Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[JoyfulPromise]

Are all of your birds free ranging? Who is and who isn't?

We have only two and a half acres of land. 1/2 acre (roughly) is out front of our house by the road, and is (sadly) mainly unused except for flower beds and our raspberry patch on the side. Behind the house, we have 1 acre completely fenced in with chain-link fence (a huge blessing - it was here when we moved in! ) Within this acre on the west side we have a 30ft x 150ft garden, which is fenced off from the chickens, then on the east side there is the main coop (a 10x12ft shed) with an attached fenced in 22x150?ft run that we seeded for clover and forage greens and there are a few natural shrubs and other things. Beside the main coop is a 20x 25ft fenced yard with a 6x8 coop inside (our pullet grow out pen). It was also seeded for forage this spring before the pullets were out of the brooder. It also now has our four meat rabbit breeder cages in a covered section beside the coop. Behind that coop is our strawberry patch - about 20x100?ft which is also fenced off from the chickens. The rest of the acre yard is open for the chickens during free range time - it includes a Large (highbush cranberry?) bush that they love to hide under, several pine trees, a curly willow, a Large (and I mean LARGE) wooden playset with sand box, a HUGE deck to hide under, a compost pile to scratch through, and much more.

Our second acre is behind the fenced acre. It is not fenced in and includes a natural stream/wetland/runoff from all the neighboring farms. We dug a nice pond in the middle of that area, and my sister keeps her ducks there. There is a section this side of the stream that includes a coop and large pen where we keep the extra cockerels for growing out to edible size. Behind the stream is a meadow, where my brother runs his hoop houses when he raises a batch of Cornish broilers.

Basically our schedule is as follows. The Bantam flock gets free range of the yard during the morning. At noon, I put the Bantams back in their 4x8 tractor coop/pen and let out the main laying flock to free range until sundown. The pullets and cockerels stay in their yards all day, except for the young ones that are still being raised by a broody from the main flock. They get to free range with their mama.

So there you go! More than you probably wanted to know about our land and system.

Sorry, I tend to get detailed when I write.

 

[AVintageLife]

You forgot to add have great mechanical skills...i 'm a fairly good mechanic and thats an important thing to know if you want to save money and homestead. Anyway, I can do all that and I am in my late 20 s... I know there ar few young women who have such skill, so they exist. I have a couple friends and family members like us. I bet they'll be even rarer when my sons grow up. I was hoping my boys would be able to pick out their girls young and have them work at our place and put them through the tests to train em right. That way they'll also learn how to cook and grow their own food, process animals and work on cars. I will hopefully have a daughter one day and will train her to know /do all these things. But like many h ave said, and I can vouch, she 'll be very intimidating. And put off most men. I can always send the girls to Alaska to find real guys...talk about guys who want a woman to match them skill for skill and then cook and have kids too. Its important to know where to look, 4h, FFA, rodeos, Montana, Arkansas, church missions trips that involve bad living conditions and building & getting filthy...these girls your sons want don't really go to the beach often, have cocktails in mini dresses or go to the mall. They've got more fulfilling and important stuff to do. Ok, now back to chickens and ff! I'm almost done with my first chicken coop, it just needs one more door, the roof, a little more hardware cloth on top, the ramp and my favorite gravity feed waterer. Why are chickens so exciting???

Great post, so much to learn even when we're off topic. Good luck with the coop. FF is the way to go, my small flock is so healthy and thriving on it.

 

[Beekissed]

I am currently feeding my 11 week old chicks twice a day with the FF - all they can eat in about 20 - 30 minutes. On days that they free range they only get the FF once - again, all they can eat in about 20-30 minutes. My question is, once they mature into adult birds (roosters and layers) should I still stick with feeding them twice per day (unless they free range) all they can eat in 20-30 minutes or should it be more, less ??

I think that's the way most folks are feeding the FF when they cannot free range...just two adequate meals per day. Seems to be working. Mine free range, so I do one meal per day.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

I think that's the way most folks are feeding the FF when they cannot free range...just two adequate meals per day.  Seems to be working.  Mine free range, so I do one meal per day. 

Sounds like I may be on the right track then... Thanks, Bee !

 

[All Ball]

Hi folks,

I am one of the many BYC newbies who is starting to try out fermented feed based on all of your expertise and recommendations.

As you know, many newcomers are daunted by the length of this thread. I was wondering if anyone is working on an article for the BYC website on the fermented feed topic? I see it is a suggested topic in the article contest. I think I recall that Beekissed was maybe working on something?

If nothing is in the works, I would volunteer to put together a summary of the expertise of others and resources/links, if that would be helpful for folks. But since I've only been doing the ff for a couple weeks, I am in no position to offer experience-based knowledge and the piece would instead reference all of YOU folks. But if any of you experts have time and inclination, I'm sure that would be the best way to go!!

I figure, if an effort is not in the works by anyone else, since I'm going to be fishing through 6,000 posts, I may as well summarize all the great knowledge and experience you all have shared for easier access.

I would not start this unless people think there is a need for it.

Does this sound like a good idea or no?

Cheers,

All Ball

 

[AVintageLife]

Hi folks,

I am one of the many BYC newbies who is starting to try out fermented feed based on all of your expertise and recommendations.

As you know, many newcomers are daunted by the length of this thread. I was wondering if anyone is working on an article for the BYC website on the fermented feed topic? I see it is a suggested topic in the article contest. I think I recall that Beekissed was maybe working on something?

If nothing is in the works, I would volunteer to put together a summary of the expertise of others and resources/links, if that would be helpful for folks. But since I've only been doing the ff for a couple weeks, I am in no position to offer experience-based knowledge and the piece would instead reference all of YOU folks. But if any of you experts have time and inclination, I'm sure that would be the best way to go!!

I figure, if an effort is not in the works by anyone else, since I'm going to be fishing through 6,000 posts, I may as well summarize all the great knowledge and experience you all have shared for easier access.

I would not start this unless people think there is a need for it.

Does this sound like a good idea or no?

Cheers,

All Ball

YES! I have read all of the posts and continue to stay on top of this thread since it is SO interesting, useful etc. At this point, with so much information here, it would be nice to have the practical information in a more concise format here on BYC.

 

[Beekissed]

It sounds like a great idea....but, please, pleeeeeaaaase, when you write it up, please don't complicate it like so many tend to do on blog sites and such. Just try to stick with the feed, water, stir, wait, feed approach without all the mixing it in little bitty dabs in glass bowls or jars, adding this LAB source or that one that has to be made up separately, and dipping it out with little bitty strainers each day from a soupy mess while declaring that it must be kept under water all the time or it will go bad, etc.

That's the worst thing ever for newbies to have to wade through is someone taking a simple process and complicating it so that it will have drama and look like a complex feeding method that only someone with a science degree can understand.

Something like...Feed is good. Fermented feed is better. This is why. This is how it is done, step one through five. That's all. Materials needed: Bucket(s), feed, water, scoop, Mother ACV(optional).

Can you do it that way?

 

[RedRidge]

LOL. So... Describing my non little bitty system is probably out too! . I feed about 25 lbs of FF/day so... I go for efficient but not itty bitty. The older I get I try to work smarter and not harder.
I had a LOT of cockerels to cull this fall (obviously) before I have to put everyone on full feed for the winter. Need to be down to fewer than 50 by the first frost or I'll break my rule of at least breaking even for the year.

 

[7acres]

I have no idea what ALETAG was saying under where she quoted me. The response definitely did not fit what I wrote. Oh well, this cowboy will stop staring and move on to his chickens.

 

[Sore Thumb Suburbanite]

Ok...maybe this has been covered, but does anybody think sprouting grains may be comparable. To ff? I know sprouted wheat is extremely. Healthful and that many other sprouted seeds exhibit their highest levels of nutrients at sprouting. Does anyone do both? I think I would love to try to sprout some seeds to go along with my ff. I just gave my flock a handful of my wheatgrass and they showed their most greedy selves.