FERMENTED FEEDS...anyone using them?

[LindaB220]

I added some of my mostly whole-grain fermented feed mix to my 4 week old chicks feed. I mixed it in with their non-medicated starter grower to entice them to eat it. I have no idea how they managed to do it but they ate all the fermented feed and barely touched the started grower they'd been on since day two of their lives. It's great news I guess except I just bought a 50# bag of started grower yesterday!

Put your grower in with the grains and ferment it all. It works great. That's what I do.

 

[Bethel3330]

You got me on this.  I'm on well water so will bow to your expertise.        

LOL lucky girl! After our water contamination we priced drilling a well and I just don't have $5-7k right now. Luckily, though, we can get drinking and cooking water from another company with an uncontaminated reservoir thank goodness

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Beverly I got my baby girls today they are really doing good I took each one and put there beaks in the water they took to it right away and I put there feed around on the freezer paper and they did the same I got all my baby chicks from cackle hatchery so far I have real good luck there they are in Lebanon,mo.65536 still learning

Freezer paper may be too slick. They need good footing and I use paper towels for the first several days.

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She's a bantam Cochin so broodiness is expected, I just didn't know about pulling out feathers. I can't hatch anything right now so she is sitting on nothing. It's sad.

Quote:

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm glad she's not got something wrong with her. I feel bad about her huge sacrifice for no outcome. She doesn't even have any eggs under her. She's only 8.5 months old.

It's really best to break the broodiness as early as possible if one isn't going to provide fertile eggs to the hen.

Not necessarily true. There are two different chemicals used in municipal chlorinating. If your water is sanitized with Chlorine it will evaporate. If Chloramine is used (a combo of chlorine and ammonia) it will not evaporate. I am not sure which one my tap water is treated with and I decided that since I use it for my chickens water, I was not going to worry about it for my FF. I use only feed and water (no starter, ever) and my batches ferment just fine. In fact, with the warmer weather here and my house is 85+ most days it is almost too fermented. Girls turned their noses up when I got low on my last batch. I will be making smaller amounts through the summer since I usually make enough to last about 5 days. I'll be aiming for more like 3.

You're right. Almost all munis use chloramine since it is so stable.
I use tap water conditioner (for aquariums) to break the chlorine/ammonia bond and dissipate the chlorine before I put it in the FF.
I was told by a company, which makes a probiotic for chickens, that the chloramine would have a negative effect on their product's quality.

Chlorine will evaporate into the air in an hour or so. Chloramine will take many days.
The tap water conditioner takes one drop per gallon for chlorine, 3 drops for chloramine.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

LOL lucky girl! After our water contamination we priced drilling a well and I just don't have $5-7k right now. Luckily, though, we can get drinking and cooking water from another company with an uncontaminated reservoir

thank goodness

The last 2 wells we drilled were each over $30,000.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Freezer paper may be too slick. They need good footing and I use paper towels for the first several days.

I agree with paper towels ... it is very easy to work with and seems to give the birds both grip and cushion. Either right on the bottom of the brooder box (I found some great totes with FLAT bottoms!) or over a layer of shavings.

 

[LindaB220]

The last 2 wells we drilled were each over $30,000.

Good ol' Oregon prices. My well is 20 years old but only cost $4000. Of course our house prices are a lot lower also. Before moving to Austin my oldest DD lived in Portland. Almost starved to death.

Not really, but they weren't able to ever buy a house. Now they are in Austin in a 2400 sq ft two story for $230,000. They wouldn't have been able to touch that up there. But still looking over their shoulders trying to find a way to move back. Loved it up there.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Good ol' Oregon prices. My well is 20 years old but only cost $4000. Of course our house prices are a lot lower also. Before moving to Austin my oldest DD lived in Portland. Almost starved to death.

Not really, but they weren't able to ever buy a house. Now they are in Austin in a 2400 sq ft two story for $230,000. They wouldn't have been able to touch that up there. But still looking over their shoulders trying to find a way to move back. Loved it up there.

We're up on a hill, and the "first" water table is somewhat seasonal and also very acidic, so besides producing "slow" wells, the water out of it eats through metal pipes super fast. The next water is sever hundred feet deeper ...

You used to be able to buy a "nice" house here for next to nothing.

 

[niqueie]

Do you suggest the broody cage with wire bottom for breaking a broody. Every time we go up there we take them off the nest and get them moving. But they rush back.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Do you suggest the broody cage with wire bottom for breaking a broody. Every time we go up there we take them off the nest and get them moving. But they rush back.

That's what a friend does ... puts a wire bottom cage up on the roosts when he is breaking a broody. I haven't tried it. Just make sure your wire cage is still protected from predators.

 

[n3kms]

I have a 4ftX4ft wooden box for a brooder. I had gotten it at a thrift store years ago. I filled it with about 3 inches of pine shavings and got 10 Barred Rock chicks when they were a day old. They are 3 1/2 weeks old now.They are in our garage. They have been getting FF ever since they started eating. At first I stirred their litter every day. Now they stir it quite a bit themselves. I still mix it up about every other day. It still smells pretty much like the day we put them in the box. No bad smells, no problems. I've never scooped any out. I have added a little now and then. It's been great. The only problem I do have is that they are about to outgrow it. Every day I wake up I think I have ten different chicks they are growing so fast. Right now they look like the are having a bad hair day, with a few feathers coming in on their heads. I wish the weather would stablize so I can get them into the coop in about a week. Very pleased with keeping chicks, fermented food and all the help from folks on this site.