Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[RoseMarie1]

My chickens have a pen about 25' on one end and 7' on the other and 40' long (ordinance restrictions making for a strange shaped pen). I have a foot or two of wood chips in there. I was ordering dirt for my garden beds anyhow, and they would deliver the wood chips (mix of fresh and aged and some garden debris) to my house $1/yard and $20 delivery.... Heck yeah! I got 8 yards. They're still working their way on breaking it all down but some of it is starting to look like really nice soil. A lot of it is gritty and sandy around the trees and they dust bathe there. I throw in fresh grass and weeds every day, and my sisters grass clippings and weeds too! Sometimes I build dust baths for them special out of D.E. and wood ash and a bit of sand. They go nuts. I still need to work on the "multiple levels" thing for them. Their coop is up high and there's some branches in there but the branches keep getting eaten by the earth! Sucked in and added to the litter. Still, the ladies do well! I'm going to put in some log perches eventually that won't be sucked in, and a cinder block so they can wear down nails and beaks naturally.

Now, where I got my Golden Comets from did NOT have deep litter. The chickens were kept in a big 6X8 coop, but the outside pen was only about 10X10 for some 20+ odd chickens. It was nothing but poop soup and the lady could barely even walk through her pen with shoe covers on. I've seen cleaner pig wallows! I will NEVER EVER let my chickens end up in a situation like that. Got my hens home and they smelled like everyone who's ever complained about chicken smell's worst nightmare. Three days later they were clean as a whistle! I'll be sticking to deep litter. This year I'm going to be doing sprouting grains for them and then next spring, forage frames to get some grass/weed/forage growth. They do have some shrubby weeds that they just don't like eating growing in there, and two trees right there, but that's it at the moment, since we put in the wood chips and smothered everything.

They're also below my rabbit cages. So they have a ball cleaning up after them! Healthy hens are worth every effort!

Glad you got them and they're much healthier to now with you I'm sure.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Not likely at those temps. I let mine out at 2 wks into the coop and I think at 3 wks they were out on range..but I can't remember exactly on those dates.. and it was quite a revelation to watch how well this last batch foraged....like mini velociraptors they were!

I think mine were just about that age when I put them out on the ground in a plastic fencing to keep our 3 cats from trying to get them and kinda keep them contained so I could handle them and not let the cats at them. They liked it to eating the grass and stuff in the grass.

 

[Beekissed]

My Cornish crosses hate free-ranging food-wise. I stick them outside and they chirp wildly and sit on the ground and try to clean themselves off and that's about it. They barely nibble at the grass, though they do have fun outside. I can sometimes get them to eat a dandelion if I'm holding it. Sometimes. Wonder what I'm doing wrong...?

Gotta be hungry...if they are hungry they'll eat the socks right off yer feet. A hungry bird is a great foraging bird. It helps if they get out on pasture at a young age when their instincts are fresh...those that keep them penned and at the feeders too long and turn them out later report less natural foraging instincts. Maybe by then they have learned that food comes from a feeder and not from the grass and so they don't explore the option.

I've always gotten mine out on forage by week 2-3 and so they develop a taste for the food that you can chase and the fun you get watching them chase is worth it all...very comical to watch!

It sounds like yours are a little older because the really young ones never sit down on the grass...I never see them sit at all until bed time. When they got older and got some more weight on them~around 8 wks on, they would rest a short time in the hottest part of the day, but not for long..and then back to the pasture.

Here's what hungry birds look like when you let them out on pasture....(pardon the amateur vid..my very first ever)

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... Great video - chickens everywhere, love it! lol And your place looks really nice too. Thanks for sharing. What was that little dark chicken in the crowd?

 

[Beekissed]

That's a packing peanut the hatchery sent..sent two of them in case some chicks died on the way, which they didn't. Some red layer they sell..these are cockerels.

 

[foreverlearning]

I let mine forage all day today and tried to feed them dinner about half an hour ago... No one wants to eat the same feed that they have been eating so far. Most are now napping on the grass and a few are still playing keep away with small crickets. They know the food is there they just have no interest. I guess the natural buffet has them spoiled!

 

[TexasLisa]

Gotta be hungry...if they are hungry they'll eat the socks right off yer feet. A hungry bird is a great foraging bird. It helps if they get out on pasture at a young age when their instincts are fresh...those that keep them penned and at the feeders too long and turn them out later report less natural foraging instincts. Maybe by then they have learned that food comes from a feeder and not from the grass and so they don't explore the option.

I've always gotten mine out on forage by week 2-3 and so they develop a taste for the food that you can chase and the fun you get watching them chase is worth it all...very comical to watch!

It sounds like yours are a little older because the really young ones never sit down on the grass...I never see them sit at all until bed time. When they got older and got some more weight on them~around 8 wks on, they would rest a short time in the hottest part of the day, but not for long..and then back to the pasture.

Here's what hungry birds look like when you let them out on pasture....(pardon the amateur vid..my very first ever)

WOW!!! Beautiful birds and a beautiful home Bee! I've been through West Virginia several times. A beautiful state.

Lisa

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you! It's not my home..it's the Ol' Bat's home..my mother.

She just lets me camp out a bit and be her roommate. This isn't the pretty part of WV, but she sure keeps a pretty place. Here's a vid that shows the log cabin part of the place that she and dad built.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Those are beautiful birds... But with all due respect, I am 100% positive what age my birds are. It'd be really hard for me not to. They come from a pretty large and respectable hatchery, and have their hatch date printed on the paperwork I got, I have had them since they were 36 hours old. They were hatched Monday three weeks ago today, and I got them on that Tuesday. They've been out in pairs or more since two weeks old. They have no interest in the grass. Bugs yes, grass no. They want nothing to do with green stuff!

 

[Beekissed]

That's a shame. My CX really, really like white dutch clover and would graze it each evening like cows! Sure did fill those ever hungry bellies. Maybe as yours go along on pasture they will explore a little more on forage.