Our Experiment with Fermented Food for Meaties

[Beekissed]

What a beautiful pic of the chicks on that grass! Bird heaven all around....I can't wait to see how this all turns out for you and what your birds look like as they grow. I wish all chickens could live a life on the grass, in the sun and fresh air.

Excellent charts and info, BTW. I could never be that neat and thorough with my record keeping.... just total the whole amount of feed used at the end of the project and divide by chicken amounts. Not the greatest or the most precise way.

 

[Matrix Escapee]

Please tell me you are still doing a side-by-side comparison?

 

[figsonwheels]

The chickens are 39 days old today. We had a cold snap last week and wanted to keep the birds together a little longer so they could take advantage of each others' heat. We've not had to use a heat lamp on them for almost a week, so they will be fine being separated.

Today, we weighed them and separated them in to their own tractors so we will now begin the side-by-side comparison of fermented vs dry grains for their food. Up to now, they have all eaten fermented grains. While they are pooping quite a bit and destroying the grass in their tractor every 3 days, the smell is still not as bad as it used to be.

Tractor A will received fermented feed. It will have 6 white broilers and 7 red rangers. Tractor B will receive dry grains. It will have 7 white broilers and 7 red rangers.

Here's where we are. These weights are in ounces.

Total Weight

Average Weight

Weight Gain

Smallest Bird

Largest Bird​

White Broilers

392.7

30.2076

375.7

23

35.6​

Red Rangers

327.0

23.357

309.1

17

26​

The birds gained a total of 684 ounces by eating 238 cups of feed, or 1118.6 ounces. They realized a weight gain of 61.15% of their total feed intake - a little less than our last measurement.

One thing we did notice between our meat birds and the egg birds, there is no wasted food with the meat birds. They do not scratch the fermented feed onto the ground. They eat it all. Regardless, we will keep track of how much food we feed each group and not necessarily how much each eats - regardless of if the birds eat the food, it is still a cost to us.

We've been giving the birds treats, but they really don't "go" for them like the other birds do. Other than their grains, we will give each group the exact amount and type of treats to keep the experiment valid.

 

[kizanne]

Great thread.

 

[aoxa]

I'll follow. Any updates?

 

[figsonwheels]

We are moving both tractors every few days. There is no noticeable difference in growth between the tractors, although the White Broilers are larger than the Red Rangers in both tractors. They are almost 7 weeks and none of them are even close to butchering weight, but we expected that. Both tractors are getting 10 cups of grains a day and we will up them both to 15 cups beginning tomorrow (that's the amount before we soak them) - the last few days they cleaned out their dishes in less than an hour.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Loving this thread! Any news?

 

[Elyssia001]

This is a fantastic thread. Hopefully the answers you find will be the answers to my questions about it too! Good luck and please keep us up to date.

Just a quick question, you measure the grain before you ferment it for the fermenting flock. Do both flocks always finish everything you give them? Does one flock "tear up" the grass under their tractor any worse than the other? (wondering if they are still hungry and looking for more food or not))

 

[Urban Rustic]

I'm interested in seeing what happens. I was just in TSC and talking to someone that pointed me towards checking out fermented feeds. So excited to see if there is any difference.

 

[Blarneyeggs]