Fermented Chicken Feed, IMO4, and Seawater

Drake walks through his own chicken feed ferment: roughly a third to just under half of the birds' diet comes from fermented pellets and scratch grain, with the rest made up of IMO4, fresh greens, and recycled kitchen scraps. His base recipe is half pellets, half scratch grain in a 5-gallon bucket, with a heaping handful of IMO4 and 1 to 2 ounces of maintenance solution added, mixed with water or milk and left to ferment 24 hours before fresh-cut greens go in.

The main green is laupele (tree spinach, also called Pacific bell or edible hibiscus), along with tea leaves and bananas. Chickens also get bread and the leftover curds skimmed off when Drake makes lactobacillus serum. He compares his simple setup to Dr. Park's commercial operation, which ferments chicken feed in multiple stages with manure, IMOs, yeasts, seawater, and minerals over several days — Drake notes he used to add seawater to his own feed and stopped, mostly from the hassle of hauling it to the barn.

On fermentation timing, Drake says open-air batches should ferment about 4 to 5 days, be fed out over roughly the next three days, and not be kept past about ten days to two weeks unless ensiled. Dr. Park's feed is usually ready after 3 to 4 days and stays feedable up to about 5 days. The video tour also covers Dr. Park's chicken housing: around 200 birds total, plus additional pens of about 130 each (120 hens and 10 roosters per pen).

Questions answered

2:21 What feed mixes does Drake use for chickens, pigs, and cows? — About a third to just under half of the diet comes from fermented pellets, scratch grain, and recycled fermented feed, plus a lot of IMO4.
4:43 What's the recipe for a basic fermented chicken feed? — Half pellets and half scratch grain in a 5-gallon bucket, a heaping handful of IMO4, 1-2 oz of maintenance solution, water or milk, fermented 24 hours, then mixed with fresh sickled greens.
5:29 What greens does Drake feed his chickens? — Mainly laupele, also called tree spinach, Pacific bell, or edible hibiscus, plus tea leaves and bananas.
6:14 What else goes into the chicken diet besides greens and fermented grain? — Bread, and the leftover curds from making lactobacillus serum, which the chickens go wild for.
7:37 How does Dr. Park's commercial chicken feed ferment compare to Drake's home batch? — Dr. Park ferments in multiple stages with manure, IMOs, yeasts, seawater, and minerals over several days, producing a much more developed, good-smelling feed than Drake's simpler 24-hour ferment.
8:19 Does Drake still add seawater to his chicken feed? — He used to but has stopped, mainly because of the hassle of hauling seawater up to the barn, and says he should start again.
10:32 How long should fermented feed be fermented and fed before it goes bad? — Ferment about 4-5 days in open air, feed it over the next roughly three days, and don't push it past about ten days to two weeks unless it's been ensiled.
12:03 How many days does Dr. Park's fermented feed need before it can be fed to pigs? — It's usually ready after three to four days and can still be fed up to about five days.
13:34 How many chickens does Dr. Park's operation run, and how are they housed? — About 200 chickens total, with additional pens holding roughly 130 birds each, 120 hens and 10 roosters per pen.

Topics: imo4, chicken feed, fermented feed, lab, laupele, seawater, pig feed, curds, fermentation, natural farming

KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.

Fermented Chicken Feed, IMO4, and Seawater

Questions answered

In this episode

Transcript