HOW & WHY We Ferment Our Chicken Feed 

That's exactly why I made this video... I watched a handful before really figuring out what in the world people were doing, because too many of the fermented feed videos over-complicate it. Glad it helped you!

glad it was helpful!

Glad to help!

Great idea!

Good observations! Thanks for sharing.

Doing this with some chick's younger and they're LOVING it, it's helping them grow pretty well too

That's a good idea (dehydrating) that I've never heard of! It's like a tiny version of siloing for winter. Cool!

Awesome! I think you're right. I got to a certain point where I couldn't do it for a while and our production definitely dropped.

@@Jess_Connell do this aid increase in eggs production sis??

Glad to hear it!

Honestly I am not that scientific about it. I know people who are... especially people with much bigger chicken feeding situations, who have to be very careful about how much they're putting out in order to make a farm budget work or whatever. We don't do that. For us, I just do a little bit less than I would normally do for a day's feed and let it ferment, and feed it to them, and then repeat.

Yup! That is correct-- we ferment the pellets because they do have the ground up grain in them. They ferment well & the animals love it.

Laying mash works the same way as pellets. I believe you can add in Scratch with it if you want, or add it separate as a supplement. I haven't added it to mine, so I can't speak about if it ferments at the same rate or not.

You can totally do that. A lot of people in colder climates do that as a way of activating new fermentation more quickly. For us, this was filmed during summer in Texas, so it didn't need the help for our fermentation process! 🤣

People do it with a variety of grains. But I haven't done it with those and can't weigh in. There are other RU-vidrs who ferment various grains for their animals, so you could look for that. This is the process with chicken feed.

Here's what I learned about that: (1) I only like chickens that I have raised from chicks. Chickens raised by other people run the real risk of being skittish/running away from you, and that makes (for us at least) a miserable experience. (2) If you live in a rainy climate, I would be cautious. For me, one of the things I like about chickens is having enough space for them to where (a) they can graze/free range, often, and (b) where their yard does not get to where it just smells like mucky, muddy poop all the time. So, with a small yard in Texas, we could do it I think, but a small yard in Washington state, with tons of rain, made it a physically unpleasant & smelly situation. (3) RE: cats-- we had a barn cat recently, and it would run through the chickens and it never went FOR a chicken. I don't know that I would trust it around younger chicks, and I didn't even really trust it around our chickens, but it worked out ok. Probably depends on the chickens and the cat in question.

I watched a bunch of videos on this fermented feed thing, looks like it's good for all them chickens goats & pigs. Yup yup check it out

No they don't, not that we can tell. Our chicken yolks are really nice and yellowy-orange but I can't tell any difference from one season/time of feeding to another.

Yes, egg layers or meat chickens can eat fermented feed. It works for all of them!

I don't know the answer to that question. They always had full access to as much as they wanted so I don't know.

The black and white hens in our flock at that time were Silver-Laced Wyandottes, Barred Rocks, and Dominques.

I have heard that it saves money, because the feed expands and so (theoretically) they eat less. I have not measured and experimented with it in that way, so I can't say one way or the other.

The feed has to remain covered by water. If it's exposed to air it will start to mold. So if it soaks up all the water in the bucket overnight, you either have to feed it to the chicken right then, or add more water and keep it covered completely until you plan to feed it to them. The feed must be below the surface of the water.

Yup!

I have not raised meat birds, so I can't say whether or not this would encourage meat growth. Sorry!

@@Jess_Connell its ok

Yes it is still good! They'll keep going until they use it up. One of the great things about chickens is that they are omnivores that are capable of eating carrions (dead/decaying flesh) and so their guts can handle just about anything. Pretty much if they DO eat it, they CAN eat it.

yup

No we haven't.

Interesting thought! Thanks for adding your thoughts!

At the time of this video, we had around 40. Right now we have 23 or 24. We've had some predators this fall & I haven't counted in about a week.

Me too. :)

Maybe you're from somewhere cold, but in the summer heat of Texas, especially with the "old" fermented liquid that we add the feed to for the next day, I think it's perfectly fair to call it a ferment. It thickens up and bubbles -- easily-- within 24-36 hours.

@@Jess_Connell OK, fair enough