I have 10 almost 3 month olds from Ron. And there are getting BIG!! They have been outside since they have been around 2-3 weeks old. Was feeding Home Grown Chick starter by Purina. Switching to Southern States Meat maker. 20%. For chicks and Roos. Then there 16% layer feed for the hens.
Been playing around with fermented feed the last month. I asked Ron for his opinions on it. Anybody else have one??
I have been feeding FF since last August. I didn't know whether it was making much difference until recently. I had gotten some Egyptian Fayoumis and split them with a fellow Coloradan, and then each of us distributed some to others, all of whom live much nearer to her. There are two main differences between my setup and all the rest. My elevation is about 1000 feet lower (maybe more, I'm at 5400-ish and I believe they are all close to 7000), and I feed FF.
I met the person I split the original order with yesterday to drop off 2 more pairs because she had a dog attack her flock a week or so ago and she lost a lot of birds. She has since strung hot wire around her yard to prevent future attacks. When she saw the EFs I brought her, her eyes got huge. Apparently mine are about twice the size of all the others. They are about 2 months of age, the breed is known to tolerate heat well, forage well, mature very early (hens can lay as early as 4 months of age). I didn't select based on anything when we split them up, I just put half the chicks in a box and brought them to her. I have not had any losses (knock wood), she and one other lost one or two to what they believe was cold. Mine have been in an unheated, uninsulated coop since they were 5 weeks of age, and they've gotten through a night as cold as 11 degrees. I started them on the FF right after I moved them out there. They dove into it as if they had been waiting their whole lives for it.
She believes the FF made the difference. I don't know if that is due to higher bioavailability of proteins, or the fact it contains more moisture and maybe that makes a difference for these desert birds. I only know my birds seem robust, they are very active (!), and fermenting seems to make the food last longer, there is far less waste and it takes less to fill their crops because the crumbles and grains are swollen.
I guess my opinion at the moment is, it is worth the little bit of extra work. It doesn't work for anyone who doesn't have time to visit the coop at least twice a day, it is far from a hands-off method, but I want to look at my birds at least twice a day anyway and once it gets going, the way I manage it anyway, there isn't much to it. If I was feeding a couple of hundred birds I would almost certainly think twice about it, as one would have to balance the extra input against the savings in lower consumption of feed. The most I've fed it to is 60 growing pullets and cockerels and 8 adults.
