How to Ferment Chicken Feed for Hen Health and Better Eggs: A Beginner's Guide
Fermentation is good for our food, but it's also great for your chickens' feed. Chickens love fermented feed, and if you're not already, you should consider adding it to your flock's diet. Let's learn about fermentation: why to ferment, what grains to choose for fermenting, and what setup you need.
Fermenting chicken feed is super easy to do. But it could be awful for your flock if you do it wrong. First, a few fast fermenting facts:
Top Five Benefits of Fermenting Chicken Feed
There are quite a few benefits to fermenting your chicken feed. In fact, according to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, "...production performance, egg shell quality, plumage condition, litter dry matter (DM) content, as well as the composition and activity of the intestinal microbial flora..." are all potentially affected by implementing your chickens' diet with fermented foods.
Fermented chicken feed puts good bacteria or probiotics into the hens' gut, so not only is their digestive system healthier, but their immune system is much better.
It makes the eggshells harder, and it increases the egg weight.
It increases the number of nutrients available for the chickens to digest, which lowers your feed bill, and yes, it reduces the amount of poop they put out.
It also seems to create B-vitamins in the feed that did there before, reducing the risk of salmonella and E-coli.
Chicken's absolutely love it.
The Three Bucket System for Fermenting Chicken Feed
You can keep a fermentation bucket going for just about forever. As you take out grains, you can add more each day so that there's always some in the bucket. The longer the grains sit, the better they get, but they can become too sour over long periods. For this reason, we recommend the three-bucket system.
By using three buckets, you can ensure that the feed can ferment for at least three days. Three days is how long it will take to ferment the feed under ideal conditions. You can use the same process to ferment for more extended periods, say five days, by increasing the number of buckets you use.
It's vital that you loosely cover the buckets during fermentation. One, covering the bucket will keep the bugs from getting in and making it gross. But you want the cover to be loose so that it allows the gas from the fermentation process to escape. Otherwise, you will have a fermenting bomb on your hands.
(A quick side note: be sure to also check out the 7 Most Common Mistakes When Fermenting Chicken Feed!)
How to prepare your fermenting bucket for chicken feed.
First, you will need a separate bucket to get the chlorine out of the water because the live bacteria cannot survive in chlorinated water. Next, fill your bucket full of water, and I leave it out for 24 – 48 hours; doing so allows the chlorine to evaporate, making it safe for the fermentation process.
The fermented feed should smell sour like yogurt. However, if it starts to smell rancid or just disgusting, I throw it out and start all over. You can avoid this by monitoring your setup daily.
While you can start your fermented feed with sure starters, it's not always necessary. It seems likely that there are enough bacteria outside in the environment to begin the fermentation process all on its own.
It's crucial to use dechlorinated water. You can easily dechlorinate your tap water by leaving it in a bucket for 24 to 48 hours. Doing so will allow the chlorine to escape the water and for bacteria to populate in the bucket before you begin using it for fermentation.
What grains should you use in the fermentation process?
It's not necessary to use organic grains, and they can be pretty expensive. Some people try to keep their grains gluten-free and GMO-free. Almost any grain will ferment similarly, so this choice of what to use is entirely up to you. We recommend oats, barley, sunflower seeds, and milo, depending on availability and in season. One thing to note is if you are going to ferment a store-bought chicken such as pellets or crumbles, the feed will swell up. If you do, it could cause the spread to rise above the water and become exposed to the air. The result could produce harmful bacteria that could make your chicken sick. So, make sure that your crumbles or pellets are entirely submerged underwater at all times.
Once you have decided on the grain, you will add it directly to the water, or vice versa, in bucket number 1. You'll want a third of the container filled with the food or grain and the remaining 2/3 with the water. This way, the grain can soak up water and still stay submerged. Please give it a good stir, and then loosely cover the top. All done. Phase one is complete.
Next, move along to the second bucket or all of the 'middle' buckets if you use more than three. You will begin to notice a bubbly film on top, showing you that the grain is indeed fermenting. You will want to stir this film back in to keep the bacteria and grain moving around together. It's also important that none of the floating grains, such as sunflower seeds, spend too much time on the top of the water. You don't want mold to grow on them, which will be bad for the chickens. All of the grains and seeds should sink after one to two days. Once you have stirred all of your buckets, you are done with phase 2.
Lastly, we will go to our last bucket, which has been out for at least three days and harvest the fermented grain. Use an excellent big strainer or ladle with holes to strain out the grains in the last bucket. If you have a great mesh strainer, you can strain the grain directly over another bucket, preserving the healthy bacteria to start your following fermenting process.
Feeding the chickens.
The fermented grain can be fed directly to the chickens. But, only give the chickens enough of the grain for one day. You don't want to leave uneaten, fermented grain out over 24 hours for several reasons. One, it will attract mice and other rodents. Two, it could get moldy and become harmful to the chickens. So, only put out enough for one day at a time.
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