5th Annual BYC New Year's Day 2014 Hatch-A-Long

[ChickenCanoe]

Since we get a lot of traffic here was wondering if some could answer me a question about fermented feed.

I buy feed from local feed mill last batch of fermented feed I did was 14% protein layer and scratch no problem with it. This time I got 20% and scratch since they slowed laying down and have some younger chickens in there now. The problem is I have a rotten egg smell on like day three. I started with clean buckets and water with acv w/mother.

What could they have added to make smell bad or do I have bad feed?

I can't answer the egg smell thing and I saw you posted on the fermenting thread. You should get a response there, they have much more experience. I've only been doing it a few weeks. Sometimes a 20% feed will have fish or pork meal. Check the ingredient label. I'm using a 16% vegetarian feed and then mix in fishmeal each day to the part I'm feeding to raise the protein. Some people said the feed with fishmeal made their feed stink.
It should smell like pickles or sauerkraut. Mine doesn't smell that strong. I don't think I'm able to let it ferment long enough before I feed it.

I have been working on making a cabinet incubator and I think it's ready. My temps are steadily between 99 - 100, still working on getting the humidity between 55 - 65%. I want to use this new cabinet for lockdown so that I can separate my flock eggs from the ones I bought from a neighbor ($3 new breed for me, yay!)

So my question is: As long as my temperatures are similar will it be a shock to the eggs to go from my Styrofoam incubator that is heated with a coil to the cabinet incubator that uses light bulbs as the heat source. The new incubator is VERY bright, should I put some type of shield over the bulbs to cut down the light going into the bottom of the hatching drawers? I will be putting the gripper shelf liner over the wire mesh, I'm sure that will shield out some light but not very much. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

It will be no shock at all. As long as the temps are the same the embryos won't care what the heat source is.
You could fashion a lamp shield out of some aluminum flashing. The aluminum will wick the heat from the lamp so shouldn't make any heating difference.
Lots of people use bulbs in their homemade units and they don't seem to suffer from the light but I'm guessingl lighting is important for the embryo as well as birds.
Eggs under a broody don't experience much light and when they do, it is for about an hour a day.

 

[JLaw]

JLaw, check the ingredients of your feed. Sometimes they use fish meal in the bigger protein feed which would give it a bad smell. But 3 days is a little long for a batch of FF. Are you using enough water to cover the feed?

Yeah I have water covering it. I'll use two buckets instead of three since I just emptied one today. Is it ok to ferment with fish meal? I've heard of people adding it after but not in it fermenting.

 

[Elliemae 77]

Oh sure you can ferment with fish meal. Most people just choose not to because of the smell

 

[JLaw]

Oh sure you can ferment with fish meal. Most people just choose not to because of the smell

Ok thanks. I'll try to find bag and find out if it's in there just to make sure or i'll call them later I guess.

 

[Pozees]

JLaw, if the FF has a bad smell, as in rotten or like alcohol, you might not want to use it. If there is any chance of molds growing in there, it can harm or kill your birds. As ChickenCanoe said, it should have a pickles or sauerkraut or sourdough smell, or no smell if not fermenting yet.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

ChickenCanoe, you have mentioned your Jaerhons a couple of times, do you have pics?

Here's a jaer behind the welsummer.


Here's a cockerel. I think he was about 7 or 8 weeks there. They are very fast maturing.



Here is a Jaer frizzle.



The bottom pullet is a Jaer next to the Ancona.

Yeah I have water covering it. I'll use two buckets instead of three since I just emptied one today. Is it ok to ferment with fish meal? I've heard of people adding it after but not in it fermenting.

I've done it but at 66% protein, it doesn't take much. I'm now adding it just before feeding now.
If there's still water covering it when time to feed it, I drain it off and add it to the new batch.

 

[JLaw]

Well I don't see fish meal on there but I see a bunch of weird stuff lol. one part says "traces of manganese sulphate" which I think might be my smell. Maybe my batch has alittle more than trace. Seems one bucket smelled more than other 2.

 

[Wunjo]

I candled two eggs yesterday......I don't know if being on day 15 it would've made a difference or not, but I see NO air cells! I just see a black blob on top, and billions of veins below....

do you think this is bad if I cant really make out air cells?

Try putting your light on the top of the egg. I can not see my air sacks unless I put my light on top of the egg.

 

[Aphrael]

I candled two eggs yesterday......I don't know if being on day 15 it would've made a difference or not, but I see NO air cells! I just see a black blob on top, and billions of veins below....

do you think this is bad if I cant really make out air cells?

I'm not sure on this one. I would think day 15 would be a little early for them to move into hatching position, but I could be wrong. Maybe if they are turning it could make it look like no air cell. Hopefully someone who knows more will chime in.

Since we get a lot of traffic here was wondering if some could answer me a question about fermented feed.

I buy feed from local feed mill last batch of fermented feed I did was 14% protein layer and scratch no problem with it. This time I got 20% and scratch since they slowed laying down and have some younger chickens in there now. The problem is I have a rotten egg smell on like day three. I started with clean buckets and water with acv w/mother.

What could they have added to make smell bad or do I have bad feed?

I don't know what the difference in ingredients is, but I do know that not all feeds ferment the same. When I do starter, grower or finisher crumbles it ferments well, making a pleasant sourdoughy kind of smell and the chooks LOVE it. Any time I have used layer crumble it smells bad and the girls will not touch it.

I candled two eggs yesterday......I don't know if being on day 15 it would've made a difference or not, but I see NO air cells! I just see a black blob on top, and billions of veins below....

do you think this is bad if I cant really make out air cells?


and...


my humidity is relly hard to keep up with right now.....Christmas eve, 84 degrease, Christmas, 43 degrease, yesterday, 28 degrease...... my humidity yesterday said 55% and at night went to 61%, and had been that ever since.

will this high humidity ruin the chicks?

Do you have really high RH in your home right now? That will affect the humidity inside the incubator as well. That humidity seems a bit high to me, but maybe being so close to the end it will be ok.

 

[Aphrael]

Try putting your light on the top of the egg. I can not see my air sacks unless I put my light on top of the egg.

Or there's that!

I always candle into the air cell as it is the only way I can see so it didn't even occur to me that could be the problem.