What kind of oats do you ferment? How do you ferment them? I can get whole or rolled oats in 50# bags. The scratch I get has oats in it. Should I buy a bag of whole oats to ferment?
Everything I ferment is whole except the cracked corn and there is not much of it in mix - I read rolled grains lose nutrients so I stick with whole. I ferment each day for 48 hours and rotate - start out with grain , add one tablespoon vinegar with mother , hot water and let sit 24 hour. I do this in empty ice cream pails [1 gallon] after 24 hours of soak the whole gallon sits in a 5 gal bucket with a 75 watt flood light about 6" over the top for another 24 hours . This all rotates daily - each bucket is made with one days feeding at one heaping serving spoon per bird. My FF feeders are 4" pvc pipe cut in half length wise screwed to two 6" pieces of treated 2x4 to keep it straight - the ends are open to drain.
If you are interested in fermenting let me give you a site that can answer any questions. I feed out of a v shaped wooden trough but you can buy a rain gutter and cut it in half and have two 5' long ones.
I've heard this also. But I read something the other day that interested me. The more nutritious the feed the hens lay more pullets.. Less nutritious is more cockerels. The author said that the hen knows what she is eating and if her nutrition is low she knows that the cockerels can live on less whereas the pullets will not. Amazing, right
Well thats the average I got 65% Male one time and 60% female the next - its back and forth so I guess that averages close to 50%- My starters from kathy out of 14 was 5 hens and balance Cocks.
