Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[mstricer]

Quote: Nice good idea. I will look into the strainer at the dollar store. I've going over this in my head and I think I figure it out.

 

[Trefoil]

Somewhere on this thread, i think anyway, someone had questioned why the mix was covered to keep flies out of it. I can't find the post and have wondered what the reasoning was, can anyone help me?

 

[JulieNKC]

I am on my first week of giving fermented feed to everyone here. So far, it takes me no more time to feed the fermented stuff then the dry. They are still getting both fermented and dry, because it's cold and I don't want to give my birds just cold wet feed. The chickens seem to dive in to the fermented feed bowl, the waterfowl still mostly goes for the dry. The fermented feed bowl is licked clean every morning though, so I think the waterfowl are eating some at night.
I am only using a small percentage of grain. Mine is a mix of layer, all flock, sweet feed, oats, and corn. I add some dry feed when I first get to the coop, then go about collecting eggs and giving water and all that. By the time I come back to feed it's soaked up to the consistency I want to feed at and I stir it then scoop out what I need. I add enough water to cover, and that's it. Pretty simple so far. My birds that are inside have been on it awhile longer, and I'm happy with the results with them too. They are growing and laying nice, consuming less water, and less wasteful with their feed and not as messy with it.

 

[ozexpat]

Feed and food are the same thing...!? "I had to go buy more feed" OR "I had to go buy more food"

You buy food at the food store for humans and feed at the feed store for animals.

There is a subtle difference but the preservation of the English language is at stake.

Feed, fodder, forage, provender mean food for animals. Feed is the general word

Fodder is especially applied to dry or green feed, as opposed to pasturage, fed to horses cattle, etc

Forage is food that an animal obtains (usually grass, leaves, etc.) by searching about for it:

Provender denotes dry feed, such as hay, oats, or corn

 

[Zootopia]

[quote name="Mikedero" url=

you will see it is cheaper raising meat birds on regular feed
[/quote]

When you raise a batch of meaties on FF it does take a week maybe 2 extra to finish them to butcher weight. However, if you have healthier birds that can actually walk so you don't loose birds that get down, and you don't loose them to heart attacks AND they eat less even with the extra time. The lack of mortality is sure saving me money. Add to that they aren't sitting around in their own wet stinky poop, hey they are nice and dry, hardly smell at all. That's really the only "Study" I need to see.

I feed my chicks FF starter crumble from day one. No pasty butts here. I do an oatmeal consistency so no draining.
I started FF about the middle of last year. I have a 20 gallon bucket of mixed grains. Usually a mix of scratch grains and rolled barley. I dump a bunch in a Dollar Store colander while I gather pans, another batch while I do front waters and off we go. I dump the slop back in the bucket. I'm only using about a third of the mix so I fill it back up when I leave. Mine have free choice pellets and I'd say they eat about half and half. They act like they are starving when they see the FF bucket tho. Like candy.

 

[RollinWithTheStones]

Here are the bids enjoying the new FF. They are absolutely ravenous, even the ducks love it. There was no hesitation at all from the birds.

 

[ash10383]

I asked earlier but didn't get any replies so I thought I'd try again: I mix my own feed which is mainly whole grains but I also add kelp, fish meal & ground flax all of which is pretty fine so I'm concerned with it draining out with the water instead of staying with the feed. Any body have something similar to say if the finer stuff stays with the feed or drains through with the water or ideas for a work around?

 

[colburg]

Somewhere on this thread, i think anyway, someone had questioned why the mix was covered to keep flies out of it. I can't find the post and have wondered what the reasoning was, can anyone help me?

It's to help keep flies and bacteria out. My FF is kept in the shop so a few flies are no problem. Actually, if I left it long enough for the flies to lay eggs and hatch in there, the fermented maggots would be great protien.

I used to keep mine covered, but I haven't for about 2 months now. If you've read posts from quite a while back, you'll see that Kassundra started FF long before this thread started, and did it without UP/ACV or yeast. She started it by exposing it to the wild "things" in the air. I'm not sure if she keeps it covered now though. But my thoughts are if hers got started by exposing the FF to the air, then not keeping a lid on it should be no big deal.

I asked earlier but didn't get any replies so I thought I'd try again: I mix my own feed which is mainly whole grains but I also add kelp, fish meal & ground flax all of which is pretty fine so I'm concerned with it draining out with the water instead of staying with the feed. Any body have something similar to say if the finer stuff stays with the feed or drains through with the water or ideas for a work around?

A tiny bit of the fine stuff will sift through your holes, but most of it stays in the bucket. Every once in a while, I'll dump my bottom bucket into the top bucket, spray all of the "stuff" from the bottom bucket till it's loose, pour that into the top bucket as well, then let the FF continue. That way there is no overall loss of feed. Only temporary until you pour it back into the top bucket.

 

[armorfirelady]

I asked earlier but didn't get any replies so I thought I'd try again: I mix my own feed which is mainly whole grains but I also add kelp, fish meal & ground flax all of which is pretty fine so I'm concerned with it draining out with the water instead of staying with the feed. Any body have something similar to say if the finer stuff stays with the feed or drains through with the water or ideas for a work around

I like to feed my hens FF thick like oatmeal or cookie dough. When its wetter they tend to wear it more (tho some days they still wear it when its thicker)
I put cornmeal in mine sometimes and with serving it thicker I never find the cornmeal at the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Kilsharion]

I asked earlier but didn't get any replies so I thought I'd try again: I mix my own feed which is mainly whole grains but I also add kelp, fish meal & ground flax all of which is pretty fine so I'm concerned with it draining out with the water instead of staying with the feed. Any body have something similar to say if the finer stuff stays with the feed or drains through with the water or ideas for a work around

I have a mash feed that I use - it has finely ground fish meal and kelp in it. It winds up glomming together (is that even a word?) and forms the consistency of....did you ever make mud pies as a child? Mixing dirt and water? Kinda like that. It stays in the strainer pretty well. I use a slotted spoon; but, same idea. I used a colander when I was moving it to a larger bucket and hardly lost any of the FF. The thing is - it does get gooey, so it takes quite a while to drain if you are wanting to serve it "mostly dry". I just pull it out, give it a good bounce or two and dump it in the bowls. My husband calls it 'feed soup'. But, I also add milk and whatever treat of the day they are getting - this morning it was left over bananas that I had cut up last night for part of our dessert.

I've also noticed that if you let the finer mashes that have been used in FF dry out, they form a rather solid mass. I'm trying something out this weekend and seeing if I can made feed blocks out of dried FF. No idea if I can, if I should or if they would even be interested - I just want to see if I can....because, I'm silly like that.