FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[beverly evans]

Quote:
Sorry, I know this is "off topic" but this is my "go-to" place for all answers to my questions. In a week I will have some 20 baby chicks and today it is 38 outside (it was 90 last week end!) My space inside is limited. I have an outside baby coop but it was designed for summer use. So I can put a tarp around it to prevent wind and a lamp inside for warmth. Does having light 24/'7 hurt the babies? Will they be warm enough? I have 8 in a huge Rubbermaid tub in the house right now. They have some feathers, are about two weeks old. At what age can they be put outside? And how much cold can they stand? I know I was a fool to hatch chicks now but I wanted the rooster's products before I had to get rid of them. (I still have 2 roosters and no one has complained. Any day now....) HELP! : (

 

[fosterson]

Several people say they use straight chlorinated tap water and don't seem to be having any trouble. Can't help you there -- we have the world's sulfuriest (that's a word now) well water.

 

[beverly evans]

That's why I like to use the double bucket method so much...that bottom reservoir of scoby water is always waiting, untouched, to inoculate the next batch. Right now I'm batching in an ice chest for the winter and this will be the first time I don't have my reserve scoby, so I'll have to be careful to refresh feed in plenty of time before it runs out so I'll keep my strong colonies from my original scoby started last fall.

Others have reported the same results when they had to go back to feeding dry, even briefly, with the runny butts and they were also surprised at how quickly the birds were running through the dry feed...that's when some discovered they used twice as much dry feed as they did when fermenting it.

Are you using deep litter in your coop and cultivating that? DL also helps keep the smell in the coop down....lovely stuff and I'll never go back to cleaning the bedding out of the coop again or just using no bedding at all. This DL combined with FF is like a poultry keeper's dream!

We here in Austin use peat moss in our DL. It totally transforms the smell, or rather lack there of, in our coops. I don't remember the cost but I simply add it to the shavings. Some use it exclusively. The chickens love it and will even dust bathe in it! : )

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Sorry, I know this is "off topic" but this is my "go-to" place for all answers to my questions. In a week I will have some 20 baby chicks and today it is 38 outside (it was 90 last week end!) My space inside is limited. I have an outside baby coop but it was designed for summer use. So I can put a tarp around it to prevent wind and a lamp inside for warmth. Does having light 24/'7 hurt the babies? Will they be warm enough? I have 8 in a huge Rubbermaid tub in the house right now. They have some feathers, are about two weeks old. At what age can they be put outside? And how much cold can they stand? I know I was a fool to hatch chicks now but I wanted the rooster's products before I had to get rid of them. (I still have 2 roosters and no one has complained. Any day now....) HELP! : (

Mine go outside from the time they hatch regardless of time of year. I keep one red and one white infrared lamp on them 24/7 for the first week and thereafter at least 8 hours of dark by switching the lamps with ceramic emitters.





2 1/2 week olds on the left and 3 day olds on the right




2 week olds



outside of building

 

[Beekissed]

Same here...I brood all chicks outside now regardless of the temps. It's easy to create some warm conditions for chicks by insulating the flooring with plywood or heavy cardboard and deep litter, creating a good wind block and covering for the brooder and then providing good heat. I used hay bales for the walls of my last two brooders....covered this whole thing with pieces of plywood when not feeding or watering the chicks. This first batch were in mid March with temps in the 30s at night and getting into 50s in the day.

 

[perchie.girl]

For What its worth Chlorine leaves the water once its sets for 24 hours. I used to keep aquariums and when I started a new aquarium I would fill it and let it set with the bubbler on before putting in the starter fish.

So putting it in a bucket to make FF should be the same deal.

deb

 

[ChickenCanoe]

For What its worth Chlorine leaves the water once its sets for 24 hours. I used to keep aquariums and when I started a new aquarium I would fill it and let it set with the bubbler on before putting in the starter fish.

So putting it in a bucket to make FF should be the same deal.

deb

Chlorine does, but chloramine doesn't. My county treats the water with chloramine which is a chlorine/ammonia bond that has to be broken before the chlorine can vent off.
Most cities have gone to chloramine since it is more stable and effective. You can let it sit and it will still be in there days later.

This is info from the San Francisco water department.

"Chloramine is not a persistent disinfectant and decomposes easily from a chemistry point of view (Valentine
et al, 1998) but for water supply purposes chloramine is stable and it takes days to dissipate in the absence of
substances exerting chloramine demand (Wilczak et al., 2003b). Therefore, it is not practical to remove
chloramine by letting an open container of water stand because it may take days for chloramine to dissipate.
However, chloramine is very easily and almost instantaneously removed by preparing a cup of tea or coffee,
preparing food (e.g., making a soup with a chicken stock). Adding fruit to a water pitcher (e.g., slicing peeled
orange into a 1-gal water pitcher) will neutralize chloramine within 30 minutes. If desired, chloramine and
ammonia can be completely removed from the water by boiling; however, it will take 20 minutes of gentle
boil to do that. Just a short boil of water to prepare tea or coffee removed about 30% of chloramine.... If
desired, both chlorine and chloramine can be removed for drinking water purposes by an activated carbon
filter point of use device that can be installed on a kitchen faucet. If desired, both chlorine and chloramine can
be removed for bathing purposes by dissolving Vitamin C in the bath water (1000 mg Vitamin C tablet will
neutralize chloramine in an average bathtub)" http://sfwater.org/Files/FAQs/removal.pdf

One thing for certain is that chloramine kills bacteria in our tap water, so it will also injure cultures which we use to ferment
(yeasts, lacto-bacilli and kombucha cultures all). So to be safe, any time I add pro-biotics or ferment, I de-chlorinate first.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I stand corrected.... sorry.

deb

 

[kpgoldstar]

Chlorine does but chloramine doesn't. My county treats the water with chloramine which is a chlorine/ammonia bond that has to be broken before the chlorine can vent off.
Most cities have gone to chloramine since it is more stable and effective. You can let it sit and it will still be in there.

I use water straight from my kitchen tap. I know my city chlorinates our water, not sure which method. I don't feel it has affected the success of my ferment at all. I don't worry about the amount of chlorine my chicks may be consuming as I use the same water for their drinking.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I spoke to a chemist at the company that makes the pro-biotic powder I use. They thought it would be beneficial to remove the chloramine prior to mixing in the bacteria.
The acidity in the fermentation process will probably break down the chloramine bond sufficiently before it can do much damage.