Fermenting Feed

[Adrien515]

hi! I’m looking into fermenting my chicken feed. I’ve read a lot of conflicting things. So can I pour the whole 50 pound bag into a container and pour water till it covers all of it? Can I leave the food in there till it’s all gone (a typical dry food bag lasts me 2 weeks or so) or can it only stay in the water for a max of 5 days? So does this mean I’m going to have to have several containers operating at once that have just enough food for one day? Also, do the containers need to have a lid? Does the lid need holes? Does it smell so bag that I should keep it in the shed or can it be in my laundry room? Also, on a completely irrelevant side note, I was taking pictures of my LF white Cochin eating a worm. I just looked at the pictures and realized it was a worm snake. Is it okay to eat a worm snake? They’re not poisonous, but I can’t imagine the scales digesting well. She slurped it down like a noodle.

 

[Little Chicken Girl]

@lazy gardener

 

[PirateGirl]

1. Do not ferment the whole 50 lbs at once unless you have enough chickens to eat 50 lbs in a day.

2. Related to number 1, the food typically expands when water is added (how much depends your food), 50 lbs plus water would probably overflow a trash can, choose a container where the dry food fills approximately 1/3 of the container

3. The containers do not need a lid, but if they have a lid, it must have holes to allow for air exchange

4. Having multiple containers going at once allows you to always have fermented feed available since the fermentation can take a few days without having so much feed you risk it spoiling. When I ferment I do a 3 day rotation in 3 containers. Once the ferment is 3 days old I feed it. Each container has one day's worth of feed in it. My rotation looks like this.

Container A: food has been fermenting 1 day
Container B: food has been fermenting 2 days
Container C: food has been fermenting 3 days

Feed chickens the food from Container C, refill, start to ferment
The next day the Food from container B will have been fermenting 3 days and gets fed to the chickens, use that, refill, start fermenting.
The next day after that the food from container A will have been fermenting 3 days and gets fed to the chickens, use that, refill, start fermenting.
By the time you get to Container C again it will be 3 days later and ready to feed.

5. there is an odor, how warm it is and how much feed you have going will determine how much it smells, it's not a bad smell, but it is a smell, you will have to judge whether you want it in the laundry room or shed

6. start with the amount of dry feed you would normally feed in a day, see how much they eat fermented in a day, make adjustments going forward

 

[JaeG]

You want enough fermented feed to feed out for that day and have a little left over to seed the next days batch so that it's ready in 8-24 hours (depending on the ambient temperature where it's sitting to ferment). I only have one container going.

All you need is your food, add about an equal amount of water then leave in a warm place for a few days to get it going. Feed out most of it, leave a little in the bottom, add more food, more water (warm water if the weather is cold) and leave it somewhere warm. Over summer I've fed out in the morning, then not refilled my container until late afternoon because it's been so hot. My ferment is beautiful and bubbly by morning.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

Since I don't have an outside place to ferment yet, I use two buckets. I started with one bucket that held the days feed, added like amount of water, let it absorb the water, then add water until the spoon stands up or falls over very slowly. In the morning, I put the morning feed amount into the other bucket and go feed. Bring bucket back in, use for evening feed, refill with amount of dry feed. Empty dry feed into bucket one, add water, start again lol.
Always leave some in the bottom of the fermenting bucket as starter (like sourdough). Use bucket two to put the water in bucket one. This rinses bucket two and adds any bits left in bucket two back to the mix.
One thing I have been doing since it is still cool here is to add a pinch of activated bread yeast. It seems to jump start the ferment. Don't think I'll have to do that once it warms up.

 

[Adrien515]

You want enough fermented feed to feed out for that day and have a little left over to seed the next days batch so that it's ready in 8-24 hours (depending on the ambient temperature where it's sitting to ferment). I only have one container going.

All you need is your food, add about an equal amount of water then leave in a warm place for a few days to get it going. Feed out most of it, leave a little in the bottom, add more food, more water (warm water if the weather is cold) and leave it somewhere warm. Over summer I've fed out in the morning, then not refilled my container until late afternoon because it's been so hot. My ferment is beautiful and bubbly by morning.

SO wait I added a little bit of the food that’s been fermenting for 3 days to the batch that hasn’t been fermented yet? Won’t this make the 3 day old stuff gross?

 

[Foster's Freehold]

This practice is called backslopping. If you use one bucket to ferment, and rinse your feeding bucket back into it, it preserves the "starter". You are adding fresh feed and water every day, nothing gets gross. I scrape down the sides of my fermenting bucket when I add the dry feed and water back to it.
It doesn't get gross because you are basically changing it out every day. The bit left is the "starter" so it will ferment quickly for the next day.
Temperature plays a role. Warmth encourages the yeast growth that causes the ferment. It's cool so mine is in the house with a bit of activated dried yeast to help. When it gets warmer, I'll put it outside and be more careful of not making too much.
Years ago when this was fairly new, I did the whole bucket with holes, bucket for fermenting, leaving water standing over the mix, strain and drain to feed, keep two buckets going. Lots of work and fuss and bucketing. You couldn't just grab it and go. The backslop method suits me better.

 

[PirateGirl]

I also backslop in a slightly different way. I don't really use any of the feed to jump start my next batch, but will use some of the liquid from it, usually just pouring it off the top so that the feed I give the girls is a little drier and the liquid goes to good use getting the next batch going.

 

[Foster's Freehold]

Mine like it drier than it gets by pouring off liquid, that's why I add water and wait, add water until the spoon stands straight or falls slowly over lol. They won't eat anything wetter unless the feeder is slanted and it drains some. I figure that is just good stuff going to waste.

 

[PirateGirl]

Mine like it drier than it gets by pouring off liquid, that's why I add water and wait, add water until the spoon stands straight or falls slowly over lol. They won't eat anything wetter unless the feeder is slanted and it drains some. I figure that is just good stuff going to waste.

I like fermenting and/or sprouting seed/grains, not so much commercial pellets/crumbles. The process is the same, but minus the sticky mess.