Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[mlowen]

I made LABS (rice wash) and have just now starting to ferment scratch grains. I wanted to throw in a little active culture buttermilk as a "kick starter" but can't find any. I know it will ferment all on its own, but would it help or hurt to add a dash of LABS water?

 

[Beekissed]

Wouldn't hurt a bit!

 

[Lacy Blues]

I made LABS (rice wash) and have just now starting to ferment scratch grains. I wanted to throw in a little active culture buttermilk as a "kick starter" but can't find any. I know it will ferment all on its own, but would it help or hurt to add a dash of LABS water?

Is there a place where this information is all in one place? I'd like to take a look at it and see if its something I could squeeze into my routine.

 

[Zootopia]

Is there a place where this information is all in one place?  I'd like to take a look at it and see if its something I could squeeze into my routine.

It's all right here. Seriously, the more of this thread you read, the better idea you will have about what will work for you and your routine. We all have our own way of doing things and your way will no doubt be a meld of what you read on here. FF is sort of like hatching, no one thing works for everyone. It's a good read.

 

[armorfirelady]

I made LABS (rice wash) and have just now starting to ferment scratch grains. I wanted to throw in a little active culture buttermilk as a "kick starter" but can't find any. I know it will ferment all on its own, but would it help or hurt to add a dash of LABS water?

Is there a place where this information is all in one place?  I'd like to take a look at it and see if its something I could squeeze into my routine.

Here is the video I used

 

[mlowen]

Is there a place where this information is all in one place?  I'd like to take a look at it and see if its something I could squeeze into my routine.

There was a "recipe" on either this thread or Natural Chicken Keeping. I copied it onto a word document. I'll try to upload it from my computer tomorrow.

 

[colburg]

I have another experiment I'm thinking of trying. If anyone remembers a while back, I tried fermenting a little moldy feed, with non-negative results. They weren't necesserily good, but nothing happened and no feed has been wasted since.

New (maybe) experiment: Fermenting Botulated canned food.

My grandmother-in-law doesn't not do a hot water bath when canning and has started sending cases of 3-5 year old canned food for us to feed to our chickens. I know they had chickens back in the day, but haven't got to ask if they fed botulated food to their chickens. Nevermind, just asked my wife, and apperantly her Gmom laughed at her when she asked about chickens getting botulism. They fed their chickens every scrap of food, no matter what condition it was in.

The www says that chickens can get botulism, if they consume enough of it to throw off their gut flora.

I use the double bucket method like Bee. So what I want to do, is overpower the botulism by mixing....maybe 20% scoby with 80% botulismed canned food. Maybe 50/50. I don't know.

We did crack open one can that didn't spew, but the top contents were much darker than the rest, so all of this may not have botulism.

Thoughts? Action Plans? Suggestions?

 

[AletaG]

Regarding botulism, do any of the items you've read say anything about the botulinin toxin? maybe they did feed it to their chickens, but a lot of toxins go into meat. Then, you eat it. Or into the eggs. There's something called (I think) bioaccumulation - worm eats bad stuff, bird eats lots of worms, bigger bird dies eating small bird due to toxins from the worm but it did not affect either the worm or the first bird in the chain. I'd want to know if it can bioaccumulate before I tried experimenting, myself. Also, maybe check with Extension service and have some of it tested - maybe there's a way to estimate how much toxin is in a given volume?

If it's not bioaccumulating, well, if you don't care if they die, 'cause you are going to eat them, I would be very interested to know your results!
-AG

 

[Lacy Blues]

I have another experiment I'm thinking of trying. If anyone remembers a while back, I tried fermenting a little moldy feed, with non-negative results. They weren't necesserily good, but nothing happened and no feed has been wasted since.

New (maybe) experiment: Fermenting Botulated canned food.

My grandmother-in-law doesn't not do a hot water bath when canning and has started sending cases of 3-5 year old canned food for us to feed to our chickens. I know they had chickens back in the day, but haven't got to ask if they fed botulated food to their chickens. Nevermind, just asked my wife, and apperantly her Gmom laughed at her when she asked about chickens getting botulism. They fed their chickens every scrap of food, no matter what condition it was in.

The www says that chickens can get botulism, if they consume enough of it to throw off their gut flora.

I use the double bucket method like Bee. So what I want to do, is overpower the botulism by mixing....maybe 20% scoby with 80% botulismed canned food. Maybe 50/50. I don't know.

We did crack open one can that didn't spew, but the top contents were much darker than the rest, so all of this may not have botulism.

Thoughts? Action Plans? Suggestions?

Suggestions? I would say DON'T DO IT! I wouldn't take any chances with that stuff!

 

[Lacy Blues]

It's all right here. Seriously, the more of this thread you read, the better idea you will have about what will work for you and your routine. We all have our own way of doing things and your way will no doubt be a meld of what you read on here. FF is sort of like hatching, no one thing works for everyone. It's a good read.

I wasn't referring to fermented feed, I am referring to the LAB thing that a few people on here have talked about.

Here is the video I used
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG4M71vMbTs

Thank you, I will watch this.

There was a "recipe" on either this thread or Natural Chicken Keeping. I copied it onto a word document. I'll try to upload it from my computer tomorrow.

I appreciate that. I'll watch the video mentioned above but having something I can print out will be very beneficial too.