FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[kpgoldstar]

Ok ty. So that is 1/2 cup 2 cup each?ry before ff? what is they don't really free range? Do they need more than 1/2

My girls eat about 1/2 c. of ff each day. I don't measure dry because all my feed is fermented. Mine free range for only about 1-2 hours a day in the desert so it is mostly grass and weeds. The amount your birds need depends on how they look. Mine could probably use less feed as they are all nice and plump.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Mine come off the roost while it's still dark. Dark for us is not dark for them...they can manage to see adequately in dim lighting. I've seen mine out of the coop and foraging while I still have to use a flashlight to see.
...

It's strange I've never experienced an undisturbed chicken come off the roost at night in the last 60 years unless it was one that never roosted in the first place..
True, dark for us isn't the same as dark for them. Dark for them is much darker.
I know they can see in dim lighting, for instance with a bright moon but I wouldn't call it adequate. Chickens have better vision than humans but not at night. I know for a fact that I can see better in the dark than chickens can. My chickens are skittish and extremely aloof when it comes to humans. There's no way I can catch one during the day but if they fail to go in at night I can walk right up to them on the fence or in a tree and pick them up. They don't even know I'm there till I grab them. Then they make that eerie plaintive wail thinking they're about to be eaten.

http://www.livescience.com/8099-chickens-color-humans.html

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/chicken-vision/

 

[Beekissed]

Ok ty. So that is 1/2 cup 2 cup each?ry before ff? what is they don't really free range? Do they need more than 1/2

1/2 c. seems to be what mine are currently consuming while confined to the coop in cold weather..and that's FF, not dry. They might act like they want more than 1/2 but they probably won't need more than 1/2 c. Mine are rolling fat on that 1/2 of FF each.

 

[Beekissed]

It's strange I've never experienced an undisturbed chicken come off the roost at night in the last 60 years unless it was one that never roosted in the first place..
I know they can see in dim lighting, for instance with a bright moon but I wouldn't call it adequate. Chickens have better vision than humans but not at night. I know for a fact that I can see better in the dark than chickens can. My chickens are skittish and extremely aloof when it comes to humans. There's no way I can catch one during the day but if they fail to go in at night I can walk right up to them on the fence or in a tree and pick them up. They don't even know I'm there till I grab them. Then they make that eerie plaintive wail thinking they're about to be eaten.

http://www.livescience.com/8099-chickens-color-humans.html

http://mikethechickenvet.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/chicken-vision/

I can pick mine off the roost too but if they happen to get off that roost and it's still dark in that coop, I have a devil of a time catching them, so I know they can see well enough to evade me..easily. My birds are not used to any lights on outside, so maybe they've adjusted more to darkness than have other, more urban chickens? We have no lights shining at night here...pitch black unless the moonlight or starlight is bright.

I've walked up to the coop in the early morning hours with my flashlight and met chickens coming down the hill towards me. My chickens come down off that roost early and if they hear the toilet being flushed on my end of the house, they are out and coming down to meet the food bucket.

 

[Ariel188]

oh that is 1/2 cup already fermented. Do you know what the dry equivalent measurement would be?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

I've had a devil of a time catching a chicken on the ground at night too, but it wasn't because they could see better than I, it was because they were faster than I.
My opinion, borne out by research, is that humans, and most mammals, can see much better at night than chickens which have extremely poor night vision. If that weren't the case, then I wouldn't have to lock them up at night. I don't lose chickens to foxes, coyotes or hawks during the day but a whole flock will get wiped out at night if a door is left open.

 

[Beekissed]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

As always!

 

[skitzkle]

Has anyone had detrimental effect to their feet from the cement-like feed balls?,

Mine had the same problem. some I soaked off others I picked off. Once I made a chick foot bleed when I was picking them off. I sprayed it with and an antiseptic spray and it was fine. The only solution I came up with was using a feeder they could only stick their heads in. I used a shallow dish with a lid and cut holes all around it they they could only fit their heads in. It worked ok but they could not get all the food out. It did prevent the balls on the toes.

 

[ak rain]

I feed twice a day. They seem to be hungry at feeding time. Finish in 20-30 min. I am getting eggs from all. Too much? Or too little. Snow and ice cover on ground so nothing found in free range. They have fee access to compost pile

 

[Beekissed]

I feed twice a day. They seem to be hungry at feeding time. Finish in 20-30 min. I am getting eggs from all. Too much? Or too little. Snow and ice cover on ground so nothing found in free range. They have fee access to compost pile

They will always seem hungry when fed in meals because they have had an empty feeder for some time between feed being deposited there. It's new! It's food! Even before I started feeding FF I was feeding dry feed in meals, once a day, and they acted the same way....starving chickens, sharks in a feeding frenzy. And you'll keep thinking that even when they are running like they weigh 400 lbs, lumbering along from side to side. Then you open one up and have to clear out the loads of fat before you can ever find their innards.....this chicken was free ranging and sharing only 1- 1/2 cups of FF with 13 other chickens per day.