Help with cold weather & ferment

[The Good Grumble]

Hi all, I added 5 new chooks this year to my 4. I’ve always fermented. I have it down to a science, been great. But I only had 4 and now there’s 9. Winters have always been a challenge. Less challenging with 4 lol. But now the temps have dipped into negatives and I cannot keep the food from freezing quickly, so the past few days I’ve tried regular dry crumble and they want zero to do with it. They won’t even touch it. A couple of them pooped in the dish to show me exactly how they feel about it. What do fermenters do with super cold weather. I was thinking maybe another heated base? They have their water on one. But I have three feeding stations to avoid squabbles.

My rooster usually helps with the girls picking but he’s currently indoors because the poor guy got a small case of frostbite. So he’s happily eating normal food indoors lol.

I would prefer to not change up their food so I’m hoping to hear from fermenters please.

Editing: the previous 4 ate from a single dish and no one got upset.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You could try a heat source, but I always just switched to dry feed when below freezing. Remember, they won't starve themselves. They are voracious eaters and when the crop is empty, they are hungry and will eat something. As long as they have fresh nutritious food, I don't worry about them. I make sure I don't have too much fermented feed on hand when it is going to be that cold, so I don't waste it.

 

[The Good Grumble]

You could try a heat source, but I always just switched to dry feed when below freezing. Remember, they won't starve themselves. They are voracious eaters and when the crop is empty, they are hungry and will eat something. As long as they have fresh nutritious food, I don't worry about them. I make sure I don't have too much fermented feed on hand when it is going to be that cold, so I don't waste it.

Those little jerks wouldn’t touch it today! They did eat some kale… which they love but I caved at about 3:00 PM when they hadn’t eaten a darn thing all day!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

You are the boss, not them.
Put the dry food out and forget it. They think they are in charge.
You are the animal husbandman. It is your responsibility to do the right thing. You know the chickens won't be able to eat a frozen block of fermented food.

 

[Shadrach]

Hi all, I added 5 new chooks this year to my 4. I’ve always fermented. I have it down to a science, been great. But I only had 4 and now there’s 9. Winters have always been a challenge. Less challenging with 4 lol. But now the temps have dipped into negatives and I cannot keep the food from freezing quickly, so the past few days I’ve tried regular dry crumble and they want zero to do with it. They won’t even touch it. A couple of them pooped in the dish to show me exactly how they feel about it. What do fermenters do with super cold weather. I was thinking maybe another heated base? They have their water on one. But I have three feeding stations to avoid squabbles.

My rooster usually helps with the girls picking but he’s currently indoors because the poor guy got a small case of frostbite. So he’s happily eating normal food indoors lol.

I would prefer to not change up their food so I’m hoping to hear from fermenters please.

Editing: the previous 4 ate from a single dish and no one got upset.

Have you tried fermenting and then drying the feed out again?
This is what I do with fermented feed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Interesting @Shadrach. Does that work for you? I never considered that approach but it does make sense. Just like fermented bread.
How do you dry it out?

 

[Shadrach]

Interesting @Shadrach. Does that work for you? I never considered that approach but it does make sense. Just like fermented bread.
How do you dry it out?

The chickens were not really interested in wet fermented feed and there are adequate nutrition per feeding oportunities problems. I can only feed twice a day, once in the morning by leaving feed in their coop after they've gone to roost and once again in the late afternoon and evening when I let them out for some supervised ranging.
You may find this article interesting.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...fluence-it-may-have-on-feeding-regimes.79124/

I dry the feed out on a storage heater in my flat.

 

[The Good Grumble]

Have you tried fermenting and then drying the feed out again?
This is what I do with fermented feed.

Oooh! Tell me how please!

 

[Shadrach]

Oooh! Tell me how please!

24 hours fermenting. Wash with cold water. Drain as much of the water as possilbe in a sieve in the sink. Spread out on a baking tray and I leave it on a storage heater. It takes a couple of days to dry. It could be dried in an oven on low heat.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That is awesome. Thanks for that.
The only thing that detracts from the process is that perhaps in the process of drying, the yeasts and beneficial bacteria from the fermenting process may be lost, at least partially.
Like sourdough bread. The health benefits from fermenting the grain is only the removal of the lectins in the grain but the bacteria is killed when the bread is baked.