Need Tips on Natural feed for chickens and ducks

[lynchhomestead]

Hi. I have been raising a half dozen ducks for a full year now. I feed them part commercial feed and part free range. I would love to get off the purchased feed all together but I live in New England and during the winter they obviously are limited in what they can find free ranging. So I need ideas on what things I can feed them all year round to supplement their foraging. Also I will soon be increasing the flock with more ducks, chickens and a goose, so I will need to have a good deal of food for all of them. Any ideas would be appreciated but please don't tell me its not possible to get off commercial feed... I already know the difficulties and am looking for positive solutions, not naysayers! Thanks !!

 

[Saveria]

If you are in southern NE you might be able to have a black soldier fly compost bin. You can dehydrate them for year round use. Then there is growing grains and cover crops for them. I'd bet doing winter sprouting trays on rotation would get you pretty far at replacing what they get from free ranging in the Summer.

Do you have acreage where you are? Growing and storing grain would require some land devoted to it.

We actually cut our food bill down by soaking and fermenting our bought feed with a sourdough culture. That makes the nutrients more available and the grains more digestible. That may be another part in bringing needed feed down, especially if you are growing it.

I think back when feed wasn't available people just had less eggs or meat. Feeding grains is to bring up their production levels, mainly.

There have been other threads about this, too. I would do some peeking around on here...
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/diy-self-sufficiency.16177/

Also, Harvey Ussery's book "The Small Scale Poultry Flock" had a chapter devoted to this, but a lot of it is for folks in warmer climates (like zone 5 and up). He also talks about making feed yourself.

Good luck!

 

[lynchhomestead]

Thank you so much for the reply! Unfortunately I only have about 3 acres, but I will grow what I can. The sourdough culture sounds really interesting, can you explain how you did that?

 

[Saveria]

You can do a surprising amount with 3 acres from what I have seen. Hopefully you have no stuffy neighbors who will care about a big row of corn

I can explain, it might take me a little bit. I have been trying to get a post together about it, but my head has been spinning these past weeks. Are you familiar with what a sourdough starter is?

 

[lynchhomestead]

You can do a surprising amount with 3 acres from what I have seen. Hopefully you have no stuffy neighbors who will care about a big row of corn

I can explain, it might take me a little bit. I have been trying to get a post together about it, but my head has been spinning these past weeks. Are you familiar with what a sourdough starter is?

Yes, I bought some seed for corn, will be growing that and buckwheat along w plenty of herbs, peas and lots of other good things for poultry and humans! I also have an active sourdough starter, so I’m ready to go on that part!

 

[rjmyooper]

I've been looking into fermenting feed. Some people around here will tell you not to waste your time because you can't save money at it, but IMO, money isn't the only attraction.
P.S. I also have an active SD starter. This loaf was baked yesterday. It's Medium Rye, seeded SD made with grain I mill in my kitchen.

 

[Saveria]

Great, I will just do a fast run down. We have a little over 20 birds, and so we settled on a 2 gallon bucket. A gallon glass jar almost worked. If you have a bigger flock you might need a 5 gallon bucket, but less than 20 could probably use the jar.

I started by putting 8 cups of feed (2 yogurt containers) with 8 cups of warm water and 2 cups of starter. Let it sit overnight, you will see some bubbles on the side, just like with the bread sponge. In the AM I would take out about 8 cups to feed with a wooden spoon (which isn't everything in the bucket, because the feed swells so much). I would put in 4 cups or so of mash feed, or 2 cups of pellets, with 4 more cups of water to replenish it (it doesn't have to be warm water, but it helps it ferment further).

The process is very forgiving, and if you try it you will find what texture your birds like, and what is easiest for you in regards to water and feed amounts. I have no waterfowl, but I am pretty sure they will go nuts over the stuff like the chickens do. It smells funny to me, so I am always amazed they treat it like the greatest delicacy! They also aren't as reliant on water, too, and only drink it for thirst and not digestion.

Let me know if you have any questions at all. I'll check before I go to bed.

Good luck!

 

[Saveria]

I've been looking into fermenting feed. Some people around here will tell you not to waste your time because you can't save money at it, but IMO, money isn't the only attraction.
P.S. I also have an active SD starter. This loaf was baked yesterday. It's Medium Rye, seeded SD made with grain I mill in my kitchen. View attachment 3086780

I could see people thinking that way, it is an extra step and something in your kitchen or hall that your kids might complain about.

I started doing this for my salmon faverolle hen, Harley Quin, because she was having crop issues, and this is easier for her to process and get through. It does seem like they eat less to me, but maybe I should do some exact measuring before I make any prodigious claims. I do know that they eat everything without leaving that powder at the bottom of the feed tray, though. We wasted a lot of feed with that alone.

That loaf looks gorgeous. And with grain you milled, too. I hope you all enjoyed it!

 

[lynchhomestead]

I've been looking into fermenting feed. Some people around here will tell you not to waste your time because you can't save money at it, but IMO, money isn't the only attraction.
P.S. I also have an active SD starter. This loaf was baked yesterday. It's Medium Rye, seeded SD made with grain I mill in my kitchen. View attachment 3086780

That is a beautiful loaf! We just bought a grain mill and I baked my first loaf with freshly ground hard winter wheat yesterday. I bake all of our own breads and have just recently started using the sourdough starter for all my loaves too. Sourdough starter + freshly ground grain is a great thing!

 

[lynchhomestead]

Great, I will just do a fast run down. We have a little over 20 birds, and so we settled on a 2 gallon bucket. A gallon glass jar almost worked. If you have a bigger flock you might need a 5 gallon bucket, but less than 20 could probably use the jar.

I started by putting 8 cups of feed (2 yogurt containers) with 8 cups of warm water and 2 cups of starter. Let it sit overnight, you will see some bubbles on the side, just like with the bread sponge. In the AM I would take out about 8 cups to feed with a wooden spoon (which isn't everything in the bucket, because the feed swells so much). I would put in 4 cups or so of mash feed, or 2 cups of pellets, with 4 more cups of water to replenish it (it doesn't have to be warm water, but it helps it ferment further).

The process is very forgiving, and if you try it you will find what texture your birds like, and what is easiest for you in regards to water and feed amounts. I have no waterfowl, but I am pretty sure they will go nuts over the stuff like the chickens do. It smells funny to me, so I am always amazed they treat it like the greatest delicacy! They also aren't as reliant on water, too, and only drink it for thirst and not digestion.

Let me know if you have any questions at all. I'll check before I go to bed.

Good luck!

Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this out for me. I am absolutely going to try it! I just bought a grain mill, so I bet in addition to the grains that I am going to try to grow, I could probably purchase bulk grains and grind them course and then ferment them...
Thanks again! I also just built a compost pile out of hay bales. I picked up a truck load of free seaweed at the beach to add to my compost, and the seaweed was just loaded with little worms and flies. I hadn't anticipated that, but the ducks loved foraging in it so it was a bonus! Now that I know that, I will be trying to get seaweed on a regular basis during the winter months so that all the poultry can feast!