Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Quoting both, if the grain feed is sufficient there is no slop, I agree with you on commercial pellets and crumbles, just oatmeal consistency on water, any more is just slop.... I add extra water to my feed now (feed mill mash heavy on the grains, lots of powder also though) just for the extra barrier. I brew beer and make sauerkraut, lots of sauerkraut, wouldn't skimp on the barrier on them. With a good grain mix feeding the birds the water runs right off, no slop, and I continually use the 'water' for the next batch.



Water runs right off if you have a good grain mix.

Not sure what the "barrier" is for, exactly, but it's hugely not necessary in fermented feed. Things that stand around much longer, like kraut, is fine for keeping submerged so that one doesn't get that layer of scoby plus mold touching the kraut(wouldn't hurt it if it did, but still nice to not have it there), but FF is stirred and/or fed out daily, so no standing around. All that excess water and needing to strain it off and such is just a mess.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

It might be a mess but it sure looks like the right consistency to me. If it gives you peace if mind (and therefore makes you happier) than not dealing with the extra water would, I say keep doing it that way! It's not hurting anything.

 

[Shamo12]

For those fermenting their feed, how long until you started to see results? I've only been doing it for a month or so and i haven't yet seen any of the positive effects most have.

I let the pellets ferment for 24 hours and they are bubbling up nicely by the end of that, i feed around 25% less than what they were eating in dry feed but they finish up the fermented feed faster despite it weighing 2-3x as much which is OK i guess as it shows they love it.

I haven't really noticed a reduction in waste, they seem to poo more now, it's mostly water but i guess that's to be expected with the extra water in the feed. The main issue however is my rooster has started loosing his tail feathers and feathers on his back (not bare skin yet, just the white down showing). I have started to supplement with daily fishmeal however it would probably work out cheaper just to start feeding them 25% more dry feed again if this carries on.

Any thoughts?

 

[Beekissed]

For those fermenting their feed, how long until you started to see results? I've only been doing it for a month or so and i haven't yet seen any of the positive effects most have.

I let the pellets ferment for 24 hours and they are bubbling up nicely by the end of that, i feed around 25% less than what they were eating in dry feed but they finish up the fermented feed faster despite it weighing 2-3x as much which is OK i guess as it shows they love it.

I haven't really noticed a reduction in waste, they seem to poo more now, it's mostly water but i guess that's to be expected with the extra water in the feed. The main issue however is my rooster has started loosing his tail feathers and feathers on his back (not bare skin yet, just the white down showing). I have started to supplement with daily fishmeal however it would probably work out cheaper just to start feeding them 25% more dry feed again if this carries on.

Any thoughts?

There's no reduction in waste, only a reduction in the strong smell of the wastes. The rooster losing feathers has nothing to do with the FF...either he's molting or losing feathers due to mite, lice, feather picking or even mice chewing, but it shouldn't have anything to do with the feed.

 

[Shamo12]

There's no reduction in waste, only a reduction in the strong smell of the wastes.  The rooster losing feathers has nothing to do with the FF...either he's molting or losing feathers due to mite, lice, feather picking or even mice chewing, but it shouldn't have anything to do with the feed. 

Ah OK, i thought that since they are supposed to digest the feed much better they'd be using up more of the feed hence less waste output.

I'm certain that the feed being fermented isn't causing loss of feathers, what i meant was as I'm feeding a little less, they may be getting less protein hence causing them to pick/eat feathers, i had a similar issue with a different rooster not to long ago and that was due to low protein (50% of their diet was bread).

He's too young to have a moult like this (8-9 months) and the weather is too cold for mites to be a big issue IMO. I think I'm just going to go back to free choice dry pellets for now and see how much of that they eat in a day. I may or may not try fermented feed again in the future.

 

[Beekissed]

Ah OK, i thought that since they are supposed to digest the feed much better they'd be using up more of the feed hence less waste output.

I'm certain that the feed being fermented isn't causing loss of feathers, what i meant was as I'm feeding a little less, they may be getting less protein hence causing them to pick/eat feathers, i had a similar issue with a different rooster not to long ago and that was due to low protein (50% of their diet was bread).

He's too young to have a moult like this (8-9 months) and the weather is too cold for mites to be a big issue IMO. I think I'm just going to go back to free choice dry pellets for now and see how much of that they eat in a day. I may or may not try fermented feed again in the future.

I wish that were the case, but mites tend to favor cold weather....most of the threads about mites on chickens seem to be at this time of the year. If they are eating less, it means they are actually able to utilize more of the proteins that are in the feed, so less feed doesn't equal less protein.

 

[Glenda Heywoodo]

Quote from somewhere on here
Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds
Latestarter replied to this thread on February 11, 11:51 pm
Glenda, your signature line states that you have almost 30 years editing/publishing experience and 60 years experience raising chickens... I did a Google search for National Poultry News, and can't find anything by that name... Am I missing something here?

I don't mean to sound mean or disparaging, critical, whatever you want to call it, but I have to say that you have me about completely flabbergasted... You have (multiple times) copied and pasted material that has already been copied & pasted, as well as linked to, numerous times (WHY?). Despite having all this information directly available to you, (1767 pages worth!) you still are asking questions that have already been answered multiple times in multiple ways. In your above post, you posted the exact same link 6 times at the end of your post.

Have you READ anything in this thread? Have you followed any of the provided links to research? Have you given any thought to the posts included that detail out the benefits that numerous folks have experienced using FF? I just don't "get" you. What are you doing?
Glenda Heywood
YES I read a lot but when it had 1763 pages. No I did not read all that.
So as I found the fermenting article by Betty very interesting and for a small scale making, I felt she had a good idea also.
Have I personally offended you? If so I am sorry.
AKA NATIONAL POULTRY NEWS
And I have made my posts larger print so casportpony can read it with out difficulty.
Due to my ill health in 12-2005 I had to "put to bed" for good: NATIONAL POULTRY NEWS which had world wide thousands of subscribers. I was in "pure bred" poultry and went to the poultry shows all over USA
I doubt that the internet followed that,
surely you have a right to critizize me if you like, but I have no "gripe" with any one here on BYC.
thanks for letting me know you are unhappy, and least ways I do not know your name so I can't call you by name.
My name is out there for any one to "stab" at.
Sorry that my wanting to learn and repeat some one else comments,
Is so hard for you to take.
(1) IE:YOUR COMMENT IS THS
Have you READ anything in this thread? Have you followed any of the provided links to research? Have you given any thought to the posts included that detail out the benefits that numerous folks have experienced using FF? I just don't "get" you. What are you doing?
MY ANSWER IS THIS:
(A) Yes I read a lot of the thread? Do you seriously think every one coming to this thread, with almost 2000 pages READS IT ALL?
(B) YES I LOOKED UP A LOT OF THREADS, THAT IS HOW I FOUND BETTY'S FERMENTED FEED PAGE".
(C) what I am doing is trying to learn to help some one else? And hopefully with your critical thoughts of my posts you will learn something, I learned not to take one persons thought's as "CONCRETE" truth, and go for others thoughts.
(D) I do not know how old you are, but in my 80 plus years of raising chickens and publishing a monthly poultry newspaper to try and give my readers some personal experience and some new facts. And as my brain still is in excellent condition want to learn as much as I can. In my humble opinion, I think all of us has a need to stay alert and active in our interests,
(E)That is what BYC is all about helping some one to find out more about poultry.
(#2 )IE: YOUR COMMENT IS THIS
" In your above post, you posted the exact same link 6 times at the end of your post."
MY Answer:
Is this I had several decent posts on here: and as I was down graded: for my original post of "Betty's fermented feed". I finally found out how to take the article off: THUS LEAVING MANY POST. of which I took off. SO INSTEAD I posted the url, WHICH BY THE WAY I WAS TOLD TO DO SO.
BECAUSE it had large

's in it OF WHICH I DID NOT DO, BUT IT OFFENDED SO MANY. So I took the

off.
I AM NOT wanting to disrupt BYC and hope you will do so, and just let the "ball" roll on. And do not take any thing I post so "terribly disliked". THANKS AND:
YOU HAVE A NICE DAY
Glenda Heywood

 

[Beekissed]

Wowza, Glenda....that would make you over 80 yrs old? Good for you, being active on the computer and all!

I too had looked up the National Poultry News, put to bed in 2005, but could find not a single trace of it anywhere on the net, other than a reference to it in a small article one of your friends had written that referenced it, but still couldn't find a single shred of that publication....that's kind of odd if it was still in publication all over the world as late as 2005. The odd punctuation, grammar, sentence structure and speech patterns of your posts would never have me thinking you were an editor as a profession...are you perhaps texting from some kind of mobile device that makes all of those things hard to accomplish?

With all those years of poultry experience under your belt, do you have any actual, hands on experience to relate for us? Not the information you copy and paste, but your own experience? That would be fascinating to hear, as there are not too many posting to BYC with 80+ yrs of experience handling chickens. How old were you when you started raising chickens? What kind did you keep and show? Do you have any pictures you could share? Did you raise chickens for eating, laying, or showing only?

 

[Glenda Heywoodo]

Wowza, Glenda....that would make you over 80 yrs old? Good for you, being active on the computer and all!

I too had looked up the National Poultry News, put to bed in 2005, but could find not a single trace of it anywhere on the net, other than a reference to it in a small article one of your friends had written that referenced it, but still couldn't find a single shred of that publication....that's kind of odd if it was still in publication all over the world as late as 2005. The odd punctuation, grammar, sentence structure and speech patterns of your posts would never have me thinking you were an editor as a profession...are you perhaps texting from some kind of mobile device that makes all of those things hard to accomplish?

With all those years of poultry experience under your belt, do you have any actual, hands on experience to relate for us? Not the information you copy and paste, but your own experience? That would be fascinating to hear, as there are not too many posting to BYC with 80+ yrs of experience handling chickens. How old were you when you started raising chickens? What kind did you keep and show? Do you have any pictures you could share? Did you raise chickens for eating, laying, or showing only?
Glenda Heywood

Well best I can tell you is this.
IN 2009 OR BEFORE, I WAS ACTIVE FOR 5 YR ON BYC.
My Name: I used then was MY FULL NAME:
GLENDA L HEYWOOD
And I believe I had 1434 posts with lots of articles on medication for poultry :
And articles on what to do for feeding, caring for poultry etc,
and was:
one of the first with my friend Nathalie Ross "Threehorses",
TO PROVIDE THE WET MASH PROBIOTIC RECIPE on line:
you all can put my name in with my middle initial here on BYC.
ARTICLES BY GLENDA L HEYWOOD

And I started caring for chickens when I was 8 years old as My mother kept a 500 layer chicken house year round,
And we had 500 roosters that I helped butcher for our freezer, and others every year.
It was my duty every day to carry several 5 gallon buckets of feed and water up to the hen house

As my mother helped in the field to drive the teams of horses to do the plowing etc.
I learned a lot about baby chicks as I help care for them.
As we always got a thousand chicks each and every year.

My job in the summer was this plus:
I had to butcher 4 roosters EVERY DAY and cook a Chocolate cake for dinner.
Then at 4 PM I had to carry lunch to the field where my folks were doing plowing ect.
With lunch.
Also I had to milk 8 cows twice a day and all this by time to
leave for school at 8AM, as we walked 1/2 mile to school.
Then after 8th grade I went to 4 yrs of High School. Still doing chores at home.
As for early experience I was blessed with that, which helped me later in life.
Thus my experience stated early.

When I was 18 yrs OLD, I got married and had 3 children which we raised till they married.,
and raised every kind of chickens, and rabbits.
Of which I could butcher and sell to town people till 1980.
when Iowa Laws made it so you had to have a license to sell butchered chicken or rabbits.

Besides always having several hundred chickens a year.
I had a herd of pure bred rabbit does and some bucks.
I have always had animals.

We entered the pure bred poultry breeding an showing at poultry shows in USA in 1970. .
And soon after I started MY POULTRY AND SMALL ANIMAL NEWSPAPR.
First called HEN HOUSE HERALD.
Then Called NATIONAL POUTRY NEWS
I have written articles for the CANADAN POULTRY NEWSPAER FEATHER FANIER
Edited and published by Paul Monteith
Also wrote articles for POULTRY PRESS which was run by Bill Wulff, and now his Daughter Jennifer publishes it.

Then in 1987 I was able to move to South Carolina and published NATIONAL POULTRY NEWS from there.
Going to many different states poultry shows.
Publishing the NPN was great as I had lots of stories and wore out 3 good camera's,
Taking photos of the wining poultry at all shows. Nation wide.

So thank you for asking.
And also Beekissed, I appreciate your articles also, as well as Caspotpony's articles.
Also I am trying to end my sentences with periods or commas.
As you all thought that I was not using good engish I guess.
My being in a hurry to type is just my lazyiness in doing so.
But trust me I will do so from now on.
Well now that I have told you my life story.
Hopefully this will put your mind at ease.
I got back on the internet and BYC in December when my daughter helped me locate all of it.
As for learning to navigate the internet,I still have a lot to learn.
SUCH AS How TO TAKE OFF THINGS

and how to put them on!

.
You see I have had several years of bad health, and now I am home bound and,
now I live with my Daughter who runs her business from home.
So I have a lot of time to be on the computer.

I did take several courses in English and speech and was on several speech teams in high school.
with that all said I hope you all will accept me. Sorry if you do not like my posting articles.

BUT with the internet and a large source of articles,
I find that to be the best information I can help others with.
thanks for asking.
GLENDA L HEYWOOD

 

[Beekissed]

Glenda, I've searched and searched for your article on probiotic mash and couldn't find it. Could you provide a link to that article? You must have had a HUGE family and tons of freezers to be able to put 500 roosters in the freezer every year!

That's a lot of chicken meat! Did you all consume that many in a year or sell them?

I got to look at a few posts from your last time on BYC but they too seemed to consists of just copied and pasted information about things from other sources, so was wondering if you have any real life articles about raising chickens from your own experience? That would be fascinating to hear, especially since you raised so many chickens per year.

What was your preferred method for hatching and brooding chicks? What type of flock management did you do? Were you breeding for particular traits? What breeds did you show? Did you keep chickens in coops/barns or were they free ranged? Did you have an egg selling business? I'm assuming you did if you were raising 500 hens per year...was that a family business?

Man...chocolate cake for dinner every single day???? You were one lucky gal!!!

Tell us more! You have had a fascinating farm life with all those animals and the work you did from an early age...I LOVE hearing about such things. My parent's lives were much like that...a lot of hard, hard work at an early age, though they didn't have a huge farm like y'all had...just medium sized places.