Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Kilsharion]

I have several 5 gallon buckets going. I don't nest mine

and like you .. I use most of each bucket every day leaving a bit in the bottom.. so I really don't see the need for nesting when we go through so much..UNLESS yours is extra wet and sloppy and you need a way to drain it...
Using the second nesting bucket (as far as I know) is for draining the FF... since mine is thick.. there's no need to drain it.

Yeah, it's for draining. I found that just using a big ol' dump of it and mixing in a bit of dry was faster for me. The draining process with mash as fine as mine was just way too time consuming. I pour through a large, slotted colander into another bucket. Leave what I want in the original bucket. Pour the quick to drain liquid back in the original bucket. Dump the FF that's in the colander into the secondary bucket, carry it over and toss in all the extras and take it out to the menagerie. Works a lot faster for me than waiting for it to drain. I was doing the double bucket system for a while and I just didn't have the patience for it

 

[bbsnooks]

I am using LAB made according to the youtube video above but I have also added IMO, indigenous micro organisms.
This orange bucket was inoculated with about a cup of LAB/IMO concoction I cooked up in my kitchen. I actually brewed this stuff up for my venture into applying Korean Natural Farming techniques to my orchard/garden. The smell in this bucket is very sour but with a sweet/earthy scent mixed in also.




This blue bucket was inoculated with straight Braggs Vinegar. It has a very strong Sour smell. As to uses for the Hooch (liquid) I put a cupfull in the tank of my 4 gallon backpack sprayer along with 10 ounces of liquid fish and 2 ounces of emulsified neem oil and spray my entire orchard/garden about twice a week. This mix helps kick start the microbial activity in the soil and on the foliage of my trees helping the beneficial microbes to out compete the bad ones. The coop/run area gets sprayed down about once a month with a cup out of each bucket mixed in the 4 gallon sprayer, it has made the black muck around the duck pond less smelly, fostered the breakdown of the litter, and kept the general odor in check.

Terrific.. a very small ammount in the spray dilution.
On your orange.. bucket.. you put a cup < 8oz>.. of your processed IMO's in that.. Is that alot? I was thinking they diluted this product alot when using..


I'm glad you mentioned the tree's to spray.. I was just thinking about the yard and garden.. but i have several apricot trees..
I have clay soil.. and want to help .. activate it..
I've reciently listened to Elaine ?? from Rodale http://rodaleinstitute.org/
- I think she uses this - IMO and combine w/ compost tea..
its 2 hrs long and the audio is not great.. however.. some may find it worth listening.. if you like the IMO concept for gardening
http://f.cl.ly/items/041r3m0E232i3B3N0I1a/elaine2.mp3
--
let me make sure.. are you using the
a) IMO's from the rice water wash & milk extract
or
b) are you using the hooch liquid? after fermenting the feed when diluting w water / neem / fish emulsion..

thanks for helping me out here..

I free feed... You will notice they might go through periods of eating a lot, and not. Most people notice they eat a lot at first but then taper down. Sometimes they hardly touch their feed and other times I have to fill it more often. It's kind of a wait and see thing... the good news is that all in all, I have cut my feed bill by almost half.

Yes.. Mine did this too..

I have ACV in there too - actually started it with ACV and then added LAB later just to give it some of that extra and different "good stuff".

Good idea...

Thanks for the comments on how to use some of the extra liquid..
Debra

 

[bbsnooks]

So I've been fermenting feed for about 2 weeks now and like the way the birds look, however I have a lot of "waste" from my juicer. Can I put that into my fermented feed mix? Will it be harmful or helpful. Most of the time it's a mix of strawberries, blueberries, carrots, and apples. Sometimes there is watermelon or other types of melon.

I was planning on just dumping the "waste into a bucket then covering with feed, water and ACV and mixing up.

Hello.. I've been juicing this year too..

and I'm looking into another use for the roughage
Black soldier fly grub's.. they are very high in protein and calcium.. there are a few threads on the BSF grubs here.. and some funny you tube of people feeding them to chickens.. they dont smell. work fast.. keep away the pest fly's .. - dont bite.. - and make a great compost to go with a worm farm.. or compost tea.. (oh.. you can put your chicken manuer in there too. )

I think it may be a match made in heaven for layer chickens..

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Can anyone tell me how much average a full grown chicken should get of FF a day? I have 28 layers and They eat as much as I will give them lol. It's layer crumble if that matters. Thanks

 

[Lacy Blues]

The way I judge it is to consider the size of their crop, completely full. I use a large spoon to dish out my ff and just count spoonfuls. When it comes time to close up, I pick up all food left overs and water and remove them from the coop (I have a mouse infestation and I refuse to feed the little pests!) On the evenings when there is just a tiny bit of grains left in their feed dishes, I've hit the nail on the head and had no waste at all. The collected food goes into the next morning's feed. I never put food back into the ferment buckets as I don't want to contaminate it with possible feces or dirty feathers or whatever.

 

[SunnysMama]

Can anyone tell me how much average a full grown chicken should get of FF a day? I have 28 layers and They eat as much as I will give them lol. It's layer crumble if that matters. Thanks

I ferment my grains only and then they get free choice crumbles. I have 52 layers and 2 roosters and they consume 8 dry quarts of fermented grains (corn, oats, barley and wheat) a day. They also free range and go through a 50# bag of layers crumbles in about two weeks.

 

[muckmuck]

Quote:Originally Posted by SunnysMama
At what stage of the IMO did you add it and what is the benefit of it in the feed? I'm currently in the fermenting of stage 2. I was making mine for my garden.

I am using IMO 2 that has been diluted with non-chlorinated water. I haven't mixed it with the rice bran or wheat bran because I'm not looking for a dry product. Originally I was trying to figure out how to recreate EM as close as possible without paying the shipping (no local source and the shipping doubled the price). The more I read the more it appears to me that EM is basically just a proprietary mix of LAB and IMO from Japan. In fact I now have three concoctions: LAB stabilized with molasses, IMO 2 diluted 10/1 with water, and a 50/50 mix of LAB and IMO 2.
Quote:Originally Posted by bbsnooks

Terrific.. a very small ammount in the spray dilution.
On your orange.. bucket.. you put a cup < 8oz>.. of your processed IMO's in that.. Is that alot? I was thinking they diluted this product alot when using..

I did use a cup of my LAB/IMO mixture and it was probably overkill but I wanted to jumpstart the fermentation.

I'm glad you mentioned the tree's to spray.. I was just thinking about the yard and garden.. but i have several apricot trees..
I have clay soil.. and want to help .. activate it..
I've reciently listened to Elaine ?? from Rodale http://rodaleinstitute.org/
- I think she uses this - IMO and combine w/ compost tea..
its 2 hrs long and the audio is not great.. however.. some may find it worth listening.. if you like the IMO concept for gardening
http://f.cl.ly/items/041r3m0E232i3B3N0I1a/elaine2.mp3
--
let me make sure.. are you using the
a) IMO's from the rice water wash & milk extract

What you are describing is LAB or Lacto-Bacillus Bacteria
IMO's are collected on Carbohydrates such as cooked rice left exposed to productive leaf litter or mulch such as under a healthy bamboo stand, in an established forest area or like I did in the 20 year old deep mulch in a local cooperative extension service experimental orchard.
or
b) are you using the hooch liquid? after fermenting the feed when diluting w water / neem / fish emulsion..

I have used both. I figure the hooch is just an expanded source for the microbes I captured originally.



Two day old Lacto ferment in hooch that was inoculated with Bragg's 4 months ago

8 hour old IMO/LAB ferment in hooch that was inoculated with my wild caught indigenous micro-organisms.

 

[colburg]

Does anyone remember the post number where the Natural Korean Farming LAB was typed up? I can't get youtube to work and remember someone typing it up, but I can't find it again.

Thanks,

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

I'm going to try and get my FF buckets back together today. The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy, so I wasn't able to keep up with the FF, so I'll be starting a new batch.

~ Aspen

 

[Lacy Blues]

I don't suppose that there are any books out there on the LAB, IMO and everything else, for dummies is there?

I would really like to do this but I just can't seem to wrap my head around all this information.