Having close to 50 chickens means the food bill has been soaring of late. And with the spring season coming, I'll soon have chicks popping out from numerous incubators - all of which will need feeding too. In addition, being an urban homestead with limited room, I can't just let my hens onto an acre of pasture to forage and feed for themselves.
All of these things mean I've been looking for ways to a) reduce the cost of feeding and b) provide a better, healthier diet for my birds.
Perhaps I've been living under a rock, but I've only just stumbled across fermented grain. As a companion to my YouTube channel I run a Facebook Community Group. One of the members posted about fermented grains and how it was doing so much good for his hens, and others chimed in. I was like 'What is this magic I've not heard of?'
I decided to give it a go, and when I was at the feed store last week I grabbed a back of barley. It cost £6.50 compared with the £7.50 layer pellets bag. Now, I get through about one bag of layers a week and I can tell you, with only one ferment completed, I'm going to save SO MUCH MONEY. From my rough initial calculations, a bag of barley will last at least two weeks, potentially reducing feed costs by 50%!
The process for fermenting is pretty darn easy too.
- 1. I took a 5 gallon bucket, half filled it with barley and then covered it with water.
- 2. For three days, I topped up the water to ensure the grain was all covered and stirred the mix several times per day.
- 3. After a couple of days, small bubbles formed on the stuff and fermenting smell started to appear. I actually really like it - it reminds me of my Dad made beer when I was a kid.
I'm really looking forward to see how this process works. I'm still offering layers pellets for now as they're packed with the all the right minerals, calcium etc to keep laying hens happy. However, I expect the girls will first fill their bellies with fermented barley and only turn to the pellets as and when they're needed.
Do any of you use fermented grains for chicken feed? How have you found it?
Thanks for reading,
Geoff
