Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Quote:

You've missed some information in the many pages you skipped, so I'll just give you the heads up....it doesn't have to be submerged to provide an anaerobic environment....if you'll think about it, water has oxygen in it also. There is also oxygen in the feed material. One cannot escape the oxygen and LABs don't require an anaerobic environment to reproduce anaerobically.....it merely means they CAN reproduce without outside O2 if needed, as they draw from the materials they are feeding on, but it doesn't mean they HAVE to be deprived of O2 in order to reproduce and thrive.

Quote:
As you can read here, trying to provide a perfectly anaerobic environment can very well lead to the formation of botulism, so not a good thing to promote, even if it could be achieved by covering with water....which it can't. Water is full of O2...if not, the fish would die.

And they won't grow mold and rot if not covered with water. I haven't had my covered with water for the past 3 yrs and no mold or rot noted, as have many on these threads. They can form yeasts, which are vastly different from harmful molds and there's a link somewhere in the pages you missed that provides what those yeasts may look like compared to mold.

Good feedback other than the small misinformation about anaerobic digestion, but I'm glad you are enjoying it and spreading the word on how great it works for poultry!

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

I see your points. Thanks.

We ferment foods for the public and follow strict strategies to avoid killing someone. I use these same strategies with my chicken feed.

Of course, I don't ferment chicken food for 3-8 months and check the PH every 2 weeks as I do with our foods, so my blanket statement might have seemed a bit much.

Botulism is in the environment everywhere. Creepy.

Sprouting is fun too. Breaking down the protective seed coating for better absorption and my birds love it.

 

[DesertChic]

I see your points. Thanks.

We ferment foods for the public and follow strict strategies to avoid killing someone. I use these same strategies with my chicken feed.

Of course, I don't ferment chicken food for 3-8 months and check the PH every 2 weeks as I do with our foods, so my blanket statement might have seemed a bit much.

Botulism is in the environment everywhere. Creepy.

Sprouting is fun too. Breaking down the protective seed coating for better absorption and my birds love it.

I'm right there with you on the sprouting...especially right now when greens are still hard to come by here in the desert. I love watching my birds eat those sprouted wheat berries like their spaghetti...tickles my funny bone.

And their absolute favorite is sprouted sunflower seeds. I also supply them with a variety of other smaller sprouts like clover, radish, broccoli, alfalfa...but wheat and sunflower seeds are the hands-down favorites.

 

[LindaB220]

I want to preface this by saying my genetics is still rather rusty, but as I understand it, the allele for barring (B) is dominant in the rocks, but is also sex-linked. So if you breed them to a White Rock male, you should get barred males and black females (again) as an outcome. Again, this assumes that your black chicks are, in fact, heterozygous (or hemizygous) female Barred Rocks.

Good, I can live with this just fine!!!!

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

I'm right there with you on the sprouting...especially right now when greens are still hard to come by here in the desert. I love watching my birds eat those sprouted wheat berries like their spaghetti...tickles my funny bone.

And their absolute favorite is sprouted sunflower seeds. I also supply them with a variety of other smaller sprouts like clover, radish, broccoli, alfalfa...but wheat and sunflower seeds are the hands-down favorites.

Are you buying the black sunflower seed they sell as bird food and having success sprouting them?

 

[DesertChic]

Are you buying the black sunflower seed they sell as bird food and having success sprouting them?

No, I actually bought sunflower seeds sold specifically for sprouting from Wholefoods grocery. They were in impulse purchase that turned into a staple treat for my birds. I'm not sure that the bird food type is viable for sprouting.

 

[lazy gardener]

Bird seed is viable for sprouting. I mix BOSS with wheat and barley for sprouting. I also have a bag of white millet that I sprout on occasion, and some deer fodder seed mix. I'd recommend that you NOT try to sprout the mixed bird seed which contains cracked corn or bits of shelled sunflower seed.

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

very informative!

 

[19disbre]

I was planning on reading this whole thread...............until..................I..................realized...............that............its...............ONE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PAGES! But what i want to figure out is how much fermented feed I need to feed per bird and per day and how much I need to ferment to get that amount also I am raising CX between 50-100 and I think I am going to grow lots of fodder and ferment their feed and I was going to add protein to there diet but this land has tons of night crawlers to cut feed bills and I should actually improve there diet drastically these will be in tractor moved daily, I also want to figure out how to keep them active I think to do that I am going to feed them at like 5 o'clock so they have to forage all day.

 

[Latestarter]

and welcome to the thread. As you have time, you may want to go back and peruse as there's a WEALTH of info in all those pages. Anyway, for a shortcut, please check out: https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

I make my FF in a 5 gallon bucket. I have ~35 adult LF birds of 5 breeds (none are meaties, all are dual purpose) I use approximately 1/2 of the bucket each morning placed in 4 troughs set up in 4 separate enclosures. Most days they finish it all by late afternoon. Some days they don't. If there's still some ff in the trough the next morning, I put less in so it has basically the same amount to start the day each day. Every flock is different and much depends on time of yr, weather, location, bird breed, age, etc.etc. The variables are numerous. Some days they have the trough picked sparkling clean by early afternoon, in which case I often bring them additional FF or some other snack late in the day to hold them overnight.

I recommend you start out feeding them what you think they should have and watch to see how much they consume and how quickly. If they wipe it out immediately, you aren't giving them enough. If there's much left, then you're giving them too much. You will then have to adjust daily as you observe the dynamics of the flock.

IMHO, birds in a tractor will wipe out the earth beneath them within an hour of being moved. After that time there's very little left for them. Obviously the more often they are moved, the better it is for the birds. They can't really "forage" in a tractor (unless it's a really huge tractor). Maybe you could free range them instead of tractors? That would give them better access to the worms as well as better exercise (to keep them active).

best o' luck to you!