Fermented feed for chickens?

Oneofsix

Oneofsix

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I don't recall anyone posting about fermenting grain/feed for their chickens - has anyone tried it?
Supposed to make it easier for them to digest and more nutritious.
 
Haven't tried it, but saw a video on YT by Homesteading Family. Use three mason jars and keep a line going, letting the grain ferment in a warm place (kitchen counter) for three days and then feed it them. Yes the claim is they get more nutrition out of it. Haven't tried it.
 
Don't know from a nutrition point. But it does help prolong the feed. It will expand in volume.

We can get about a week more out of a bag of feed than normally just giving it dry.
 
i used the crumble.

fill up a 5 gallon buck with 6-8” of feed, then the rest of the bu met with water, stir a couple times a day, at about the day 3-4 mark it was stirred and used.

my chickens loved it. noticed a slight uptick in egg production.
 
Bumping this up. Mark did you wind up going this route?

If so how did it work out?

The wife is going to give it a try as a supplement to the dry feed.
 
I haven't yet - but since we doubled our flock on 4 Nov, I'm going to give it a try.
By the way, I stumbled upon a scratch grain manufactured in Goldsboro called Carolina Pride Crazy 8. Our flock loves it and I think that's the one I'll try.
Someone has probably mentioned them before, I just don't recall.
In another thread it was mentioned about a feed store/grainery in St Paul's - seems it's only a sideline for the grainery, their main business is buying grain from the local farmers. The original feed store there has gone out of business.
 
We've been fermenting whole oats for our animals for a while. The water swells the oats and definitely stretches out the feed which reduces the feed bill. Nutritionally, I can't think of anything better than what basically amounts to 'overnight oats' for animals. Of course, whole oats used to be cheap @ $8-10 a bag, now we pay about double but still cheaper, cleaner, and bettter for them than BlackTractorRock Supply bag o'poison laying feed.
Once we got pigs, we started mixing in BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) for additional fiber and the oil helps keep their skin from getting flaky. Chickens, pigs, goats and one fat ass (donkey) absolutely LOVE soaked grains.

Now I source spent brewer's grain which has more protein than oats. I actually use the oats to cut down the protein under 20%.

Our animals are fat, happy, and productive while our feed costs are substantially lower than people with comparable amounts of eaters.

If y'all follow our farm IG page you'll see how I make the slop I feed them all. it's @meadow_creek_ranch on the Insta Gram
 
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Is the fermented feed something you feed as a treat?

The reason I ask it because my animals eat from large feeder and I would imagine wet feed would breed mold.

Am I wrong about this when dealing with fermented feed?
 
I assume you aren’t going through 30lbs of feed a day. I store my feed in 20gal buckets. That holds about 50lbs of dry feed. Mix one part feed and one part water in a separate metal pale, let sit over night and toss to the birds in the morning. Rinse and repeat.
 
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