FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Audio51]

I am almost at the end of Day 2 and I am not seeing much in the way of bubbles in my buckets. Does trhe temperature of the room affect the process? I'm just wondering if it's too cold. I have them in the house but I keep the temperature around 68.

 

[Maven]

Hey Bee!

Been too busy raising the flock and working the farm but since it is a rainy, blustery day here I thought I'd check in.

I'm into 2 years now with my flock on the fermented feed, STILL using the SAME original bucket I started with (it has never been restarted, only added to all this time), and still can give nothing but RAVE reviews. I've not had one single sick chicken, not one worm, not one single pasty butt on over 100 new hatchlings, and still have the fattest, sassiest, healthiest, shiniest, fastest molting/recovering birds in the area with the absolute lowest feed bill to go along with them.

Hope all is well with you and yours. You and the boys deer hunting this year? Our season opened yesterday - no luck on opening day and with the wind today the only way you are going to see a deer is with a hard push through the timber. The hubby and some buddies went out this morning but I'll wait until the sunshine/calm wind tomorrow. I'm turning into a wuss in my old age.

If y'all are going out, good luck!

 

[kpgoldstar]

I am almost at the end of Day 2 and I am not seeing much in the way of bubbles in my buckets. Does trhe temperature of the room affect the process? I'm just wondering if it's too cold. I have them in the house but I keep the temperature around 68.

Are you keeping the bucket covered or wide open? For the first few days, I would definitele be sure you have some sort of cover on it. You can look back a couple pages (the page before your first bucket picture to see how I keep mine covered. Are you noticing any change in the smell, sourish at all? You had quite a significant batch so it may take a little more time, usually about 3 days to start then once you have your base of ferment, new adds are ready overnight. Did you use the ACV? If I remember correctly you used more than just straight feed for this batch, some scratch or additional grains? Maybe that is why it could be taking longer. Stirring every 3-4 hours?

 

[kpgoldstar]

KP, I highly recommend checking out chicken nipples. I got mine from Brite Tap and the water stays clean and clear, and lasts for a week or more depending on how many chickens you have and how big a container you use. No poop, dirt or anything else. Just clear, clean water. No more cleaning out those disgusting waterers for me

I have thought about nipples for a while. I just worry about the learning curve as they have been raised on a jar-type auto waterer. I also live where it is extremely dry and my girls at this point are drinking nearly 1/2 c water each per day and it isn't even warm yet, well warm is a relative term since it has been 80's -90's since they were born.
Anyway, I just worry about the capacity of the nipplers, especially when they get bigger and will drinking even more water. I use a 1-quart waterer now and ordered an additional one that I will keep in the coop so I don't have to keep moving it from coop to run for daytime/nighttime use.

 

[pegm]

The learning curve is short, and I have a 5 gal Igloo container I use and it lasts a long time with my 4 adult girls and we get very hot and dry in the summer. Lasts like 3 weeks. Only I don't let it go that long as I either add or change every week or so. My EE was trying the nipples within a half hour. They naturally peck at something red, so it was a natural progression. Once one gets the idea, the others follow.

 

[Beekissed]

Hey Bee!

Been too busy raising the flock and working the farm but since it is a rainy, blustery day here I thought I'd check in.

I'm into 2 years now with my flock on the fermented feed, STILL using the SAME original bucket I started with (it has never been restarted, only added to all this time), and still can give nothing but RAVE reviews. I've not had one single sick chicken, not one worm, not one single pasty butt on over 100 new hatchlings, and still have the fattest, sassiest, healthiest, shiniest, fastest molting/recovering birds in the area with the absolute lowest feed bill to go along with them.

Hope all is well with you and yours. You and the boys deer hunting this year? Our season opened yesterday - no luck on opening day and with the wind today the only way you are going to see a deer is with a hard push through the timber. The hubby and some buddies went out this morning but I'll wait until the sunshine/calm wind tomorrow. I'm turning into a wuss in my old age.

If y'all are going out, good luck!

Hey, Maven!!!

Good to hear from you and that's a great review of the method!! So good to hear that all is well and you are still loving the FF...as am I. Have you noticed the great flavor of the eggs and meat on this stuff? Dynamite!

Yep, we've had a few bow kills and my brother came out with his youngins for a youth gun hunt and took home two deer. Just canned up some deer meat yesterday and hope to have more of the same when my middle boy gets to take off work for some much needed bow hunting time before gun season officially opens here.

Good luck to you as well! Slap that meat in the jar if you can...supposed to have some interruptions of the power grid coming up as they do "testing" this winter for homeland security...translation: Government messing with the populace so that they can gauge how helpless it is when utilities are denied.

I am almost at the end of Day 2 and I am not seeing much in the way of bubbles in my buckets. Does trhe temperature of the room affect the process? I'm just wondering if it's too cold. I have them in the house but I keep the temperature around 68.

No worries. It will happen. Each person's fermentation rate is different according to the available yeast spores in the air where they live, the type of feed being fermented, the type of water used, etc. Just give it time and it will happen. No need to stir more frequently or keep a lid tight on it...just let it have air, stir once a day and wait. Patience you must have, Jedi.

I have thought about nipples for a while. I just worry about the learning curve as they have been raised on a jar-type auto waterer. I also live where it is extremely dry and my girls at this point are drinking nearly 1/2 c water each per day and it isn't even warm yet, well warm is a relative term since it has been 80's -90's since they were born.
Anyway, I just worry about the capacity of the nipplers, especially when they get bigger and will drinking even more water. I use a 1-quart waterer now and ordered an additional one that I will keep in the coop so I don't have to keep moving it from coop to run for daytime/nighttime use.

If the CX birds can stay hydrated on the nipples, so can your flock.

If a 1 qt. waterer is sufficient for your flock you have no worries....try 50+ water guzzlers.....





These CX also had a 5 gal bucket waterer with the straight nipples on it but they all preferred the one they grew up on in the brooder...silly birds. I kept the 5 gal. nipple bucket in the coop and the small ice cream bucket outside in the shade. We had 98* weather at that time with 65% humidity and these birds stayed well hydrated with the use of the FF and nipple buckets. And they free ranged all over 3 acres in the midst of that heat, so they were really pushing the envelope for meat bird heat tolerance.



If the straight nipples don't seem like a good fit, you can try the nipple cup type like the one in the bucket below. These are some meat roosters I bought the day before and they had been drinking out of dirty pans in a muddy run when I bought them..and they learned how to use this nipple water system in about one fast minute.

 

[Maven]

Yep, Bee, we plan to can a LOT of the meat this year - saves SO much room in the freezer! And my husband loves it canned!

Gun season opened here yesterday, so we have 10 days to fill 4 tags!!

Boy, the eggs and the meat are fabulous - that is an added bonus to the healthy birds you get on FF method. Another bonus is that I hardly EVER have to haul water to the run - the FF keeps the birds hydrated so well.

I'll never go back to dry feed - NEVER!

Glad all sounds good with you and yours as well.

 

[Beekissed]

Me too...I'll not be going back to dry feeds in my lifetime, if the Lord wills it. Too, too many benefits to this type of feeding. I can't believe that those who breed and show birds haven't caught up on this for the appearance and fecundity of their flocks. Someone on here was showing us the chicks from parents fed this FF and they were large, healthy, vigorous.

 

[Maven]

You know what else? Remember last year when we debated on the sex of chicks from FF fed hens? Well, a dozen hatches later, and my pullet to cockerel ration was off the charts - 3-4 times as many pullets as cockerels per hatch or better. Don't know just how 'scientific' the results are but I'll take them just the same.

Out of a little over 100 eggs hatched, I only had 11 cockerels to dispose of!

How do you beat that? Don't KNOW that it was the feed, don't care - if it ain't broke, I ain't fixin' it!

 

[Beekissed]

You know what else? Remember last year when we debated on the sex of chicks from FF fed hens? Well, a dozen hatches later, and my pullet to cockerel ration was off the charts - 3-4 times as many pullets as cockerels per hatch or better. Don't know just how 'scientific' the results are but I'll take them just the same.

Out of a little over 100 eggs hatched, I only had 11 cockerels to dispose of!

How do you beat that? Don't KNOW that it was the feed, don't care - if it ain't broke, I ain't fixin' it!

Exactly!! Those that spurn anecdotal discovery are those that lose out in the end. I had the same results by adding ACV to the water for my meat rabbits and in my flock's broody hatches and the same properties are held in this FF, so it stands to reason it would act in much the same manner. Those are remarkable results you have to report!!!

Man, I wish I were inclined to right an article or study on this and publish it, but having no credentials it wouldn't be believed anyway. Guess it will just stay our little~quite pleasurable~secret......

Think about the implications of hatches that are primarily female when done on a large scale like a hatchery....that would mean less male chicks disposed of in a meat grinder after sorting. Something that simple could halt the horrible death of many a chick if someone were only to implement it without waiting on scientific proof of the efficacy of it all...they could feed FF and have healthier chicks right out of the egg, more would be female and they would be born with probiotics already coursing through their systems instead of the medicines that are normally fed the parent stock, particularly in regards to the broiler stock.