FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[ChickenCanoe]

All good advice.

Having multiple buildings helps too. I rotate birds a lot and they seem to get used to having new company on a regular basis.
If possible, I recommend people have at least one other housing option for quarantining new birds, sick and injured, broodies and bullies.

 

[joyfulkeeper]

I have been using ff since just a couple weeks into our chicken adventure which started this past March. You all have been so great in sharing all the ins and outs of it, thanks.

We added ducks to the flock this summer and we house them together in one coop which has gone well. Usually we feed them morning and evening outside, but with freezing temps the feed is freezing too quickly. The ducks, of course, still want to be outside whenever possible and the chickens don't want to go out at all with the snow and frigid temps that started yesterday.

I'm thinking of feeding the chickens inside, but I would like to still feed the ducks outside. Has anyone tried using a heated dog bowl for feeding ff in frigid temps?

PS, we tried the cooler idea for the ff and it was mostly frozen this morning in the garage. The temps got to -3 last night and has warmed to a sunny +4 now. We decided to bring the ff back into the house.

 

[Beekissed]

Good idea! Yes, there are folks using the heated dog bowls for their FF and also using the heated water buckets to keep their FF outside of the house, both with good success reported. I'm betting you have to rely on a lot of heated receptacles where you live so you might have both on hand and handy for use.

 

[fosterson]

It has been seriously windy and cold this past several days.

I went outside to do the usual morning chores, put down the fresh water and FF (I don't have a heated waterer, so I have to put out fresh water all day long anyway) and came back in the house.

Glanced out the window just now and discovered that somehow the coop door had shut before all the biddies made it outside, leaving one single hen out there with ALL the FF.

She has stuffed her crop so full she looks like she's going to burst!

Visually funny, but is she gonna be okay? Her crop's as big as a baseball!

 

[Beekissed]

Lucky bird! She should be fine! The wet food, combined with already having the good, beneficial type of yeast/bacteria growth should prevent crop stasis or sour crop from developing. I've got a rooster pen of birds that get fed once a day in the morning and they look the same way....gorge themselves until they look fit to burst and every drop of FF is gone and then walk around with baseballs on their chests all day while it digests.

 

[azygous]

What gives? My chickens seem to be on a hunger strike!

It's barely into the teens right now after starting out at just 2 degrees. The chickens aren't a bit happy. I know chicken happy, and these aren't happy chickens. They're standing around on one leg in small groups muttering amongst themselves and ignoring their FF.

By this time of the day, they've eagerly consumed at least six or seven cups. They've barely eaten half that. I would think they'd increase their food intake when it's this fricking cold. I've been diligent in swapping the food out for fresh when it appears to get down to the freezing point, being full of water as it is. It doesn't seem to help.

Is this something to do with the feed? Or is it a natural response to below freezing temps?

 

[Beekissed]

They don't like cold, wet feed I'm thinking. You might also have reached what I call the saturation level that most people seem to hit with their flocks some time after starting with FF...it's like the birds can't get enough of it for a good while and then, all the sudden, feed intake declines to a more normal intake. I've seen my sheep do this when I first place mineral mixes out for their free choice consumption...they rush to eat it and I wonder if they are going to consume it all the first day. Then, after that first rush to eat the minerals and salt, they only nip on it now and again to keep their levels sufficient.

I think the FF increases the mineral and vitamin absorption to such a degree that birds that have been deficient in it all along are gobbling it to override that deficient element their bodies are craving and, when that has been restored to normal levels, can then slack off to a more normal intake to keep those levels steady. Seems like everyone who starts the FF seems to notice this effect in the flock..that first initial gorging and then tapering off to a moderate level of feed thereafter.

You could try feeding less so they can consume it before it gets too cold to eat. My birds recently tapered off of feed too and I've had to decrease amounts given but it wasn't due to cold weather...we've been having temps in the 50-60s this past week. I noticed today that they are pretty obese, so it's a good thing to cut back a little anyway.

 

[azygous]

That makes sense that they've reached a level of nutritional improvement as well as an interest saturation in the new food. It just happens to coincide with this extreme cold weather.

I usually don't give them any more than they'll consume in about three hours time, unless I'm going to need to be gone, then I dish out enough to sustain them until I return.

I'll try not to worry so much.

 

[bruceh]

If there is one bird that is continually getting picked on in a flock, it is usually for a good reason. The flock are wanting to eliminate her for some reason, usually it's a health issue. You can't kill the whole flock for picking on the one bird, so the solution is obvious though not many want to do it. Everyone wants to fight for the underdog but in nature the underdog is a weaker, less desirable animal in the gene pool and the others will cut it from the herd or even kill it for that reason.

Here's the choices...you can isolate her and doctor her back to health but then you have to re-introduce her to the flock which, no matter how you do it, may again make her a target for aggression. You can Blukote her or otherwise cover the site and leave her in the general population but they may resume picking on her again once she is healed. You can try to change the flock matrix by penning this or that bird with her during her isolation but you have no assurances that bird won't peck her also. Or you can eliminate the problem and her pain and misery by culling the bird~ it takes all the guess work out of it all, provides mercy for the bird and also eliminates your work, worry and stress over one bird.

If you had several birds having a picking problem, it can be space or a breed issue. If you have just one bird that is singled out from the flock, it's a bird issue. The former is a little more difficult to assess and resolve than the latter. A lot of people will tell you to keep her, nurse her back to health, change this or that to try and fit her into the flock, will give you all kinds of success stories about how they changed the life of a bird just like that by doing such things.

The only thing I can tell you is that I've never had such a problem in any of my flocks because I cull yearly for laying, healthy appearance, and behavior....and that seems to remove misfit birds, those that would be aggressive enough to peck holes in another one, birds that would develop health issues and also any bird that is too weak to defend herself in a flock society. A lot of people think culling is cruel but it's rather the opposite...it prevents things like what has happened to your poor chicken. I've never had to walk out and see a bird with a bloody behind from cannibalism and aggression. Any old timer in poultry is usually a proponent of judicious culling of the flock to improve overall flock health, genetics and social interaction...that's how they become old timers in poultry.

that is correct be 100%. if you breed weak links. the flock as a whole becomes weak. however i do cull for over aggression . i breed for even diposition

 

[LindaB220]

If there is one bird that is continually getting picked on in a flock, it is usually for a good reason. The flock are wanting to eliminate her for some reason, usually it's a health issue. You can't kill the whole flock for picking on the one bird, so the solution is obvious though not many want to do it. Everyone wants to fight for the underdog but in nature the underdog is a weaker, less desirable animal in the gene pool and the others will cut it from the herd or even kill it for that reason.

Here's the choices...you can isolate her and doctor her back to health but then you have to re-introduce her to the flock which, no matter how you do it, may again make her a target for aggression. You can Blukote her or otherwise cover the site and leave her in the general population but they may resume picking on her again once she is healed. You can try to change the flock matrix by penning this or that bird with her during her isolation but you have no assurances that bird won't peck her also. Or you can eliminate the problem and her pain and misery by culling the bird~ it takes all the guess work out of it all, provides mercy for the bird and also eliminates your work, worry and stress over one bird.

If you had several birds having a picking problem, it can be space or a breed issue. If you have just one bird that is singled out from the flock, it's a bird issue. The former is a little more difficult to assess and resolve than the latter. A lot of people will tell you to keep her, nurse her back to health, change this or that to try and fit her into the flock, will give you all kinds of success stories about how they changed the life of a bird just like that by doing such things.

The only thing I can tell you is that I've never had such a problem in any of my flocks because I cull yearly for laying, healthy appearance, and behavior....and that seems to remove misfit birds, those that would be aggressive enough to peck holes in another one, birds that would develop health issues and also any bird that is too weak to defend herself in a flock society. A lot of people think culling is cruel but it's rather the opposite...it prevents things like what has happened to your poor chicken. I've never had to walk out and see a bird with a bloody behind from cannibalism and aggression. Any old timer in poultry is usually a proponent of judicious culling of the flock to improve overall flock health, genetics and social interaction...that's how they become old timers in poultry.

Bee, the first time I read this I thought that it was a little.....harsh. But then I read it again and realized that being in the chicken business takes a lot of responsibility and knowledge. Years and years of learning and training. That's why I'm so grateful that the first day I got on BYC I found the FF thread. You seem to have so much common sense and believe me I'm gonna be watching you. lol