Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Windy Bay Farm]

I know I have mentioned this before in this thread, however I have been feeding FF now for about 2 weeks + and majority of the time the chickens stools are wet/diarrhea like. Prior to feeding FF their stools were round and firm most of the time. I know the FF obviously has a high moisture content but would/should their stools have firmed up some by now ?

 

[armorfirelady]

I know I have mentioned this before in this thread, however I have been feeding FF now for about 2 weeks + and majority of the time the chickens stools are wet/diarrhea like. Prior to feeding FF their stools were round and firm most of the time. I know the FF obviously has a high moisture content but would/should their stools have firmed up some by now ?

I honestly don't know how long my big girls had soft stools for after switching them. I do know that they do have a couple watery stools during the day but its normal. I would just keep feeding them the ff and stop watching poop unless you notice they don't look well. As long as their combs are red, their laying (if they are laying age) and not losing weight they should be fine.

 

[Triple Willow]

A raincoat?

Seriously though... We added gutters and rain collection to our barn last year and that has helped the barn lot area tremendously. Note to self... overflow drains from collection tanks are a MUST! Doesn't matter how many thousands of gallons you have in tanks. We overflow them into stock tanks way out in the pasture. We didn't have overflows on the back tanks and flooded the barn earlier this year. THAT project jumped to highest on the priority list real quick.

Tanks are used to water livestock and water the garden... but... we haven't watered the garden this year. Our norm is 48" for the entire year... we hit that halfway through the year, so this is really unusual. We just got lucky that the barn is on higher ground than everything around it.

I'm not sure how much rain we have had but we can't be real far behind you. This is the wettest summer I can remember! We had at least 10" of rain the first week of this month. Finally this past Tuesday we have got a break in the rain and enjoying some 70's degree weather which is also very unusual. As crazy as it has been I kind of wonder what else is headed our way - fall is always WET. Oh yes, when I get the new coop/run up I am also putting rain gutters all the way around! Also planning to dig a trench around it to keep water from running into it- A MOTE! LOL

 

[BlueMouse]

As soon as I get my holes drilled in my bucket, I'm going to do 2 scoops hard white wheat, 1 scoop buckwheat, 1 scoop BOSS, 1 scoop scratch, 2 scoops start n grow. Cover with water, stir, add more water, couple glugs of acv (Heinz w/ mother).
I dunno, kinda winging it. My scoop is a quart soup container btw. May have to adjust quantity because of the small "scoop". It is a ridiculous 47 degrees outside. High of 73 today.. ugh

Sounds like a good mix to me! should work. you can always calculate the protien if you're worried about it! It's much less daunting than it seems at first glance.

I am totally new to this idea. So you take your feed, put it in the top bucket and add water. Let it sit for 8 to 15 hours and then how do you feed it? And how much do you feed? We have just been feeding the dry grains by spreading them on the ground. We have started out hens on a laying formula (can't remember the name of it). This is also fed to the roos and guineas as they all eat at the same time. Is this wrong? I sure don't want to do anything to damage our chickens. We have 3 Wyandotts (roos), 6 RSL hens, 2 Silkies (sex not known for sure as only 2 plus months old) and 4 guineas aprox 3 months old. Can use all the help on feeding I can get. Thanks in advance for any and all advice.

Yes. You have the idea! I feed mine in a trough made out of half of a piece of PVC pipe, or in wide flat pans. Just what they can clean up in 15 minutes twice a day for birds who do not have acess to free range. You can also scatter fermented whole grains on the gound for them to pick up. Some people feed fermented scratch that way with great sucess. My free range layer flock all 9 of them get two scoops, less than two cups, at night when I shut them up. Makes shutting them up super easy. I feed my turkeys guineas and my hens all the same ration. The hens don't need as much protien, but it doesn't seem to hurt them to have what the turkeys and guineas get. If the guineas are on free range any food will do because they will scrounge their own protien. My turkeys are in a tractor and growing so they need the higher protien feed.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

I honestly don't know how long my big girls had soft stools for after switching them. I do know that they do have a couple watery stools during the day but its normal. I would just keep feeding them the ff and stop watching poop unless you notice they don't look well. As long as their combs are red, their laying (if they are laying age) and not losing weight they should be fine.

Thank you, armorfirelady. I'll keep an eye on them for sure. Just checking to see that it's normal and if other folks feeding FF have experienced this same thing.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I wish I could find a place around here with whole grains and seeds for cheap. It seems like there's really nothing. There's a local feed mill an hour away but they've got a minimum to how much you can order... And with only five hens, guess how much I need to order? I don't even use 50lbs a month, you know? Even ordering like 5 months of feed at once AND feeding more that's only 175lbs tops. Well below the limit which I think is 500lbs. Even if the limit is 250lbs I can't justify that easily, you know? Next time I do meat chickens I can.... Since 13 birds will eat 250lbs of feed easily, so if I do 25 I should be able to order 500lbs of feed. But not for my laying hens.

I did just order a 50lb bag of hard red wheat berries online so I can try doing some sprouting grains over the winter. The best price I could find for my area was $35/bag $10/flat rate shipping. None of the feed stores carry 50lb bags of fed grains aside from just scratch (which is mostly corn around here). And None None of the stores carry 50lb bags of whole grains other than corn.

 

[Beekissed]

I know I have mentioned this before in this thread, however I have been feeding FF now for about 2 weeks + and majority of the time the chickens stools are wet/diarrhea like. Prior to feeding FF their stools were round and firm most of the time. I know the FF obviously has a high moisture content but would/should their stools have firmed up some by now ?

Especially now, during the hot months, water consumption is up and so is urine excretion. Add to that the wet feeds and more moisture is consumed. I've noticed the more wet my mix, the more soft the stool...but mine only had more liquid in the stool for the hottest part of the summer, maybe 2-3 weeks, and are now back to cleaner butts. Only 4 of the gals had the messy butts, so it wasn't a flock thing but more of an individual bird fluid intake.

Time and patience...and maybe tweaking your mix so that it isn't very soupy. If you are feeding high proteins(anything above 15%-18%), this fermenting will increase the absorbed proteins and this too can cause loose stools...animals can only stand high pro feeds for so long before they start to have their guts burned out.

 

[colburg]

Quote:
Talk to your local farmers. If you can find one growing what you want, and you have the packaging to easily get some from him, you can get some great prices. Buckets are typically OK, but if you want volume, look for some super sacks. You just need to be able to handle them.

I just picked up 2 tons of hard red winter wheat for $8/bushel. A bushel of wheat is about 60lbs. So look around, there's some good deals to be had.

 

[Linlou]

Just figured out how to attach reply to correct one so this is mostly blank. Can't figure out how to delete it totally. Sorry.

 

[Linlou]

Don't know if they will have the grains but I am going to check at our local Sprouts store. They have lots of open bins and I am hoping some of them will contain the grains I want.