[Fiere]

I ferment both crumb and scratch (the latter in the winter months). I start them on it as day olds, in a very shallow dish or chick feeder so they can't crawl into it.

To start the first batch, just saturate it with water until no feed is in contact with air (I keep about a half inch of water on the top), and stir it up once a day. It ferments all on its own. You can start feeding right away, making sure to replace what was taken out daily. It's fermented after 3 days but the soaked feed when you first start is perfectly fine to start them on - it also gets them use to the taste and texture as it changes over those few days.

 

[Fiere]

To add: some folks start the fermentation process busy adding apple cider vinegar with mothers to kick start, but it does just as well on its own IMO, and I've never bothered.

 

[Fiere]

I feed fermented almost exclusively. So from hatch to death they eat FF. Just make sure for small chicks you use a very very shallow dish or preferably a chick feeder that the babies have to out their heads through holes to eat and not get into the feed.