fermenting substandard chicken mash/crumble?

[OldMissionChick]

Do you ferment the feed (as in pellets) or scratch?

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

You can do both. There is a whole thread here about fermenting.

Fermentation happens! Put feed in bucket, cover with water add raw apple cider vinegar and cover, stirring a few times a day. It should get bubbly. That's when you have success. For in depth directions you can check out my blog post (click my profile and my site is on there) or scour the thread.

It's easier than you think!

 

[Sutremaine]

CV is optional. I used rainwater and pellets and nothing else, and the process started well and continued well. I believe the trick is to acidify the water slightly, to favour the fermenting bacteria and yeasts. When I started out I kept the mix in separate batches underwater and drained each one before use, but now I know what I'm aiming for I've switched to the 'stacked buckets' method. It's much simpler than messing around with small containers and waiting for feed to drain, though I'm happy to have spent the time messing around and observing how the texture and smell change with time and water content.

The first image shows a single-bucket method. You put the feed and the water in, and mix it to the consistency you want. Repeat as necessary, as you take the wet feed out and serve it up.

The second image shows the stacked-bucked method. It works much like the single-bucket method, except that if you scrape the bucket clean you have a store of microorganisms to kickstart the next batch. Lift the empty bucket up, top up the reservoir, press the empty bucket back down (slowly!), and pour the dry feed directly into the eager mouths of your yeasty and LABby friends. Nom.

 

[OldMissionChick]

I have 2 - 1 gallon glass jars. Should I fill one like half full with feed and just add water? I have well water that is about an 8 in the ph scale. About how much do you take out at a time? I have 8 chickens & 7 ducks.

 

[Sutremaine]

A glass jar should be fine, as long as you leave enough at the bottom to start the next batch off. How much is enough? I would say that 'enough' is an amount that lets you take out a day's fermented food, replace it with water and dry feed, and have the whole jar be just as fermented the next day.

Take how much dry food you get through in a day, then add three times that amount to the jar(s) and add water. When you take anything out, top it back up. It'll take a little while to get going from scratch, and it's much easier to slow down a ferment than to speed it up. I don't know how much acid your well water would need -- take a known quantity of it and add a known quantity of acid and keep testing, then use that dilution. Vinegar is pretty mild, so you can be free with it.

Alternatively, instead of using three days' food, you can use a very small amount and tend it like a sourdough starter while you figure out how the fermenting feed reacts to its environment.

 

[OldMissionChick]

I could probably just start with one jar and start the second a couple days later for a staggered effect. I am sure a 5 gal bucket would work better.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

I actually use a 5 gallon bucket with a 2 gallon inside with holes drilled in it. Then my remaining brine is already activated for the next starter.

 

[OldMissionChick]

So do you keep the feed in the smaller bucket? Going to the grocery store today and going to ask the deli & bakery if they have any food grade buckets they need to get rid of

 

[shortgrass]

Just a tip; using RAW Apple cider vinegar will boost the probiotics count by like, a million, lol.

It's a starter enzyme in the "mother" that you want. It'll ferment WAY faster and have more microflora in it

Edit* or brewers yeast, that's another good microbe starter

 

[OldMissionChick]

Could i put a little kombucha tea in there? I have an abundance of it at the moment .