Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChocolateMouse]

Metals just react to acids sometimes, sometimes negatively. I agree with using something other than metal. I like food grade plastic, myself. And yeah, the scoby is the same sorts that form in kombucha, live acv, kefir, etc. Different specific strains of bacteria.

 

[Brigabart]

You're not doing anything "wrong"... you are actually doing everything "right". Your ferment is growing in strength over time because you're back-slopping continuously. The whiteish/grayish film on the top is the ferment. Part of the reason it's getting so strong an odor is because of the way you're doing it... with the grains in the draining basket, the mother and fermented/ing liquid below is going to just keep getting stronger and stronger because you keep "feeding it" above. Very little of it gets taken away. Eliminate the drain basket and ferment everything IN the water... don't fill it so water is "above" the level of the grain, but where the grain is the consistency of a nice bowl of grits or oatmeal... easy to stir/mix, but NOT needing to be drained or strained to use. Since you'll then be removing some of the liquid each time you serve it out, it will be much easier to maintain that "nice" smelling ferment over time.

Other than that just keep doing what you've been doing... use some, add new water and grain... use some, add more of both... stir every now and again... good to go!

This was very helpful to me - I'm having the same issue, so I will add more food and take out more liquid My girls love this stuff!

 

[SueT]

I just made my first batch of fermented feed after a reco and then reading this thread. I had flock raiser crumbles, which my formerly-free-range-now-penned-up chickens would barely eat, so I fermented that, and now they just love it, they scarf it down! I had made one gallon. I only have 4 chickens. I got a 5 gallon bucket and have filled it half full with ff. Is this too much for 4 birds? Is it going to get too fermented? It's really hard for me to stir. I have made it the consistency of cookie dough.

 

[hyelaw]

Add a little more water, it will absorb it. As for it being too much, I really don't know, too many variables. It should be fine though, maybe get some kahm yeast on it. (stinky and looks bad, but harmless) The weather is too hot at the moment for me and fruit flies & mosquitoes are driving me batty, so I haven't really been fermenting large batches lately, I've been opting for just soaking it, which is essentially the same, but shorter sitting time. They may not eat it all the first day, if it's too dry, I just add a little more water.

 

[Latestarter]

A 5 gallon bucket will last two weeks or more before the microbes run out of food to eat and it stalls and starts turning bad. Even then it will take a while for it to actually "spoil" and start growing mold. If it's too thick to stir, add more water. If it's too soupy, add more feed/grain. The feed soaks up water fast and then stops and turns to pudding. As it dries back out, it turns to concrete. It also ferments the fastest because it was powder before it was re-constituted into pellets or crumbles. The grains soak up water slower and take longer to ferment because the microbes have to work on those. That's why it's good to add some grains (oats/barley/millet/milo/scratch grains/ground corn/BOSS/etc. to your FF mix. (You just want to be careful that you don't completely unbalance the balanced diet that the feed is comprised to make) Slows things down and saves a little more money on feed since the grains are normally less expensive than the feed.

 

[South OH Chicks]

Can someone post pictures of the "white film" that is being spoken about. I was fermenting feed as well for my first time. I was using crumbles. It developed this white film and I quit doing it because I was unsure if it was bad or not.

 

[SueT]

A 5 gallon bucket will last two weeks or more before the microbes run out of food to eat and it stalls and starts turning bad. Even then it will take a while for it to actually "spoil" and start growing mold. If it's too thick to stir, add more water. If it's too soupy, add more feed/grain. The feed soaks up water fast and then stops and turns to pudding. As it dires back out, it turns to concrete. It also ferments the fastest because it was powder before it was re-constituted into pellets or crumbles. The grains soak up water slower and take longer to ferment because the microbes have to work on those. That's why it's good to add some grains (oats/barley/millet/milo/scrfatch grains/ground corn/BOSS/etc. to your FF mix. (You just want to be careful that you don't completely unbalance the balanced diet that the feed is comprised to make) Slows things down and saves a little more money on feed since the grains are normally less expensive than the feed.

AHA moment! Perfect explanation Latestarter! Okay, I get it-- I, who have been making sourdough for years, understand about feeding the culture! And about adding water if it's too thick. It will take me a little while to figure out just how much to be making at a time.
I probably won't add grains to it because then they'd pick out their favorite bits. Right now they clean the bowl, I like that.
Thank you and thanks to everyone who has advised me!

 

[Beekissed]

Can someone post pictures of the "white film" that is being spoken about. I was fermenting feed as well for my first time. I was using crumbles. It developed this white film and I quit doing it because I was unsure if it was bad or not.

https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

This link will get you to information on the white film that can develop later into a ferment. Initially, when you add water to feed, the first whitish-greyish film you may find on top of the feed the next day can be just the very fine particles of feed that have floated to the top of the water, not being heavy enough to sink. Once you stir that in, you won't see those again. The next white film you see developing is a yeast layer....that's supposed to happen and is part of your scoby~symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast.

That's a good thing.

Meant you were doing it right. That's the same film of scoby one sees on any fermenting food, particularly if there is a water layer over it, then it's especially visible.....like this scoby on kombucha....

 

[Beer can]

Home made sauerkraut has the same white film on top of the brine that is on fermented feed. You skim it off on sauerkraut though, just mix it in with FF.

 

[chicken thief]

I'm set up for a 5-7 day ferment (wheat in milk). I'm getting an oil seed meal to add to boost protein. What l'm wondering why is no seed sprouting. Just curious, does the ferment impede sprouts or does wheat take longer to sprout? Thanks