Whenever I go out to feed and visit with my ducks, there is one that inevitably gives me this cute little head-cocked, sly look. I wonder what’s going through her mind as she stares at me. Is she wondering if I have more treats than what I’m sharing, or does she suspect me of being a wolf in people’s clothing? She doesn’t seem to be afraid, just watching. Sizing me up. Taking it all in. This silly little duck got me wondering about the senses that a duck uses to navigate in their world…so I did some research.
I remember going to weddings when I was younger, one of the best parts was getting one of those cute little netted bags that was tied with a pretty silky ribbon and contained rice. Throwing rice over the bride and groom as they ran to their waiting “Just Married” car was a much anticipated tradition at weddings. Apparently this tradition dates back to the ancient Romans. Tossing rice at the end of the wedding reception is meant to symbolize rain, which is said to be a sign of prosperity, fertility and good fortune. In more recent years, bird seed has replaced rice because some folks believed that rice was bad for birds, that if consumed the rice would mix with moisture in the birds stomach and expand and cause problems. In fact, you can still find evidence of this myth circulating on the internet today.
The truth is that uncooked rice is just fine for chickens.Read full post
Fermenting animal feed is not really a new thing. Come to find out, farmers have been fermenting feed for a lot of years. It seems like recently though, fermenting feed has been gaining popularity, probably due to the the increased number of urban chicken farmers and hobby farmers. I have had chickens and goats for a long time, and I think I must be one of the last chicken farmers to hop on the feed fermenting wagon. I am not one to do things just because everybody else does them. I probably should have done my fermenting research years ago, but, I guess that life got in the way. My husband would likely tell you that the chickens eat better than he does anyway, so why mess with a good thing. The last few months have been filled with “ahah” moments, and understanding the practice and benefits of fermentation has been one of those. I am just beginning the feed fermentation practice with all my animals, not just chickens, and I don’t have all of the final results in, like who finds it tasty and who doesn’t and how much money I will save, but I would like to share some of the things that I have learned.
First taste of fermented feed.
All grains, seeds and legumes contain phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors. These protect the grains and seeds, and act kind of like preservatives. That is why grains, like wheat, have a long storage life and why seeds stay viable in the dirt through the winter until conditions are good for growing. Phytic acid is referred to as an anti-nutrient because it inhibits the absorption of iron, zinc and calcium. It only inhibits the absorption of these nutrients during the meal that phytic acid is being consumed. If you eat a food containing phytic acid during lunch, than it will inhibit the absorption of specific nutrients only during that meal. It will not affect future meals where foods with phytic acid are not consumed. In some countries where grains and legumes are eaten frequently, cases of malnutrition can occur. People who eat well-balanced meals are generally not affected. But, if our animals eat grains, seeds and legumes at every meal, it leaves me to wonder just how their diets and especially their nutritional needs are being impacted.
Avoiding foods that contain phytic acid is not necessarily the right thing to do as these foods offer a variety of valuable nutrients, and it is thought that phytic acid might actually be beneficial as a protection against kidney stones and some cancers. Fortunately, there are methods of preparation that will reduce the phytic acid in grains, seeds and legumes. Soaking these foods in water overnight will reduce their phytate content. Sprouting grains, seeds and legumes will further degrade it’s content, and fermentation is the third option for reducing phytic acid. Using a combination of all three methods can significantly reduce the phytate content of grains, seeds and legumes. I hope that wasn’t too confusing. In a nut shell, phytic acid does offer nutritional benefits and should be consumed, but if eaten every day at every meal, it can negatively affect the absorption of other important nutrients.
Sprouting lentils for my chickens.
I presently sprout lentils, a legume, for my birds. I know that they love them and I did it initially as an inexpensive way provide my hens with greens during the winter months. I knew that they had added health benefits, but I didn’t exactly understand how. Now that I have a basic understanding of the workings of phytic acid, the benefits of sprouting makes a little more sense.
Fermentation takes the nutritional benefits of sprouting one step further. Fermented feed aids in digestion, strengthens the immune system, improves food conversion, increases the bioavailability of vitamins and minerals, forms kind of a natural barrier to pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, and has been known to increase egg weight. In addition, because fermented food is easier to digest and nutrients are absorbed more readily, animals do not have to eat as much and as such, they poop less too!
How does fermenting work? Fermentation is a chemical process by which molecules are broken down without air. The fermentation process begins by taking your grains, seeds and/or legumes and covering them with water. They will expand as they absorb the water, general doubling in size. Lactobacillus, a good bacteria is what actually starts the fermenting by consuming the sugars making lactic acid. The lactic acid creates an environment that is inhospitable to bad bacteria. It’s kind of the same principle that works with sourdough starter, if you have ever worked with that. As long as your grains are submerged in the water, they will be preserved and won’t spoil or mold. The fermentation process can take 24 to 72 hours depending on the temperature of the environment you are fermenting in. You can let your feed ferment longer, but the sour taste will get stronger the longer it ferments. You can tell that the process is working when you see bubbles forming, a sign of gasses being released, and by a slight sour smell, again a process similar to that which takes place with sourdough starter.
My first test in fermenting. After 12 hours the grains expanded, almost doubling in size.
I tested out the fermenting process on a small scale, I didn’t want to ruin a lot of feed if I goofed. I filled a quart jar halfway full of dry feed mix and then filled it full of tap water. I covered it loosely and let it sit. Pretty simple. (You can make your batch as large or as small as will work for you and your animals.) The feed absorbed the water quickly and expanded. Within about 12 hours I noticed bubbles forming. I checked on the mix occasionally throughout the process to make sure the grains remained submerged. The sunflower seeds in my mix rose to the top and floated, so I will probably add them in at the end of the fermentation process in future batches, just to prevent the chance of any spoilage. After 72 hours, my mix had some good bubbles, and a slight sour smell. The first batch I fed to the chickens and they gobbled it right up. It was a small sampling, so they also had their dry mix. With some hens, the fermented feed seemed to be their first choice, while others, they enjoyed their dry mix and then sampled the fermented feed. In any case, it didn’t stay around long. The second batch I tried out on the ducks. They weren’t quite as excited about it, but ended up eating it all. Because it’s kind of soupy, I thought the ducks would love it! I read where some farmers drained most of the water off their fermented feed to obtain a drier texture, but I figure if the grains are good for my animals, then why wouldn’t the water be good as well. It all depends on what my animals like and will eat. You can also add some of the fermented water to future batches of grain to jump start the fermenting process.
Bubbles are a sign of success, along with a slightly sour smell.
I also decided that if eating fermented food was good for people and chickens, why not the rest of the farm animals. So, today I started three different batches of fermenting feed: one for the chickens and ducks, one for the goats and one for the rabbits. (Note: for the rabbits, I am fermenting grains, not processed rabbit food pellets.) I am anxious to see if the health benefits are readily noticeable, and to see if cost savings are evident. With the cost of everything increasing, it would be nice to be able to provide my animals with a healthier diet for less money!
Have you tried fermenting animal feed? What has been your experience?
Colic in a horse is a pretty scary thing to witness. The first time I saw a horse experiencing severe colic was when we had taken our horse to the vet for a different health issue. As the vet was treating our horse, this colicky mare was brought in. The owners tried to keep her up and walking until the vet could attend to her and boy did she look like she was hurting and miserable. I felt so bad for her. I later heard that her colic was due to impaction and that she made it through and was doing fine. I think that my heart skips a little beat whenever I go out to the pasture and see a horse enjoying a little nap in the sunshine, or scratching a back itch with a roll in the grass. Laying down and rolling can also be signs of colic along with pawing, restlessness and stretching. We have been very lucky (knock on wood) with our horses. We have experienced some unusual things, but so far, no serious bouts with colic.
My little farm does not look like it belongs on the cover of a country magazine. My chicken coop is not all fancied up and my barn needs painting. My husband will tell you that I have way more animals than I need, they don’t all have names and they aren’t necessarily the prettiest. Heck, there are even some critters that come just for breakfast before moving on. Keeping animals is not necessarily cheap, although it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, and it’s hard work. Things breakdown, there are weeds to contend with, and animals die. So, if farming sounds so gloomy, why do I have animals and what have I learned from them?
If you are like me, one of the things you really enjoy doing is spoiling your chickens…with treats! It’s fun to watch the enthusiasm in my chickens when they greet me thinking I have yummy stuff just for them, and it’s fun to watch my roosters as they call all of their lady friends over when they think they have a special snack to share. Treat time appears to be an exciting time for my chickens and I’m sure it is for your birds too! What are some things we should know about treats for our birds?
My mom tells the story of when I was a toddler, we went to the park. There, of course, was a lake at the park with lots of ducks. I had a bag of popcorn which I was evidently sitting on the bench thoroughly enjoying. My mom suggested that I share some of my popcorn with the hungry ducks and my response was, “No! I no like ducks!”
I really enjoy spring. It signals not only the end of cold weather and snow, but also new life. It’s the time of year when we see animals come out of hibernation, bees and butterflies make their appearance once again and all sorts of baby farm animals take to the stage! There is not much that is cuter than a baby anything with their pure innocence and clumsy antics. Spring is also the time for planting and realizing new growth on our perennial plants. I always get excited when I see new shoots on my rose bushes. There are so many varieties, colors and smells of roses and they are a plant with many benefits, even for our chickens and other farm animals.
I am always interested in learning new things and figure that knowledge is the key to…well a lot of things…success, understanding, accomplishing goals, being better equipped to care for my animals. The list can go on. As long as I have been raising chickens, I did not know the entire process of egg formation, so I set out to learn. And learn I did…some very interesting facts, which I’m going to share with you.
Have you ever wondered how an egg is formed?
A female chicken is born, or should I say hatched, with a fully formed, functioning ovary that contains several thousand tiny ova. Two ovaries develop in the chicken embryo, but the right one stops developing and only the left ovary and oviduct mature. The chick grows and somewhere around 6 months of age she begins to reach sexual maturity. That’s when these tiny ova start to develop into yolks, a few at a time. Once a yolk is developed, it is released from the ovary into the oviduct. Occasionally two yolks will be released at the same time. This results in the double yolk eggs we see from time to time in our frying pans. This is also the stage where a blood spot on the yolk might occur, not due to fertilization, just an accident of nature as the yolk is released from the ovary. Once the yolk enters the oviduct, the egg can be fertilized if a rooster has mated with the hen. The hen can store sperm from the rooster for upwards of two to three weeks. After fertilization, a membrane is put around the yolk to basically hold it together. The yolk then passes into the a part of the oviduct called the magnum where the albumen or egg white is put on. Then on to the isthmus where a thin membrane is added, surrounding the entire egg. The final process is when the egg enters the uterus and the outer shell, shell color and the protective coating called bloom are deposited over the egg. This final process of shell making takes about 20 hours. When this is completed, the hen will lay her egg.
The egg formation process takes about 24 hours to complete before the hen can lay her egg.
Some interesting facts about eggs and egg laying:
The entire egg laying process from start to finish takes between 24-26 hours.
30 minutes after a hen lays an egg, she will again ovulate and start the process over again.
A hen can store a rooster’s sperm for 2-3 weeks.
A hen will take a break from egg laying when the days shorten. She may stop laying completely or just significantly reduce the number of eggs she lays. A hen requires 14-16 hours of daylight for high egg production. [Editor’s note: this means that you can artificially increase egg production with UV lamps or other light sources.]
The oviduct, which the egg passes through during formation is 25-27 inches long. The egg initially passes through the oviduct small end first. Just before laying, the egg will turn and enter the world large end first.
The color of an egg yolk depends on a hen’s diet.
The color of the egg yolk is dependent upon the hen’s diet. If she eats a lot of foods with yellow-orange pigments, her eggs will be a darker yellow or almost orange color.
An egg that has been fertilized and laid, can remain in a state of suspension, under proper conditions, for approximately 7 days and still remain viable to incubate and hatch. After day 7 the hatch-ability begins to decline. This gives a hen time to accumulate her clutch of eggs, then incubate them so they will all hatch at approximately the same time…within a day or two of one another..
The average incubation time for a baby chick is 21 days. During this incubation time, a broody hen will only leave her nest once, maybe twice a day for short periods of time to eat and relieve herself. She will eat about 80% less while setting on her eggs.
A hen will quit laying eggs when she begins incubating her clutch of eggs and will not resume laying again until the chicks are about 5 weeks old. This is also about the time she will begin distancing herself from her brood.
A hen will lay an average of 265 eggs in a productive year. The first two years are the most productive, with laying tapering off as she gets older. A well cared for hen can provide farm fresh eggs for 5 – 7 years.
I don’t really know too much about sunflower seeds other than discarded seed hulls generally littered the ground under the stands at baseball games and birds really seemed to like them. They were not a favorite of mine. I enjoyed sucking the salt off of the seed, but breaking into the hull for such a tiny reward didn’t seem worthwhile to me. Just recently I discovered that all sunflower seeds are not created equally. Some have thicker hulls, less oil, different nutritional benefits. Others are a really great source of nutrients for a variety of farm animals. The familiar black seed that is found in wild bird seed is the Black Oil Sunflower Seed, often referred to as B.O.S.S., a very adept acronym for a powerhouse food. No wonder birds love them! They seem to know instinctually the treasures that Mother Nature has supplied for them. Who would have guessed that a common bird feed would also be good for horses, goats, chickens and even rabbits!
