Is it Possible to over ferment feed?

[19disbre]

I have a system in mind where the water will never be changed (Could be) but if it is only for 24 hours can feed be over fermented? I could mix excess water 50/50 with normal water to dilute it or leave it more potent? I would obviously like to have it be done on a 24 hour basis

 

[19disbre]

Nobody?

 

[Sutremaine]

If you have excess ferment water, you can either give it to the chickens to drink, chuck it on the grass, or hold it briefly in a separate container until there's enough room in your ferment bucket for the 'started' water.

The water should never be changed fishtank style anyway, unless it's gotten really ripe and you need to thin the microbial herd. You'll be changing the water somewhat because you need liquid to replace whatever the feed's soaked up, but you won't be taking out pure ferment-water and replacing it with fresh water.

I don't think you'd be overfermenting in 24 hours. Maybe if you started with strong liquid and kept the whole thing in a warm airing cupboard, but probably not.

 

[Trefoil]

"over" fermented feed will have a different ratio of nutrients, so it probably would be a good thing to allow feed to over ferment some times. That said, I'm not sure there is such a thing as over fermenting. But it sounds like you aren't asking about that anyway. I have been feeding fermented feed for a couple of years now and when my fermenting barrel gets grubby I dump it, clean it, and start over. Aside from that, when I drain the feed to feed it, I never get all the liquid out so have to add more water every time so it covers the new feed. A completely new batch takes much longer to ferment than when just adding enough new water to cover the feed and mixing it in.

 

[MysteriaSdrassa]

I use the 2 bucket method. The bottom bucket holds the liquid,, top bucket has holes drilled in bottom and sits inside bottom bucket so liquid comes up from bottom,, add feed to top bucket and stir while adding fresh water until mixed,, generally i just scoop it out if i got the mix right,,, or can raise top bucket up and let drain a bit if i got it too liquidy. in my ecperience though,, even if it is too wet, the birds go just as nuts over the excess liquid as they do the feed so win win i guess

 

[19disbre]

Could you guy please look at my post on the Fermented Feed For Meat Birds thread, this post is getting old and I was a lot more detailed about my question? Thank you