FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[dutchbunny83]

22q-- NO idea how, but I know red wine vinegar comes from red wine.... haha and if you let your wine sit too long it starts to get a vinegary taste?

Ak- LOVE that feeder!!!

 

[pipemum]

A few weeks ago, I poured some Bragg's with the mother into a regular bottle of ACV to inoculate it. I set it in the back of the panty for a couple of weeks. I think it worked, but when I checked on the bottle this weekend, the top has a thick layer of "slime" on it. I think it's the mother, but when I shake it up, the slime doesn't break apart. Doesn't smell funky or anything. Is that normal?

 

[Beekissed]

A few weeks ago, I poured some Bragg's with the mother into a regular bottle of ACV to inoculate it. I set it in the back of the panty for a couple of weeks. I think it worked, but when I checked on the bottle this weekend, the top has a thick layer of "slime" on it. I think it's the mother, but when I shake it up, the slime doesn't break apart. Doesn't smell funky or anything. Is that normal?

Yep, that's normal if it's not a funky color like green or grey. Sounds like a good SCOBY...save it for the next time!

 

[pipemum]

Yep, that's normal if it's not a funky color like green or grey. Sounds like a good SCOBY...save it for the next time!

Okay, thanks!

 

[hogster160]

man do I love the ff! Our first week with 16 meatie chicks 1 week old today and 6 layer chicks, 1 week old tomorrow and not one case of poopy butt! I keep looking, but am not seeing any. With our first 15, there were 5-6 that needed cleaning off all the time. I sure don't miss that!

Deb

 

[Trina Bambina]

Question...with new chicks, do you keep FF out all the time, or just feed them every few hours?

We have been feeding FF to our birds for a couple of months now, and they are gorgeous! Hoping for eggs any day now!

Thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

You can feed them morning and evening and place enough out to last them a couple of hours. Chicks with a mama are not eating all the time and they sleep under her all night long, so it's not necessary to have food out at all times.

 

[hogster160]

Question...with new chicks, do you keep FF out all the time, or just feed them every few hours?

We have been feeding FF to our birds for a couple of months now, and they are gorgeous! Hoping for eggs any day now!

Thanks!

With the meat birds, I put enough out to last a couple of feedings. Generally a huge scoop at 8 am, 2 pm and 8 pm. With the 8 pm enough to last til morning. They will be outside during the warm parts of the day starting tomorrow or Thursday. Then they will get breakfast lunch and dinner still, but I won't feed them before I set them outside, so they can learn to forage and hunt for food. With the chicks with mama, I'm watching them. When I see their food is gone, they get a small scoop. Since I've been putting them outside with mama, their food is lasting and lasting. So they are foraging with mama, and she is finding them food. Its so cute to see mama get something and share it with the babes. They get so excited.

We were going to put all the chicks with mama, but the meat birds only being a day older, are already so much larger than the layer chicks. We decided not to risk it. I didn't want to cause disrupt with mama. So the meat birds will be separate from the flock. I have a shed set up for them, I just need to fence in an area since they are so small. I would lose them in the acre lol.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

I do not have birds dedicated to just meat. I wanted fresh organic eggs that I KNEW were pure of chemicals.


Anyone doing it?
* Yes I am feeding fermented organic grain.
How long have you been doing it?
* Since day one when I got my chickens in Feb 2013.
Your methods?
*Bucket covered with cloth, grains, water to cover, stir twice day.
Grains/feeds used in this manner?
*Organic scratch grain or I mix up my own with small bags of Bobs Red Mill
* Sometimes I add roasted hulled sunflower seeds
*Occasionally I ADD 'SOME' Organic Pellet feed
Your overall review of this method of feeding?
* I love it because the chickens love it. They will turn up their noses at just Pellet feed.

I offered the Pelleted feed next to the fermented feed and they only ate it sparingly after the ff was completely gone and not offered OR in the morning before I let them out to free range if I slept in too long.
Since I got the Rooster all the excess ff I fed at bedtime is gone in morning or he finishes it off when I let the girls out. They run straight to door and after he comes out first to check things out they bolt out to free range just outside the coop while he goes back in he cleans up anything left and goes out to join them. He will clean any ff first and sometimes leaves the pellets until a rainy day and they browse in and out.

I do supplement with animal protein occasionally. Seeds from cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes from my organic garden. And they also follow for earthworms or any bugs if I am in the garden digging. They free range from sun up or when I go out until I coop them (shut the door on the smaller coop inside). This smaller coop will be my "brooder/chick safety/integration" ...

 

[bluebirdnanny]

I forgot to say that since I have a hard time finding the Braggs here I figured I would just crush some of my apples each year and keep that. It seems to work well after letting it age in a canning jar with a lid just screwed on.

Also just let my fallen apples lay. Once they start to brown the chickens begin to pick them apart! I make my applesauce with only apples cooked down. Nothing added at all. If I open that, add water and let it set (cloth covered like the ff) then mix it with any veggy scraps they devour it! I will do this anytime I notice they are after the fallen apples more than normal. I assume they are self medicating when they go after the 'rotting' apples.

My whole yard is comprised of 'native weeds'. No planted grasses. All grasses grow on their own. Except in the "field-edge of woods" we planted years ago with pasture grass, clover and alfalfa, chicory for wildlife. I reap seed head from there and use it as scratch for them or add to ff if I get enough. This wild grass etc I cut like a lawn is dried and mixed into the coop bedding and is what I use in the nest boxes. So they also get some nutrition scratching in there.