We began raising chickens when we lived on a quarter acre lot in the middle of a large city. Going against tradition and advice, we removed soy and corn from their diet as we began mixing our own recipe of grains for our tiny flock of six hens. As I continued researching feeding chickens, I discovered that many people were sprouting their grains to feed their chickens. Since this seemed like more work than we could handle, I decided to try a simpler method. Each evening, we would mix their ration for the next day and cover it with water by an inch or two, allowing it to soak overnight. By the next morning, the feed would have absorbed all of the water and swelled to almost twice its size. We would then place it outside and the chickens would gobble it up. We continued experimenting with our recipes and noted how the changes affected the quantity of eggs laid as well as the health of our animals and were very pleased with the results.
In October, 2014, we moved to northeast Texas. We now live on a 43 acre farm and have continued to develop a feeding plan that we feel is not only nutritious, but also manageable. Currently, we have moved from soaking our feed to fermenting our feed. Though the Internet is full of articles about fermenting feed, one would tout a method that the next article would warn against that very same method. As my head began spinning with all of the contradictions, I decided to jump in and try a fermentation method and make changes until I was satisfied with the results. A couple of years later, and many, many hours of research and great effort, we are again pleased with our results. There are also many published scientific studies that list great benefits when feeding animals fermented feed.
During the fermentation process, the wet food captures naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts from the air, which causes the enzyme content to improve and the vitamin levels to increase. Amazingly, some vitamins will even be CREATED that weren’t there before fermenting, such as some of the B vitamins! The protein in fermented feed has been shown to increase by as much as twelve percent! Since protein is of vast importance in good growth of farm animals, this is the most significant finding for our farm in regards to the feeding regimen.
Interestingly, feeding your chicks wet feed from the first day of hatching will greatly improve their digestion ability. You will have a similar result in your older hens that switch to a fermented diet because the probiotic organisms will still be able to colonize their digestive tract and improve their digestive abilities. Fermented feed actually cause the villi in the intestines to grow longer, thus increasing the ability for them to digest their feed and more fully utilize the nutrients. Since simply soaking the grains reduces the anti-nutrients in grains and seeds, when compounded by the improvement in the body from eating fermented feed, we weren't really surprised at the improvement that we have seen when we switched to feeding fermented feed to our animals.
Another exciting study demonstrated that poultry on a diet of fermented feed are much less likely to contract diseases. One study actually injected groups of hens with Salmonella and concluded that fermented liquid feed could hamper the infection rate of Salmonella, thus lowering the possibility of passing this infection on to people. Though this study only tested the liquid fermented feed, I suspect that the same results would come from feeding them fermented grains and seeds. Other studies have also shown an increased resistance to various chicken diseases and contagions. It is believed that fermenting the feed actually helps our animals to maintain a healthy digestive tract as well as a properly functioning immune system.
The improvement in the animals that are eating fermented feed versus non-fermented feed gives us a food product that should be, as studies confirm, higher in nutritional values and lower in feed costs. So, the next time that you crack open a beautiful, dark yellow yolked egg, or bite into a delicious pork chop, consider whether you are eating the higher nutritious meat/eggs from animals that are fed fermented feed.
We don’t believe that we’ve arrived at a great method. Instead, we are on a journey to find the healthiest way to raise our animals. We continually evaluate the success of our animal feed recipes by reading through any new research we can find and, more importantly, by regularly evaluating the condition of our animals. We currently ferment feed for our turkeys, ducks, chickens, pigs, and rabbits. We soak, rather than ferment, the feed for our geese, since the geese prefer to eat grains that are sitting in the water. We start our animals, such as poultry, pigs and rabbits, on fermented feed from the first day that they begin eating. For poultry, that means as day old chicks or poults or ducklings. Suckling piglets and tiny nursing bunnies nibble fermented grains as they slowly wean from momma’s milk to feed.
We encourage you to do your own research just as we have done and to feel free to use our information as an additional resource in your research. We are not scientists, nor are we medically trained in any way. We are simply farmers and people interested in finding a way to raise animals as naturally as possible while making a living off of our land.
In October, 2014, we moved to northeast Texas. We now live on a 43 acre farm and have continued to develop a feeding plan that we feel is not only nutritious, but also manageable. Currently, we have moved from soaking our feed to fermenting our feed. Though the Internet is full of articles about fermenting feed, one would tout a method that the next article would warn against that very same method. As my head began spinning with all of the contradictions, I decided to jump in and try a fermentation method and make changes until I was satisfied with the results. A couple of years later, and many, many hours of research and great effort, we are again pleased with our results. There are also many published scientific studies that list great benefits when feeding animals fermented feed.
During the fermentation process, the wet food captures naturally occurring bacteria and yeasts from the air, which causes the enzyme content to improve and the vitamin levels to increase. Amazingly, some vitamins will even be CREATED that weren’t there before fermenting, such as some of the B vitamins! The protein in fermented feed has been shown to increase by as much as twelve percent! Since protein is of vast importance in good growth of farm animals, this is the most significant finding for our farm in regards to the feeding regimen.
Interestingly, feeding your chicks wet feed from the first day of hatching will greatly improve their digestion ability. You will have a similar result in your older hens that switch to a fermented diet because the probiotic organisms will still be able to colonize their digestive tract and improve their digestive abilities. Fermented feed actually cause the villi in the intestines to grow longer, thus increasing the ability for them to digest their feed and more fully utilize the nutrients. Since simply soaking the grains reduces the anti-nutrients in grains and seeds, when compounded by the improvement in the body from eating fermented feed, we weren't really surprised at the improvement that we have seen when we switched to feeding fermented feed to our animals.
Another exciting study demonstrated that poultry on a diet of fermented feed are much less likely to contract diseases. One study actually injected groups of hens with Salmonella and concluded that fermented liquid feed could hamper the infection rate of Salmonella, thus lowering the possibility of passing this infection on to people. Though this study only tested the liquid fermented feed, I suspect that the same results would come from feeding them fermented grains and seeds. Other studies have also shown an increased resistance to various chicken diseases and contagions. It is believed that fermenting the feed actually helps our animals to maintain a healthy digestive tract as well as a properly functioning immune system.
The improvement in the animals that are eating fermented feed versus non-fermented feed gives us a food product that should be, as studies confirm, higher in nutritional values and lower in feed costs. So, the next time that you crack open a beautiful, dark yellow yolked egg, or bite into a delicious pork chop, consider whether you are eating the higher nutritious meat/eggs from animals that are fed fermented feed.
We don’t believe that we’ve arrived at a great method. Instead, we are on a journey to find the healthiest way to raise our animals. We continually evaluate the success of our animal feed recipes by reading through any new research we can find and, more importantly, by regularly evaluating the condition of our animals. We currently ferment feed for our turkeys, ducks, chickens, pigs, and rabbits. We soak, rather than ferment, the feed for our geese, since the geese prefer to eat grains that are sitting in the water. We start our animals, such as poultry, pigs and rabbits, on fermented feed from the first day that they begin eating. For poultry, that means as day old chicks or poults or ducklings. Suckling piglets and tiny nursing bunnies nibble fermented grains as they slowly wean from momma’s milk to feed.
We encourage you to do your own research just as we have done and to feel free to use our information as an additional resource in your research. We are not scientists, nor are we medically trained in any way. We are simply farmers and people interested in finding a way to raise animals as naturally as possible while making a living off of our land.
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