FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[Audio51]

There's just about; no kind of coop that would keep a hungry bear out! What kind of coop do you have? And you say they only want the grain feed, not the chickens?? : (

That is probably right. Bears are not really carnivorous in the same way a wolf or coyote is. They are omnivores and generally eat mostly berries, seed, termites, bees, fish and things like that. The will eat meat but it is usually in the form of carrion killed by other animals. Grizzly bear males will kill bison and elk calves if they have the opportunity though. Black bears are much more likely to be interested in the feed than the chickens.

http://www.americanbear.org/science.htm

 

[flickerloo]

My birds eat the ff with fish meal just as well as the stuff without it. They act as if I haven't fed them for days with the current fishy ff. I went back to feeding them the 12-15 cups instead of reduced 10 cups. I have 20 young not yet laying chickens. I had to up the portion because when I reduced it, they started picking on the little birds (4 bantams).

(Snip)

Long story short they eat the fishy ff as frantically as the non fishy ff. I think it smells awful and disgusting, but they don't care whatsoever.
.

Thanks so much for the response. At this point it doesn't seem bad at all, although maybe it will get worse later. I do eat kimchi every day, so it's also possible that it just doesn't bother me.

 

[niqueie]

I was blessed and found out about fermenting feed before I got my flock. They have had it since I got them in august as babies. I have been pretty good with keeping up a good ferment most of the time without using up some portion to start the next batch, but I ran out on Wednesday and had to start the new batch fresh. I didn't wash the container or anything, but I did have to scrape the bowl completely to feed them enough for the day. So I had to start over and Thursday it hadn't fermented much because of the colder weather and I forgot to add in the ACV to get it to go faster. Thursday and today I saw runny poops and the smell was a little bad in the coop for the first time ever. I never even realized how great the FF was for my birds. I'm so glad that you have shared your insight everyone. Especially Bee. The feed really started stinking (fish meal in feed) again tonight so tomorrow they will have a normal fermented meal. I'm sure the stink from runny poo will get a lot better now.

 

[niqueie]

Thanks so much for the response. At this point it doesn't seem bad at all, although maybe it will get worse later. I do eat kimchi every day, so it's also possible that it just doesn't bother me.

Please let me know if it stinks in a couple days. I can buy that kind of feed, but was wary to do so because of the fish meal. I want to keep my FF in the house so it's easier to stay on top of it, but I can't if it's the feed I have now. It stunk up the whole house by the next morning. Good luck with yours, I'm interested in your outcomes.

 

[Beekissed]

That's why I like to use the double bucket method so much...that bottom reservoir of scoby water is always waiting, untouched, to inoculate the next batch. Right now I'm batching in an ice chest for the winter and this will be the first time I don't have my reserve scoby, so I'll have to be careful to refresh feed in plenty of time before it runs out so I'll keep my strong colonies from my original scoby started last fall.

Others have reported the same results when they had to go back to feeding dry, even briefly, with the runny butts and they were also surprised at how quickly the birds were running through the dry feed...that's when some discovered they used twice as much dry feed as they did when fermenting it.

Are you using deep litter in your coop and cultivating that? DL also helps keep the smell in the coop down....lovely stuff and I'll never go back to cleaning the bedding out of the coop again or just using no bedding at all. This DL combined with FF is like a poultry keeper's dream!

 

[22qZoo]

Some of my friends on another thread talked about putting leaves in their coop/run,so I tried that this year . It really has given them a new hobby,on the days that I'm not able to let them free range they stay pretty busy turning over the leaves. That "dirt" in the chicken run is the best dirt on these 13 acres.

 

[fosterson]

Well, as I'd said earlier this week, I'd been 'forced' to use antibiotics because of a bad case of 11/12 chickens with coccidosis. I hate using antibiotics, but I'm on a cobweb and couldn't really afford to lose even a single chook right now. I'm depending on them for a good portion of my dietary protein right now! Anyway, that said, I started FF the same day I started the antibiotics - today, just FF and I noticed that with one single exception (who is still fairly new to the flock and moulted in a bad way), I have perfect 'chicken doo' instead of 'chicken squirt'. Uniform, marble like poops that don't smell and don't cling to everything in sight!

And my SO stopped whining about the smell of the FF within 2 days. I swear, he has the most oversensitive snoot on the planet and a weak stomach to go with -- thank goodness he's a dab hand at actually slaughtering and plucking the birds or we might have issues

 

[fosterson]

Some of my friends on another thread talked about putting leaves in their coop/run,so I tried that this year . It really has given them a new hobby,on the days that I'm not able to let them free range they stay pretty busy turning over the leaves. That "dirt" in the chicken run is the best dirt on these 13 acres.

Yeah. I was so grateful that I have a good half dozen massive trees in my yard, and that it was really good and dry this late fall -- saved me a BUNDLE on getting enough straw to fill the coop! And the chickens LOVE to dig through and see if there are any 'goodies' in the leaves.

That said, they're also chickens -- and more than once 'panic attack' has been triggered by a large maple leaf falling into the run and landing on a silly biddy.

You'd think the sky was falling!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I haven't read all the posts - obviously- but does anyone know if chloramine or chlorine treated water from city water supplies affects the fermentation?

 

[beverly evans]

Here's a picture of our coop. We used all recycled materials to make it.

A really fabulous coop! : )