[wolfpup]

my girls all free range and their yolks are just as dark coloured as yours on the fermented feed.

I would love to free range my girls - but unfortunately I have no land.    I am envious.

[Snoop]

my girls all free range and their yolks are just as dark coloured as yours on the fermented feed.

Likewise.

Plus, thanks for replying to my earlier post, Wolfpup. Sorry for not reading your posts carefully enough.

[Silkychicks]

I will start and ferment a batch (I just made kim chee for myself, so why not for the chickens!  ) and see it they will eat this.

They are spilling so much now! Hopefully that will get less as well.

My 'new borns' will start eating this evening, so they will have dry food first.

[Silkychicks]

Now I just filled a 2 ltr jar and will start feeding them a mixture of the wet food and dry food from now so they can get used to the structure and the taste.

For the little ones I am not sure: now I have grinded te food allmost to a flour so it is easy for them to swallow and digest.
The fermented food bits might be to big for them...

We'll see.

[wolfpup]

Hi Silkychicks,

Hope it all goes well for you.    The only thing to watch with your babies is that they do not walk all over the wet(ish) feed and get it caked in their toes, so that you have to soak it off.    I know some silkies have gotten it all over their heads  (they look really cute though) - some people with silkies have provided a sort of grill structure over the feed to stop their fluffy heads getting caked.

[Silkychicks]

Hi Wolfpup,

Four days later the ladies still are not amused 

They shake their heads touching the wet food like it is something bad..
I have tried different stages of 'wetness' but no luck 

Maybe they need to experience a broader variety of food before they will be able to make the switch?

The little ones get dry food for now.
Their eating had a slow start: eventually I put them on the table with the older ones so they could set an examle and this worked really well. Since the other ones are older the young ones might adapt their habit when I put them together.

The main challenge now is to get the older ones to eat the wet food!

The grains will not ferment by the way... No bubbles after 4 days.

Thank you for sharing your ideas for clean silkies  they do manage to look like they have been rolling around in the food/mud instead of eating it 

[wolfpup]

HI

I am about to leave for a weeks holiday so this will be a bit short.

1.   Did you use any 'starter' like Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (with the 'Mother')  - or just plain water.    If just plain water it can take up to 5 days depending on the temperature and exactly what you are fermenting.  Around 60-70 degrees is optimum I believe.
2.   It is best when first starting the ferment to have the mixture quite wet  - then once fermentation is going well then thicken the mixture up.
3.  The taste changes quite a lot once a good fermentation is going on.
4.  What quite a few people have done is to sprinkle a little dry mix on top of the wet to get them to peck at it - then they get into the wet and get used to it.
5.  My adult girls  (started laying in November) just dove into it like velociraptors.

If they were older I would just remove the dry all together - no hen will starve itself if there is food available - but I would not do that with very young chicks.

I am back next Thursday evening and will check in as soon as I can.   In the meantime check out the "Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds" in one of the links in the OP or the Fermenting Feeds Anyone using them.   

Stick with it 

[Silkychicks]

Thank you wolfpup for you advise.

Today I had a rough time with one of the youngest chicks: While I was cooking and preparing for a lecture with a meal (about fermented food and the advantages to our digestive system  ) she kept tjieping so loud... It took some time before I found out that she was hungry, obviously still not quite grasping the eating bit 

In the mean time, trying te get organised with a chick in my vesttop, I got weak and fed the elder chicks dry food...just so they would keep quiet.

So. Tomorrow I will start again and read the information.

I did use apple cider vinegar with a mother, but maybe it wasn't enough or to old?? It has been onthe shelf for some time. My living room is about 67 F so that is a bit low, but it is the warmest place in the house. I could try and put it out in the sun.

Velociraptors!!? Sounds viscous like something dinosor. I'll look that one up!

Enjoy your holliday!!

[wolfpup]

Hi Silkychicks

Hope your ferment has started properly now.   Here is a link that you might find useful:

http://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

Not a bad blog to trawl through

Am back now (landed last night) - but picked up a nasty bug - vicious sore throat  -  and came back to a sick dog so off to the vets in a couple of hours  -  ANOTHER £100 or so I suppose   

[RiverChicken]

Hi wolfpup,
  How much do you feed your chickens?

[devonbarmygardener]

Very interested in this - might talk it through with the chicken chums

[wolfpup]

Hi wolfpup,
  How much do you feed your chickens?

Hi

I usually feed them in the morning - just enough that they finish most of it off within half an hour or so - then they are let loose in the run sections to forage.    I feed again around 5pm to get them back in the fox-proof section of their run, and to ensure they go to bed with full crops.

However it does not seem to matter if food is left most of the day as it does not attract flies, and does not 'go off' either.

I am now feeding a layers mash rather than pellets as this strains very easily just with a slotted spoon - so no hanging around trying to strain 'mush'.

[wolfpup]

Very interested in this - might talk it through with the chicken chums

I am now using a layers mash which I find is a lot easier and my hens certainly prefer the mash to pellets (not so boring as pellets).   I am also now fermenting with a true Lactic Acid Baccillus - which I made myself - and only add a little ACV, ensuring that the LAB is dominant, if I think that the balance is 'off'.

[joyfull]

poultry are natural grazers and like to eat little and often, feeding just twice a day is not the norm for them. Can you not leave enough food down for them all day?

[wolfpup]

There is usually some still left in the trough as mentioned in my previous post -  it is not 'licked clean'.   Plus once out in the runs they get tomatoes, lettuce, have hanging cabbage, plus what they forage for  -  they are not in a barren run.  Plus they also get sprouted mung bean, raddish, lentils etc together with sprouted wheat and barley grass.    My girls are not lacking for constantly available food - but thank you for your concern on their behalf.




The hen in the foreground is rather tatty looking due to being the favourite victim of a serial feather eater - who has been rehomed a few hundred yards away.   I think she is now regrowing her feathers so will soon regain her good looks.  The netted off section behind them is the fishpond where I also grow duckweed for them.