Using ACV in fermented feed

[Caius]

I ferment my chicken feed and put yeast in the feed to help with the probiotics. I just started my second flock of chicks. I put ACV in their water and was wondering if anyone has put ACV into their fermented food and if so, how did it react to the yeast. Would it kill the culture? Any thoughts would be great. Thanks

 

[idlewilde35]

I ferment my feed too! You definitely do NOT want to put ACV in fermented food. Fermented feed uses lacto-fermentation. The culture in ACV is acetobacter bacteria which converts alcohol to acetic acid, not a lactic acid. Here is a pretty good article about fermenting feed which explains the difference:
http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.com/p/fermented-feed.html

Also, I follow Garden Betty (I use her chicken feed recipe too). She's got a really good article about fermented food here:
http://www.gardenbetty.com/2013/05/why-and-how-to-ferment-your-chicken-feed/

Hope this helps!

 

[glib]

It depends. I make it a point of closing my ACV glass containers to avoid oxygen (I use 1/2 gallon canning jars with a rubber gasket. I place a wait on the lid to have a loose seal). It does not taste exactly like store bought ACV because it will have far more lactic ferments. The mother does not look like vinegar mother at all, it is off-white and solid, much more similar to kombucha, whereas vinegar mother is brown and slimy.

Also, if you add vinegar to your feed it will acidify, down towards the sweet spot of pH=5, where lactic ferments prevail over the nasties. In this case it helps indirectly.