Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChocolateMouse]

They could just not be hungry enough to want to bother. Chicks always act "starving", whether the are or not, imo. Most of my experience says take the dry away, and only give them FF. If you have the option of eating burgers and not your veggies, regardless of which is better for you, you're gonna go for only the burgers. Especially if you're a chicken.

 

[sonofabish1]

Speaking of meat chicks - I just got my 35 Cornish cross a week ago. I fed them dry feed the first few days and now tried to switch them over to the fermented feed. They absolutely will not eat it! I even cover the top with dry feed - they eat that and then leave the rest.

I work during the day, and I do need them to gain weight, so I put 1 feeder with dry and 1 with fermented feed. When I got home, they didn't even touch the fermented feed - and they were starving! I used fermented feed last year with my meaties and don't remember such a big protest!

Am I missing something?

Did they end up going for the FF?? I'm having the same problem you had right now. I didn't have the FF ready when the chicks arrived so at 4-5 days old I'm trying to introduce the FF and they are not going for it. I'm hoping by morning they will be eating some but we'll see........

 

[Molpet]

I mixed up the FF and started feeding it to them right away before it started to ferment. So they were just getting wet feed at first.They got used to it as the taste changed as it fermented.

 

[Latestarter]

Chickens WILL eat when they get hungry enough. They will NOT starve to death. You are feeding them FF for their benefit as well as yours. Do NOT give them the option. Remove all other food and feed them the FF. Add a little fresh each morning until such time as they eat it, then ration accordingly.

 

[Beer can]

Chickens WILL eat when they get hungry enough. They will NOT starve to death. You are feeding them FF for their benefit as well as yours. Do NOT give them the option. Remove all other food and feed them the FF. Add a little fresh each morning until such time as they eat it, then ration accordingly.

I switched back to dry food with a 30# feeder for now cause we are going away for a week, one less thing to worry about. Have someone checking on them and getting eggs, but I ain't going to worry if they are fed, even put in a 15gal nipple waterer. I'm still feeding them FF for the last week, they have not touched the food in the feeder and I even put some cracked corn in the bottom to make it more appealing. They just eat up all the FF. IDK maybe they are scared of the feeder, never used one before Lol!

 

[sonofabish1]

Chickens WILL eat when they get hungry enough. They will NOT starve to death. You are feeding them FF for their benefit as well as yours. Do NOT give them the option. Remove all other food and feed them the FF. Add a little fresh each morning until such time as they eat it, then ration accordingly.

Right now they won't even try to peck at the FF. Some barely even sniff it. They have completely torn the bedding around the feeder apart looking for those last crumbles that have fallen to the brooder floor. They are definitely hungry but not hungry enough I guess...

I tried sprinkling a little layer of crumbles on top and they eat every piece down to the last spec of dust. I get worried because they are so young...are they OK with just water at this age (less than a week old)??

 

[WIchickens]

I had no luck - they never ate it. We also both work full time and are not home to be constantly monitoring intake - so I didn't want to take the risk of them not eating and falling behind on weight gain. My husband also does not have patience for it . We do ferment our layers feed and have good luck with that - but that pretty much all he will tolerate ha ha.

Now we have to rig up a different way to keep the water in front of them while we are at work - we have 32 right now at 4 weeks and they already drank 4 gallons of water while we were at work yesterday - and its not even hot yet!

 

[sonofabish1]

Thanks, I'm going to give them until this afternoon (24hrs) and if they are still ignoring it then I'll give up and go back to crumbles.

They are digging around everywhere like mad chickens trying to find food...not even pecking at the feeder. I think it's different if they get started right away with wet feed. Going from dry pellets to a thick oatmeal is quite the change.....

 

[curious chickee]

Uh

Right now they won't even try to peck at the FF.  Some barely even sniff it.  They have completely torn the bedding around the feeder apart looking for those last crumbles that have fallen to the brooder floor.  They are definitely hungry but not hungry enough I guess...

I tried sprinkling a little layer of crumbles on top and they eat every piece down to the last spec of dust.  I get worried because they are so young...are they OK with just water at this age (less than a week old)??

What is the consistency of your FF mine like it like thick oatmeal. If it is soupy or drippy they won't eat it. I add more dry and mix it in if too wet.

 

[sonofabish1]

Luckily they have all come to their senses and started eating the FF! It took some longer than others but in just a few hours the 30 chicks have devoured quite a bit (only about have what they would have ate in crumbles). I'm anxious to monitor things over the next couple days/weeks and see if I notice any differences. Thanks to all the while I was worrying for no reason