Insider Tips to Fermenting Chicken Feed – Healthy Hens and Healthy Budget!

Are you researching how to take care of chickens? If so, you might have come across the idea of fermenting chicken feed.

If you’re looking to save money on your chickens’ feed, fermenting chicken feed is a great option. It is easy and fun, and it can help keep chickens healthy. Learn how to ferment chicken feed for healthy hens and a healthy budget now!

Fermenting chicken feed takes a little bit of time and work upfront, but once the process is complete, you’ll be able to use it as a top-notch, high-quality chicken food supplement that will give your backyard birds an extra boost of nutrients.

Just follow these simple steps and learn how to ferment your chicken’s feed in the simplest and most effective way.

What Does It Mean to Ferment Chicken Feed? The Fermentation Process

Fermenting chicken feed is the process by which you take your homemade chicken feed and allow it to sit out in water for a certain amount of time. During this fermentation, different enzymes will break down materials in the feed, making it easier for the birds to digest. It also allows beneficial bacteria to grow within the mix. 

All of this will improve the quality and quantity of nutrients in your birds’ food.

Similar to other fermented foods such as sourdough bread, yogurt, sauerkraut, and Keifer, fermented chicken feed is food for chickens that has been treated and manipulated in such a way that it encourages the growth of good and beneficial bacteria. 

In short, your feed is rotting, only instead of rotting in bad bacterias that will make you and your backyard chickens sick, it is feeding the growth of wee little beasties (natural probiotics) that will make you and your chickens healthier than ever.

Benefits Of Fermenting Chicken Feed

If you’re interested in keeping your chickens healthy without breaking the bank, fermenting chicken feed may be just what you need! Whether you are raising hobby-level backyard chickens or you are full-on homesteading, feeding your birds fermented grains will serve them well.

This process might seem a bit daunting at first but once you get down to it, it will be easy and rewarding. 

You’ll wonder why you didn’t start fermenting your chickens’ feed sooner!

There are a ton of benefits, to fermenting your chickens’ feed. These benefits include but are certainly not limited to health benefits, financial benefits, and more. Here are just a few.

Extra Nutrients/Beneficial Bacteria

Fermentation helps break down grains like corn and wheat so they are easier for birds to digest. 

Fermented feed also gives your birds extra nutrients in the form of beneficial bacteria. This beneficial bacteria helps your chickens’ digestive tracts and helps give them an overall increased immune system.

Easier Digestion

These extra nutrients and easier digested bits of food will give you an added bonus in the form of delicious and extra nutritious chicken eggs.

Lower pH Level – Ward Off Bacteria

One interesting reason to ferment chicken feed is that fermenting chicken food will lower the pH of your mix.  For those who don’t know, pH refers to how acidic or alkaline something is. It’s measured on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being extremely acidic and 10 being extremely alkaline.  

Our goal with fermenting chicken feed is to bring the pH down closer to neutral (or 7, which is where our own human bodies like it) because when the pH level is low, harmful bacteria cannot survive.

With less harmful bacterias present in the mix, your chickens will be healthier and happier than ever! They’ll have an easier time warding off acid-sensitive sicknesses such as E. Coli, Salmonella, and more. See how beneficial good bacteria can be for gut health?

Better Eggs

Have you ever tasted the difference between free-range chicken eggs and caged chicken eggs? The difference in taste, color, and nutrient level of these eggs is like night and day. 

And that difference is even more pronounced when you feed your hens fermented layer feed. Fermenting your own chicken feed provides food for beneficial gut bacteria that are important for producing eggs! 

Those yolks are going to be brighter and deeper than you’ve ever seen before. And the eggs shells are also going to be exceptionally strong, which you will absolutely love (especially if you have young kids collecting eggs every morning).

Save Money

Finally, fermenting chicken feed will save you money on feeding your chickens. Because your chickens are absorbing more nutrients and having an easier time digesting their feed, they will need to eat less feed in order to stay healthy. Fermenting your own chicken feed is extremely cost-effective and will drastically lower feed costs.

And after all – who doesn’t want to save money on chicken feed? Decrease your chicken feed bill by fermenting their feed today!

Can Ducks Eat Fermented Feed?

If you raise chickens and ducks, you might be wondering if ducks can eat fermented feed.

The short answer is YES! Absolutely!

Fermented duck feed will be just as beneficial and nutritious for ducks as it is for chickens. So by all means – ferment away!

How To Ferment Chicken Feed

As beneficial as fermenting your own chicken feed can be, it’s important that you do so safely so that you don’t compromise your chickens’ safety. Fermented feed can turn ugly fast so follow these tips to make sure that no animals or humans become sick from your homemade fermented feed.

In practice, fermenting chicken feed is a pretty simple process that’s easily completed by using a few basic household items. You don’t even need to go out and purchase anything special; you can use what you have lying around on hand! You’ll just need water, a few large containers, and your favorite chicken food (homemade chicken feed or store-bought both work well).

I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of our own fermenting feed setup for you to see. We just moved to a new house and haven’t begun our new setup yet. However, I hope to get to that within the next few weeks, at which point I will upload some photos.

How To Ferment Chicken Feed – The Easy Way!

STEP 1 – 

First, you’re going to want to get your favorite chicken feed. We usually use a store-bought layer feed mix that we buy at our local feed store. However, you are free to use whatever feed you want!

STEP 2 – 

Get a large container – one that is significantly larger than the amount of feed your chickens will eat in a day. When we raised a small amount of backyard chickens, we just used an old, washed out milk jug that we’d cut the top of. I know some families with smaller flocks use old mason jars (or other glass jars).

This time around, now that our homestead is bigger, we’re probably going to have to use a series of 5-gallon buckets.

STEP 3 – 

Fill your chosen container a little less than halfway with your chosen layer mix (or if you’ve got young chicks, use regular chicken feed instead of layer feed). 

STEP 4 – 

Add water to your container, making sure to completely cover your feed mix. We always used tap water but we lived in an area where our tap water was not chlorinated. Chlorinated water might change the way your feed ferments. Some families also use filtered water but we found tap water to work just fine.

Different types of feed will absorb the water and swell at different levels but the important part is to make sure your feed is ALWAYS completely covered in water. If your feed swells above your water levels, this is a breeding ground for bad bacteria and mold, which you definitely do not want. 

Keep an eye on your feed for the first few days while you’re learning how the fermenting process works and keep adding water so that the water is always above the feed mix.

STEP 5 – 

Leave your feed to ferment for a few days. This process could take up to a week but the amount of time it takes will depend on the amount and the type of mix you have chosen to ferment. 

You will know your fermentation process is complete when your water is a deep brown and begins to bubble. It will also give off a distinct odor. As you gain more experience, you will be able to tell the difference in odor between healthy fermented feed and rotting feed that has gone bad. But in essence, the healthy fermented feed will smell sweet and strong, but not rotten and nasty.

STEP 6 – 

Now to feed your birds! Bring your fermented feed to your chicken coop and let them have at it!

The container you used to ferment your feed will determine how you feed the mix to your chickens. When we used milk jugs, we just set the whole milk jug in the coop. The chickens would drink the water on top and then peck at the feed at the bottom. They loved it and it also ensured they always stayed hydrated and well-fed.

Now that we’re moving to 5-gallon buckets, I haven’t decided how we’re going to feed the birds yet as the buckets will be much taller and deeper than the milk jugs. I’ll keep you posted as to what we decide to do. 

It’s also up to you as to whether or not you drain the top few inches of water or give the birds the whole combination. I like to give them the water and the mix but you can choose how you want to handle your own backyard birds.

STEP 7- 

Repeat, repeat, repeat! Be sure you always stay on top of your next batch so your chickens never run out. Some people start the next batch the next day, and others prefer to wait a day or two. It all depends on you and your birds. 

You’ll want to create a system that allows you to keep your birds in a steady supply of fermented feed. So however long it takes them to fully consume a container of fermented feed is how often you need to be starting a new batch.

When we were using the empty milk jug version, we started a new batch every other day. You’ll want to go through some trial and error in order to perfect your own fermentation process but you should have everything figured out within just a week or two.

And there you have it! The easy way to ferment your own chicken feed. See? It’s a lot easier than you might have originally guessed! And it will only take a few days for your birds to start reaping the benefits.

Fermenting Chicken Feed Tips And Tricks

The biggest things we learned from our early days of fermenting chicken feed. Tips that nobody else tells you.

1. MAKE SURE TO HAVE ENOUGH WATER!!! I cannot stress this enough. Too little water will make your chicken feed go rotten and cause bad bacteria and mold. Make sure you have plenty of water and keep your fermentations at a healthy water level.

2. This process can take up a lot of space so make sure you have an area that can be easily dedicated to fermenting your chickens’ feed. We used to use our kitchen counter but it was messy and stinky and space-consuming. I know most chicken keepers won’t have much extra space to dedicate to this process so keep this in mind before beginning the process.
   
   Now that we’re in the new house, I’m hoping to set this process up in the barn or shop but we’ll see how that goes. I’ll keep you posted.

3. Make sure your fermented feed is kept at a desirable temperature. You want the area your feed is a nice room temperature, so in to be between 70 and 75 degrees or so. Too cold will increase the time it takes to ferment and too warm will make everything go bad really really quickly. 

4. This process is quite smelly so make sure you’re fermenting your feed in an area where the odor won’t cause an issue. The smell never bothered me but it certainly bothered my husband and in-laws. 

5. Don’t feel bad if your first batch is a complete bust! This really is a process that requires a learning curve. Don’t beat yourself up if your first batch and your first good batch are several days apart.

And there you have it! My easy guide to fermenting chicken feed. May this how-to guide serve you and your backyard chickens well!