Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[aoxa]

Okay so all my FF in the feeders are freezing overnight (I put down feed at night when I get off work - should last them until late morning and I repeat the following day). I don't have time in the morning to do it all. Though my bucket (trash can) that keeps the FF never freezes, and it was -25 this morning!


The birds still eat the frozen food. Though very slowly.


It generally doesn't get much colder on average. We do get colder days/nights, but this is about average temps for January. Today it's a high of -7.


Now for the water.. I have no idea what to do with my biggest one. The cookie tin heaters I made don't fit the base of it :/

Heated dog bowl for the feeders maybe?  Or heating tape you can cover so the birds dont peck it?   I have seen people who use bird bath heaters in their larger waterers. Perhaps that would work for you?   Also I am guessing that its the cooking of the FF along with the ACV that is preventing the freezing of your trash can. My mom keeps a gallon of vinegar in her car all winter & it never freezes.....must be someting in the vinegar.  I am guessing if the FF was more liquid form with higher vinergar in it the freezing wouldnt occur but I dont think the hens would eat it either.   I keep an extra bottle of water with heavy dose of ACV in it for my waterer and it hasnt froze yet either.   Just my 2 cents

You can keep your cold weather though   I like the change of seasons here but we rarely get under 0F  and I am ok with that    But I def will see what birds you have when I get more in the spring since I know they are VERY cold tolerant

-25 is actually in Celsius. It's -13 to you.

What is heating tape?

Yeah.. I think smaller waters is my only option, I just have to get to it.

 

[B J Hopkins]

My 2 wk old chicks Diving into their morning FF.

2 of the silly chicks spent the night Under the Pallet house instead of inside w/Momma. Was 40F when I fed them this morning.

 

[armorfirelady]

-25 is actually in Celsius. It's -13 to you.

What is heating tape?

Yeah.. I think smaller waters is my only option, I just have to get to it.

Thats still cold to me

http://www.acehardware.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=1259053

Heating tape is what you wrap around pipes, etc to keep them from freezing. Next year I would like to wrap this around my pvc nipple waterer and then put a larger piece of pvc over the tape so its protected from the birds pecking at it. I also have the Easy Heat Freeze Free
Preset thermostat now that I plug my heated dog bowls in. I have used it in the past for the heating cables for my roof with great success.

The cables are flexible enough you can wrap them around standard waterers as well. I have seen someone make one out of buckets with the same idea. Here is another example as well.

More than enough to keep us all busy these winter months

 

[Miss Lydia]

Okay so all my FF in the feeders are freezing overnight (I put down feed at night when I get off work - should last them until late morning and I repeat the following day). I don't have time in the morning to do it all. Though my bucket (trash can) that keeps the FF never freezes, and it was -25 this morning!

The birds still eat the frozen food. Though very slowly.
It generally doesn't get much colder on average. We do get colder days/nights, but this is about average temps for January. Today it's a high of -7.
Now for the water.. I have no idea what to do with my biggest one. The cookie tin heaters I made don't fit the base of it

I am actually using 2 heated dog bowls that I had stored away since I had originally bought them for the ducks but they end up splashing all the water out of them so went to bucket, the heated bowls work great for the ff. i have to stick them in the house at night to keep the preds out of them but I am very pleased with how well they work.

 

[aoxa]

-25 is actually in Celsius. It's -13 to you.


What is heating tape?


Yeah.. I think smaller waters is my only option, I just have to get to it.

Thats still cold to me

http://www.acehardware.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=1259053

Heating tape is what you wrap around pipes, etc to keep them from freezing. Next year I would like to wrap this around my pvc nipple waterer and then put a larger piece of pvc over the tape so its protected from the birds pecking at it.  I also have the [COLOR=0000FF]Easy Heat Freeze Free

Preset[/COLOR] thermostat now that I plug my heated dog bowls in. I have used it in the past for the heating cables for my roof with great success.   

The cables are flexible enough you can wrap them around standard waterers as well. I have seen someone make one out of buckets with the same idea.  Here is another example as well.

More than enough to keep us all busy these winter months

I think the heated waterers would be cheaper than the heated tape.

I would love to do the nipple waterers, but my ducks/geese need to have water as well. They have to clear their nostrils by making a huge mess

 

[armorfirelady]

I always thought it would be cool to have ducks or geese but everyone says how messy they are. I guess if I ever get my dream property it will have to have a pond so they can be messy in there lol

 

[aoxa]

I always thought it would be cool to have ducks or geese but everyone says how messy they are. I guess if I ever get my dream property it will have to have a pond so they can be messy in there lol

That's exactly what you have to do

Geese aren't as messy as ducks, but they do like to chew on things.

 

[notinoz2007]

I wouldn't add that ACV...I think you have enough enzymes working there and adding more will just make your mix more "sour"!

YW! I like to save me a dime or two, don't you?

thank you for this tip. i have another question, regarding this same feed.
today when i got home and checked it, its thick like paste and a rather grey color, when i stir it is bright again from the grains, but that grey worried me. should i just start fresh when i switch to the 5 gallon buckets this weekend? (currently in 1.5 gal buckets, yay for schwanns ice cream!!)

 

[texasmomma]

thank you for this tip. i have another question, regarding this same feed.
today when i got home and checked it, its thick like paste and a rather grey color, when i stir it is bright again from the grains, but that grey worried me. should i just start fresh when i switch to the 5 gallon buckets this weekend? (currently in 1.5 gal buckets, yay for schwanns ice cream!!)

The grey is the mother. Just stir it back in and serve.

 

[Beekissed]

What she said!

My birds are eating less since I amped up the number/variety of whole grains in my FF. Each winter I do this to cut the cost of feeding birds that are dormant and non-laying. It always seems to satisfy them more and keep them from having to eat so much and my theory is that the whole grains take longer to process and digest than do the finely chopped/ground mash, so it holds them for longer.

I've found that the ferment is a better consistency for feeding also, as well as perking better in the bucket...just seems much more active in there. I discovered this last spring when I moved to 50% mixed whole grains with the meaties. Suddenly the whole FF thing got less messy, easier to feed, faster to ferment and seemed to use less feed altogether.

So glad to have finally gotten back to my old feed mix and resulting feed savings.