Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Quote:
I've never seen such a thing in all my days! Maybe because I do yearly culls for birds that are not laying steady or have poor appearance and conditioning, I could possibly also be eliminating those birds with such maladies. I also regulate their feeds so they do not overeat or eat too much protein in the feed, placed ACV in their water, etc...maybe combining that with the healthier foods on free range, the exercise and choosing hardy breeds I'm missing all those weird kinds of illnesses?

Not sure but until I came to BYC, I'd never heard of sour crop, impacted crop, gleet, cross beaks, cocci, egg bound, prolapse, and all the other myriad things that seem so common on this forum.

 

[RoseMarie1]

There is only one poop that I worry about. Do you know the color "teal?" Sometimes a bird will get a digestive upset and not eat all that much and their poop is teal green. This is bile. When I see this, I immediately get some yogurt out there for them to eat. Since I've started fermenting their feed, I hardly ever see this teal poop but sometimes I still do. Yogurt is the cure. If you wait on this color poop until you see the behavior of the bird being affected, it may well be too late. I just glance at the poop board and don't worry about much else.

Oh boy!

My goofy chickens go through stages. Sometimes, barley is all that is left in the pan. Sometimes its wheat and sometimes its oats or milo. I guess they go through stages of what they need. Today, they don't need oats!

LOL @ Bee you had me rolling in laughter with all your animals eating you if you fell dead. I even got visuals of it.

You're a hoot!

Oh yeah by the way mine always act starved to death, they'd have my bones picked clean really fast!

 

[RoseMarie1]

I've never seen such a thing in all my days! Maybe because I do yearly culls for birds that are not laying steady or have poor appearance and conditioning, I could possibly also be eliminating those birds with such maladies. I also regulate their feeds so they do not overeat or eat too much protein in the feed, placed ACV in their water, etc...maybe combining that with the healthier foods on free range, the exercise and choosing hardy breeds I'm missing all those weird kinds of illnesses?

Not sure but until I came to BYC, I'd never heard of sour crop, impacted crop, gleet, cross beaks, cocci, egg bound, prolapse, and all the other myriad things that seem so common on this forum.

what a blessing that must be! Sure hope the same thing happens with me on mine. Makes it much less stressful and these days I LOVE LESS stress!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

It's almost four weeks on my CX's and they're feathering out beautifully. If they don't lift their wings they mostly look like normal birds. XD

They still stark refuse to eat their greens on the ground. I can hang a bundle of dandelions and grass etc in the pen and they will eat it... But heaven forbid they eat the exact same plant 1 ft away on the ground freshly exposed by my moving the tractor...

 

[Lacy Blues]

I've never seen such a thing in all my days! Maybe because I do yearly culls for birds that are not laying steady or have poor appearance and conditioning, I could possibly also be eliminating those birds with such maladies. I also regulate their feeds so they do not overeat or eat too much protein in the feed, placed ACV in their water, etc...maybe combining that with the healthier foods on free range, the exercise and choosing hardy breeds I'm missing all those weird kinds of illnesses?

Not sure but until I came to BYC, I'd never heard of sour crop, impacted crop, gleet, cross beaks, cocci, egg bound, prolapse, and all the other myriad things that seem so common on this forum.

I think a large part of the problem was probably that I have no free range available for my poor little birds. In California, there were too many aerial predators on top of those that were lurking behind every tree on the ground so they've always had to live in pens. I never even dreamed about fermenting their feed. Never heard of it... til I came to BYC and someone on another thread exclaimed over the flavor of his chickens he raised on fermented feed. He sent me over to this thread. So, my pen-bound chickens were all getting super boring lay pellets and maybe some COB tossed into their litter.

I have hardy breeds, I just don't have the other stuff. Now, I live in a desert climate and my birds still live in pens, however, the pens are bigger and I ferment their food (whole grains now instead of lay pellets), I sprout different seeds for them, and generally am continually considering their health and doing what I can to make sure they have a good life. Like I said, I haven't seen any of that here since I started fermenting and sprouting. Maybe once, but thats it. The feed I take out morning and night is regulated, I only give them what they can clean up in 20 minutes or so. They certainly don't free feed all day.

I want to get a bunch of bagged leaves and stuff this fall and try to get a deep litter system going. That way they have something to do as well as lots of little goodies to dig for and find.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Barley, depending on who you ask...has 6-13% protein and oats has, depending on who you ask or your source, 11.5-24%.  Whenever I want to really cut protein, I usually reach for the barley...it has an incredible amount of lysine in it and has wonderful crude fiber. 

That's the trouble with trying to find out the protein amounts of different cereal grains because every source has a different amount and every time I read an article or study, they list different protein amounts for each grain as well. 

I'll tell you how ol' country folk do it..the cheapest grain at the feed store usually has the lowest protein.  I used to think corn was the cheapest but have found that barley is even cheaper...and it does have less protein, on average, than corn.  The birds really like it, much more than oats or the GMO corn they sell now and way more than wheat.  It ferments well and is a soft grain with a good smell. 

Thanks, Bee ! I'm heading to the feed store this morning and I'll be looking for the barley . Thanks again for helping me out !

 

[Beekissed]

what a blessing that must be! Sure hope the same thing happens with me on mine. Makes it much less stressful and these days I LOVE LESS stress!

Me too! I always design my animal husbandry methods around peace, less stress, less complications...because who needs all that stress in this world? I also pay mind to the peace and stress levels of the animals...seems like when they are happy, I'm happy and vice versa.

I think a large part of the problem was probably that I have no free range available for my poor little birds. In California, there were too many aerial predators on top of those that were lurking behind every tree on the ground so they've always had to live in pens. I never even dreamed about fermenting their feed. Never heard of it... til I came to BYC and someone on another thread exclaimed over the flavor of his chickens he raised on fermented feed. He sent me over to this thread. So, my pen-bound chickens were all getting super boring lay pellets and maybe some COB tossed into their litter.

I have hardy breeds, I just don't have the other stuff. Now, I live in a desert climate and my birds still live in pens, however, the pens are bigger and I ferment their food (whole grains now instead of lay pellets), I sprout different seeds for them, and generally am continually considering their health and doing what I can to make sure they have a good life. Like I said, I haven't seen any of that here since I started fermenting and sprouting. Maybe once, but thats it. The feed I take out morning and night is regulated, I only give them what they can clean up in 20 minutes or so. They certainly don't free feed all day.

I want to get a bunch of bagged leaves and stuff this fall and try to get a deep litter system going. That way they have something to do as well as lots of little goodies to dig for and find.

Lacy, it sounds like you have changed their lives around completely! I think the deep litter will probably be the final key you are looking for...for me that was such an eye opener! I was raking out the coops for years or using deep litter but changing it out every three months or so...talk about work!!!

After I read about Joel Salatin using deep litter, I started to look into it and wondered what in the world had I been doing all that time??

Then when I found out about brewers grains being used for livestock, I asked others and no one could really tell me about fermenting one's own grains and that led me to searching online and lands us right here on this thread. Two years ago I couldn't find a shred of info on FF except some foreign studies done on commercial ag operations....now, it's like everyone is doing FF!!! Every single blog or farm site is talking about doing it..where were they when I was searching for information on it???

Thanks, Bee ! I'm heading to the feed store this morning and I'll be looking for the barley

. Thanks again for helping me out !

YW! Anytime! I love it when folks try something new and go out on a limb to see if it will really work...that's how I do things with my chickens and it seems to always pay off.

 

[Miss Lydia]

Anyone using garlic in their ff and feeding to a mix flock? I have chickens, ducks and geese and have been using powdered garlic and oregano in the ff I feed since early spring, with no ill effects but someone posted on the duck thread that feeding garlic to ducks was harmful and I haven't been able to find anything about it being harmful. Maybe raw I don't know anyway if anyone here is using garlic in their ff and feeding a mixed flock I would sure like to hear how it's going. I have had great success using garlic and brewers yeast with my dogs for flea prevention and also for my chickens for mite protection. and thought for immune boosting for everyone else. Thanks.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I've been using FF with garlic in it. I believe it helps prevent intestinal parasites and it's a bit of a natural dewomer. It's more prevention than cure. I use the wild local garlic seed that grows all over my back yard for this so it's free for me either way. XP It's not gonna hurt the chickens. And the FF smalls a bit better with the garlic in it.

Don't know about ducks but I have never heard of it being bad for them before.... I may look it up later.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I've been using FF with garlic in it. I believe it helps prevent intestinal parasites and it's a bit of a natural dewomer. It's more prevention than cure. I use the wild local garlic seed that grows all over my back yard for this so it's free for me either way. XP It's not gonna hurt the chickens. And the FF smalls a bit better with the garlic in it.

Don't know about ducks but I have never heard of it being bad for them before.... I may look it up later.

I actually fermented garlic for US last fall. After it sits in the fridge for about 2 months you can eat it right outta the jar. I did it for medicinal purposes for sore throats and such. I found the info on how to do it on the internet and made it. I have used some of it but it continues in the fridge so it should be some good stuff now. I kept it out on the cabinet for the time it said to and then put in the fridge after that. I cut up 2-3 whole cloves of garlic about once a week and feed to mine and they devour the stuff. I have to spread out some on the ground so they all can get some of it because some are pigs and want to eat it all. I put it in 2 containers but not many of them can eat out of it at one time. Yeah I bet it does smell a little better with the garlic in it. I LOVE garlic and never get too much of it. lol