Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[armorfirelady]

I have saved two recipes for FF, Bruce's and Pigeonguy's. Both are generous in sharing their trials, experiences and advice. Hopefully they won't mind if I paste them here:

Bruce's FF Formula:

i came up with this formula.
i made a typo this should in my postings 18.47% not 18.17%
game feed 20% - 14 parts @ 20 % = 280 %
alfalfa milled 12% - 1 part @ 12 % = 12%
scratch grain 7% - 1 part @ 7 % = 7%
boss 15% - 1 part @ 15% = 15%
total ------------------------------------------------ 314% protein
parts--------------------------------------------------- 17
percentage ratio------------------------------------ 18..47 %
i am not sure how much fermenting raises the protein amount. the fermenting allows the nutrient uptake to be more available. . to go even farther the chicken uses the feed for what it is intended for and not wasted out the other end.

Pigeonguy's FF Formula:

I started feeding the fermented feed Friday. I made my starter like this.
100 pounds oats 12% , 100 pounds corn 9%, 100 pounds poultry base 36% = 19% protein ground into chicken mash
In a 5 gallon bucket
1: Filled bucket with mash to the 1 and 1/2 gallon mark
2: Put warm water in to the 2 and 1/2 gallon mark.
3: Put in 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar raw, unpasteurized, with mother.
4: stirred till thoroughly mixed.
5: Put a towel over bucket to keep out flying critters.
6: Let sit for one week. Stirred mixture 2 times a day morning and night.
Through that time it smelled like vinegar then I don't know but not completely unpleasant then back to smelling sort of like vinegar but a little sweeter.
The way I am feeding goes like this. The day before the first feeding I scooped from bucket 1 into bucket 2 four quarts of the ff without straining juice off then I put 1 quart of dry mash in bucket 2 and stirred all of the juice in it was still a little sloppy. Then I added 4 quarts of dry mash back into bucket 1 added water to bring it back up to the 2 and 1/2 gallon mark and stirred.
The next day all the juice had soaked into the mash in bucket 2 (this was 24 hours later) it also had a good layer of what looked like mother on it so I stirred that in and fed it to the chickens. Then I made my bucket for the next day.
One problem I had in bucket 1 I found that 4 quarts of wet out does not equal 4 quarts of dry in because the next morning when I went to stir bucket 1 it had soaked up all the juices so I had to add more water it was fine when I made feed that afternoon. I only put 3 quarts dry mash back in then.
The way I am doing it each feeding is guaranteed 48 hours of ferment time. I also do not have to go threw the draining process.
I would like to tell you they loved it but it doesn't matter what I take to them as soon as the gate opens they are running at me saying Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine. I set it down and they start eating even if they look full crazy birds.

Thanks for posting this again. I promptly printed it out to add to my chicken binder of info

 

[HiddenChicken]

I learned to raise chickens from my grandma. She died in 1958. She had Rhode Island Reds. Hens were protected at all cost, cockerels were killed, cooked and et when they became adult. One rooster covered 12 hens.

My philosophy has remained true to my grandma Emma. Today my flock are Delawares. My chickens are lovely creatures, but they are not pets. They have no names, but I love each of them. They all fit into the pattern. Protect the hens, eat the cockerels, have one rooster for 12 hens.

And, don't get emotionally involved with a bird.

 

[Bayside Chicks]

Amen for sure

 

[Beekissed]

I learned to raise chickens from my grandma. She died in 1958. She had Rhode Island Reds. Hens were protected at all cost, cockerels were killed, cooked and et when they became adult. One rooster covered 12 hens.

My philosophy has remained true to my grandma Emma. Today my flock are Delawares. My chickens are lovely creatures, but they are not pets. They have no names, but I love each of them. They all fit into the pattern. Protect the hens, eat the cockerels, have one rooster for 12 hens.

And, don't get emotionally involved with a bird.

Welcome to the forum...glad to have ya!

 

[Mountain Momma]

I was just discussing this last night with DH, as I have been spending increasing amounts of time thinking about the best way to stop feeding corn, as it is impossible to know whether one is really getting non-GMO. He suggests we plant some next year, bless his heart, and we probably will try, but could never water enough to feed the flock through the year, at least not in any substantial percentage. I have handmixed scratch using cracked corn, whole wheat and whole oats, and they like it okay but don't scramble for it the way I would expect them to, so I'm sure the cracked corn is GMO and I probably won't add it again. Will try some BOSS, not sure what else. They get FF every morning, except this weekend it's supposed to drop into the teens overnight so I may cook them some cracked wheat and steel cut oats for breakfast

look for an 8 at the beginning or the end or the upc. Thats a GMO. Every kind of feed at my local feed stores, there are 3, except organic is GMO.

 

[Beekissed]

Amen for sure

Nice to meet you, too!

 

[Celie]

AAAWWWWWWWWW, precious Pup! Mountain Mama, And what detail in the carved pumpkin !

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, I brought the FF down to the hens today. OMGoodness! They dove right in! I just left it in the dishpan at first, but they seemed to be enjoying it so much, I put some on the ground for them, and put the rest in their trough feeder in the coop. We'll see if they're still interested in the morning. (I got home too late to give it to them early enough for them to finish it before bedtime)It's supposed to get down to the low 20's tonight, but we'll see. I'm leaving early in the morning and gone through Sunday. We'll see what's left of it when I get home. Funny story: I told DH how much the hens loved the FF. He said, "Is THAT what that is? I saw that stuff in the laundry sink and wondered WHY you were wetting down the cat litter! I thought you'd lost your pea-pickin' mind!"

Now that we have the FF report out of the way, does anyone have any thoughts on what I think is low egg production for 25 or so pullets? (I mentioned it in my earlier post.) I think I'm going to start charting how many of what color eggs I get each day. That would be a good indication of whether or not I have several that aren't laying every day, or a few that are. I get several different colors, so it will give me a vague idea, anyway.

 

[bruceha2000]

Did they look something like this?

Funny video.

So what is it with chickens and the RUNNING? Don't they know they have wings and can fly?? When mine decide to go somewhere fast, they clamp their wings to their sides and run as fast as their little legs can go. Even the Cubalaya "flyers". I HAVE seen them fly but it surely isn't the preferred method of transportation.

Bruce

 

[Celie]

Maybe we're getting real corn here, don't know, the bag just says clean corn, but all the birds love it. It's the second favorite next to the racing horse oats. Since I started feeding the chickens and ducks the corn, their yolks have been very large and ORANGE ! I am just starting FF a couple of days and not tried any eggs laid with it yet, but if the yolks get any darker, they would be RED ! The yolks are so dark on the corn, the scrambled eggs I cooked today look like just yolks and the eggs are mostly yolks, very little, very clear yolks. The oats swell in the bucket overnight, so I can't fill it as much as I can when I don't use it. I am using 1 part whole oats, 1 part whole corn, 1 part 22% game bird and turkey grower and 1 part mixed whole grain (scratch), with a hand full of BOSS thrown in. It has been less than a week, but time will tell. I just got a new egg customer who is on a high protein diet for bodybuilding and eats a lot of eggs, so he will make this even more interesting!