What's the risk of moldy fermented feed?

[oldhenlikesdogs]

When done correctly fermented feed is great, but done incorrectly it can kill quickly. We used to make haylage and silage, get it wrong and you have mold.

A chicken is designed to break down hard grains, hence the gizzards, so soft feeds make no sense to me. But I always say everyone has a right to choose their own way of keeping chickens, and we don't need to agree with everyone else's ways.

I just personally find it easier to feed straight out of the bag, and make sure it stays dry, but that's my choice.

 

[Noreaster Egger]

When done correctly fermented feed is great, but done incorrectly it can kill quickly. We used to make haylage and silage, get it wrong and you have mold.

A chicken is designed to break down hard grains, hence the gizzards, so soft feeds make no sense to me. But I always say everyone has a right to choose their own way of keeping chickens, and we don't need to agree with everyone else's ways.

I just personally find it easier to feed straight out of the bag, and make sure it stays dry, but that's my choice.

This is why I use airlocks and a 1/2-1" layer of water above my feed. You want an anaerobic environment to prevent mold. Some prefer the ease of the open bucket or slop method, but I didn't care for the smell of my feed after a few days of that. With the airlocks, I get lots of bubbling and a sweet, tangy scent after a couple of days. I prefer to feed it at that point whether it could technically ferment more or not. I'd rather have it lightly fermented than go to the other extreme and risk mold...especially during the summer months.

Why to use an airlock.

 

[barred2rock]

Thank you all, even those of you that choose to feed their birds via a different method.

Anyway, Im pretty sure it turns out they were just uncomfortably hot . I added some things to help them stay cooler and now they're back to eating. Although they're now weirded out about the alfalfa I got them yesterday. Silly chickens!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

You better let the billions of people that have been fermenting & eating fermented foods & drinks for thousands of years know that.

Some of the common fermented foods & drinks (which I'm sure you too eat or drink) are:

Beer, wine, bread, buttermilk, cheese, kombucha, miso, pickles, sauerkraut, sour cream, soy sauce, yogurt and kefir, to just name a few of the hundreds of fermented foods.

Just so we'll know, Wine grapes naturally have the yeast on them when they are crushed. And beer has the heck boiled out of it before yeast is added to the malt or wart and the hops in beer is a preservative chemical as well as a flavoring. Also these are processes that depend on yeast to work, not on bacteria. As for sour kraut it containers a lot of Sodium Chloride (that's table salt to you and i) a chemical that is used to preserve freshness. Of all the foods that you listed I can not think of a single one that you would just sit on the counter or out in the open and let mother nature pick and chose which organism that was going to ferment or infect it first. To do so would be a fine way to end up with Botulism.

 

[lazy gardener]

Just so we'll know, Wine grapes naturally have the yeast on them when they are crushed. And beer has the heck boiled out of it before yeast is added to the malt or wart and the hops in beer is a preservative chemical as well as a flavoring. Also these are processes that depend on yeast to work, not on bacteria. As for sour kraut it containers a lot of Sodium Chloride (that's table salt to you and i) a chemical that is used to preserve freshness. Of all the foods that you listed I can not think of a single one that you would just sit on the counter or out in the open and let mother nature pick and chose which organism that was going to ferment or infect it first. To do so would be a fine way to end up with Botulism.

Sour dough bread, as cultured by the old timers, yogurt that was carried by the nomads. Silage, haylage. To my understanding, botulism grows in an anaerobic environment. Not so with FF. I can appreciate the fact that you and others choose to feed dry. Can you appreciate the fact that I and others choose to ferment????????????

 

[jvls1942]

I suppose fermented feed is OK.
I don't do it because it is extra work for me that I really don't need to do.
I would venture to say that fresh fermented feed is OK. but if left too long, such as any left in the dish, it probably will mold..
thus contaminating the fresh feed.

I brew wine and beer. the must is taken out of the batch way before it has a chance to mold. I have seen this must mold on the compost pile..
......jiminwisc....

 

[barred2rock]

Just so we'll know, Wine grapes naturally have the yeast on them when they are crushed. And beer has the heck boiled out of it before yeast is added to the malt or wart and the hops in beer is a preservative chemical as well as a flavoring. Also these are processes that depend on yeast to work, not on bacteria. As for sour kraut it containers a lot of Sodium Chloride (that's table salt to you and i) a chemical that is used to preserve freshness. Of all the foods that you listed I can not think of a single one that you would just sit on the counter or out in the open and let mother nature pick and chose which organism that was going to ferment or infect it first. To do so would be a fine way to end up with Botulism.

When these foods came to be, many of those processes didn't exist. Fermented foods go back at least 6,000 years, the whole point was to preserve the food.

The foods I listed where just things that most everyone knows. There are still many foods (especially in Asia) that are fermented by simply sticking them in the ground, in some cases for months. These people typically live longer & healthier lives than most westerners that live off sterile processed junk.

 

[lazy gardener]

Natural, ACV, with the mother is cultured from the microbes that occur from the surrounding environment.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I would add, are you sure it was even moldy? I do not make my FF as wet and sloppy as others do. It is typical that if I do not stir it for a day that it gets a whitish layer on top that could be mistaken for mold.

I make my FF on a three day cycle in "open" containers (coffee filters cover the tops). It is not as fermented as some people's but greatly expands the feed and makes it go further, saving me a lot of money for a few minutes time, and the birds seem to prefer it. Pellets are always out but they finish the FF quick and with priority when I put it out in the morning. I don't feed it in the weekends, though, since they get let out to free range first thing in the morning and freedom takes priority over commercial feed lol. If it's sitting out for a long time, you're feeding too much.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Sour dough bread, as cultured by the old timers, yogurt that was carried by the nomads. Silage, haylage. To my understanding, botulism grows in an anaerobic environment. Not so with FF. I can appreciate the fact that you and others choose to feed dry. Can you appreciate the fact that I and others choose to ferment????????????

Especially in hot weather I prefer to feed my small fry a soaked food that has sat for no longer than 4 or 5 hours. In that time the grains will have absorbed a great amount of hot water and increased in size greatly with an increase in ease of digestion..