Fermenting Feed for Large Flock

[TheBeardedNerd]

I feed 50 birds on one bucket of Fermented Feed. I add 20 cups of Layer Pellets to the bucket after I fill the bucket up 3/4's full with water. I stir it in the morning and pour it in troughs.

 

[TheBeardedNerd]

Also, I've found that the best solution for doing Fermented Feed on a large production scale is to do it in Trash Cans or 55 Gallon Barrels and using a Ceptic Tank Pump with Valve that can be opened and closed to mix the feed and then pipe it through a tube that you can use to feed into a bucket or directly into the troughs for feeding.

I hope I didn't make it sound too complicated, but it's really simple and easy to use. This is obviously for flocks of birds in the several hundreds. One 55 gallon barrel could probably safely hold about 45 gallons of feed and 5 gallons of Fermented Feed is enough for 50 birds. 1 Barrel and Pump system could easily feed 400-500 birds.

 

[couloir007]

Thanks for the input. Sounds like 5 gallon buckets will suit me fine. My wife is obsessed with plastic, and fermenting does create an acid solution, so I'm running with these large mouth glass carboys, which the price is fine since I can use them for beer, hard cider, etc, etc. Dual purpose, like my birds.

http://www.amazon.com/Kegco-Gallon-...01ANDX3R0/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[couloir007]

My day old chicks arrive on Friday, and I've watched a bunch of videos and read articles, but I'm trying to pull all this together with regards to what my options are. We are buying organic feed, and the feed store here only has starter mash and started pellets, I bought the mash. I also bought two gravity feeders, since what I read is that they are best for keeping the chicks out and pooping all over their food. But then I got to thinking that these won't work well with a fermented starter mash. So I'm looking for suggestions on fermenting mash, and what to use for food containers for this fermented mash and day old chicks. When fermenting, do I use just enough water that I don't need to strain, and can I strain the mash? I'd like to be able to use the liquid from one batch to start the next to speed up fermenting. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated with my day of reckoning fast approaching.

 

[paneubert]

@couloir007

I used to have mine really watery and would have to strain it in a strainer before feeding, but I have moved to keeping it at a point where it is just really mushy but still solid after sucking up the liquid. Sort of a little more solid than fresh oatmeal. I can use a measuring cup to scoop the food from the top of the bucket without any liquid dripping out or any draining needed at all. I scoop up a large amount (more than would fit in the cup) and it does not slop out or drip over the edges of my scooper. So pretty solid feed. The food is a lot more liquidy down at the bottom of the bucket though, which is good for keeping the mixture fermenting. I would estimate it is about a 1 to 1 water to dry feed ratio. I am using crumbles. Depending on what you feed, the water might need to be increased or reduced to get the right consistency. My process each morning goes like this...

1. Scoop out the mushy feed. The key here is to not mix the bucket before you feed. If you do, your feed will be wet and you might have to strain it.
2. Feed the birds.
3. Add a big scoop of new/dry crumbles to the bucket.
4. Add an equal scoop of water.
5. Mix it all up so that the new and the old are combined. This will be easy to mix. It is like thin cake batter at this point.
6. By the time I feed again, it has sucked up the water and there is the somewhat solid mushy feed on the top of the bucket. The more liquid layer is farther down in the bucket.

As for what to feed out of, I use the classic chick trough feeders for my quail. Keeps them from stepping in or pooping in their food. I know that wont work for you long term, but it will work for you while they are still small. After they grow out of the chick size, a lot of people feed in a trough made from PVC pipe cut in half. If you want to get fancy, screw a dowel rod across the opening to keep them from walking in the trough.




P.S. If you are using those clear carboys, I bet you could fine tune it even more since you could see where the feed changes from more liquid to more solid. Adjust the water content to allow you to have enough "dry" feed ready for the meal each day. Or however many times a day you plan to feed.

P.P.S. I am on week 3?....week 4?.....of the same bucket. Many people do months and months and months between starting a brand new bucket. So yes, you can start a batch and then just keep feeding the bucket new dry feed each day to replenish what you take. It will keep fermenting just fine. You will need a few buckets going at once since it sounds like you are doing 50 meat birds, but it isn't like you need to use a bucket and then wash it out. You could have 4 or 5 going at once and scoop the feed off the top of each.

 

[couloir007]

When the birds get ready to move out of the brooder, I'm moving them to a chicken tractor of this design:

. He uses a pvc pipe right down the middle, but I'm wondering if the acidity of the fermented feed would be a bad combination with pvc. Does the food stay in there long enough to matter?

 

[paneubert]

I don't use PVC, but it seems the vast majority of people do. I have not read any stories about mysterious deaths or anything like that. I Googled around and found that PVC is claimed to be pretty acid resistant.

"Some of the engineering plastics and specialty resins are susceptible to acid or alkali, and some plastics have excellent chemical resistance properties, such as polyfluorocarbons. PVC has excellent chemical resistance together with good mechanical properties, therefore is used for chemical storage tanks, plastic valves/flanges, drainage/sewage pipes, and plant piping."

Even better reference since it talks specifically about Lactic Acid (what is in FF)...

http://www.vp-scientific.com/Chemical_Resistance_Chart.htm

That shows that at an 85% concentration of lactic acid, PVC is still "good". I can't imagine an 85% lactic acid concentration....

 

[couloir007]

My next question, perhaps my last, is how do I know I fed them enough? I have a generic spec sheets on what to expect, but since fermenting changes things, how would I know? I have 12 weeks, 12.5 if I'm in a bind. I don't want processing day to come and have all 3lb birds.

Before I forget, thank you for all the insight.

 

[paneubert]

That I am not an expert on. I think with meat birds you need to only allow them to eat for a certain amount of time each day. Right? Or they will overeat and it will be bad for them? I would think you could just allow them to eat as much as they want for whatever that standard time-frame is each day. Then take the food away. Treat the fermented feed just like you would treat dry food. If they do not eat all the food, you can toss it back in the buckets.

EDIT: The Meaties 101 article seems to advocate for either feeding 24/7 for a few weeks, then switching to 12 hours on, 12 off cycle.......or.....figuring out how much you want them to eat per day and just giving it to them.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/436974/meaties-101

 

[Newmamabear]

My next question, perhaps my last, is how do I know I fed them enough? I have a generic spec sheets on what to expect, but since fermenting changes things, how would I know? I have 12 weeks, 12.5 if I'm in a bind. I don't want processing day to come and have all 3lb birds.

Before I forget, thank you for all the insight.

Hi I just finished my meat birds and they had fermented feed then free ranged from day one, I got mine finished and processed at 15 weeks and they were anywhere from 2kg to 4.5kg hope that helps although it looks like this was a while back!