Pea/barley water to increase starch and possibly nutrients and weight gain?

Wondering about adding pea water and/or barley water from fodder into chicken water. Could this help provide more nutrients and/or weight gain?
To cool the cooked peas down I will rinse with cold water before serving to chickens.

I tried this yesterday and in all 3 chicken tractors the water seemed to have been finished faster than before when only using standard water. Maybe a coincidence, but it's been raining the past couple of days. A lot of the starchy sludge from the peas settled into the bottom of the water.

Chickens are going to love the sweetness of peas, I bet - ours always pick out the maize first from any mixed food because of the sugar content. I would have thought peas were better-balanced food than maize. We sometimes give ours cooked veg scraps with the water they were cooked in and they always drink that up.

Why not just go one step further and ferment their feeds and accomplish both goals? You can apply that water right into the ferment bucket for a super, enriched feeding experience. When you make fodder you are fermenting the grain anyway, so why not just ferment all their feeds?

Jay Green wrote:Why not just go one step further and ferment their feeds and accomplish both goals? You can apply that water right into the ferment bucket for a super, enriched feeding experience. When you make fodder you are fermenting the grain anyway, so why not just ferment all their feeds?

I'd really like to try this out when I have more time to take better notes/measurements. It's been hot lately and the challenge is cooling it all down and straining the starchy globs. Not sure if the gain is worth the work. I've have a tough time supplying the starchy water to them as it's labor intensive with 3 "tractors", separate waterers etc so I've been giving it to the pigs who also love it. The present feed is a an Albers 21%. I was using the Salatin "Pastured Poultry Profits" feed, but it became quite to expensive and more time consuming. Still on the hunt for a cost effective (sub $17 per 50lb bag) organic, non-gmo feed, but not having much luck.

bill archer wrote:

Jay Green wrote:Why not just go one step further and ferment their feeds and accomplish both goals? You can apply that water right into the ferment bucket for a super, enriched feeding experience. When you make fodder you are fermenting the grain anyway, so why not just ferment all their feeds?

I'd really like to try this out when I have more time to take better notes/measurements. It's been hot lately and the challenge is cooling it all down and straining the starchy globs. Not sure if the gain is worth the work. I've have a tough time supplying the starchy water to them as it's labor intensive with 3 "tractors", separate waterers etc so I've been giving it to the pigs who also love it. The present feed is a an Albers 21%. I was using the Salatin "Pastured Poultry Profits" feed, but it became quite to expensive and more time consuming. Still on the hunt for a cost effective (sub $17 per 50lb bag) organic, non-gmo feed, but not having much luck.

No measurements needed with fermented feeds...just feed and water in this warm weather, though I add a dab of mother vinegar to keep it acid until the lacto can get established..but none after that first batch because you will use your fermented water to inoculate the fresh feeds you add to the mix. It is no more intensive than feeding dry feeds after the initial setup..which is minimal effort.

Here's a thread you can read that can give you an idea how easy it is...and it's even easier now that I don't drain off the feed but just mix it thicker so that it doesn't require draining.

Fermented Feeds for Meat Birds