Fermented Chicken Feed

As many of you know, we have a brood of about 15 chickens. I have heard that fermenting chicken food results in lots of eggs, which was my primary reason for trying it out on our chickens.  We keep dual purpose chickens but our main reason for having them is for the eggs. Unfortunately, if they aren't giving us eggs or we have too many roosters hatch we butcher them. I really shouldn't say we, I don't do any butchering, I can't quite stomach it...yet! I will help butcher eventually!

Fermenting chicken food will improve the chicken's enzyme content and increase vitamin levels. Fermenting will also make it more digestible AND boost usable protein level. With all the good lacto-fermentation bugs in the food, the chicken's immune systems are given a boost and they have an easier time keeping disease at bay.  Healthy and robust chickens are happy and happy hens lay eggs.

Anyway, to ferment chicken feed, all you need is a container, chicken feed, water, and time. Right now, I use a quart sized mason jar and fill it half-way. Then I fill the jar with water until it covers the feed by about an inch or two. Seal it and let it sit for 3 days. That's it!

A three-day fermentation seems to work the best for us. Two days doesn't seem like quite enough time and anything longer than 3 days seems to create a more sour feed. You will know when the feed is ready when it is nice and bubbly.  The feed will have a sour smell, but shouldn’t smell rotten or putrid.  

If you want a steady rotation of fermented feed, start the same process in a new jar on day 2 and again on day 3. Also, on day 3 you will empty the first jar, feed it and refill it to start the fermenting process again. This way once you get going, you will have a container of fermented feed ready every day.

Please, keep in mind this is not my primary feed, the chickens still have access to regular chicken feed as well. If you will be using fermented feed only, you may need to go through some trial and error to figure out exactly how much is enough for your chickens.