Lacto-fermentation, a cheaper, healthier way to feed your birds

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. But Uganda being gifted by nature, provides us an assortment of free or cheaper alternatives to our needs, which somehow limits our creativity.
Need to add banana peels to your livestock feed? You might be saving your neighbour a rubbish burden. Need an organic tomato, you might find a self-grown one flourishing on the edge of your veranda. The examples are limitless. But in countries limited by nature, people dig deeper, think harder and take experiments to make ends meet.
Eventually, even we, who abuse nature’s generosity, find ourselves cornered in need of solutions, formulas.

Lacto fermentation 
Over the years, chicken farmers have struggle a with rising costs of chicken feed, because humans compete for the same maize, soy, fish, sunflower, etc. 
That’s why some Ugandan farmers rear maggots, sprout grains, to cut their livestock feed budgets. But isn’t it time to try fermenting chicken feed?
Innovative farmers are finding fermented feed a magical, cost-effective formula for a healthy, productive flock of chickens, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowls, among others.
What is it?
Lacto-fermentation is a process of covering chicken feed—grains, mash or pellets—in a water container and letting it sit for about three days, which allows the creation of probiotics that ease digestion and gut health. It occurs when useful bacteria, that is naturally found in the grains, interacts with food in a controlled environment.
  
Why fermented feed?
A 2009 study published in the Journal of British Poultry science, shows that chickens fed on a fermented diet showed increased egg weight, shell thickness, and shell stiffness. Subsequent studies have shown that fermented feed digests much easier than dry feed, which boosts your chickens’ health and immune system, hence more resistance to disease.
More so, fermentation not only preserves the vitamins in the grains, but also creates new vitamins, primarily B vitamins such as folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, and thiamin. All grains, seeds, nuts contain an “anti-nutrient” called phytic acid which can deter the absorption of certain nutrients and minerals. 

But fermenting grains and legumes, just like other clinically proven methods like soaking and sprouting, reduces the phytic acid content, hence helping chickens maximise all the good nutrients in the feed.
Actually, fermentation is an inbuilt part of birds’ digestion system, as they extract a little extra fatty acids and vitamins B out of their meal, through the fermentation process that happens in the sacs found at the junction of the large and small intestines.
Because the nutrients are readily absorbed in fermented foods, it reduces the feed requirements.

The recipe
You can use one grain type or a mixture of grains such as maize, wheat, barley (though not so available in Uganda), oats, peanuts, sesame (simsim) seeds, etc. They can also be pellets or chicken mash.

Steps 
Dip the feed in a glass or plastic container. Preferably the plastic should be BPA-free, (though Ugandans hate paying attention to such details) or food-grade stoneware. Some metal can rust, which isn’t good for your chicken.
Add water to the jar—preferably well water, rainwater, purchased filtered water, let your tap water sit out for 24 hours to remove the chlorine and other chemicals designed to kill even good bacteria.
The feed to water ratio can be 1:2 cups, ensuring that no grains remain above the water. And leave an airspace for the grains to swell.

Cover the jar loosely to prevent mold spores from encroaching into the jar, meanwhile letting the fermentation gasses escape.
Place the container in a cool, dark place. Stir the content regularly and don’t hesitate to add water to keep the grains submerged.
When white bubbles form on top of the feed, usually after three days, that’s a sign that the lactic bacteria are doing their job.
Drain out the water and feed your birds.
Obviously, your fermented feed will have a sort of tangy-sweet smell. But if the smell is sour, unpleasant or yeasty, don’t give it to your birds. Likewise if you see any mold, pour it all away and start afresh.

Personal experiment
“Three months ago, after watching YouTube videos and reading about fermenting chicken feed, I tried it out for my small mixed flock that fluctuates between 12 and eight chickens. The kuroilers and exotic off layers liked the fermented wheat and maize grains, but the local ones were picky, though they learnt to love it. Nowadays, they all prefer fermented to sprouts and I have made it their routine breakfast before I let them scavenge around the small compound. My first batch to use sesame (simsim) seeds, which I did last month bent all the rules: I got simsim seeds—the residue that remains as we rinse the seeds for our snack business—soaked them in a metallic container and forgot them for nearly two weeks, without stirring them. When I opened the bowel the swollen grains were covered by a white foamy cloud with a pungent smell. I threw them to the birds, anyway. Guess what, they devoured it like infants do candy or cake.”

Scientific proof
In 2019, Foothills Farm in Washington, US conducted a study to compare the impact of dry feed, hydrated feed and fermented feed on chicken health and egg yields.
They bought 90 chicks, born on the same day and started them on dry feed. After 10 weeks, they kept 30 on dry feed, 30 on hydrated feed and 30 on fermented feed. After some weeks the groups were separated into nine coops, each with 10 hens.

They also wanted to know whether the nutritional benefits associated with fermented feed translates into economic benefits for a commercial farmer. Nine months later, they found that the hens on fermented feed laid 9 percent more eggs than those on dry feed, which crop scientist Louisa Brouwer, one of the researchers called “statistically significant,” and she hoped other farms will see a similar result. 

They also wanted to know whether the hens ate more fermented feed to produce more eggs…but they found out that they eat almost the same amount as those on dry feed, but after subtracting the weight of the added water, the hens on fermented feed required less food to produce each egg or that fermented feed generated more revenue per kilogramme. Those on hydrated feed laid fewer eggs, because while the whole grains swelled up when water was added to them, they did not break down for easier digestion. So they filled the chickens’ crops before satisfying their nutritional needs.