Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[LindaB220]

Today was the day!!!!!

Moved the FF bucket back to the coop!!! My room is my room once again...well..it will be after/when/if these chicks hatch. Then I'll be sprouting seedlings there too, so will still be doing double duty for awhile.

No more big, blue bucket~no matter how much I love him~for me to stumble upon.

Woohoo!!!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Today was the day!!!!!

Moved the FF bucket back to the coop!!! My room is my room once again...well..it will be after/when/if these chicks hatch. Then I'll be sprouting seedlings there too, so will still be doing double duty for awhile.

No more big, blue bucket~no matter how much I love him~for me to stumble upon.

yeah I know what you mean Bee, between the ff and the incubator and the brooder box I'm like oh my goodness at the stuff I have in here. Mine is in the utility room and the dining room and the living room. lol I was thinking today, man I need a little room outside for all this stuff.

 

[cortner1195]

My ff is ready! I have the 18 meaties in a water trough. They have had access to chick starter around the clock up to now. As I have read here, I think I need to remove their food and only feed them twice per day of the ff? I have a one year old layer in icu for an injured leg, and extended broody phase. She weighed very little, poor feathers, and difficulty moving around. Her first 48 hours in a box led to normal bowels, eating and drinking well, starting to stand on one leg. Still very listless. Last night I put her in with the chicks. A little work, and I think she is in love. Moving around. I am hopeful for her.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Cortner, free feed for the first few weeks, then reduce your feedings to what works best for you (1-3 meals a day) around 3 weeks. The free feed will make sure their little baby bodies have enough to grow strong bones, organs, etc as the basis for their life (most baby animals eat like crazy) and then restrict feed so they are forced to keep moving, forage and don't grow too fast.

This year I am going to have a crop of red clover... I wonder how it would do as a major meat bird feed source.

 

[Beekissed]

Cortner, free feed for the first few weeks, then reduce your feedings to what works best for you (1-3 meals a day) around 3 weeks. The free feed will make sure their little baby bodies have enough to grow strong bones, organs, etc as the basis for their life (most baby animals eat like crazy) and then restrict feed so they are forced to keep moving, forage and don't grow too fast.

This year I am going to have a crop of red clover... I wonder how it would do as a major meat bird feed source.

http://www.feedipedia.org/node/12035

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Oh wow! What a cool website! Thanks so much, Bee! Looks like the red clover will do great for both meat birds and my egg layers! I find it fascinating that even though clover and alfalfa are rich in protein, fat, calcium and fiber and enrich soil with nitrogen, that many of the major ingredients in layer feeds are grains. I think using spent grains, forage seeds such as those in scratch, and grain by products you could make a rich chicken pellet out of mostly nitrogen fixing forage legumes. Just have to bring the crude fiber down!

 

[Beekissed]

Yep...I like that site. It even has how it works for each kind of livestock, the digestibility for them, etc. I've not found another one that was so complete. I'll be doing the WDC this year with just a little of the yellow sweet clover on the edges and up in the deer plot, just for funzies.

I've done the red before and it doesn't come back like the white and I expect this yellow won't come back like the white either, but it adds variety. I was surprised to know that honey bees don't utilize the red clover, so I stopped planting it because of those reasons~not drought tolerant, doesn't reseed well, not a bee attractant and has less protein than the white...and because it gets so TALL...that stuff can get 2 ft. tall!..so it didn't work in my garden pathways very well, though it might work better in a meadow.

 

[Jipus5]

Ok, so REVEAL...
WHAT DO YOU PUT IN YOUR BUCKETS THAT MAKES UP YOUR FERMENTED FEED????????? Then why...

 

[Beekissed]

I've just been told by a corporate mole for the feed companies that we are using snake oils. Not true. I have not had oil of snake in my feeds since the 70s....

 

[LindaB220]

Yep...I like that site. It even has how it works for each kind of livestock, the digestibility for them, etc. I've not found another one that was so complete. I'll be doing the WDC this year with just a little of the yellow sweet clover on the edges and up in the deer plot, just for funzies.

I've done the red before and it doesn't come back like the white and I expect this yellow won't come back like the white either, but it adds variety. I was surprised to know that honey bees don't utilize the red clover, so I stopped planting it because of those reasons~not drought tolerant, doesn't reseed well, not a bee attractant and has less protein than the white...and because it gets so TALL...that stuff can get 2 ft. tall!..so it didn't work in my garden pathways very well, though it might work better in a meadow.

So of course, I've bought red clover. Hmmmmm

Will the chickens even eat it?