Rhode Island Red pullet:


Same pullet.....top view:

Absolutely beautiful birds!!! That Icelandic is stunning...never saw one before and those colors just bounce. Great looking RIR...that can't be a hatchery bird..can it? If so, I'd like to know which one!

Ok let me pose this question... For meatys while planning on processing in the 10-12 week range, how much feed do you give per day? I say meatys because they tend to eat more. Dry I have a 3 quart scoop 3x per day for 24 birds oh they would eat more if given. FF I have no way of measuring, I use a paddle to dish it out(just a 1x4 scrap wood). At 5 pm for the last feed of the day they do not finish right away.

Why can't you use the scoop you are currently using for the dry feed for the FF and just give them what you gave when you dished out dry feed, though I wouldn't be doing it 3 times a day. If you don't free range, I'd just feed twice a day, the same scoop measure you fed as dry and see how it all goes.

I do it that way for my layers...same scoops, same amount of feed~seemingly~but with the grains swollen with fluid, there is much less actual grains being fed as when fed dry. This seems to me to work out fantastically, because it all works out to nearly half the amount of feed than when feeding dry...which is just what they eat anyway. Same scoop, looks like the same amount, but in actuality it's not but it's souped up to superfeed mode so it really is the same amount..but better. If that makes any sense.

 

[pipemum]

Oh, and ha, I totally didn't count the amount of feed actually in the 5-gallon bucket...so perhaps I'm not going through food quite as fast as I was thinking. My poor brain, I'm just going to blame this duh moment on it being a Monday.

 

[Regin]

I have been feeding FF since the first part of June. The first was a little funky and was made from crumble. So I went back to dry. Then I got a local mash that was too dusty to feed dry, so tried the FF again. Now, there is need to add ACV any more. Just use a starter from last batch. Mine is like a soft dough. For every pound of mash, I use 20 ounces of water.

To about 1 or 2 lbs of left over FF in a three gallon pail, I put in 80 ounces (5 quarts) of warm water ... Not too hot and stir. The warmth gives the starter a boost. Then add four pounds of feed mash and stir well. In just a few hours it will raise like yeast bread. I try to stir it twice a day but have left it for four days without stirring.

After 3 days I weigh it out into smaller containers for daily feedings. Leave a little, and make another batch. This way its 3 days or more to ferment before feeding. Also, is easy for me to grab in the morning, or for someone else. My Stand- in doesn't have to strain, splash, or measure, just scrape it into the feed tray.

I didn't like the wet lots of water method. WAY too messy.

I could improve by going to a five gallon bucket and larger batches. This would give longer ferment time period. And, I need to get some sturdier serving pails.
Generally feed 4 lbs of mix per day or less if they have left overs. 5 pullets and 3 cockerels that are 6 1/2 months. First time chicken owners.

 

[armorfirelady]

I have never seen Icelandic chickens before. That cock is stunning!!!

 

[NotAFarm]

Good eye, Bee, she is from an egg I got from BYCer 202roosterlane (Pauletta) on one of my trips to visit my DD and her family in Arkansas. I believe Pauletta said she is from the Fogel line of Rhode Island Reds. She is the only RIR I have so I just enjoy her beauty and her contribution to breakfast!

I didn't name her until this weekend......her name is Bobbie.

As for the Icelandic, he is a third generation representative of my flock from BYCer The Sheriff that I got in 2010. They are my love and passion. They are a landrace, so no standard for them. They come in all colors and comb types. Their gene pool has never been "whittled down" to specifics so they contain a treasure trove of diversity. Don't get me started on them.......

 

[JoyfulPromise]

On the fermented feed, I like how it saves on feed, and I suspect we probably could feed even less than we do and still have healthy chickens...they just always seem SO hungry and eager for the feed that I hate to cut back!

This is our second year using FF, and the only downsides that I see is the smell (though it honestly doesn't bother ME much, and we DO use fishmeal in our homemade feed), AND the fruit flies that seemed to always be swarming around it when I opened the lid of the 5 gallon bucket this summer!

I soaked/fermented the feed for at least 24 hours, always leaving some in the bucket and adding feed each day when I took feed out. My main reason for not fermenting more at one time was not having a large/long enough spoon to mix a larger/deeper container than a 5 gallon bucket! Oh, one other slight downside is the messiness of the soupy FF when scooping out. It would tend to smear on my arm or sleeve from the edge of the bucket, especially when I was scooping down near the bottom.

Last year we stopped fermenting feed in the winter, as soon as the days stayed below 50 degrees. We keep the buckets in our unheated garage and there is really NO space for them indoors, even if I could convince the rest of my family to let me keep them inside! So, during the winter I just moisten the dry feed right before feeding with a small amount of warm/hot water or (when available) sour/kefired raw cow or goat milk or whey from making cheese(I warm the milk up too). It is just moistened enough to help the powdered nutribalancer and fishmeal stick to the whole grains, and I am sure the hens enjoy a warm meal in the freezing cold temps we get up here in Michigan. I don't think it hurts the hens too much to give them a break from the FF for a few months, and it gives ME a break from the sloppiness of it as well, and makes me all the more excited to get back into FF in the Spring!

P.S. I LOVE that Icelandic Rooster ! Wow, his colors are Awesome!!!