Shadowmane, your wife's book "Nourishing Traditions" is a great starting place. Lactobaccili and other species of the endogenous digestive microflora can produce phytase (Famularo G and others. Probiotic lactobacilli: an innovative tool to correct the malabsorption syndrome of vegetarians? Medical Hypotheses 2005 65(6):1132–5.) to offset the phytic acid. So combining whey and ACV will benefit the fermentation of the whole grains.when i drain off the water from feed. the feed is wet. won't the feed carry disease if left to long. my set up is a pen and run. i have 12 cornish x . new to this meat bird thing.
BruceH, the wet feed is fermented and will continue to ferment until eaten. The Acer bacteria from the apple cider vinegar, and the lactobacillus from fresh cole crops (think making saurkrout) or whey will likely outcompete any negative bacteria. If left out it will attract insects, which your chickens would enjoy. How long are you talking about leaving feed out, dry or wet? You could try two pans one wet, one dry. Feed only enough wet that would be consumed in one day.