Fermented some feed, did i do it right?

[FattyChickens]

I combined water, oregano and cayenne pepper with whole grain (millet, milo, sunflower, corn) and some egg layer pellets that my chickens don't seem to like very much lol. It's been fermenting maybe about 2-3 days, with the lid loosely placed on top so gas could escape. Every time I opened it to stir, it had large bubbles coming up which I read was a good sign. I don't have any pH straps and it smells a little sour. What do we think? Did I do this right? Lol

 

[nuthatched]

Sounds right from what Ive read.
I'd just ferment the feed and leave out the scratch and spices, they're not exactly good for them.

 

[FattyChickens]

Sounds right from what Ive read.
I'd just ferment the feed and leave out the scratch and spices, they're not exactly good for them.

Sobbing. I heard cayenne can be good for "preventing parasites" but honestly i wouldn't be surprised if I was lied to because that's just the condition of keeping any animal these days. Thank you!!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Sobbing. I heard cayenne can be good for "preventing parasites" but honestly i wouldn't be surprised if I was lied to because that's just the condition of keeping any animal these days. Thank you!!

Yes, you are following the right steps.

No, cayenne is not an effective anti-parasitic. Not that cayenne doesn't have anti-parasitic properties, simply that:

1) You don't know the concentration of the needed anti-paraitic compounds - most are lost during drying, processing, and storage (and they vary from crop to crop based on location, climate, time of year of harvest, etc).

2) The amounts needed to be even marginally effective, on average, are huge.

It will slightly tint your bird's eggs more red/orange however - and is commonly done by people who (erroneously) believe that to be indicator of a more nutritious egg. Its not. At best, it may mean that there are slightly higher amounts of a single vitamin (A). You can get the same effect feeding crab and shrimp shells, w/o the viitamin A precursor.