Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[B J Hopkins]

Would it work OK to ferment just "Scratch" or just "Egg Pellets"? I've 57 birds and I've yet to find the level where my birds stop eating! They just can't seem to get enough. Right now I'm fermenting 4 parts Egg Pellets to 1 Part Alpha pellets & 1 part Scratch.

Even though they eat less this way, my feed bill is outrageous. Most of my chickens are under a year old. I also have 4 Turkey and one of them has started "squating" for me. I am getting a good amount of eggs daily. One of my 8mo old Black Silkies gave me a "first" egg yesterday.

 

[Terri O]

Has anyone here used ff with their rabbits? We keep breeding rabbits for meat and pelts. The 3 adults go through a 50# bag of pellets plus food scraps and an 1/4-1/6 of a bail of hay in 3 weeks...I would love to bring down food costs there!

I have my daughter's pet rabbit in with my show birds and he is the first one to the fermented feed pan when I dump it in! He is plump and active and rarely touched his pellets anymore! I hope that chicken food is OK for rabbits...LOL!
TerriO

 

[NickyPick]

Do you add fresh dry feed every day? I am still trying to get the measurements down as to how much to feed, feeding ducks and geese puts it in a different set up than most, I think i have it down to 11/2 gallon per day now. with corn and meal worms as late afternoon treat. I worry I'm feeding too much but they are hungry. Hopefully when spring gets here and there is more to forage for I can cut back on the ff.

I don't add fresh every day. I fill up a 2 gallon bucket of the feed mixture I use, add hot water and pour that into my FF bucket (a 5 gallon bucket) and stir. Each day, I take out what they're going to eat and stir until it gets down to the last 2 inches in the bucket, then I add more. Generally takes about 3 days. I don't keep it floating in liquid anymore, just moist on top, so there's no straining, just scoop and go. The stirring gets the wet stuff on bottom mixed thoroughly with the moist stuff on top and keeps everything fermented. It's easy and also keeps the system easy for my helper, who feeds in the morning (I'm off to work at 5am and don't want to open the coops while its still dark).

 

[Miss Lydia]

Would it work OK to ferment just "Scratch" or just "Egg Pellets"? I've 57 birds and I've yet to find the level where my birds stop eating! They just can't seem to get enough. Right now I'm fermenting 4 parts Egg Pellets to 1 Part Alpha pellets & 1 part Scratch.

Even though they eat less this way, my feed bill is outrageous. Most of my chickens are under a year old. I also have 4 Turkey and one of them has started "squating" for me. I am getting a good amount of eggs daily. One of my 8mo old Black Silkies gave me a "first" egg yesterday.

I do half and half, half all flock crumble to half scratch which has other grains also. I keep oyster shell out at all times and their egg shell are good and hard.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Would it work OK to ferment just "Scratch" or just "Egg Pellets"? I've 57 birds and I've yet to find the level where my birds stop eating! They just can't seem to get enough. Right now I'm fermenting 4 parts Egg Pellets to 1 Part Alpha pellets & 1 part Scratch.

Even though they eat less this way, my feed bill is outrageous. Most of my chickens are under a year old. I also have 4 Turkey and one of them has started "squating" for me. I am getting a good amount of eggs daily. One of my 8mo old Black Silkies gave me a "first" egg yesterday.

I would bet that your birds need to be wormed, I know that some folks try to rely on "natural" methods for worming, but I believe in pharmaceuticals (faster and more effective). You can check with local vets to see if any of them will run a stool sample for you (costs about $13 here), just gather up a few different poos and scoop them into a pill bottle or such for the vet (if one bird has worms, they ALL have worms). Wazine controls only one kind of worm, so if they have other types of worms you'll need something broad-spectrum. My birds used to eat like thy were always starving too, and a stool test showed they had a couple kinds of worms which could potentially be fatal. After I wormed them their food consumption went WAY down.

 

[notinoz2007]

i also mix half scratch to half layer ration and throw in whatever else i feel like. right now i add lentils, wheat berries and boss... just because i found it cheap at the grocery.

as an alternative to wazine - which i have used before - why not just put raw pumpkin seed in the ff bucket? "natural" might take longer, but it is "natural" after all, and that is what this thread is about if i understand correctly.

 

[aoxa]

i also mix half scratch to half layer ration and throw in whatever else i feel like. right now i add lentils, wheat berries and boss... just because i found it cheap at the grocery.

as an alternative to wazine - which i have used before - why not just put raw pumpkin seed in the ff bucket? "natural" might take longer, but it is "natural" after all, and that is what this thread is about if i understand correctly.

I agree.

It's definitely better to avoid worming medications unless there is a confirmed case of worms and the chickens' life is threatened, and that chicken is a pet. If I had a chicken with terrible worm load, while all the others were responding to my methods - I would cull. If all are showing symptoms of this, there is something more you could be doing to prevent an overload.

Everyone has worms. You do. I do. It's a balance of those worms that is important. There are many ways to keep a healthy balance without introducing harsh chemicals to their system. Just MHO.

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.ca/2012/11/bloody-egg-do-my-chickens-have-worms.html
This may be of interest to you.

 

[Mumsy]

I agree.

It's definitely better to avoid worming medications unless there is a confirmed case of worms and the chickens' life is threatened, and that chicken is a pet. If I had a chicken with terrible worm load, while all the others were responding to my methods - I would cull. If all are showing symptoms of this, there is something more you could be doing to prevent an overload.

Everyone has worms. You do. I do. It's a balance of those worms that is important. There are many ways to keep a healthy balance without introducing harsh chemicals to their system. Just MHO.

http://naturalchickenkeeping.blogspot.ca/2012/11/bloody-egg-do-my-chickens-have-worms.html
This may be of interest to you.

Double agreement here. I ferment ground pumpkin seed right along with the other grains. I also top dress the FF in the dishes with powdered garlic and cayenne every day. Preventive feeding and flock management and then culling susceptible birds out of the flock is good husbandry. Very often heavy worm infestation is indicative of over crowding or overly free ranged ground or a combination of those both.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Everyone has worms. You do. I do. It's a balance of those worms that is important. There are many ways to keep a healthy balance without introducing harsh chemicals to their system. Just MHO.

Sorry, I just do not believe that EVERYONE has worms. Have you any evidence to back up that claim?

I know that when I have taken my dog to the vet they will do a stool sample to test for worms, 99% of the time none are found.

I think I could take a stool sample from my chickens to the vet right now and have them find NO worms.

EDITED TO ADD: I'd like to add here that almost all worms that infest chickens are microsopic in size, you are NOT going to see them with the naked eye. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

I keep seeing the statements thrown out there that everyone and everything has worms but never see any research to back it up.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/wormy-tidbits-of-information I use Safeguard except I don't dilute in drinking water, just give it to them straight, with a needleless syringe, right down the throat.

JMO

 

[aoxa]

Sorry, I just do not believe that EVERYONE has worms. Have you any evidence to back up that claim?

I know that when I have taken my dog to the vet they will do a stool sample to test for worms, 99% of the time none are found.

I think I could take a stool sample from my chickens to the vet right now and have them find NO worms.

EDITED TO ADD: I'd like to add here that almost all worms that infest chickens are microsopic in size, you are NOT going to see them with the naked eye. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there.

I keep seeing the statements thrown out there that everyone and everything has worms but never see any research to back it up.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/wormy-tidbits-of-information I use Safeguard except I don't dilute in drinking water, just give it to them straight, with a needleless syringe, right down the throat.

JMO

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