After a week of not weighing, I get a XL. What changed? I bought and am feeding BOSS. Kick in the protein content? I was trying Fermented feed for the last 3 weeks. I added ACV with the mother and got a good smelling brew. Then it went off. Added some nasty tasting beer and got a good brew. It turned with black mold around the top of the bucket. Tossed that. I'm guessing the black mold was from high temps (our AC died that week too). House was sitting around 85°F. We like AC.
Questions for the fermented feed people (
@KikisGirls ). I'm asking to find out what I did wrong. Living in a swamp with all kinds of molds and humidity is my first guess. I read through the threads, but I'm missing something.
1. Where & what temperature do you store your buckets?
2. How often does your batch go off? Putrid smell or black mold?
3. Just wet or sitting under water like Justin Rhodes? What consistency?
4. How often do you sterilize and restart your FF?
I know, too many changes to make a confirmed correlation. Bottom line is we got an XL on 6-30 - first in a month, it looks BIG at 2.32 oz compared to my mediums. 5 White with 1 XL, 1 Lg and 3 Med. 7 Browns with 3 Med and 4 smalls. Note also, no peewee that we were getting daily. Smallest brown was 1.58 oz compared to 1.3 oz. Will monitor. I'm gonna have to make an excel tracking sheet. Was trying to avoid it... With daily averages, by color and SD with full color graphs. Chicken keeping can be a lot of work.
Interesting enough for me to post to keep a record. I will watch for increased size and quantity. For the moment I am returning to my previous feed regimen. 2 alfalfa blocks soaked overnight in tap water. Add ACV occasionally. Keeping the bucket in the kitchen for scrap collection. In the morning, add dry feed to make a mash.
I will supply free dry feed also. My mess-less feeder keeps developing water leaks and wet feed inside (I try to empty after rain to check and yep, she leaked. Chickens pulling the caulk off the seams.) Next option is a roofed feeding platform.