Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Can someone tell me how to do all this to feed 150 birds? A small bucket is not going to cut it

Do I just add food every 24 hours? I have been reading and reading and can't uncover how to make this work for my situation. I bought organic, unpasturized, unfiltered (with mother) ACV tonight. My birds LOVE wet food. I've done that many times for a treat. I'm thinking fermented food would work really well if I could do enough for 150 birds. The cold winters is also an issue, but I could work around it by keeping the buckets in our attached garage or mud room and bring down rations in the morning. Hopefully what I offer won't freeze... How do you all work around that?

Sure...are these standard layers or meat birds? If standard layers, you need two 5 gal. buckets going at all times. If meaties, you need three or four buckets going. No problem...just get them cooking and start feeding the first bucket while the others are cooking along, then just cycle them through.

 

[Pozees]

after a rotten learning day yesterday. i learned an awful lot. fermented feed is the way to go for my flock. all the birds were out and about on pasture today, 2 days back into fermented feed. a great smile on my face followed by a big yes and a voice saying now those are my chickens.happy and free.
my conclusions are:

1.standard broiler rations cut or not produce a unhealthy environment for the birds

2. broiler or high protein feeds create an overload on the chickens organs making them extremely tired and not wanting to move..

3. lower protein fermented feed the birds are healthier and seem to want to go out and forage more and be chickens

4. egg production picks up

5. less bickering among the flock

6. the flock overall just seems to be clicking . a good skip in their step.

7. water consumption is less

8. feed used is cut down around 30% less

this pertains to my flock i have also formulated a feed ration that seems to be working. the chickens like it and creates a general base for all my birds. it comes out to 18.17%. time will give me the answer if this fits the bill for good general health. if anyone wants the formula i will share it. however this was formulated for my flock and has not stood the test of time. however by general observation the chickens seem great and enjoy the feed.

1 - I would like very much to see your formula
2 - RE: #5 - I am a new citizen of Fermentation Nation and am currently giving it once a day, the other feeding I give some other goodies, including homemade yogurt, cooked steel cut oats and cracked wheat, soaked alfalfa, fresh produce scraps, etc. and they always have dry food available. I gave FF tonight, and for the first time, my RIR hen, who is very inclined to exert her dominance over my younger girls, shared a dish with one of them. I wanted to do a dance!

 

[Pozees]

Can someone tell me how to do all this to feed 150 birds? A small bucket is not going to cut it

Do I just add food every 24 hours? I have been reading and reading and can't uncover how to make this work for my situation. I bought organic, unpasturized, unfiltered (with mother) ACV tonight. My birds LOVE wet food. I've done that many times for a treat. I'm thinking fermented food would work really well if I could do enough for 150 birds. The cold winters is also an issue, but I could work around it by keeping the buckets in our attached garage or mud room and bring down rations in the morning. Hopefully what I offer won't freeze... How do you all work around that?

I am new to this process and have a micro flock of 7. What I have taken from the thread thus far is that once the fermentation process is under way, as long as you don't feed or discard your entire container of feed and liquid, you can take some from a container and add new dry food and/or grains along with water and it ferments rapidly; my experience (albeit very limited) has been 24 hours is plenty, as I think Lacy Blues mentioned. Based on her flock size and volume and the amount she has cooking at any given time, for your flock I would think 4 or 5 5-gallon buckets would be enough. I mentioned a few minutes ago I am only feeding it once a day right now, but believe by next spring when I can move FF operations outdoors I will increase to twice and see if I can eliminate dry food altogether, at least for warm weather months. Right now I enjoy experimenting with all kinds of foods and treats, because I'm only feeding 7, and after a 10 year chickenless spell, I am so happy to have them again I want to try everything at least a little bit. DH recently commented that if I was feeding 100 I would have to hire a chef

He must see me thinking ahead ...

Anyway, with a flock of 150, I would probably start with once a day, give them a chance to fall in love with it, and start with 2 or 3 buckets/bucket sets. Larger containers might prove difficult to manage. Then again, maybe an old bathtub with strainer buckets set inside might be the ticket. You could rig a closet hanger rod above it to hang the buckets from to drain and then scoop out what you need, add new dry, drop them back down into the tub and add however much water needed to cover.

Interesting question - I'll bet you get a lot of great ideas here, truly a great bunch of free thinkers

 

[Kassaundra]

Can someone tell me how to do all this to feed 150 birds? A small bucket is not going to cut it

Do I just add food every 24 hours? I have been reading and reading and can't uncover how to make this work for my situation. I bought organic, unpasturized, unfiltered (with mother) ACV tonight. My birds LOVE wet food. I've done that many times for a treat. I'm thinking fermented food would work really well if I could do enough for 150 birds. The cold winters is also an issue, but I could work around it by keeping the buckets in our attached garage or mud room and bring down rations in the morning. Hopefully what I offer won't freeze... How do you all work around that?

I have a 30 gal trash bucket going, it's been going for over 1.5 years, but I do all grains, I tried the feed, but is was harder and messier to mix and serve. But if you didn't fill the can w/ feed and water, but only put a couple of days worth and added as you go maybe it wouldn't be so hard to maintain.

 

[B J Hopkins]

I have a 30 gal trash bucket going, it's been going for over 1.5 years, but I do all grains, I tried the feed, but is was harder and messier to mix and serve. But if you didn't fill the can w/ feed and water, but only put a couple of days worth and added as you go maybe it wouldn't be so hard to maintain.

How do you care for your FF during the winter? Does the heat produced during the fermentation create enough heat to keep it from freezing?

 

[Taniamax]

Something about changing the pH or some such thing...I don't understand it all but I know that both parents need to have the ACV. I got more female offspring for my chickens, rabbits and sheep. One farmer reported 85% females in his sheep herds as opposed to formerly getting around 55%.

That is so interesting!

 

[bruceh]

So Bruce, could we get that formula?....while the topic's hot and we can print it for the chicken file? I guess I am confused about how to arrive at just the right amount of protein. And is that 18.17% what's in the dry feed or once fermented?

i came up with this formula.

i made a typo this should in my postings 18.47% not 18.17%


game feed 20% - 14 parts @ 20 % = 280 %

alfalfa milled 12% - 1 part @ 12 % = 12%

scratch grain 7% - 1 part @ 7 % = 7%

boss 15% - 1 part @ 15% = 15%


total ------------------------------------------------ 314% protein

parts--------------------------------------------------- 17

percentage ratio------------------------------------ 18..47 %


i am not sure how much fermenting raises the protein amount. the fermenting allows the nutrient uptake to be more available. . to go even farther the chicken uses the feed for what it is intended for and not wasted out the other end.

 

[Pozees]

i came up with this formula.

i made a typo this should in my postings 18.47% not 18.17%


game feed 20% - 14 parts @ 20 % = 280 %

alfalfa milled 12% - 1 part @ 12 % = 12%

scratch grain 7% - 1 part @ 7 % = 7%

boss 15% - 1 part @ 15% = 15%


total ------------------------------------------------ 314% protein

parts--------------------------------------------------- 17

percentage ratio------------------------------------ 18..47 %


i am not sure how much fermenting raises the protein amount. the fermenting allows the nutrient uptake to be more available. . to go even farther the chicken uses the feed for what it is intended for and not wasted out the other end.

Thank you!

 

[aoxa]

I do it for about 100 birds, about half of them still growing.  I have two 5 gal buckets and two 3 gal buckets going at all times.  I use all of one 3 gal bucket and half to two-thirds of the 5 gal bucket in the morning and then again in the evening.  They are both full while brewing... excuse me... fermenting.  After each feed time, I add food back in so it only sits for about 24 hours before being used.

So more buckets.. Easy enough..

Sure...are these standard layers or meat birds?  If standard layers, you need two 5 gal. buckets going at all times.  If meaties, you need three or four buckets going.  No problem...just get them cooking and start feeding the first bucket while the others are cooking along, then just cycle them through. 

No meaties, but I do have dual purpose boys I use for meat. I have many breeds and ages. I have geese, turkeys, ducks, chickens. They all eat the same feed. I know they prefer the feed wet. Everyone free ranges.

I have a 30 gal trash bucket going, it's been going for over 1.5 years, but I do all grains,  I tried the feed, but is was harder and messier to mix and serve.  But if you didn't fill the can w/ feed and water, but only put a couple of days worth and added as you go maybe it wouldn't be so hard to maintain.

I can see a big trash can being hard to stir. Maybe that is why everyone suggests smaller containers. I am not that strong No men around to help with this process, so I'm going to have to do it myself. Maybe smaller buckets, but many going at once is my best option.

You guys know how hard it was to locate ACV with mother? Lol - anyway.. Can I use filtered ACV by adding mother into it with my hard to find unpasturized, unfiltered, organic, ACV? The stuff I have is local and 100% pure. It just doesn't have that sediment. It's also much cheaper. If not, I'll handle the prices.

 

[nova022]

Would someone please tell me what boss is? Thanks