Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[LindaB220]

They bit a guy and the only punishment was a fence? Are folks stark raving mad?

If that fellow had bit the dog they would have him up on charges for cruelty to animals..... strange world in which we live now.

They ticketed the owners. I think the fence is a last ditch attempt to keep the dogs. We'll see when they go to court next month. The dog owner is po' uneducated and uncaring, the guy who got bit? His FIL is WEALTHY. That's the man that bought my land.

 

[perchie.girl]

My experience here in San Diego and the county is Coyote packs. Anyone who has dogs keeps them in at night Coyote proof fencing is needed to protect small livestock like poultry they dont bother with the goats. Out in the county there are bigger predators. Bob Cat and Mountain Lion. there is one community they set up trail cams and found that mountain lions were freely moving through town checking for the Odd snack. One woman lost her poodle right on her door step. Fenced yard last piddle before bed time.....

The way the City is built they left the canyons alone building on ridges and mesas. There for its not unnusual for Mountain lions and Bob cats to make their way Unimpeded as far as the ocean following game and water. I am always sad when I see lost dog or cat posters because for the most part they have become dinner.

At my house I have eighteen acres of Chaparal. I have heard Mountain lion screams in the canyon behind the house. A coyote pack took all my poultry last year.... the result of a cascade failure. Sigh.... Ultimately my fault. Pump failure I had to let them into the goat yard to get water that I hauled up from the city in a tote.... It took a week to find someone to fix the pump. By then they were gone. I dont live there wont for a time.

The deal is I have about three acres devoted to house front yard side yard back yard and horse corral. All but the horse corral has field fencing... Which Needs some repair... I cant keep a solid gate they get blown off in the wind. So I need to replace the gates with Field fence gates and then top the whole thing with Hot wire. The poultry housing is within the Goat yard both are all kennel panels. Probably about an 8th of an acre. I was comfortable about my dog having free access to that yard through a doggy door... Since then The goats have made their own doors thats how the coyotes got in....

Eventually I want to do cattle panels around the yard including the horse corral so I can leave the back yard for the chickens and let the horse share space with the goats. Here cattle panels are 45 bucks so its not going to happen too quickly.

deb

 

[KrazyChromatics]

I'm going to have to have a red or blue heeler. I believe I may get one this spring. I wish I had that invisible fence installed on about 20 acres. I wish they would make it without the wire, with just some kind of transmitters or emitters (whatever you might call them) that you could install on a post around an area.

Deb, this might be a job for you! lol

the pet safe fences are just a collar and a box that emits a permiiter, no buried wires, but i think the land has to be flat for it to work properly not 100% ive never used them, just sold several

 

[Beekissed]

the pet safe fences are just a collar and a box that emits a permiiter, no buried wires, but i think the land has to be flat for it to work properly not 100% ive never used them, just sold several

That's interesting. I've never really used them on hilly ground...a little hilly but not anything I would consider really bad, but certainly not flat. Never had a problem where I've used them. I wonder if it would change if the transmitter was elevated past the rise of the land? I usually keep my transmitter at head height in a tree but lately have kept it on a cinder block at the base of a tree.

 

[KrazyChromatics]

hmm im not sure, i know they can go through houses but i did have a customer return one because it failed in a dip, it must have been a large one that maybe the dog could go under? i really dont know how they work lol... did you know they make small ones for the house? i was so excited to see that till i saw it was over 100 bucks... ill just put the garbage in a cupboard and keep the bread on the fridge lol.. darn mutt he was a great pup, then he turned 2 and ate almost all my shoes, and still has to take a bit out of new things.... i guess atleast hes potty trained lol, but hes a major food thief.. then again so it the cat, shes probably worse, shes sneaky and gets on the counters and shes well aware shes not supposed to... rawr.....

 

[Triple Willow]

This invisable fencing stuff is interesting. I just never wanted to bury any because no doubt, around here it would be torn up by a tractor or the phone, water or electric, etc. company. If I put up one of those my dog will think he died and went to hell at my hands. LOL He loves his freedom here on the acres he has to roam.

 

[perchie.girl]

Bee all this talk about building things and fencing in combination with Fermented Feed reminds me to mention a design change I am doing on my coop rebuild. I am still sketching so my coop rebuild page still has the old design.

Originally I wanted to build it with large capacity dry feeders. Self cleaning waterers too. Even have extensive modular designs for them. With the coop rebuild I am building in a wash area for chick feeders and such. So I am going to make a space for doing Fermented feed. And am going to change the feeder as well. So that it can be extracted filled and replaced in the aisle.... Or pulled and washed

As you know with my predator issues I wont be free ranging at all. except within the fenced areas I am planning. So Fermented feed will be the replacement food I have been worrying about. For what its worth I will be raising pretty much ornamental chickens Sumatras some bantams..... a variety.... But the main purpose will be to raise Guinea fowl. Both for eggs and meat. The Sumatra hens go broody very quickly so there are my incubators.

deb

 

[Triple Willow]

9_9 I love pitbulls but SOOO many people can't control them. My neighbor has a pitull/lab mix and he is a rescue... He acts super aggressive, barking and charging, until you actually stand up to him or take even one step towards him, or look at him angry.. Then he becomes meek and quiet and turns into the sweetest dog. He is always getting off their tie out and causing trouble! I have collected him from wandering my street so many times that he comes to me when I call him and follows my commands as well as his twat sorority girl owner. Eight or so times in the last year. Once he was chasing a kid down the street and the other time he was chasing after my sister and her 14 year old dog aggressive dog.

Not that I can say much better for the other dog owners in the area. There's an aierdale on the corner with a 4ft fence that he can peek his head over... His owners let him out into their tiny fenced in plot anytime he barks... And he barks at neighborhood dogs. So he goes out into this insecure fence whenever a dog walks by. And there's two golden retreivers who live behind my sister across the street that are always off leash and roaming the area and are very territorial. And around the bend there are 2-3 daschunds with an invisible fence that ends just about a foot shy of the sidewalk which they ignore to attack people walking up the sidewalk... And the fox terrier down the road from them with an invisible fence (well away from the sidewalk luckilly) that yaps and chases anyone that passes and, and, and....

And this is why I have a 6ft wooden privacy fence for my back yard.

In this ignorant podunk one horse town I live well outside of, if a dog even acts agressive they will make the owner get rid of it or put it down. From what I have heard that includes a dog inside the owner's house barking at somebody through a door. And they dropped the hammer on pittbulls a few years ago. The laws are so strict on them most everybody had to get rid of them which was a good thing because the drug dealers and thugs had a bunch of them guarding their "stuff". Out here in the country any roaming agressive dogs or any that are just a pain in the backside disappear real quick.

 

[Beekissed]

I would love to see your designs when you have them completed! I think it's a logistical problem for many who are feeding the FF when it comes to feeders, clean out, large capacity and just where and how to implement feeding wet feed into a coop environment. With your talent you ought to be able to show us some workable solutions on this issue.

I'll tell you of a neat little product I found in a Premeir1 mag the other day and I called the company to see if it gets warm on the upper surface..and it does. Not as warm as the underside but still warm enough. Let me post a pic of it...it's called a warming plate for chick brooding and they also have a nifty nipple water bottle that sits on it, just right. I'm thinking it would be efficacious to set the FF on top of this plate to keep it warm and also keep it out of the shavings. The plastic is textured for good footing, easy to clean and would even keep feet warmed. It comes with a domed lid that can keep them from roosting there at night.

It's fully adjustable to the suitable chick height and goes all the way down to one inch above the floor. It's supposed to take the place of heating lamps for a safer brooding and they have sizes for 20 chicks and 50 chicks. $42 for the 20 chick size and the nipple water is $5. Neat, huh? Could even be used in the opposite way~flip it~ to keep FF warm in the winter as well as keeping water thawed out.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Do you have a link for this contraption Bee?