Soaking feed

[Jbyrne136]

Hey all I got a chciken mash ( a mix of corn oats barley pellets) the man said to soak it in water and apple cider to make it better I did that and the hens loved it was that okay to do

 

[Stipenvlerk]

Glad your flock liked it

 

[Jbyrne136]

Glad your flock liked it

So is it safe to soak feed

 

[neo71665]

Some people feed their chickens fermented feed. Whole big thread about it.

 

[JaeG]

Fermented is better than just soaked. Soaked feed can start to harbor bacteria and fungi in very hot, humid weather, whereas the 'good' bacteria and yeast in fermented feed help to preserve it against spoiling. All you need is the feed and water to start fermenting.

This is an excellent article about exactly how to ferment chicken feed:
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

I mix my food in with water to make a soup of sorts on hot days. It works fine as long as you are careful not to let it start getting moldy and you switch it out after a few hours so it doesn’t begin to rot.

I have never used fermented feed, as I don’t think it’s worth the effort, but I know a lot of people have had good experiences with it. But a lot of other people have had horrible experiences with it, so if your going to try it make sure you do it correctly.

 

[Jbyrne136]

Ferment

Fermented is better than just soaked. Soaked feed can start to harbor bacteria and fungi in very hot, humid weather, whereas the 'good' bacteria and yeast in fermented feed help to preserve it against spoiling. All you need is the feed and water to start fermenting.

This is an excellent article about exactly how to ferment chicken feed:
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

ing is literally letting it sit there for 4 days

 

[neo71665]

<snip>
I have never used fermented feed, as I don’t think it’s worth the effort, but I know a lot of people have had good experiences with it. But a lot of other people have had horrible experiences with it, so if your going to try it make sure you do it correctly.

I know there are a number of people on here that like it and I wish them the best of luck.

I don't use it either. I aint seen enough hard proof the pros of it to outweigh all the cons. Everybody I personally know that has tried it didn't take long to swap back to using standard feed. Just too much hassle.

 

[Ihavesomechickens]

Ferment

ing is literally letting it sit there for 4 days

Fermenting feed is a lot more complicated then that, and that’s coming from someone that only even looked into the simple steps before deciding it was too much work.
You need to let it sit in a very particular ratio of water and feed, making sure all the feed is submerged, for quite awhile, and if it gets even the smallest hint of any mold or bacteria it needs to be thrown out and started over.
Fermenting feed is not the easiest thing to do, from an outsiders perspective, and the people that can do it correctly are just good at doing it.

 

[JaeG]

Fermented feed is very little effort and I find there's a lot less wastage. It also keeps birds well hydrated in hot climates. It's the same technique as setting up a sour dough starter. You are using the yeasts that naturally occur in the air around us to ferment the feed. Just wet feed can harbour botulism which is very dangerous to birds.

I've fed chickens, quail and now our ducks on fermented feed and they all love it. Once you get your mix going you just add more feed and just enough water to make it an oatmeal consistency to the container that has a little fermented feed left in the bottom and it will be ready to feed out again the next day.

I was tired of watching our ducks almost choke on dry feed (then spit up half their feed while gulping down water to try and wash it down) so that's what gave me the motivation to start up fermenting again (selling our old house, moving to the country and living in a caravan for 8 months, with our 2 children and 3 indoor cats, while our new home was put in place meant I hadn't been able to do things like that).