Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

Yeah, mine didn't care for it either. Being free ranged, they preferred to pick their own greens or just eat bits of hay/hay seed in the winter. Being forced to eat the alfalfa pellets didn't appeal to them at all and they would pick all the feed around them and there would be those shiny green pellets in the feeder. Pretty soon they finally taught me what they will eat and what they won't.
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I knew the green color was the alfalfa pellets. I did add some more but only because there was not any in the first bucket of feed. It was the color of the liquid on the top I was wondering about. Regardless I just mixed it all up real well and the chickens have been eating it up.

I also just hydrated some alfalfa pellets so the puffed up & game some to the hens as well to see how well they eat just the alfalfa. In the past they have picked at it but it would be an easy way for greens during our long winter. As for storage they are in a plastic tub in the garage for the winter. I only buy them in 5# bags since I only have 4 hens so them going moldy shouldnt be a problem.
 
Well I skipped the alfalfa because all Big R had was 40# bags. I just don't think my 15 birds are going to eat it fast enough.
I've been doing about 12 spoons of food every morning, and before bed the birds are cleaning up all the leftovers. I just really thought a bag would last longer...obviously I'm still learning.
I've got bags of leaves being given to me, from family members that actually have trees. Do I need to break up the ground in the run? Or just dump the leaves? The dirt is pretty hard, but the chickens dug it up pretty good after a small bag of clippings got dumped for them.
 
...

I also just hydrated some alfalfa pellets so the puffed up & game some to the hens as well to see how well they eat just the alfalfa. In the past they have picked at it but it would be an easy way for greens during our long winter. ...
Over in the Duck forum we had been talking about using re-hydrated grass pellets as a possible source for greens in winter a little bit back. I haven't gotten any yet but they are made with grass not alfalfa so perhaps more tasty to the birds. Anyway its something I plan on for some extra winter greens as a bag won't cost that much and it would be easy to mix into the ff. I already have been tossing in a handful of alfalfa pellets in the ff each day when I refreshed the ferment with dry feed, but have just ran out of the 3# bag of alfalfa I got so grass pellets are my plan now for more greens. The other thing I was thinking of is sprouting some greens but the grass pellets sound easier. So perhaps if your birds don't like alfalfa and you still want to do something like them check on the grass pellets. Can't hurt to check.
 
Isn't it strange how different people's birds are? I use to use bagged alfalfa meal and my birds, somehow or other, would always have just alfalfa left in their dishes at night! Even though, we would mix in an egg to their feed so that it would stick!

It may be GMO alfalfa. When given a choice, animals won't eat it if regular is available. If you want to see if that's the case, purchase a small amount of organic alfalfa and see how they respond!
 
Well I skipped the alfalfa because all Big R had was 40# bags. I just don't think my 15 birds are going to eat it fast enough.
I've been doing about 12 spoons of food every morning, and before bed the birds are cleaning up all the leftovers. I just really thought a bag would last longer...obviously I'm still learning.
I've got bags of leaves being given to me, from family members that actually have trees. Do I need to break up the ground in the run? Or just dump the leaves? The dirt is pretty hard, but the chickens dug it up pretty good after a small bag of clippings got dumped for them.

Just dump them in! The chickens will act like they never saw leaves before and start scratching right away. Pretty soon you'll notice the leaves breaking down and matting down, then later when they scratch in them bugs will be living under there. Everybug likes the manure iffen they can hide whilst they eat it!
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If the bugs move in, pretty soon the worms will too and by next spring you oughta see some difference in the hardened and packed down earth.
 
Awesome thread! Excellent info and pics. Thank You Beekissed and everyone else that has contributed their experiences and knowledge.

I have way too many birds and I'm really interested in cutting my feed costs so I've been reading thru this thread for days, absorbing as much of the helpful info as I can (I'm only on page 191 so far, lol). I'm not raising any meaties (yet), but I have been processing some of my extra Guineas this season and plan to process a lot more of them until my freezer is well stocked (and also to help get my flock numbers under control before the really wet weather kicks in). I wanted to get started with FF while the weather/temps would be able to help get the mix going well, so I started some 24% game bird mini pellets, scratch and sweet feed fermenting in a 2 bucket system on Tuesday afternoon... I didn't have any UP/ACV with Mother so I used some ancient bread machine yeast that has been stored in my bread machine for years (oops), but wasn't confident that it would do the trick for getting the FF going quickly or not. I dumped in a couple well rounded tablespoons to the mix, stirred it up, topped it off with a little more water and left it to do it's thing. I stirred it twice later on. Much to my surprise the mix was bubbling 8 hrs later and continues to bubble. Has a great smell too
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I gave a small flock of my Guineas (that I plan to process) 2 feed pans of the FF last night after I cleaned out under their pen... they are in a grow-out pen with a wire floor, and I have to hose out underneath it AM and PM to keep the smell down or it gets pretty nasty/rank
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Some of the birds jumped into the rubber feed pans and started pecking away, but most of them weren't too thrilled with it. It did however get completely cleaned up over night (they had no choice... eat it or starve, lol). I noticed that it didn't stink this morning like it usually does
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is that even possible after just one feeding? If so, wow. Usually being within 10 ft of that pen is too close any time of the day, not this morning tho. We'll see how it smells this evening before I hose it out again. I gave them more FF this AM and they were a little more enthusiastic about it, so I think they are submitting to the conversion, lol. I'm really looking forward to a taste test tho... of Guineas that weren't fed FF vs Guineas that were fed FF for 2+ wks.

I thought I would share the results of the trial run of offering FF to my 5 month old Turkeys this AM. The pics speak for themselves, lol, they were scarfing it down so fast my poor old camera couldn't keep up to focus on their heads
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Eyes closed and chowin' down, lol



 
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It may be GMO alfalfa. When given a choice, animals won't eat it if regular is available. If you want to see if that's the case, purchase a small amount of organic alfalfa and see how they respond!

Well, I got it from GrowOrganic.com so ??? I don't know.

The stuff I'm using now is in pellet form, bagged by nutrena, (I believe) and so far, I haven't seen it left in the pans but then again, it gets fermented in the buckets with everything else.
 
Awesome thread! Excellent info and pics. Thank You Beekissed and everyone else that has contributed their experiences and knowledge.

I have way too many birds and I'm really interested in cutting my feed costs so I've been reading thru this thread for days, absorbing as much of the helpful info as I can (I'm only on page 191 so far, lol). I'm not raising any meaties (yet), but I have been processing some of my extra Guineas this season and plan to process a lot more of them until my freezer is well stocked (and also to help get my flock numbers under control before the really wet weather kicks in). I wanted to get started with FF while the weather/temps would be able to help get the mix going well, so I started some 24% game bird mini pellets, scratch and sweet feed fermenting in a 2 bucket system on Tuesday afternoon... I didn't have any UP/ACV with Mother so I used some ancient bread machine yeast that has been stored in my bread machine for years (oops), but wasn't confident that it would do the trick for getting the FF going quickly or not. I dumped in a couple well rounded tablespoons to the mix, stirred it up, topped it off with a little more water and left it to do it's thing. I stirred it twice later on. Much to my surprise the mix was bubbling 8 hrs later and continues to bubble. Has a great smell too
smile.png


I gave a small flock of my Guineas (that I plan to process) 2 feed pans of the FF last night after I cleaned out under their pen... they are in a grow-out pen with a wire floor, and I have to hose out underneath it AM and PM to keep the smell down or it gets pretty nasty/rank
sickbyc.gif
Some of the birds jumped into the rubber feed pans and started pecking away, but most of them weren't too thrilled with it. It did however get completely cleaned up over night (they had no choice... eat it or starve, lol). I noticed that it didn't stink this morning like it usually does
ep.gif
is that even possible after just one feeding? If so, wow. Usually being within 10 ft of that pen is too close any time of the day, not this morning tho. We'll see how it smells this evening before I hose it out again. I gave them more FF this AM and they were a little more enthusiastic about it, so I think they are submitting to the conversion, lol. I'm really looking forward to a taste test tho... of Guineas that weren't fed FF vs Guineas that were fed FF for 2+ wks.

I thought I would share the results of the trial run of offering FF to my 5 month old Turkeys this AM. The pics speak for themselves, lol, they were scarfing it down so fast my poor old camera couldn't keep up to focus on their heads
big_smile.png


Eyes closed and chowin' down, lol




Great story and pics! I'll be anxious to see how you like it as you go along and see if you notice any other changes in your flock. Keep an eye on your egg yolks if you have eggs from your flocks...I'm interested if the yolk sizes change.
 
Quote: Ive never heard of rehydrated grass pellets before. Have to check at the feed store. I know the hens like grass since they were chowing down on the grass clippings I threw in their tonight.
I took the bucket of alfalfa pellets I hydrated and stirred it around so it would dry out. I put the bucket in the run tonight since I am going away for the weekend. I am curious how much is gone by the time I get home Sunday. They do eat it when I put it in the FF so I am guessing they should it eat it plain as well? The hens arent picky by any means. Only thing they havent liked much is grapefruit so far
 

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