Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Kilsharion]

I am brand new to the fermenting feed experiment. I have some very smelly meat birds that I am wanting to feed the fermented feed to. My first batch never started bubbling. I used layer, water and ACV with mother in it. I think the first failure was due to the fact that I used a metal colander inside a large bowl filled with the water and ACV. I guess the metal was the problem.

So, yesterday I scrapped the first one after 5 days of waiting and stirring. I drilled some holes in a bucket and filled the bottom bucket with warm water and a couple of glugs of ACV with mother. Added the chick starter/grower to the bucket with the holes and lowered it in. I had to add more water and ACV as it all soaked into the feed. It's more than 24 hours and still nothing in "percolating". I have it in my kitchen near the window and have it covered loosely with a paper towel. What in the world am I doing wrong. Everyone makes it sound so easy.

You are doing nothing "wrong". You have a couple of options...

1) wait another day or two for the yeasts to be able to really start hitting up the sugar being released from your feed
2) use a starter like yogurt or sourdough or just plain ol' yeast
3) add a touch of molasses (no more than a tbsp for a 5 gallon bucket is necessary)

Sometimes they just need an extra punch. Especially if your house is on the cool side.

how and in what doses do you use molasses?

My organic feed has dry molasses in it. And, when it's particularly cold outside, I will add a tbsp of molasses to a cup of warm kefir milk and two cups of scratch and mix it in with their drained and warmed FF (about six cups). Never have had runny pooh issues.

 

[swga]

we need the smell a vision.. - hope it turns out.. maybe they put fish.. meal in the feed .. it could.. change the smell dramatically..
it may still be good for the chooks.. but not so good for your noes.. .. does it still get the yeast on top - or bubble?

Well, more grains started floating, and the grains that were floating turned a lot darker, and so did the liquid.
At first I tried to save it by adding some ACV, but it didn't make it smell or look any better.
Then I poured out those floating grains and rinsed the remainder that was still sinking to the bottom. There is still a lot of the white yogurt-looking stuff mixed in those grains and the liquid turned back to white, but it doesn't seem to be actively bubbling when I checked on it last. It still smells nasty, though.
The grains that I poured out are on my compost pile, and the grackles haven't even touched them, nor the dogs, so I'm thinking anything that neither a grackle nor a dog will eat is pretty nasty.
I don't understand how such a catastrophic change can happen from just adding some organic layer feed. It's Coyote Creek, and what they always get. I read the ingredients and didn't see any fish mentioned, but it does have kelp. Would that make it stink and change color? Or might the fish be called something I wouldn't recognize?
Or maybe I just left the wheat to ferment too long? Is there an ultimate 'shelf life' sort of thing where you need to add more or dry it out and preserve it?
I'm thinking it's probably adding the layer feed that did it though, since it's pretty coincidental that I add some of that and the very next day everything's all gone to hell....

 

[kacklinkelly]

Thank you to those of you who take the time to give me the boost in confidence I needed.
Still no bubbles today (day 2) will continue one more day and see what tomorrow brings.
I have pizza dough yeast I could add if I don't see anything by tomorrow. If I do, how much
of the yeast should I add? I don't have molasses and only have sweetened fruity flavored yogurt.

One side note is that since I added food grade DE to the meaties food a few days ago and cleaned
the brooder (once again) their stool is better formed and there is less smell than before I added that.
I also added some DE to their pine shavings. Unable to add ACV to their water currently as the
only waterer I have to fit in the brooder is metal.

Thanks again for all your support. Looking forward to success this time.

 

[PetRock]

Thank you to those of you who take the time to give me the boost in confidence I needed.
Still no bubbles today (day 2) will continue one more day and see what tomorrow brings.
I have pizza dough yeast I could add if I don't see anything by tomorrow. If I do, how much
of the yeast should I add? I don't have molasses and only have sweetened fruity flavored yogurt.

One side note is that since I added food grade DE to the meaties food a few days ago and cleaned
the brooder (once again) their stool is better formed and there is less smell than before I added that.
I also added some DE to their pine shavings. Unable to add ACV to their water currently as the
only waterer I have to fit in the brooder is metal.

Thanks again for all your support. Looking forward to success this time.

Don't give up on it yet. It took my first batch over 5 days with just ACV added. I have a new batch going that I started with home cultured LAB. It is day 5 or 6 and not too many bubbles but definitely a fermented smell.

 

[Kilsharion]

Well, more grains started floating, and the grains that were floating turned a lot darker, and so did the liquid.
At first I tried to save it by adding some ACV, but it didn't make it smell or look any better.
Then I poured out those floating grains and rinsed the remainder that was still sinking to the bottom. There is still a lot of the white yogurt-looking stuff mixed in those grains and the liquid turned back to white, but it doesn't seem to be actively bubbling when I checked on it last. It still smells nasty, though.
The grains that I poured out are on my compost pile, and the grackles haven't even touched them, nor the dogs, so I'm thinking anything that neither a grackle nor a dog will eat is pretty nasty.
I don't understand how such a catastrophic change can happen from just adding some organic layer feed. It's Coyote Creek, and what they always get. I read the ingredients and didn't see any fish mentioned, but it does have kelp. Would that make it stink and change color? Or might the fish be called something I wouldn't recognize?
Or maybe I just left the wheat to ferment too long? Is there an ultimate 'shelf life' sort of thing where you need to add more or dry it out and preserve it?
I'm thinking it's probably adding the layer feed that did it though, since it's pretty coincidental that I add some of that and the very next day everything's all gone to hell....

Coyote Creek not only has fish meal, it has crab meal as well.

This is from our Austin Poultry Meetup group...


I couldn't find the ingredients list for Coyote Creek on-line but Buck Moore was kind enough to read them to me. The variety of seeds in the mix is very short. It's corn, peas, wheat and oats. That's it.

Then they put in fish and crab meal - but I highly doubt that the fish is wild-caught - and guess what they usually feed farmed fish - soy. Farmed fish is not something I eat (having studied it for myself) - let alone whatever leftover parts or old or highly heated or whatever that is probably in the chicken feed.

In the mix is vegetable oil. Since canola is the cheapest it's probably what is in it and that stuff makes me feel really ill very quickly. Canola is "Canada oil" made from rape seeds that used to be used only in industry because if not processed in complex and delicate ways is highly toxic to humans. Just taking that one thing out of a diet I've known people to cure long-term chronic illnesses. I don't want that to make up the fat in my eggs yolks! At the very least - I know vegetable oil in general is really bad for me as an individual and I steer clear of it in as much as I can.

They put in Kelp. That's good.

There's alfalfa in it which is really cheap. I'm better off putting fresher alfalfa hay in their nest box and letting them eat what they want/need of it.

The rest are vitamins (if the food was good enough they wouldn't have to do put in synthetic vitamins - better to get vitamins from food) and there are long words that I can't pronounce. I don't eat foods that are made from long scientific names I can't pronounce.

There's calcium in it - but not enough. I have to feed my hens back their eggshells and give them oyster shells on top of the food any way. Oyster shells are dirt cheap and their eggs are free.

 

[Kilsharion]

Thank you to those of you who take the time to give me the boost in confidence I needed.
Still no bubbles today (day 2) will continue one more day and see what tomorrow brings.
I have pizza dough yeast I could add if I don't see anything by tomorrow. If I do, how much
of the yeast should I add? I don't have molasses and only have sweetened fruity flavored yogurt.

One side note is that since I added food grade DE to the meaties food a few days ago and cleaned
the brooder (once again) their stool is better formed and there is less smell than before I added that.
I also added some DE to their pine shavings. Unable to add ACV to their water currently as the
only waterer I have to fit in the brooder is metal.

Thanks again for all your support. Looking forward to success this time.

You're fine with just about any yeast you use. It only takes about a tsp. And, given how long it's been soaking, you shouldn't have to add any sweetstuff; but, if you do - just a tiny bit of regular sugar can get it started. Like 1/2 teaspoon or less.

And, good call on not using the sweetened fruity flavoured yogurts. Most of those have aspartame in them.

 

[Bitterroot]

I'm finally getting to try FF. My two-day-olds dove right in, no hesitation. Previously, I'd only seen them picking here and there at their dry feed, but this stuff they are really putting away.

A big thanks to everyone who has contributed to the pile of knowledge here on FF that is helping newbies like me.

 

[Triple Willow]

Is 50 pounds of feed/week for 20 five week old chicks a lot? I'm feeding about half and half - dry feed and FF (plus a little grass). These chicks are really pretty big but it seems to me that they are eating like hogs! I'm careful not to waste much feed at all. I think I am going to start a worm/compost bin to put the small amout of feed in that does get messed up and not ate.

 

[Triple Willow]

Is 50 pounds of feed/week for 20 five week old chicks a lot? I'm feeding about half and half - dry feed and FF (plus a little grass). These chicks are really pretty big but it seems to me that they are eating like hogs! I'm careful not to waste much feed at all. I think I am going to start a worm/compost bin to put the small amout of feed in that does get messed up and not ate.

*These are not Cornish X meat birds. They are just dual purpose mixes.

 

[bakingintherain]

*These are not Cornish X meat birds. They are just dual purpose mixes.

That seems like quite a lot to me but not sure, mine are super piggy but I think 50# is lasting me between 3-4 weeks I am feeding all ff:
10 - 7ish week old pullets
5- 5ish week old pullets
3- 2 week old ducklings (11 for the first week)
5- 2ish week old pullets
2- 2ish week old Cornish cross
24- week old Cornish cross