Attempting To Ferment Pre-Measured Ration Balls Of Chicken Feed
I have been fermenting my chicken feed for a few weeks, now, but I feel like I am over feeding them. I know that the food expands as it soaks up the water, but I'm not sure how much. However, fermented feed is more nutritious than the dry crumbles I was giving them. So, I am not sure how to gauge the amount of food I am giving them.
To remedy this problem, I decided to try measuring out a known amount of dry feed into some cheesecloth, tying it into a ball with a rubber band, and fermenting the entire ration ball. If it works and it is convenient, I will continue to do it. Worst case scenario, I think that it will help me gain a better perspective on what my dry feed looks like after it has fermented and how much I need to give my chickens.
I'm actually a little late posting this video. I have been using the ration balls, and I'm just about ready to start giving feedback on how it worked. So, stay tuned for that! It should be pretty soon!!
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Curious why you thought you were feeding too much of it?
I'm not sure that I was, but I have no idea how much I was feeding. As dry feed, I had an idea of about how much I needed to use; however, I wasn't sure how one scoop of fermented, expanded feed compared (volume wise and nutritionally) to one scoop of dry feed. Then, there were a couple of sporadic occasions when I went out to feed them in the morning, and they still had some left over from the day before. I think I may have just been a little too generous on those particular days. This was just a little experiment to help me be a little more consistent and better gauge how fermented feed compares to dry.
I do think that I am going to abandon the idea in the future; it was just too much hassle on the front end. But, it was a helpful exercise. I think I have a better feel for how much to feed them and how to keep continuous flow of feed in the ferment bucket instead of running out every few days.
I asked because chickens feed to a certain weight in their crops, then stop. Water is HEAVY! If they aren't finishing what you thought was what they should have each day, chances are they were not getting all the nutrition they needed for that day, because the weight of the water was making them stop eating...
I gotchya. In your opinion, what is the best way to figure out how much feed to use, if I will also be allowing them to free range?
If you are raising modern layers, or dual purpose birds, then you want to make sure they get the right amount of food for their age and activity (egg laying)...
I use this chart (see Table 3):
http://www.afn.org/~poultry/flkman9.htm
I have it as an Excel, but have converted it to jpg to post:
Hope these help.
Wow. That was a great video... the indoor green house with a tower auto heater is something I might mimick my end next winter/spring. Awesome stuff. Upvoted and for sure resteemed. :)