Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[griffinkid02]

It was looking like I would get maybe 2 more weeks out of the bag of feed I'm working on at the moment, now I'll be lucky if it last to the end of this week becuase i'm actually having to give them some free choice dry crumbles and they are STILL eating everything before I get home from work and can give them the next round...

 

[shadowmane]

Are you ranging them at all? This method of feeding can really work great if you supplement them with free-ranging to get bugs and grasses. Mine free-range all day long, and get two troughs of the FF. I probably feed between 2-4 oz per day for 15 birds.

 

[galanie]

Mine did that spike too for some reason. Now they're back to eating the smaller amount. Yet I have mostly grown birds, less than half are chicks. I am not sure, phase of the moon? Eclipse? It's strange but they know what they need and I try to adjust accordingly.

As for the whole grains, just get a bag of scratch food and add to it for some whole grains if you can't store a lot of bags. I started out getting 4 or so bags of different stuff to mix and ended up just feeding scratch with some wheat thrown in. For a mix of whole grains and pellets, just scratch will likely be fine.

 

[shadowmane]

I like the scratch, but it has soybeans in it, and the DW really wants to stay away from the soybeans. There are a couple of mills in the area, I might try going to one of them and getting some whole grains to mix myself. Alternately, the farm we buy our meat from is just around the corner. I don't know if they get their feed in bulk. If they do, I might see if I can buy some from them. Dunno. I'm just going to have to wing it for a while.

 

[galanie]

I wish our scratch had soybeans in it! I can't even get soybeans locally except the stuff left over from making soybean oil. It's interesting to me to learn what "scratch" is in different areas. Here, it's mostly milo with some wheat and cracked corn thrown in.

 

[shadowmane]

The stuff I get from the feed store has corn, wheat, oats and soybeans in it.

 

[myhubbycallsmechickeemama]

I weighed two of my average sized CX pullets this morning and they were at 1lb 11oz and 2lbs 2oz, a little below average on the Welp chart but I'm in no hurry to finish them. I am currently fermenting 3qts of flock raiser and 4qts of grain mix (wheat, rolled barley, oats, cracked corn) and after feeding for the day have maybe a little less than 1/3 of it left to which I add my new feed. This is feeding 35 CX, 5 GLW, 6 Delaware, 1 Blue Cochin and 1 Buff Orpington chicks, all 4 1/2 weeks.

Feed consumption to date...

50# of starter
85# of flock raiser
87# of grain mix (this has also been used for my big girls too so I would say apx 50# used for the chicks)

Total consumption... 185lbs of dry feed for 48 chicks. I wish I would have kept better feed records for my broilers last year but I do know that the first batch of 20 CX consumed apx 200# of feed (including waste) before leaving the brooder (4 weeks). That is better than 50% less consumption on the FF and not a huge difference in weight.

My opinion of FF...

Pros - Less feed consumption (less $ output on my end)
Less poop
NO WASTE
NO SMELLY DISGUSTING POOP

Cons - I don't have any but some may find the actual process of keeping the feed fermenting time consuming. It seriously takes me an additional 10 minutes at the end of each day to get the batch for the next day started. I'm a housewife though so I have nothing but time!

All of my CX spent their first night outside, our low was 36 last night and they all seemed to fare well. They were up milling around at 6:00AM waiting to be fed. They are still a little skittish about getting too far away from the tractor but have been scratching and foraging around that area and of course our wind is blowing crazy again today.

They are healthy, happy birds!!! If you're on the fence about feeding FF to your broilers...I say RUN fast, gather your supplies and get started!! You and your birds will be much happier.

Fermented feed has changed the definition of CX from dirty, disgusting, smelly birds to just your everyday average chicken that happens to grow a lot faster!!

 

[crazychickenwom]

I totally agree with what you have said! While I am still feeding my cx chicks the chick feed, made locally by a mill, I have already seen great results. My DF was very impressed with the stink, or lack there of, and with the way they were still growing well. While I have them in a tractor they don't free range. I move the tractor every other day and they seem to be tearing up the spot pretty good, but not too bad. I am going to move the tractor into the calf pasture this weekend so I am sure they will love all the new bugs!!

My laying chicks also eat the FF and were mad the other day when I had to give them dry feed, forgot to make more one night...

and the cx got their tray filled first... They sure did eat all they could get the next day!!

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[Zootopia]

I wish our scratch had soybeans in it! I can't even get soybeans locally except the stuff left over from making soybean oil. It's interesting to me to learn what "scratch" is in different areas. Here, it's mostly milo with some wheat and cracked corn thrown in.

There are no soybeans in our scratch either, Lots of Milo which the chicks don't seem to like. I added scratch to the chick starter FF and the Milo was the only thing left in the pan. Maybe if I leave it to ferment longer? I'll try it later when they get alittle bigger. For now I'm adding some corn to Gamebird starter, since there are a couple of turkey poults in there and I'm throwing it out to my guineas keets running with broodys.

 

[kelpieschick]

My chicks are coming tomorrow!!! I started fermenting my chick starter yesterday and so far it is just sitting there without bubbles. It was a bit too liquidy when I checked it this morning so I added another cup of starter and now it looks a bit better. It smells nice, like ACV, and has the white stuff on the top until I stir it. I stir it whenever I come into the feed room and it has a cloth over the bucket to keep it clean. Anything else I should be doing?

I have my heat lamp on over the brooder box so that it gets pre-warmed and I'll fill their waterer and add the ACV to it in the morning. They are coming at 3:00 tomorrow and I even get to leave work early to pick them up ha ha. Everyone at work has their names down on the "Chicken List" so I'm getting pretty excited!

I have my fingers crossed that I'm doing it all okay. This is my very first time having chicks!

I'll post pics when I can.

kelpieschick