Sprouting? Help...

[Kylo_Hen!]

That’s so many eggs!!! I’m glad you’re business is doing well! I’m still trying to figure how to get rid of just an extra dozen or two a week. . My girls started laying about 3 weeks ago and now their eggs are ready to share.

at what age did your chickens start laying?

 

[newchickenmom33]

at what age did your chickens start laying?

My RIR started at 19 weeks... my Plymouth Barred Rocks started at 20ish weeks and my Orpington Buff was last at about 22 weeks old. There is five of them and most days there is 5 eggs and sometimes just 4... The RIR has the largest eggs (1.8 oz) and I can only tell because her shells are the darkest. The rest are still around 1.5 - 1.6 so medium size... I suspect in time they will all get bigger. I was seeing small blood spots in several of the eggs in the beginning but now they all seem to have cleared up.

 

[lazy gardener]

How do you know how much to ferment? I haven’t tried that since I thought it would rot if I left it too long or made too much. With the sprouts I just do a cup or so at a time and feed it all at once in the morning and it’s gone before the evening feeding. I only do it every other day or so... they might get sprouts twice a week... I’m not sure if it makes a difference or not but they love to eat them.

My birds get FF as 100% of their formulated diet. The general rule of thumb is that a LF hen will eat .25 - .33# of feed/day. You can use that as a guide to start fermenting. It's not rocket science, and if you don't make enough, you can just give them some more dry feed to make up the difference. If you make too much, save the extra for the next day. I use a 5 gal bucket. Fill the bucket 1/2 way with water. Add dry feed, until the resulting mix is thick enough that your stirring spoon will stand up. Think: soft serve ice cream, thick cooked oatmeal, mashed potato consistency! Leave it open to the air, and stir several times/day. If you must cover it, use a linen dish towel or some cheese cloth. But it needs contact with the air so it can get "seeded" with the beneficial yeast and bacteria. When it's bubbling, or puffed up, it's ready to serve. Always hold back a bit to "seed" the next bucket full. After you get a strong culture going, you can feed the birds in the morning, replenish the bucket, and it will be ready to go the next day. Once you get a strong ferment culture going, all you have to do is mix it up every morning, and feed it out the next day. NO further maintenance required. I loosely cover my bucket with a lid, but wouldn't do so with a new culture.

Note the dry feed wt. /bird/day. My FF feed conversion rate varies between .18 - .22#/bird/day.

 

[newchickenmom33]

My birds get FF as 100% of their formulated diet. The general rule of thumb is that a LF hen will eat .25 - .33# of feed/day. You can use that as a guide to start fermenting. It's not rocket science, and if you don't make enough, you can just give them some more dry feed to make up the difference. If you make too much, save the extra for the next day. I use a 5 gal bucket. Fill the bucket 1/2 way with water. Add dry feed, until the resulting mix is thick enough that your stirring spoon will stand up. Think: soft serve ice cream, thick cooked oatmeal, mashed potato consistency! Leave it open to the air, and stir several times/day. If you must cover it, use a linen dish towel or some cheese cloth. But it needs contact with the air so it can get "seeded" with the beneficial yeast and bacteria. When it's bubbling, or puffed up, it's ready to serve. Always hold back a bit to "seed" the next bucket full. After you get a strong culture going, you can feed the birds in the morning, replenish the bucket, and it will be ready to go the next day. Once you get a strong ferment culture going, all you have to do is mix it up every morning, and feed it out the next day. NO further maintenance required. I loosely cover my bucket with a lid, but wouldn't do so with a new culture.

Note the dry feed wt. /bird/day. My FF feed conversion rate varies between .18 - .22#/bird/day.

What are you fermenting? Is it homemade mix? I’m still using organic layer pellets since I bought it and mix it with organic grower feed from a local farm it looks like whole grains... but I also have 3 younger pullets that hopefully only eat the grower feed (we have several feeders). I’m sprouting organic scratch feed and then I picked up organic lentils from Walmart to try sprouting. I put out their feed twice a day if we’re home about 1lb in the morning and again in the even... but there is always some left... I read the .25lb per bird somewhere. They seem to always be ready to eat sprouts and worms though.

 

[glib]

I see here that they recommend 4 days at 70F. IME, anything between 2 and 4 days will give similar results. you can start at 2 as you gain experience. 2 is proven to remove all phytates.

 

[newchickenmom33]

I started experiencing with sprouting thinking it would help with feed cost but it seems like it needs so much time and room if I was going to use it as their total feed. So I just mess around since they enjoy eating them.

 

[newchickenmom33]

I see here that they recommend 4 days at 70F. IME, anything between 2 and 4 days will give similar results. you can start at 2 as you gain experience. 2 is proven to remove all phytates.

Is that for fermenting?

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

...My birds get FF as 100% of their formulated diet. I use a 5 gal bucket. Fill the bucket 1/2 way with water. Add dry feed, until the resulting mix is thick enough that your stirring spoon will stand up. Think: soft serve ice cream, thick cooked oatmeal, mashed potato consistency! Leave it open to the air, and stir several times/day. If you must cover it, use a linen dish towel or some cheese cloth. But it needs contact with the air so it can get "seeded" with the beneficial yeast and bacteria. When it's bubbling, or puffed up, it's ready to serve...

I liked your instructions. I have been fermenting feed for my chicks for a few weeks and they love it. I wanted to add to your instructions - leave a good amount of room in the container. The feed grows in size and will be flowing out of your container if you fill it too high.

 

[glib]

Is that for fermenting?

yes, 2 to 4 days fermenting. you have to consider that the longer you ferment, the more digestible the feed is, and the more available the proteins. but aminoacids also start breaking down, creating various amines which are toxic. so when it comes to feed overall quality you have a broad maximum of quality, early on is fewer proteins and fewer toxins, later on is more proteins and more toxins.

 

[newchickenmom33]

Does it start to stink? Silly question I’m sure but to keep the temp cool it would have to be done in the House... then do you have 4-5 buckets going and start them in stages to always have feed ready?