Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Turk Raphael]

You can also use fresh coffee grinds to grow your own mushrooms if you like them! (Due to the temperature of the water, you are essentially sterilizing the coffee grinds when you make coffee, so the fresh grinds are great for mushroom culture.)

We absolutely love mushrooms! There are a couple of 'root cellars' that are in such disrepair that mushrooms might be just the ticket. Thanks!!! Will look into that.

 

[LBKS]

Oh man, what a fantastic idea. Do you have any sites or info on this. Thanks

Here is one from a quick googlefu, the search terms I recommend are "coffee ground mushroom substrate" and when you are looking for the starter spores, you are looking for "mushroom spawn". Enjoy!

 

[Triple Willow]

I googled it and every one of the posts said "NO" to caffeine   Feed it to the compost for worms.   

Aww poor shikins. Nobody wants to give them a little boost. LOL

 

[wyoDreamer]

Here is some info on Coffee Grounds that I took from Garden Web. Here is the site I got it from: http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/soil/2002015354019975.html

• "Roasted coffee is fairly acidic, but it appears that almost all of the acid is water soluble and is extracted during brewing. Used grounds have essentially neutral pH, although the coffee beverage produced is rather acidic.
  The measured pH of used coffee grounds was 6.9, with a significant amount of buffer capacity - adding the coffee to either acidic or basic solutions drove both towards neutral pH. The exact pH of used grounds will depend on the pH and alkalinity of the water used in brewing, but with any potable water, used grounds will be close to neutral pH."

You might want to just save the coffee grounds for the worms. Note that it says coffee grounds have a significant buffer capacity which drove the solutions toward neutral. You really don't want to mess with the pH of your fermented feed too much. If you drop it towards neutral too far, it will spoil.

I wonder what the pH of the fermented feed is?

As a reference: vinegar is 2.4, yogurt is between 4 and 4.5, while milk is considered neutral at 7.0 to 6.7. (From what I can find on the internet).You are probably looking to be near the yogurt range for fermented feeds, wouldn't you think?

 

[Beekissed]

Leslie Joyce has a link on the pH of it and the benefits from feeding at different levels of fermentation.

Another thing to consider when thinking of adding stray ingredients into your FF bucket is, will it add nutrients or take away from the total nutrients fed by diluting them? I'm doubting coffee grounds have anything a chicken needs...maybe fiber? They aren't like worms where you can just recycle all your garbage into their food and expect it will all be of high nutrition for them.

 

[Triple Willow]

Very true!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Leslie Joyce has a link on the pH of it and the benefits from feeding at different levels of fermentation.

Another thing to consider when thinking of adding stray ingredients into your FF bucket is, will it add nutrients or take away from the total nutrients fed by diluting them? I'm doubting coffee grounds have anything a chicken needs...maybe fiber? They aren't like worms where you can just recycle all your garbage into their food and expect it will all be of high nutrition for them.

yeah I'm with you.

 

[MistyMountain]

Just went to goodwill to pick up some glass casserole dishes and came across a couple nice plastic straining spoons. My feed has been fermenting since Sunday night and is starting to get bubbly. I am going to take a dish out to the flock now!! I am a bit surprised that it doesn't smell as pleasant as I expected, it's not a bad smell, but not a smell that would make me want to eat it!

Wish me luck!!

 

[Triple Willow]

Just went to goodwill to pick up some glass casserole dishes and came across a couple nice plastic straining spoons. My feed has been fermenting since Sunday night and is starting to get bubbly. I am going to take a dish out to the flock now!! I am a bit surprised that it doesn't smell as pleasant as I expected, it's not a bad smell, but not a smell that would make me want to eat it!

Wish me luck!!

Next time you go out don't get hurt!! LOL

 

[MistyMountain]

Next time you go out don't get hurt!! LOL

Oh my goodness. I let their dry feed run out. I took just one loaf dish full out. Chica tested it, and then there was a blur of colors jumping and diving. 3 minutes tops and it was gone. Filled it again. This time it took about 10 minutes. They LOVE it!!