Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Lacy Blues]

I'm looking it up now, and don't see much difference. Maybe it's the brand I got..? My fiance and friend who was living with us last winter also were disgusted by the smell.
I'd be willing to try it again.

Mine would stink too, but it depends on how long you let them soak. I wouldn't do it for more than 12 hours... just long enough to get released from pellet form. You can speed it up with hot water. But still, not more than 12 hours alone. In the ff, it didn't seem to do that.

Strongly considering alfalfa cubes now.

 

[aoxa]

I'm looking it up now, and don't see much difference. Maybe it's the brand I got..? My fiance and friend who was living with us last winter also were disgusted by the smell.
I'd be willing to try it again.

Mine would stink too, but it depends on how long you let them soak. I wouldn't do it for more than 12 hours... just long enough to get released from pellet form. You can speed it up with hot water. But still, not more than 12 hours alone. In the ff, it didn't seem to do that.

Strongly considering alfalfa cubes now.

Good, I'm not crazy

I usually let it set around 12 hours. Maybe that was the issue

 

[Lacy Blues]

If the alfalfa was in with fermented pellets/crumbles the chickens would eat them. I'm just doing grain right now and if I put the alfalfa in there they leave it all in the dish. They don't like the alfalfa pellets.

Maybe I could venture a few bucks for alfalfa cubes.

Working on getting some fodder growing too.

 

[smyers32]

They weren't cubes, they were pellets, and definitely not Heaven!

That's very likely the difference!! Pellets never smell as fresh as the cubes, must be something in the processing. Maybe the amount of heat used? I dunno. For horses we just soak the cubes in hot water for about 30 minutes or so. Might take a little longer to get them soft all the way thru the middle for the chickies

 

[Mumsy]

Read the labels. Do they use animal fat as a binder in their pellets. Could be the main difference right there.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

Hi Chickachee from Longville.

My litter is super dry with a poop board in place and airflow through the coop. I think my Boy got frostbit here a couple Sundays ago. It was super wet Saturday then the weather switched in the night to real cold that Sunday. I agree humidity is a problem, but I'm skeptical that it happened in the coop. I think it can happen during the day while they free range, drink and eat moist food too. He's a young cockerel this year and I've read that there can be an initial issue with frostbite on tips --but then with care the next year they do well without problems. IDK. I learn something new about these birds almost every week.


His Wattles and Combs have good reach and gravity going for them.

hard to keep everything warm and cozy sometimes.

 

[aoxa]

Read the labels. Do they use animal fat as a binder in their pellets. Could be the main difference right there.

I don't have any now. Didn't spring for a second bag, they simply refused to touch the stuff.

 

[Turkeytruff]

I find alfalfa smells awful. That doesn't stink up the FF?

Hi aoxa, I found the alfalfa cubes smelled disgusting and everyone turned their beaks up at it, including my turkeys who eat anything! But when I (with fear and trembling wondering if I would end up tossing the whole lot out

) put it in the FF, 12 hours later it smelled sweet and fruity and everyone gobbled it down after an initial 'what's this new stuff?' So I guess the fermenting really changed it. These aren't pellets though, just compressed alfalfa...

Hi Turkeytruff! I made arrangements with a member here on BYC to purchase four mixed breed pullets at the Winter Brisk show in Chehalis put on by Washington Feather Fanciers. About 22 weeks old. I'm keeping them in the quarantine coop for a few weeks. They are looking good on the FF and kept on deep litter. Johnny has been having conniption fits every day they've been here. He can hear them but can't get to them or see them. He's been a bachelor his whole 1 1/2 years so it's going to be interesting when he meets them for the first time.
All the new kids LOVE their Johnny Cakes! A new recipe is a big hit during these cold rainy days. Meal worms in the beef suet with some other high energy goodies thrown in for good measure. When the birds can't free range during these storms (which is often lately) I crumble a Johnny cake in the deep littler. They get busy and stay busy until every last crumb is gone and the litter looks like it's been stirred with a tornado! Hah!



The new kids day one.

Poor ole Johnny boy! He'll get his chance soon.

I love the idea of putting the mealworms in the cakes, great idea! I presume they are the vacuum packed roasted ones? I have just started a mealworm farm (and sprouting wheat and barley seeds - boy these forums keep me hopping

) but it will be months before I can give them many fresh ones.
They are good looking hens! How's your feedback from the feedstores with your Johnny cakes going?

If the alfalfa was in with fermented pellets/crumbles the chickens would eat them. I'm just doing grain right now and if I put the alfalfa in there they leave it all in the dish. They don't like the alfalfa pellets.
Maybe I could venture a few bucks for alfalfa cubes.
Working on getting some fodder growing too.

x2

 

[Lacy Blues]

Read the labels. Do they use animal fat as a binder in their pellets. Could be the main difference right there.

I don't know if there is animal fat in these or not. Don't have the bag anymore but it smells like SUPER MILDEW! Yuk!

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I have been reading this thread for a long time as well as fermenting my chicken’s feed. What I have done that works for me is exactly what I need and want. What other folks get to work for them has been adjusted to be exactly what they need. As to a mold problem as near as I can tell it is mostly a thing that either it is a problem for your environment or not. I had mold once but with my method of dumping my fermenter every day and rinsing it every day I haven’t had a repeat. See this post for my system, https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds/820#post_9311538. As to bubbles and ACV/mother I have the bubbles but here in Costa Rica I don’t have ACV/mother, I have baker’s yeast and add a little to each fermenter maybe once a week and if it is not as bubbly as I want I add some sugar, both get the fermenter working with lots of bubbles. It does not matter to me who has the absolute method of doing FF, what matters to me is what I have been doing works for me and my flock of 40 birds is eating the FF and are doing well on it. As to rain, well from sometime in May to sometime in November it rains here nearly every day and sometimes for several days in a row. This morning it is not only overcast it is misting when I went out at 5AM to open the coop doors to let the flock out (if they wish). They are all out somewhere in the yard and not paying attention to the weather. When it rains heavily they get under the bushes/trees or whatever but they are also scratching around, it doesn’t bother them, it is what they experience nearly every day during the rainy season. I have NOT lost a chicken/chick due to a cold or whatever some think the rains can cause, I have chickens that look like they have been dunked in water when they head for the coop at night but they pop out the next morning all dry and fluffy. The main thing I think is they can dry in the dry coop at night. When the coop was built I had the footing put down about 18” below ground level, then 3 rows of cement block on top of the footings. The floor in the coop is dirt with somewhere around 8” of wood shavings on the dirt. All of that was done to keep my chickens dry and to be able to dry at night and it has worked in my severe conditions. What all this comes down to is you adjusting what others have done till you get things working for you, it isn’t what is the correct over all method, it is what works for you, nothing more, nothing less. If it is working for you don’t let someone make you think you’re not doing it right because they are doing it different, you are doing it right for you and your conditions.