Fermented Chicken Food

Fermented Chicken Food

I have been getting a lot of questions about this recently, so I thought I’d make a quick post about it.

Basically, the benefits of fermenting your chickens food are about the same as they are for fermenting human food.

1. It becomes more nutrient dense
2. It’s full of beneficial bacteria/probiotics
3. You can feed them slightly less because their food is more filling for them

It’s really easy to do too!

Get three plastic buckets with lids.

Day 1 – Fill the first bucket with the food you would usually put down for them and then add 1-2 inches of fresh water to the food. Now leave this for 3 days.

Day 2 – Fill the second bucket in the same way and leave for 3 days.

Day 3 – Fill the third bucket in the same way and leave for 3 days.

Day 4 – Throw the contents of the bucket from day one on to the floor for your chickens and then refill as above.

Continue the cycle each day, emptying and refilling.

I always throw my chickens food on to the floor so they pick up pieces of grit as they feed, this is essential for healthy chickens as they don’t have teeth they need something to help break up the seeds etc in their food.

Sometimes, especially if any of the chickens aren’t looking/behaving as they should I also add dried oregano to the bucket for help with yeasts and parasites (in the same way it helps humans too).

You can actually ferment almost any animals food in the same way as above, helping their health too.

Chickens also eat left-over sauerkraut, kimchi (they can’t taste spices), kombucha scobies and kefir grains too.  They’ll basically eat almost anything that’s been fermented.