Fermenting troubles!

[peckpeckpeck]

You're wonderful for adopting hens! You must be so proud of your 6 1/2 year old!

I started fermenting because I got Scratch n Peck feed & found there was a lot of leftover fines at the bottom.
I definitely don't have a lot of extra water for the feed to float around in. Kinda like canning pickles -- you only want enough liquid so the good stuff is just barely submerged.

Like other people, I keep it on a 3 day rotation.
About 1x a week, I clean out the jars & then jump start the next batch with a teaspoon of ACV.

Hope that helps!

 

[shadowfox]

I've been using FF for a month and a half now for my baby chickies. I've got it set up with 4 quart size jars, covered with cloth, on a three day rotation. As they get bigger I'll have to use bigger containers to ferment in.

Here's the information on FF that I have been using. I've seen this article mentioned in several threads here on BYC. Hope that this helps you as much as it has helped me. https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[blackdog043]

The red crock is my normal FF, made from crumble. They like it better thick. I don't understand why people say, it's not worth the time or it's a pain to do. What i feed after a couple days, I replace with fresh crumble, add some water and mix. If it's to thick I just add a little more water and keep the batch going. The crock sits on our kitchen counter and doesn't give off any bad smells. It takes me longer to grind my coffee beans and make my coffee in the morning, than it does to keep my FF going. Some people just make FF harder than it has to be.

 

[centralcaligirl]

The vinegary smell is absolutely normal. I personally don't add extra water to keep the feed submerged. I find it's too wet for the chickens to eat it that way, so I make it fairly thick (I also ferment Scratch and Peck which is a whole grain feed.

I ferment mine in one jar for 24 hours at a time. Every morning I pour the fermented feed into the feeding bowl, leave one or two tablespoons behind as a starter, and then add fresh dry feed and water. I stir once in the afternoon, and feed it out the next morning. This guarantees that mold will never be an issue.

If you see kind of a white bubbly film on the surface of your feed, that isn't mold it's the yeast from the air sitting on top of your feed. Just like pouring a packet of yeast into warm water when you're baking at home.

 

[centralcaligirl]

The red crock is my normal FF, made from crumble. They like it better thick. I don't understand why people say, it's not worth the time or it's a pain to do. What i feed after a couple days, I replace with fresh crumble, add some water and mix. If it's to thick I just add a little more water and keep the batch going. The crock sits on our kitchen counter and doesn't give off any bad smells. It takes me longer to grind my coffee beans and make my coffee in the morning, than it does to keep my FF going. Some people just make FF harder than it has to be.

View attachment 1157613

It looks great!

 

[igorsMistress]

You can ferment crumble without anything else but water added. My birds prefer a consistency thick enough to hold its shape when I plop it in the feeder and don't care for it if it ferments longer than 2 days. I don't use a lid and stir once a day. I sprinkle seeds, sometimes sprouted, on top or mix them in before serving and don't ferment them.
There's a nice scoby on top in 24 hours and the entire surface is covered in 48 hours. Backslopping took some convincing but really helps jump start the next batch. Don't give up, it's worth the effort!

 

[getaclue]

Sprouting a good mixture of bird seed, whether you choose non GMO or not, is a more nutritious, and safer alternative.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sprouting a good mixture of bird seed, whether you choose non GMO or not, is a more nutritious, and safer alternative.

No need to do an either or. I do both. As for your implication that FF is not safe, I beg to differ. FF done correctly is much safer than even dry feed done incorrectly. Not frequently, but often enough that i notice it, I see threads started by folks asking what to do when they get half way through a bag of feed and find that it's moldy. By the time they've noticed it, those mycelium have spread through even the feed that they've been feeding. Also, feed in outdoor hoppers, if the area is not covered, and even if it is is subject to mold growth, especially with frequent rain, blowing rain, on incessant misty days. FF is already populated with beneficial organisms, and is far less likely to harbor mold than a dry feed that absorbs even a tiny bit of moisture.

 

[1muttsfan]

There are people passionately both for and against fermented feed. Unfortunately when it goes wrong it can really go wrong, and birds can die from bad feed - probably most folks know enough to store dry feed in a dry location, but fermented feed, as it is a living process, is harder to evaluate for most inexperienced folks.

If you do fermentation you must strictly follow the rules for cleanliness, proper storage, and time intervals while fermenting and feeding. IF you find keeping a sourdough starter going difficult or challenging, then FF is not for you. IF you are careful, observant, good at following instructions, and have the time to spend to ferment feed, then great - but birds do not need FF to thrive.

 

[blackdog043]

and have the time to spend to ferment feed, then great

Like I said in my other post, it takes me longer to grind my coffe beans and make my coffee every morning, than doing my FF.
Please tell me what takes so long, to do the FF. I must not be doing it right, because I only spend a few minutes a day on it.