Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[chicken curious]

So if you also give them time to forage to meet their need to scratch and search then FF can meet their nutritional needs and foraging can meet their psychological needs?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

that's what I do, but then they eat outside usually...if anything I've noticed less aggression from my dominent layers, actually letting the chicks closer, they are leaving sooner to hunt bugs, or maybe they just gave up trying to keep all the chicks away...my pullets are getting more aggressive towards the food bowl, actually trying to eat from the spoon before i get it out...I ferment scratch and just throw it on the ground now---forget feeders for that...only fill a bowl for the broody so she can shovel it in faster.

 

[Zootopia]

I have been fermenting Gamebird Starter (because of the turkeys) and scratch grains, I worried about the chicks not scratching too so I would toss some dry starter in the pen like twice a day along with their grit. The 3 to 6 wk old s are all together and they have dry available all the time and I fill their FF twice a day. Basically when they clean it up. They don't eat much of the dry.
I give Fermented scratch grains as a treat to everyone when I think of it maybe every other day. Some love it some could care less. The ones who have had it from the brooder are being fed FF full time with dry available. They do "Attack" me as soon as they see the FF feeder, they really love it, but they aren't really being aggressive and they eat their fill then go away so everyone gets to eat. I give them enough to last several hrs.
Everyone looks great, and I will be giving this to the "Mystery? ducks that hatched out yesterday. Makes it easier since they do better on wet food anyway.

 

[lhousesoccer]

They do "Attack" me as soon as they see the FF feeder, they really love it, but they aren't really being aggressive and they eat their fill then go away so everyone gets to eat..

What kind of feeder are you using for the FF? I built a built-in trough into the inside of my coop (a double-wall trough with a tray at the bottom) so I can fill it up with about 1 week's worth of dry layer pellets. As they eat out of the trough, the dry pellets just slide down and keep the tray full.

With FF, that obviously won't work. What are people putting their FF in to feed the chickens?

 

[Zootopia]

For the brooder chicks I am using the round plastic one intended to have a jar on top, minus the jar. In the large brooder I have the long trough with the lid that slides back. For the big guys they have a PVC pipe trough and the hens getting it as a treat just in their treat pans (whatever metal cake pans I pick up from the garage sales)

 

[griffinkid02]

Hey, not to knock this off track, but I read the thread about sprouting wheat that is on the main page in the scrolling bar. It soulnds REALLY neat and something to do so that my birds always have fresh greens after they demolish the grass and weeds in the new run I'm in the process of building them. But, i want to ask a very noob questions here.... Where would I best go about getting the wheat, oat, and grain seeds to do this with?

 

[jrsckn]

I've noticed the chicks will scratch at the ff just as much as dry feed so, to me, scratching seems instinctual and not geared only toward a specific food type. Another thing I've noticed is they prefer ff when it's moist. If there is some left in the feeder and it has dried out a bit, they treat it like it's empty. They swarm the feeder and act like they haven't eaten in days.

I feed my 13 week old in glass bread pans right now because I haven't had time to make PVC or gutters. I have used metal pans for ff but they corrode too quickly. My 26 meaties are 2.5 weeks old and eating more every day so hopefully I can get some feeders made soon because they are outgrowing the red chick trough feeders.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

There are some neat PVC feeders in this thread I think..I got as far as cutting the pipe in half lengthwise, and nobody has the end caps....someday when I go to the box store.....

 

[Zootopia]

There are some neat PVC feeders in this thread I think..I got as far as cutting the pipe in half lengthwise, and nobody has the end caps....someday when I go to the box store.....

you should be able to get them at Lowes or Home Depot as well as most hardware stores.

 

[chicks4fun]

Hey, not to knock this off track, but I read the thread about sprouting wheat that is on the main page in the scrolling bar. It soulnds REALLY neat and something to do so that my birds always have fresh greens after they demolish the grass and weeds in the new run I'm in the process of building them. But, i want to ask a very noob questions here.... Where would I best go about getting the wheat, oat, and grain seeds to do this with?

not sure where you live but if you check with your local feed store they may know or they may have some seed for grains