You can ferment any feed you currently give your chickens, whether it’s crumbles, pellets, scratch, or whole grains and seeds.
Why dechlorinated water? Because most municipal water—the stuff that comes out of your tap—contains chlorine and chemicals designed to kill bacteria, including good bacteria.
When you start to see a layer of bubbles on the surface of your liquid, voilà—you have lacto-fermentation in process.
The water will appear cloudy and the top layer may seem filmy and foamy, but rest assured these are the normal effects of all that bacteria at work. You can simply stir the “scum” back into the feed when you see it.
Properly fermented feed actually smells pretty good (if you like fermented food, that is)—fruity and tart, like yogurt. That sour smell indicates the presence of lactic acid. If your fermented feed has an unpleasant odor, or smells strongly of alcohol or yeast gone wrong, your batch has likely gone bad.