Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[armorfirelady]

Question (and I did search but nothing came up).... has anyone used a well-rinsed cat litter bucket for a fermenter? It seems like it would be the perfect size, and Tidy Cats has a convenient lid.

As long as its washed out it should be fine. I use my empty boxes for everything including nesting boxes. Litter isnt poisoness.

 

[SunnysMama]

Okay, I have been feeding my broilers FF since they were days old. I have some that are at 8 weeks today and some that are at 6 weeks today. In the last week I have lost 12 birds to flip. I am doing nothing different than I have in previous years. We had one today that was very lethargic so we processed it and it had ascites (body cavity full of yellow fluid). This particular bird was very small. Most of them have been dying in middle of the night and we find them on their backs. I am so frustrated that I can't stand it!! It just kills me to feed birds this long to throw them in the garbage. Any suggestions???

I have done everything they suggest on raising these birds and they are also allowed to free range.

 

[colburg]

Okay, I have been feeding my broilers FF since they were days old. I have some that are at 8 weeks today and some that are at 6 weeks today. In the last week I have lost 12 birds to flip. I am doing nothing different than I have in previous years. We had one today that was very lethargic so we processed it and it had ascites (body cavity full of yellow fluid). This particular bird was very small. Most of them have been dying in middle of the night and we find them on their backs. I am so frustrated that I can't stand it!! It just kills me to feed birds this long to throw them in the garbage. Any suggestions???

I have done everything they suggest on raising these birds and they are also allowed to free range.

I'm no expert, we just finished our first ever batch of meaties, so take this with a grain of salt.

We free ranged ours as well, but we limited them to 12-14hrs per day of free choice FF. 5:30am to sundown was our schedule. We did this because of the recommendation on the Welp hatchery site.

Out of 50 BBQ Special ordered, 52 were shipped, one died on the way.
One died at about 3-4 days old, and another one died at 3 weeks.
One more at 8 weeks, and only one developed leg problems at 8 weeks.

After they finished one bag of non-med starter, their food was a mix of 20% layer pellets and scratch grains. Every single drop of food they got was fermented.

You should post any other suggestions you find.
Hope this helps.

 

[Beekissed]

Okay, I have been feeding my broilers FF since they were days old. I have some that are at 8 weeks today and some that are at 6 weeks today. In the last week I have lost 12 birds to flip. I am doing nothing different than I have in previous years. We had one today that was very lethargic so we processed it and it had ascites (body cavity full of yellow fluid). This particular bird was very small. Most of them have been dying in middle of the night and we find them on their backs. I am so frustrated that I can't stand it!! It just kills me to feed birds this long to throw them in the garbage. Any suggestions???

I have done everything they suggest on raising these birds and they are also allowed to free range.

Allowed to free range or made to free range? There's a difference. When you offer them a constant buffet of grain feeds~FF or not, they aren't going to forage aggressively at all...they may take a stroll now and again but, primarily, they will only eat, drink and rest after a certain point in their lives. They are too heavy to do otherwise.

The first batch of meaties I raised had no deaths at all and no health issues, were butchered at 11 wks and displayed healthy organs and carcasses~they were not given FF, just free range and layer mash/whole grains once a day. They dressed out 5-6 lbs on average.

The second batch had one death of a chick at 2 wks..could have been caused by our grown rooster at the time but I now doubt that. Out of the 54 sent, one died at 2 wks of unknown causes, 3 died around the same time by drowning in the dog's bucket. The rest thrived to be butchered at 10-13 wks...again, no health issues.

Just feeding FF isn't the key to health on a CX. It helps cut feed costs, maybe, but in reality, when you overfeed a fast growing bird and never make it exercise, the bones and muscles won't withstand that quick growth in a lot of cases.

Mine free ranged in heat up to 98-99* in high humidity and traveled over 3 acres for their food....no flip. No ascites..which indicates heart failure. Nothing but extreme vigor and good health up to butchering. They could roost on low roosts clear up to their processing and walk with ease, run with ease.

They will, literally, eat themselves to death if you don't limit their feed and force them to exercise. I fed in the evening so that they had to move for food all day long and were finally given food each evening...they all came back to the coop with full crops, so their foraging was considered a big success. Saved me money on feed, yielded live and healthy birds for processing, and the meat was healthy and I didn't have any reservations about eating birds who barely make it to their second month of age.

Those recommended feeding charts from hatcheries are designed around commercial poultry business protocols. They lose birds by the end loader bucket full each day and they can afford the losses because they are growing these birds by the thousands. A backyard person cannot afford those losses and needs to change tactics if they are going to raise meat profitably and in a healthy manner.

My suggestion is to get them out on free range at an early age, feed once a day in the evening, use the FF, feed normal protein levels much like you'd give a layer flock and provide open air and shady housing.

 

[ssbs]

Question.. How do you know if your FF went bad?? It smelled like I had said before, Timothy hay/pizza dough.. On Sunday I moved it from the crock to a bakery icing bucket. I fed the birds some then added a few cups of new feed and fresh water (tap water that had sat out over night). I mixed it up and let it sit. By morning it needed more water so I added it. For the last day or so it has smelled more like pickled corn. It doesn't smell nasty or anything but it is more of a vinegar type smell. Since I moved it to the bucket I have just set the lid loosely on top. I drilled a bunch of holes in it

 

[armorfirelady]

Sounds like its still good. Mine varies in smell also. When its more watery to me its smells more vinegary but when I add dry feed it loses that smell. I've never had a batch go bad. Even in the heat of summer. It sometimes gets a gray film on top but I just stir it back in. My birds are healthy

 

[B J Hopkins]

Allowed to free range or made to free range? There's a difference. When you offer them a constant buffet of grain feeds~FF or not, they aren't going to forage aggressively at all...they may take a stroll now and again but, primarily, they will only eat, drink and rest after a certain point in their lives. They are too heavy to do otherwise.

The first batch of meaties I raised had no deaths at all and no health issues, were butchered at 11 wks and displayed healthy organs and carcasses~they were not given FF, just free range and layer mash/whole grains once a day. They dressed out 5-6 lbs on average.

The second batch had one death of a chick at 2 wks..could have been caused by our grown rooster at the time but I now doubt that. Out of the 54 sent, one died at 2 wks of unknown causes, 3 died around the same time by drowning in the dog's bucket. The rest thrived to be butchered at 10-13 wks...again, no health issues.

Just feeding FF isn't the key to health on a CX. It helps cut feed costs, maybe, but in reality, when you overfeed a fast growing bird and never make it exercise, the bones and muscles won't withstand that quick growth in a lot of cases.

Mine free ranged in heat up to 98-99* in high humidity and traveled over 3 acres for their food....no flip. No ascites..which indicates heart failure. Nothing but extreme vigor and good health up to butchering. They could roost on low roosts clear up to their processing and walk with ease, run with ease.

They will, literally, eat themselves to death if you don't limit their feed and force them to exercise. I fed in the evening so that they had to move for food all day long and were finally given food each evening...they all came back to the coop with full crops, so their foraging was considered a big success. Saved me money on feed, yielded live and healthy birds for processing, and the meat was healthy and I didn't have any reservations about eating birds who barely make it to their second month of age.

Those recommended feeding charts from hatcheries are designed around commercial poultry business protocols. They lose birds by the end loader bucket full each day and they can afford the losses because they are growing these birds by the thousands. A backyard person cannot afford those losses and needs to change tactics if they are going to raise meat profitably and in a healthy manner.

My suggestion is to get them out on free range at an early age, feed once a day in the evening, use the FF, feed normal protein levels much like you'd give a layer flock and provide open air and shady housing.

That's sounds like the best advice I've heard so far. Wish I'd had that 4 weeks earlier!

If you said all this before, sorry I missed it.

 

[deserthomestead]

I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, but at what age can you begin feeding FF only once a day?
Mine are 3 weeks old and I'm still feeding twice daily.

 

[Zootopia]

I'm sorry if this has already been addressed, but at what age can you begin feeding FF only once a day?
Mine are 3 weeks old and I'm still feeding twice daily.

Whenever you want. Just make sure you have a feeder that will hold enough so they have feed all the time.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Well, you could give them twice as much and only feed once per day. Unless you have forage for them, you'll probably have to feed twice a day for as long as they live.