Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[jeapa]

I keep thinking I must be imagining things.  In fact, I probably ought to go back and look at any pictures I might have.

With Andalusians, each time they molt out, they get a little less striking.

I've been feeding the ff for a couple months now and my girls are all molting.  Some have lots of new feathers and as I look at them every day, there are certain ones that are a couple of years old that were very very nice in their pullet year.  There's one that molted back after  her first molt and she was just as nice as her pullet year.  The next molt however, she faded quite a bit.  She's growing new feathers in now and unless I'm imagining it, she's almost as nice as she was before!  I'm shocked and almost totally in disbelief.  There's another hen that was never very lacy looking but she had incredible evenness of color.  This is her second molt and she's coming in with some pretty  nice lacing! 

Like I said... hard to believe!  I don't know what it would be if not the ff.  Though I don't know how that could affect coloring.

I

I know I am way behind, but I just had to reply here. I don't think you are imagining anything. I have been feeding the FF to my flock since they were about 8 weeks old and their feathers are absolutely beautiful. I really believe it is the FF. I am amazed at how much of a difference this feed seems to make in the overall health and vitality of everyone's birds.

 

[Beekissed]

Me too. I've never seen faster molt recovery and quicker conditioning on poor birds in my life. Shows that no matter how old you get there is always something to learn.

Look at this pitiful, skinny and parasite ridden chicken...




And look at her 6 wks later.



This one before...



And after...



This one before...



And just the other day, about 8 wks later...



Before...



And after..




It's not our imagination...the feed is working miracles on health, conditioning, feathering and the egg yolk size. I'm rather pleased that we can take ordinary feed and supersize it with no extra expense added.

 

[delisha]

Quote:
I feed over 30 chickens . I have 6 Muscovys and feed them 6 cups of FF. The chickens get about 1/2 cup each.( about 1 gallon) Now that foraging is down I added a night feed of 1/2 the amount.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Bee, I love your before and after pictures!

I have changed my ff in the last month. I'm just giving whole grains now instead of any lay pellet/crumble. I wonder about my girls... they either don't like it anymore or they are satisfied with WAY LESS than I think they need to eat. I have 4 feed pans and I put approximately 1 cup of feed in each pan (maybe a little less). I have 14 girls and they don't clean up their food at night. I feed them early (about 2:30pm) so they have lots of time to eat before going to roost. ????? They were doing this before I changed to just grains too.

In the last two days, I've started to add fodder to their evening meal (my set up isn't big enough yet to provide a meal of just fodder). They pretty much clean up the fodder now in addition to how much grain they were eating so I guess I should be happy that they're eating more.

It's not that I WANT to spend as much money as I can on chicken feed, I just want them to like their food and I feel like if they just pick at it and then ask to be excused from the table... they don't enjoy it. With nights getting colder and longer, I want them to get enough to eat at night to keep them warm until breakfast is served the next morning.

A couple of my girls are growing their new feathers in pretty slowly. Either that or I'm just not really aware of how things are truly going.

 

[delisha]

Remember I have Orpingtons, Cornish X , and RIR. They are all big eaters. I have large birds that forage well, and lay well. I took a picture of the cockerel next to a 5 gallon bucket to compare size. He is only 24 weeks old.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Mine are usually pretty good eaters too, I think. I have large fowl Andalusians. My boys really clean up their food. They almost NEVER leave anything for me to collect at bed time. The girls though... you'd think they were trying to watch their waistline! However, I do remember that I go through this EVERY winter. When it gets cold and I think they should increase their intake, they actually eat way less. I don't understand it at all!

 

[armorfirelady]

Remember I have Orpingtons, Cornish X , and RIR. They are all big eaters. I have large birds that forage well, and lay well. I took a picture of the cockerel next to a 5 gallon bucket to compare size. He is only 24 weeks old.

He is stunning. I love his feathering

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I love your before and after pictures!

I have changed my ff in the last month. I'm just giving whole grains now instead of any lay pellet/crumble. I wonder about my girls... they either don't like it anymore or they are satisfied with WAY LESS than I think they need to eat. I have 4 feed pans and I put approximately 1 cup of feed in each pan (maybe a little less). I have 14 girls and they don't clean up their food at night. I feed them early (about 2:30pm) so they have lots of time to eat before going to roost. ????? They were doing this before I changed to just grains too.

In the last two days, I've started to add fodder to their evening meal (my set up isn't big enough yet to provide a meal of just fodder). They pretty much clean up the fodder now in addition to how much grain they were eating so I guess I should be happy that they're eating more.

It's not that I WANT to spend as much money as I can on chicken feed, I just want them to like their food and I feel like if they just pick at it and then ask to be excused from the table... they don't enjoy it. With nights getting colder and longer, I want them to get enough to eat at night to keep them warm until breakfast is served the next morning.

A couple of my girls are growing their new feathers in pretty slowly. Either that or I'm just not really aware of how things are truly going.

Mine are eating way less too and I think as you do...they are more satisfied and are taking longer to process their foods so they require less. Mine are eating WAY less now that I upped the variety of whole grains from just barley to a multigrain as per usual. The whole grains absorb more water than the fine ground grains also, I've noticed. I think this winter feed mix is why mine always eat less in the winter...they just don't need to and their activity levels are less as well. They are foraging so far now due to lack of bug life available right now.

Remember I have Orpingtons, Cornish X , and RIR. They are all big eaters. I have large birds that forage well, and lay well. I took a picture of the cockerel next to a 5 gallon bucket to compare size. He is only 24 weeks old.

They are all lovely but he is gorgeous!!!! For his age, he is HUGE. Should be a great roo for the flock when he matures..very handsome!

 

[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.

Joke is one me! Last night when I locked up the chickens, I picked up Momma to make sure all 4 chicks were under her. They were. But this morning ALL 4 were outside eating. The chicken door has a slight gap when closed and evidently it's just big enough for the chicks to get through. Glad it's too cold for snakes! Now I need to make it close all the way.

 

[B J Hopkins]

Question for anyone. I've been feeding FF now for close to 2 months. Here & there I see dirty bottoms on my hens, but not clumped. Yesterday I thought one of my 7mo old Black Silkies bottom didn't look right. Picked her up and she had caked on/dried clumps of poo above & below her vent. I was very surprised at how little she fought against the cleansing & drying off. Both clumps were between marble & cannon ball marble size. This has only happened since I started feeding the FF. I've never had pasty butt on anything but a new chick. I'm assuming it's the result of the FF but not sure. Anything I can do to prevent this from being a frequent problem? (OH I did check and she's either ready for egg laying or already laying. I've suspected 2 Silkies were laying from the number of eggs I'm getting)