100 Broilers and Fermented Feed Project

[Angelicisi]

I couldn't get out lol had to jump.

 

[Angelicisi]

Holy cow.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Everyone survived the cold snap last night. The water outside started freezing at 6:00 PM. I raced to feel the other zoo animals. The broilers were hunkered down inside and slept well. They devoured all of the food in their feeder. I filled them up again this morning. This evening will be weigh down. I didn't get a chance to weigh last night because I was out in the chicken yard from 5:30 PM - 9:30 PM and I was exhausted. I'll post the weights of the 3 meat groups as Small, Medium, Large.

It's only been a few days since I have had them and I already have Do's and Dont''s for the next group. I will compile a list and post as soon as I can.

 

[aoxa]

Everyone survived the cold snap last night. The water outside started freezing at 6:00 PM. I raced to feel the other zoo animals. The broilers were hunkered down inside and slept well. They devoured all of the food in their feeder. I filled them up again this morning. This evening will be weigh down. I didn't get a chance to weigh last night because I was out in the chicken yard from 5:30 PM - 9:30 PM and I was exhausted. I'll post the weights of the 3 meat groups as Small, Medium, Large.

It's only been a few days since I have had them and I already have Do's and Dont''s for the next group. I will compile a list and post as soon as I can.

 

[Angelicisi]

Don't # 23...don't leave food or bucket in sight when they are the size of football.

You are doing great and learning! I love the details!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Good morning everyone. I have an update for you again.

All of the broilers are doing great. I haven't lost any yet.

When I arrived home, all of their feeders were empty, so I filled up their feeders with more FF. I am noticing that the FF is having a few dry, hard areas but not really a problem. The holes are located inside the feeder right under the metal area next to the opening (makes sense). So, what I am having to do is add a few sprinkles of warm water to moisten it up again.

Pic of feeder where you can see hard areas.

Here is another type feeder that I use for them. Filled to capacity the feed (along with the feeder) weighed 3 lbs 10.9 ounces. When I get back home, I will see and weigh how much has been eaten. I also want to compare the weight of dry crumble to that FF moistened crumble with all of the other ingredients. I will weigh the dry crumble in this same container to see how much it weighs. Just out of curiosity. I will deduct the weight of the feeder itself of course.

I stumbled across an idea of another type of feeder that looks like it may work. I looked at my ice cube trays and a light went off in my head, so I had to try filling the ice cube tray with FF. I was worried about them getting stuck in between the holes in the metal feeders and dieing, so I am looking for other ideas for feeders. When I first set the metal feeders out, several of them were getting stuck and I had to manually take off the top and remove them. In my opinion, that is a hazard that I won't want to deal with. I would be worried. For my next batch of broilers, I WILL NOT be using those metal feeders the first few weeks and maybe not at all. By this time next year, I will have probably come up with an idea with a feeder design and have someone make me a feeder just for them.

Anyway, this is what it the ice cube tray looked like when it was filled at 5:46 PM yesterday evening. The feed weighed 1 lb 9.6 ounces.

And this is what it looked like this morning at 6:00 AM. The remaining weighed 8.3 ounces.

Ok, so now for the weights. I tried to look at all of the broilers to get my 3 test subjects from the Small, Medium and Large categories.

This is what their weights were on yesterday evening.

SMALL FRAME BROILER
1.7 ounces

MEDIUM FRAME BROILER
2.6 ounces

LARGE FRAME BROILER
3.2 ounces
*The scale kept going up to 3.4 then 3.3 and then 3.2. When the camera flashed it took the pic of 3.2. Afterwards, it kept a steady weight of 3.3 but was unable to keep the little buggar on the scale long enough to re-take the pic. So I"ll just use the 3.2 oz weight.

Now I am more comfortable with documenting weights because I can get an idea from 3 different groups. I know that a small frame broiler will not weight 3.3 ounces and I don't want to think that all of my broilers weigh that much. This way, I won't be too disappointed when I have some that weigh WAY more than others.

There is still more FF in the first container but I have another batcher going as well. I think the 1st batch will be gone this evening when I re-fill the feeders when I get home. The first batch contained 16 lbs of 26% Gamebird Feed. I also added 1 scoop of rough rice and 4 lbs of yogurt.

The second batch will be 25 gallons of 26% Gamebird Feed, 1 feed scoop of rough rice and 4 lbs of yogurt. I want to add some BOSS to it as well as other ingredients.

I"m looking forward to warmer temps this weekend so that I can put them outside to run around.

ETA: Still waiting to find out the actual hatch day. I know that the place where I picked them up had picked them up early that morning on 1-3-2014, so they are at least 1 day old. 2 days old at the oldest. So they are at least 7 days old. The lady will be calling me back to give me the actual hatch date and then I will let you all know.

 

[foreverlearning]

When you come up with a new feeder idea let me know, I need a new idea for next time. My problems were with an open top I would have some standing in it and scratching and with the hole top on they were getting stuck. I was thinking about the tops on the little troughs that have the wire that comes up at an angle, I haven't seen any big ones anywhere. Like this but bigger:

Have you ever used them? If so, are there cons to their design? I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to make.

 

[kuntrygirl]

When you come up with a new feeder idea let me know, I need a new idea for next time. My problems were with an open top I would have some standing in it and scratching and with the hole top on they were getting stuck. I was thinking about the tops on the little troughs that have the wire that comes up at an angle, I haven't seen any big ones anywhere. Like this but bigger:

Have you ever used them? If so, are there cons to their design? I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to make.

I surely will. I had the problem with them getting in and sinking down (I also didn't have the top on it (bad idea) ) as if the FF were quick sand. I think that was my fault because the FF was too soggy as well. I think that type of feeder is better as they get older but not at a few days old. I haven't used a feeder like that for babies. That looks like there may problems with it being so big and the big holes. Easy access for them to get in, get stuck and die. When I get my design together and made, I will let you know.

 

[aoxa]

When you come up with a new feeder idea let me know, I need a new idea for next time. My problems were with an open top I would have some standing in it and scratching and with the hole top on they were getting stuck. I was thinking about the tops on the little troughs that have the wire that comes up at an angle, I haven't seen any big ones anywhere. Like this but bigger:

Have you ever used them? If so, are there cons to their design? I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to make.

I have these. Cons are you can't use them until they are large enough not to fit in the holes.. which is around 2-3 weeks I believe.

It cleans very easily and holds quite a bit.


15 days old.The layers could still fit in, but the meaties could not without really trying.


Note: I'd get the larger ones next time. I fed 42 meaties and 38 layer chicks in two of these twice a day until they were 7 weeks.

It holds:

1 and a half scoops each like this of FF.

I should have mentioned that your feeders should be stainless steel, glass or plastic Kunkygirl. The galvanized metal will leech into the feed and cause some heavy metal poisoning. Especially if you have ACV in it.
I'm not sure how long it takes to do so... I used galvanized for a week and quit once I saw it was rusting!

They will soon be big enough you can make some gutter feeders.

not my image, but you can see the idea here. The vinyl gutters here are only $10 for 10 feet. Don't bother with the end caps, the FF in good consistency won't really make a mess out the sides.


You can see my feeder behind this Plymouth Rock

You can attach to wall or put a couple scrap pieces of board under it in a few places and just have it in the middle of the brooder. Cut the gutter up into 2 or 4 feet pieces at the hardware store for ease of transport.

Also, when I had chicks - what they didn't finish in food at the end of the day went to the big chickens to finish off. I provided them fresh twice a day. The dried pieces are probably from the heat lamps. The big chickens will eat that right up.

 

[kuntrygirl]

When you come up with a new feeder idea let me know, I need a new idea for next time. My problems were with an open top I would have some standing in it and scratching and with the hole top on they were getting stuck. I was thinking about the tops on the little troughs that have the wire that comes up at an angle, I haven't seen any big ones anywhere. Like this but bigger:

Have you ever used them? If so, are there cons to their design? I'm sure they wouldn't be hard to make.

I have these. Cons are you can't use them until they are large enough not to fit in the holes.. which is around 2-3 weeks I believe. It cleans very easily and holds quite a bit. 15 days old.The layers could still fit in, but the meaties could not without really trying. Note: I'd get the larger ones next time. I fed 42 meaties and 38 layer chicks in two of these twice a day until they were 7 weeks. It holds:

1 and a half scoops each like this of FF. I should have mentioned that your feeders should be stainless steel, glass or plastic Kunkygirl. The galvanized metal will leech into the feed and cause some heavy metal poisoning. Especially if you have ACV in it. I'm not sure how long it takes to do so... I used galvanized for a week and quit once I saw it was rusting! They will soon be big enough you can make some gutter feeders.

not my image, but you can see the idea here. The vinyl gutters here are only $10 for 10 feet. Don't bother with the end caps, the FF in good consistency won't really make a mess out the sides. You can see my feeder behind this Plymouth Rock You can attach to wall or put a couple scrap pieces of board under it in a few places and just have it in the middle of the brooder. Cut the gutter up into 2 or 4 feet pieces at the hardware store for ease of transport. Also, when I had chicks - what they didn't finish in food at the end of the day went to the big chickens to finish off. I provided them fresh twice a day. The dried pieces are probably from the heat lamps. The big chickens will eat that right up.

Great information. I started off with the galvanized metal feeders. In two of the brooders, I put in plastic feeders. As of this morning, I had the galvanized metal feeder but will change that as soon as I get home. And I remember someone (and it may have been you) mentioning about ACV NOT being put in metal waterers, so I was aware of that but I didn't even think of the ACV being in the FF. The FF that was in the galvanized feeder may have be in there 2 days at the longest. There hasn't been any rust yet. Thanks for the reminder. The first few days when there was A LOT of left over FF when they were eating a lot, I gave the leftovers to the chickens in the chicken yard. Now it's not as much of the dried pieces as before. I have a lot of PVC pipe around the yard. I'm always picking up materials from Craigslist list of from other people. I have a design that I'm thinking about as we speak. I also have a special broiler brooder that I am currently designing. The person who builds for me is gonna kill me when I tell him that he has another project.