Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

I missed this question originally. Yes, I hatched chicks out of FF hens... they were production chicks, they were either Buff on Buff, or Buff on Prod Red. Hatching went great... Muccle, my d'Uccle who spends most of her life broody hatched them for me. She was determined to hatch that golf ball she was on so we gave her 7 eggs. No trouble with the hatch, chicks are almost too friendly (can't get the silly things out from under foot), and quite healthy. Only lost one of the entire hatch at about 4 days old. Everyone this year has had nothing but FF and free range. Muccle wasn't with the free range group yet so she'd had nothing but FF.
My chicks who are anywhere from 2 months to 7 months right now have had nothing but FF - ever.
I have quite a few chicks... zero health problems... and other than the one Muccle lost at four days old have not lost one chick that made it out of the bator.
And I have a LOT of chicks this year... let's see... 20 HRIR, 7 Rhodebars, 7 SFH, 24 production layers, 8 d'Uccles... so that's 66 chicks, 65 still alive and doing well... 5 d'Uccles went to a friend's daughter. So I currently have 60 chicks... hoping to get that down quite a bit better winter gets here. Don't want to feed them all.

I am keeping 12 HRIR (2 cockerels, 10 pullets), 3 Rhodebars (2 cockerels, 1 pullet), 6 SFH (1 cockerel, 5 pullets), 16 production layers (the girls), 2 d'Uccles (the girls). So... as you can imagine my cockerel pen is getting quite full... it has quite a variety in it. By Oct all the production layers will be combined, along with the d'Uccles. The HRIR, Rhodebars, and SFH will stay separated until I get breeding pen assignments done... still waiting to see how a few grow out.

This year, my production layers have helped support the remaining birds by selling a bunch of eggs, but next I need a few of these other breeds to step up to the plate and help support the flock. Am hoping to sell some fertilized eggs from the SFHs at the very least. My Rhodebar breeding program will have all F1 crosses next year, so most of those will not be breeders.

Wow... long answer to a short question... sorry I guess I got off on a tangent...

Thank you for that feedback! That's amazing for one to have that many chicks hatched and only lose one...is that a normal occurrence or do you normally lose more than that on regular feeding methods?

Well I guess I will have to join the 'odor' group. Skunks don't bother me either. What seems to make people think I am crazy is when I tell them I love the smell of cow manure and old barns. They tend to keep their distance after that!

I also love the posts on rabbits. Very interesting!

Lisa

I love the smell of old barns also and all smells related to farming...except pig manure. Pig manure is my least favorite and second to that is goat smell...billy goats are just nasty smellin'. I love pigs but not so much their "smells".

I also like the smell of pipe smoke, but not cigarette smoke. Spray paint isn't bad. Glue and markers, yep like those. (I'm a glue sniffer! LOL) Polish remover and rubbing alcohol is good. And I like all those rubs like Icey Hot, love those! Gas no and skunk pee definitely no! lol Do you remember years ago when some young boys died from sniffing Pam? Well it was bad that the boys died and all but I have a family member by the name of Pam so you can imagine... LOL

I think everyone loves the smell of markers, don't they? Just remind you of grade school....o those golden days!

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Thank you, Demosthine... What you're saying makes perfect sense to me.

 

[Triple Willow]

I actually like the smell of goats. hahaha But the billies do pee on their beard, so yuck!

 

[Triple Willow]

Ok I have a happy chicken story for you guys. I had about half a dozen roosters that I was going to kill a few weeks ago. I fed them ff and let them free range quite a bit. Well there were two top roosters that were awful to everybody! I ended up having to seperate those two. There was one poor rooster that they pretty much ran off! It ended up living out in the bushes for close to a month. Come rooster killing time I thought it had surely been caught by something. Nope! After all the troublemakers were gone he came out of the bushes. I figured after all he had been through he deserved to live so I put him in a pen to his self. Last night when the skunk drama was going on I put him in with the pullets. We today he is acting like a little gentleman rooster. Instead of attacking all the pullets and being mean like they all use to do, he was picking the good stuff out of the ff and calling the pullets over and letting them eat it. I'm glad he hid in the bushes and missed rooster killing day!

 

[Beekissed]

Sounds like he will be a real charmer!

 

[7acres]

I must be scentsitive. I do not mind the livestock smell. Other smell like markers, paint, cigarettes and perfumes are migraine triggers for some of us. Lost any respect for skunk scent when my dog startled one about two in the morning. The skunk squirted into the open bedroom window. Some mornings you do not need coffee to wake you up.


A couple of fifth graders were walking to school one morning. They were coming down the railroad track and a skunk came out of a culvert. They started throwing rocks at it and chasing. It soaked them both. Instead of going back home they came to school. I had first period free and the principal called me over the intercom to the office. He had called the parents and they said they had no way to come get them. We scrounged as much stuff as we could to cover his seats. He was going down the highway with all windows down and as fast as legally possible. When he got back he was a very sick man.

 

[locoguru]

Hi folks! Just weighed my chicks yesterday... They're doing great on the FF! They're 1lb already at two weeks! I thought they'd be a little under, but nope. They're right around 1lb. They love the stuff.

I also wish I had an easier way to feed but building a trough is out of the question right now. No materials to reasonably build it with on hand. Maybe when I finally get out to the hardware store next. I'm using some unused rabbit bowls for feed right now.

I just used 4" drain pipe. cut 1/4 out of it with jig saw and put some caps on it. Can see it in my avatar pic.

 

[TexasLisa]

I just used 4" drain pipe. cut 1/4 out of it with jig saw and put some caps on it. Can see it in my avatar pic.

 

[Triple Willow]

Lost any respect for skunk scent when my dog startled one about two in the morning.  The skunk squirted into the open bedroom window.  Some mornings you do not need coffee to wake you up.
NOW THAT IS BAD! LOL


A couple of fifth graders were walking to school one morning.  They were coming down the railroad track and a skunk came out of a culvert.  They started throwing rocks at it and chasing.  It soaked them both.  Instead of going back home they came to school.  I had first period free and the principal called me over the intercom to the office.  He had called the parents and they said they had no way to come get them.  We scrounged as much stuff as we could to cover his seats.  He was going down the highway with all windows down and as fast as legally possible.  When he got back he was a very sick man. 
I GUESS THOSE KIDS LEARNED A HARD LESSON. LOL Poor principal!

 

[RedRidge]

Thank you for that feedback! That's amazing for one to have that many chicks hatched and only lose one...is that a normal occurrence or do you normally lose more than that on regular feeding methods?

I dunno... I'd have to go back and look at previous year's records. I have never done this many in one year before.
Usually I hatch in the spring... maybe 20-30 chicks... and yes I usually loose couple out of those, usually sometime in the first few days.
I had a lot of successful hatches this year... some with broody's, some in the bator.
I seem to "modify" the way I do things all the time... it's a moving target.
I'm always looking for ways of streamlining, working smarter and not harder, and providing better care... along with just trying to breed hardier genetics (this is true with all my animals and is a serious hold over from learning what a great advantage "culling til it hurts" can be when you are still early in a breeding program).

As far as feeding... last year at this time I was feeding the same exact ration (I grind and mix it myself), but it wasn't fermented.
So when I did start FF, it was the same ingredients, just FF.
Not an enormous difference was noticed at that time except there was a lot less waste and my chickens turned into piranhas!

They love FF!
The huge difference was noticed when I switched from layer pellets only to my own grains and balanced ration.
Combined with that is more of that subconscious desire to be "diligent" when all of the sudden you have birds who are a LOT more valuable than the production layers you have bred for years.
Combined with that... I suspect lines of chickens that are "not" production or hatchery birds just seem to be a lot hardier.

Just my observation.
So... I guess I'm not sure if it's better quality feed, better quality birds, or more diligent care... Most likely a combination of all three.