Making homemade organic fermented wheat-free feed

[primaldiva]

WHEW! That sure sounds politically correct!

I have had a flock of free-range chickens for a few years now, and they are laying well and yolks are a deep orange color. I have become very allergic to wheat, even though I follow a gluten-free diet myself. It's either from the 2 eggs a day I eat from my hens or most likely from inhaling all of the wheat dust from preparing their grains for sprouting etc.

So, since wheat-free mixes are hard to come by out West, here is my NEW feed mix, which will be fermented for 2 days and supplemented with homemade raw goat milk kefir. All grains are organic from Azure Standard, except the 2 additives.

1 cup whole barley
2 cups whole yellow corn
2 cups whole oats
1 cup split peas
1 tbsp poultry nutri-balancer

redmond mineral conditioner - after fermenting

that's 5 cups dry, but I put it in 2 glass trays and soaked them with water. Once they hydrate and absorb the water (I keep adding more as it absorbs) I can weigh it to get the final weight, then I will add the mineral conditioner to 1.5% of total before giving to the flock. No sense in fermenting the conditioner, which acts as a non-caking agent, but the nutri-balancer contains probiotics so I wanted those to be in the ferment.

I also give the birds free choice Microna Calcium Cabonate grit, and I toast my old shells and grind them up and add a bit to the feed (I add this to my dog's feed as well) They also get about 3 cups of whole sunflower seed a day (I have 12 hens and a rooster) and about 2 tbsp of soldier fly larvae per day for the whole flock. I also sprout some grains for them and feed them 4 cups of sprouts a day in addition to their feed ration. My birds are outside all day and eat a ton of bugs as well as some food scraps but in a few weeks the ground will be covered with snow for 6 months.

My questions:
1. Since I am using the nutri-balancer as well, do I need to cut down on the mineral conditioner?
2. Any comments/suggestions? Does these ratios look pretty legit?
3. I am especially interested in results others have had fermenting feed, and your methods for a small flock.

Thanks in advance, andrea

 

[Timothy Menezes]

For those of you that are gluten intolerant, such as myself, there are only 3 things that contain the offending gluten enzyme. They are, wheat, barley, and rye. Now, as barley is the first ingredient, this recipe is not gluten free.

Also, while oats do not produce the gluten enzyme, they are usually processed in the same mill as your wheats, barleys, and rye. So oats are usually contaminated with small amounts of gluten as well. Depending on your level of intolerance, this may or may not be an issue.

 

[Percheron chick]

Looks very low in protein (12%ish) off the top of my head. You have to sit down with a pen and paper and do some calculations to see what you are lacking. Wet weight (as fed) doesn't mean anything in nutrition. Water is void of nutrients so only concentrate on dry matter by weight Weigh the dry ingredients and plug them in to your formula.

 

[Ital]

For those of you that are gluten intolerant, such as myself, there are only 3 things that contain the offending gluten enzyme. They are, wheat, barley, and rye. Now, as barley is the first ingredient, this recipe is not gluten free.

Also, while oats do not produce the gluten enzyme, they are usually processed in the same mill as your wheats, barleys, and rye. So oats are usually contaminated with small amounts of gluten as well. Depending on your level of intolerance, this may or may not be an issue.

It’s not just a cross contamination issue with oats, they contain a protein that causes the same auto immune response as gluten.
@primaldiva have you tried eating a large dose of oats every day for a week yourself? I react worse with oats than wheat.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

It’s not just a cross contamination issue with oats, they contain a protein that causes the same auto immune response as gluten.
@primaldiva have you tried eating a large dose of oats every day for a week yourself? I react worse with oats than wheat.

PrimalDiva hasn't been seen since November 2021 and was never particularly active on BYC - if you look at their post count, its 11 in 3 years, and if you hover over their name, it will show you the date they joined, and when they were last seen. At least, on a computer. Cell phone functionality is much different.

Just an FYI for the future. This particular thread has been dead since 2018 - BYC's search engine tends to raise old threads to the top of certain searches. Also the recipe above is pretty lousy overall - as you well understand from your own free feeding efforts.

 

[Ital]

PrimalDiva hasn't been seen since November 2021 and was never particularly active on BYC - if you look at their post count, its 11 in 3 years, and if you hover over their name, it will show you the date they joined, and when they were last seen. At least, on a computer. Cell phone functionality is much different.

Just an FYI for the future. This particular thread has been dead since 2018 - BYC's search engine tends to raise old threads to the top of certain searches. Also the recipe above is pretty lousy overall - as you well understand from your own free feeding efforts.

Ha ha, thanks. I didn’t look at the date. I figured the lousy recipe attempt was so bad it wasn’t worth mentioning as it was basically just a vehicle for the balancer but he might not know about problematic protein in oats.
Will check dates before posting in future.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

All good - you have such a unique expeirnce to provide input with, I'd hate to see your valuable time wasted on zombie threads - which BYC makes more available to dig up than many other sites I frequent.

 

[Pollo Blanco]

For those of you that are gluten intolerant, such as myself, there are only 3 things that contain the offending gluten enzyme. They are, wheat, barley, and rye.

Corn contains one that is very similar.