FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[armorfirelady]

I am giving my fermented feed to my chicks, but the heat lamp is drying it into a hard lump before the chicks can even try it & I am having some trouble with pasty butt. I lost a chick this morning. It had been 'panting' (opening & closing its beak over and over) for hours. I have no idea what was wrong. I made sure it got some water with acv but it passed this morning.

Move the FF so its nit under the heat lamp. And it sounds like the chick might be panting because its to warm

 

[LOVEIGEE]

It would be simply lovely. What if you don't like me as much when we meet in person?

You'll spend the whole way home calling me names like hick, redneck, hillbilly, idiot, backwoods and stoopid.....

IMPOSSIBLE! Remember you were given to me by someone very very special and knows........Tee hee

 

[LOVEIGEE]

Move the FF so its nit under the heat lamp. And it sounds like the chick might be panting because its to warm

We posted the same thing at the same time.....guess two identical answers means something....huh?

 

[RoseMarie1]

Have you checked the temperature in your brooder. Pasty butt is also a result of too high heat. You can slide your feeder a little out from under the direct light and they will be fine. I'm so sorry for your loss.......it is sometimes really sad. Hope this helps......

yep it needs to be away from the heat and the panting sounds to me like they're too hot. You can hold a warm paper towel on their butt for a few minutes to soften that up so it will come off. IF you don't get it off it will kill them. They have to be able to poop and if they can't they will die. Normally they don't get this when eating fermented foods from all i have read because their probiotics. I used yogurt in mines food before I started doing the ff because I have 2 of them with pasty butt. But you can't leave left overs of this yogurt mixture for a while in those high heats or if will sour for sure.

LOL I see others have said it's too hot to.

 

[Beekissed]

I am giving my fermented feed to my chicks, but the heat lamp is drying it into a hard lump before the chicks can even try it & I am having some trouble with pasty butt. I lost a chick this morning. It had been 'panting' (opening & closing its beak over and over) for hours. I have no idea what was wrong. I made sure it got some water with acv but it passed this morning.

Ditto what the other gals said....move the feed away from under the lamp and move that lamp further away from the floor of your brooder. You're cooking the feed and the chicks. Only dish out what feed they can finish in a couple of hours and if it gets a little crusty or trampled you can just stir it up with your finger and they will attack it again.

Some chicks will die no matter how well they are cared for and it sounds like your chick is one~so don't feel too badly, you didn't necessarily cook her to death but decreasing the heat will help with the pasty butt.

Let us know how it works out?

 

[skitzkle]

Move the FF so its nit under the heat lamp. And it sounds like the chick might be panting because its to warm

The brooder is pretty big, plenty of room for it to get out from under the light, plus it was doing it even when I picked it up out of the brooder for a while to observe it.

I had the fermented feed away from the light and they wouldn't touch it. I will keep trying. I put some dry feed in there and they went crazy for it, go figure. Maybe I will put some dry on top of the fermented feed and just a little of both and leave it till they clean their plate.

 

[Beekissed]

The brooder is pretty big, plenty of room for it to get out from under the light, plus it was doing it even when I picked it up out of the brooder for a while to observe it.

I had the fermented feed away from the light and they wouldn't touch it. I will keep trying. I put some dry feed in there and they went crazy for it, go figure. Maybe I will put some dry on top of the fermented feed and just a little of both and leave it till they clean their plate.

Yep...leave it until they clean it up and let them wait a bit before feeding again. When they are hungry enough, they will clean it up and lick the plate. I don't think there was anything you could have done for your chick that died...some just do and that's the exact symptoms they display before dying.

 

[rawheid]

Tell him that there are people on here who recorded feed consumption and costs comparisons of when they feed dry to when they feed FF and found that they feed almost half what they feed dry when using the FF. Almost half the cost of their normal feeding....half. That's a lot of money when you think about it adding up. So you pay half the cost you usually do for your eggs, your chickens live longer, healthier and more productive(yes, even more eggs than normally produced) lives, the eggs taste better~by far!, the coop stinks less and needs less cleaning.

If that ain't worth pouring some water on the feed and waiting a bit, I don't know what is!

If he doesn't want to make you a trough, just get his tools and head outside..and do it in front of him. Nothing will make a man move faster than a woman headed to the outdoors with his tools.

If it doesn't, build your own trough. There is no man around here building mine...I do all the building of things that need doing here and you can too. It takes absolutely no skill to work a drill and a sawsall. I can attest to that!

And, yes, you can dish out several day's worth of feed and leave it for them...it will actually be safer than when you used dry, as the mice don't seem as attracted to the coop now that dry feeds aren't being scattered all over the floor and crevices and I've not seen them be able to get a speck of this FF as the chickens eat it so quickly and thoroughly.

 

[RoseMarie1]

yep get those tools out, I made my own trough out of a vinyl gutter. I had some pieces of landscaping timber we'd cut off on other projects that I kept and I just used those for the feet on them. But since then have taken those off and hung it up which is much better. You can just put you a long board 1x4 on the bottom of the feeder and extend it to where it's like about a foot longer on each end than the feeder. Then put cross pieces on the ends and put a eye hook on the cross pieces, one on each side of the cross piece to hang it with. VERY easy to do! I bought the end pieces for my gutter so I'd have those to. I did cut it off some since I didn't need the whole length. I think I have a pic of it on my coop and run page.



I found it for you.... post number 80 in this link below. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/811243/pix-of-my-chicken-house-and-their-run/70

 

[rawheid]

yep get those tools out, I made my own trough out of a vinyl gutter. I had some pieces of landscaping timber we'd cut off on other projects that I kept and I just used those for the feet on them. But since then have taken those off and hung it up which is much better. You can just put you a long board 1x4 on the bottom of the feeder and extend it to where it's like about a foot longer on each end than the feeder. Then put cross pieces on the ends and put a eye hook on the cross pieces, one on each side of the cross piece to hang it with. VERY easy to do! I bought the end pieces for my gutter so I'd have those to. I did cut it off some since I didn't need the whole length. I think I have a pic of it on my coop and run page.



I found it for you.... post number 80 in this link below. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/811243/pix-of-my-chicken-house-and-their-run/70

I'll go check it out now!