Yes. It looks GROSS, doesn’t it? But, oh…your chickens will love you for it. And, according to the experts, your pocketbook will smile too. The benefits of fermentation in a nutshell? Wet feed is more filling than dry, the good bacteria help keep your chickens healthy and the fermentation changes the nutritional components of your feed to the better. We currently aren’t feeding organic (I’m sorry ladies!) due to budget, so it’s the least I can do to try and up the nutritional bang-for-the-buck. So how do YOU do it?
FERMENTATION SETUP:
How many chickens do you have? If you only have 3 or 4, you might want to use a Tupperware or smaller bucket. We have a larger flock, so I chose 5 gallon buckets (they come in so handy…almost as handy as pallets!). You’ll need two, one to drill holes into and the other to act as the container.
You’ll also want a cover of some sort, but don’t stress about what. I use a kitchen towel, and a spare piece of firewood…we’re fancy like that. 
INGREDIENTS:
Chicken food (whatever you feed your hens is fine)
Water
Optional: live apple cider vinegar with mother (i.e. Braggs), whey from cheese or yogurt (Don’t make your own? Just pour off the thin liquid that forms on top of your yogurt), kefir, liquid from non-vinegar sauerkraut or pickles (i.e. Bubbies).
The ferment agent is optional, since your wet mash will pick up good bacteria from the air..but it might take longer to ferment without that extra boost.
HOW TO:
Choose the location for your container (preferably in a warm spot, near where you feed your chickens). Ours is placed by the door, so I can scoop some in a bowl on my way out to feed the chickens, and near the wood stove for warmth.
Dump the chicken food into your container (the one with the holes), and set the hole-y container into the non-hole-y one. Pour enough water over the chicken food to completely cover it (some will probably float to the surface, that’s not a problem). If you’re using a ferment agent, add a few generous glugs now. STIR.
Cover your container with a kitchen towel or lid. This just keeps undesirables out.
NOTE: One of our cats is OBSESSED with the chicken ferment, and will actually eat some if I let him. Bugger. So I keep a heavy piece of firewood over my towel as extra protection from his grubby little paws.
Add more water than is shown in this below shot…I just wanted to show the sludge that forms. You want water/liquid to cover your fermenting food.
NOW WHAT?
Check on your chicken ferment every 12 hours or so (or in my laid back way, when I think of it), and add more water as needed. The food will soak up the water like a sponge, so you will be adding more on a fairly regular basis.
WHEN DO I START FEEDING IT TO MY CHICKENS?
You can start as soon as the food soaks up the first round of water, but it won’t truly be fermented yet. I waited three days, and WOW, the girls (and boys) went WILD for it.
IS THERE A SCHEDULE?
This is what I do. Please note, I’ve been doing this a week, so we’ll see how long I keep it up, but it’s not really a big pain, and they really like it, so I have high hopes.
Wake up, scoop a few cups of food out of the bucket and take it out to the chickens.
Pick up more dry chicken food while I’m out there (we keep the dry chicken food in big metal trash cans by the coop) and add it to the ferment bucket when I come in.
I’ll then pour enough water to cover, stir to combine and cover.
It’s that easy.
Optional extras: Use your imagination. Raw seeds, veggie scraps, boiled eggs, etc are all supposed to be awesome.
Here is what I’ve tried so far: Raw black oil sunflower seeds, raw peanuts (in shell), rolled oats, raw lentils, water kefir, beet stock (the water left over after boiling beets).
FINAL NOTE:
I was beyond skittish about fermenting things not even, eh, 4 months ago…but once you get started, you really gain a lot of confidence in YOUR ability to test food safety. Here’s a good general rule — if it smells OFF or ROTTED, things might not be on the right track (That rule is for this ferment…cause, lemme tell you, kimchi? Definitely, definitely smells funktastic while it ferments.)
GOOD SMELLS FOR THIS FERMENT: yeasty, beer-like, bread, warm, toasty. Ours even smells peanut-y from the raw, shell-on peanuts.
Here’s to happy chickens, and lots of THESE!
Additional sources:
Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds
Science of Fermented Feed
OH, and I made a video for you guys to showcase our setup. Check it out!
Fermented Chicken Feed from Erin Kelly on Vimeo.
Questions? Share ‘em in the comments, or on our Facebook page!
This post is a part of the Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways blog hop, the Tilly’s Nest Down Home blog hop, the Homestead blog hop, the Creative HomeAcre Hop, the Homestead Abundance blog hop and the Farmgirl Friday blog hop.
Great article! I’m going to try this I think. I’ve always been weird about fermenting stuff for the birds, but since you put words to the ‘good smells’, I’m not so worried about feeding them a moldy mess. Thanks!
Glad it helped, Christina! No mold, just ferment…all good.
Hi There! Quick question – What do you do with non-hole-y bucket full of water? I’m thinking it will get sludgy? Does that need to be emptied, stirred, left alone…? Thanks! Can’t wait to try it for my 3 girls.
It hasn’t been an issue until TODAY, ha…perfect timing. I took a few photos that I’ll post to Facebook, but I just ended up with too much liquid for my 5 gallon buckets to contain. Just took it outside, pulled the inner bucket out, and there was rich fermented “juice” in the bottom bucket. I couldn’t bear to toss it, so I just mixed it with their ferment bowl this morning and added some more dry food to balance the liquid in their food dish.
It really wasn’t sludgy, except a very thin layer at the bottom…so I think I’ll plan on rinsing out that bottom bucket (while reserving some of the liquid to add back in) on a monthly basis?
Neat coincidence. I just started making homemade sauerkraut recently. Then I found this blog! Really excited to try this.
Awesome, Matt! Welcome!
Do you dump the drip?? LOL Meaning, when do you drain out the bottom catch bucket? Or do you at all? Does it have a lot of liquid in it?
And, for the lentils. Can you use dries lentils in the mix?
how long would you keep/use a batch of this for? A week, more-less? Or do you just keep adding to it, mixing in the new with the old, like a sour dough starter??
I only have 6 hens, so this could be an easy thing for me to do.
Thanks
De Peaslee
De, I answered your question on Facebook…and I’m posting a photo of the “drip” on Facebook now!
Thanks for asking, so I knew to answer!
Yup, saw it..and thank you!!
Hope they don’t get sick as moldy food is not good for chickens .
You should never feed moldy food to chickens, but this isn’t mold, it’s fermented. Totally different.
So true about mold, but in the case of kraut, mold does form on the top, but beneath that is what we eat. Hmm.
Katharine, I’m definitely no fermentation expert, but from what I’ve read..the goal is avoid mold forming on your kraut by keeping it covered with the brine.
In fact, there was a huge hubbub in the online fermenting world re: the safety of scooping mold off and eating underneath due to the extension of the spores.
Now, people have been doing the “scoop mold off, eat underneath” for a LONG time, with no major ill effects (that I know of), so I do think we can be too oversensitive about things these days.
So far I haven’t seen any mold on the fermented chicken feed, so we’ll see!
Love this post and am thinking of trying this out. I’m not clear on the purpose of having the second bucket…. If you put the feed in the top bucket with the holes in it, won’t the water just dribble through the holes? If liquid is caught in the bottom bucket, does this just get discarded (like poured onto the compost pile) or something else? Thanks for posting this and for the info. I’m certain my ladies will thoroughly enjoy this!!
Che
Yep, the second bucket catches that drip so you don’t end up with a mess on your floor (or counter if you’re using a smaller container). But, my thought is it also helps keep your ferment moist and happy by keeping that liquid in contact with the inner bucket (through the holes).
I emptied out some of my bucket this morning because it was getting a little too full of liquid/food (I might have gotten a little over excited and added too many new ingredients!) But I couldn’t bear to pour out that liquid gold, so I mixed it in their food dish with a little extra dry food to help soak up the liquid..if that makes sense.
I’m posting photos of the second bucket on Facebook if you want to check it out. PS. The compost would surely love it though!
Erin,
Thanks so much for taking the time to post such a well thought out tutorial! Will definitely have to try!
Now I bet my chickens would love that! Never even thought about it
Thanks for sharing this on The Creative HomeAcre Hop! Stop back on Thursday for The HomeAcre Hop!
Wow, this is a great post! I have never heard of fermenting for chickens, though I know they love yogurt and kefir. We are always looking for ways to increase the nutritional benefits of our feed. Thanks!!
I’ve been fermenting feed for my birds for several years, but I do things a little differently. I start with a locally produced animal feed that is made from ground corn, soybeans, calcium phosphate and salt. To this I add 2-3 oz. of blackstrap molasses and a lactic acid bacteria starter that I use that my company uses to make our organic fertilizer.
I take the dried feed and add a mixture of the molasses and HOT water. I mix it to a damp consistency, and store it in a SEALED five gallon bucket. A 50# bag of feed will make TWO full buckets of chicken feed. Store the buckets in a warm place for 7-10 days, longer if it is cool. The feed will smell like molasses when you open the lid.
And you are correct, the chickens go NUTS over the feed. As you suggested, you can also add whole shell peanuts, sunflower seeds or in my case, I add wheat seeds, which will sprout during the fermentation process. All goodness for the chicks.
Hello, this really looks like a great idea!!! But do you know how long this stays good for?? Always looking for great ideas to try so keep up the great work and keep the ideas a coming!!!! -Mistii-
It will stay good for as long as you keep it aerated (by stirring), covered with liquid (so mold free) and cycling new food in and fermented food out. Look at it like those 100 year old sourdough starters that some lucky people have in their families. As long as you keep it healthy, it can be with you for a lifetime…and will only get BETTER with time.
Of course, life gets in the way.
So if it gets moldy because you forget about it, just dump the food and start fresh.
I’m planning an update post soon to keep the discussion alive, and to answer a few questions that the original post left out.