[Stanimals2]

Does any of you home brewers feed the left over grain mash from the wort or the yeast cake left in the primary to your brew to your chickens ? I read that the grains can cause hypothermia in dogs and cats so I assume it would do the same to poultry.

Thanks,

 

[ladycat]

I don't know if the stuff leftover from home brewing is any different than what's left over at commercial breweries, but I know the commercial leftovers is one of the best feeds you can give to almost any livestock, including chickens.

 

[CAjerseychick]

I heard it was good too, maybe dilute it with your regular feed 50% to be on the safe side?

 

[DEKE01]

Feedipedia is an excellent site for answering questions about alternative feeds. Here's the page on brewer's grains and the info specific to poultry. Note the recommended limitation to no more than 30% of the diet. If your prime worry is feed cost and not getting the absolute highest egg count, you might even exceed the 30%, but I wouldn't go far beyond that without some other study to justify the safety. My personal bias is that all the farm animals receive a highly varied diet.

http://www.feedipedia.org/node/74


Brewers grains can be fed to poultry but the high fibre content and reduced protein digestibility tend to decrease their nutritional value and metabolizable energy compared to the original grain (Onifade et al., 1998). As a result, brewers grains are not well suited to the feeding of poultry with high energy requirements such as young broilers. They are better tolerated by older broilers and laying hens. Brewers grains are usually fed to poultry in dried form, as it is easier to store and more stable than the wet form (Onifade et al., 1998).
Broilers

Acceptable inclusion rates reported in the literature range from 10-20% in young birds to 30% in older poultry. Up to 10% dried brewers grains can be fed to young poultry (0-8 weeks) and up to 30% in older birds (8 to 18 weeks) did not affect growth (Ademosun, 1973). In broilers from 12 to 33 days, 10 to 20% inclusion of dried brewers grains supported acceptable growth and feed utilization, and seemed to favour the development of a well-functioning gizzard (Denstadli et al., 2010). Inclusion rates up to 20% did not depress gain or feed conversion during early growth (0 to 8 weeks) and rates up to 30% at 8-12 weeks did not decrease performance (Deltoro López et al., 1981b). Increasing the inclusion rate of dried brewers grains in pelleted diets up to 40% without correction for protein and metabolisable energy decreased body weight gain and feed:gain ratio (Denstadli et al., 2010). When diets are fed as mash, even if they are well balanced for metabolisable energy or protein, birds cannot cope with the increased bulkiness of the diet. As a consequence, performance is reduced even at low inclusion rates (10%) (Ademosun, 1973; Onifade et al., 1998).
Laying hens

In laying hens, 10% brewers grains did not depress egg production (Yeong et al., 1986 ; Jensen et al., 1976). Higher inclusion rates such as 20% (Branckaert et al., 1970) and 30% were found to be adequate (Deltoro López et al., 1981a). Levels higher than 30% depressed performance and a 90% inclusion rate caused enormous body weight losses and inhibition of the lay (Branckaert et al., 1970; Deltoro López et al., 1981a).