Thankful That We Feed Fermented Food

[Smuvers Farm]

At NO POINT do I recommend keeping water from your chickens… THEY NEED ACCESS TO WATER AT ALL TIMES!!!….. I am just posting what happened to OUR Peeps.



We ferment feed. About 80% of our flock has been on FF since birth. We slog FF out to our chickies daily, rain snow or shine.

Now, we recently hatched out a small flock of 5… we call them The Peeps. They were moved from their brooder, to our outdoor Hospital Brooder Coop approximately 3 weeks ago, when they were 4-5 weeks old.

As we ALL know, we have been getting very low temperatures, and the last 7-10 days, our waterers have been freezing over. No worries, we go out and knock the ice out of them and defrost the nipples. DH had taken over that chore about 5 days ago, as I’d gotten sick, and the waterers were just a bit too heavy and awkward for me to work with.

We have 4 waterers set up. 2 in our big run, 1 for the Peeps and another for our 4th flock, the Brat Pack. Well, DH had been de-icing the 2 big run waterers and the Brat Packs waterer, while completely forgetting the waterer for the Peeps.

I fully believe, had it not been for our FF, the Peeps would’ve been dead. Luckily, the water in the FF sustained them… for 5 DAYS!!! Believe me, DH FREAKED OUT when I asked him about the Peeps waterer. All the color drained from his face, and he SPRINTED to their coop.

Now, at NO TIME would I trust the moisture in the FF to replace an actual waterer…. However, had we been feeding the dry food, I have no doubt the Peeps would be dead. None.

 

[biophiliac]

At NO POINT do I recommend keeping water from your chickens… THEY NEED ACCESS TO WATER AT ALL TIMES!!!….. I am just posting what happened to OUR Peeps.



We ferment feed. About 80% of our flock has been on FF since birth. We slog FF out to our chickies daily, rain snow or shine.

Now, we recently hatched out a small flock of 5… we call them The Peeps. They were moved from their brooder, to our outdoor Hospital Brooder Coop approximately 3 weeks ago, when they were 4-5 weeks old.

As we ALL know, we have been getting very low temperatures, and the last 7-10 days, our waterers have been freezing over. No worries, we go out and knock the ice out of them and defrost the nipples. DH had taken over that chore about 5 days ago, as I’d gotten sick, and the waterers were just a bit too heavy and awkward for me to work with.

We have 4 waterers set up. 2 in our big run, 1 for the Peeps and another for our 4th flock, the Brat Pack. Well, DH had been de-icing the 2 big run waterers and the Brat Packs waterer, while completely forgetting the waterer for the Peeps.

I fully believe, had it not been for our FF, the Peeps would’ve been dead. Luckily, the water in the FF sustained them… for 5 DAYS!!! Believe me, DH FREAKED OUT when I asked him about the Peeps waterer. All the color drained from his face, and he SPRINTED to their coop.

Now, at NO TIME would I trust the moisture in the FF to replace an actual waterer…. However, had we been feeding the dry food, I have no doubt the Peeps would be dead. None.

So happy for you both and all the peeps! Just curious if they had access to snow. They will consume snow in a pinch.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

So happy for you both and all the peeps! Just curious if they had access to snow. They will consume snow in a pinch.

Nope. No snow here YET... they literally lived off the moisture in the FF.

 

[Ms Biddy]

Fermented feed is awesome and our chickens love it. Thank goodness your peeps had a secondary moisture source. I'm so glad they're okay.

 

[Molpet]

Yep FF really cuts down on the water my birds want

 

[21hens-incharge]

I do know mine benefit from the moisture in the wet feed during winter.

So incredible and tough those little peeps. Very very glad they are all OK.

I bet he was freaked out the whole distance to the chicks.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Yikes! I had a guy taking care of my goats once who did not seem to know they need water! Despite the fact i showed him how and where to water them and wrote it down in painful detail!Luckily the person taking care of the chickens gave them water or we would have come home to dead goats!
You got lucky!

 

[EB2351]

It is strange but my chickens barely touch the waterer, I assume because of the FF. I still slog it out there in the snow, just in case, but I didn't expect them to drink so much less. The FF isn't really soupy, either.

 

[Smuvers Farm]

Yep FF really cuts down on the water my birds want

I noticed that during the summer. We have 5 gal waterers but only fill them half way. More often than not, we have to change the water because of dirt/poop before we'd actually have to add water to it.

I do know mine benefit from the moisture in the wet feed during winter.

So incredible and tough those little peeps. Very very glad they are all OK.

I bet he was freaked out the whole distance to the chicks.

We already knew the Peeps were OK, as we see them daily... but he was totally freaked out when he got there and saw the waterer completely full and frozen... and then calculated how many days he HADN'T checked their waterer.

Yikes! I had a guy taking care of my goats once who did not seem to know they need water! Despite the fact i showed him how and where to water them and wrote it down in painful detail!Luckily the person taking care of the chickens gave them water or we would have come home to dead goats!
You got lucky!

No doubt we got lucky. They might not have made it had it been summer... but this definitely was a wake up call that each coop/run/flock needs to be checked and double checked to make sure they have EVERYTHING!

 

[Ruralhideaway]

I'm stressed just thinking about it. Poor hubby!

I feed FF too and I know it helps. Mine are weirdos though. I have heated nipple waterers for the coop and run but chicks still locked in the brooder at night. I'm not investing in a third so I put their kitty litter jug in there at night. I know it freezes but they get a good drink for awhile anyway. In the morning they aren't hugely thirsty add they go for the FF not the water, despite having dry pellets in the brooder.

The weird part is that even though I see them using the heated waterers all day they dramatically prefer the kitty litter nipple setup and stomp each other to get to it. See they are weirdos. Sorry went OT.