Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[MyTDogs]

Ok so if one wants to avoid mystery animal products & soy and minimize corn...any suggestions? I just opened the bag of flock raiser & it is already contminated with storage mites.

 

[Beekissed]

Ok so if one wants to avoid mystery animal products & soy and minimize corn...any suggestions? I just opened the bag of flock raiser & it is already contminated with storage mites.

Ferment 'em...added protein and they should blend nicely into the fermented mix.

As for all those other feed components? Hard to do and isn't worth the fooling with trying to find feed such as that~VERY expensive and hard to find.

Soy isn't the end of the earth unless you have someone who has a soy allergy eating your eggs~and I've never heard of those people actually reacting to eggs from chickens fed soy products though I've read it MAY happen. If not, you have more soy in your daily diet from regular foods produced commercially than you will ever get residually in those eggs or your chickens.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

MyTDogs - We make our own soy-free feed for our layers and meat chickens. We use alternative safe beans for protein, such as Adzuki beans, Garbanzo Beans, or Split Peas, Lentils, whatever happens to be available at our local Organic grain processor (or given to us from a friend's leftover Y2K stores!). All the beans/peas I just mentioned do not need roasting to be safe for chickens, so we just grind them coarsely in our small feed grinder. We also use Organic Fishmeal (chickens NEED animal protein, especially if they are not free-ranging) to help boost the protein, since these other beans are not as high in protein as Soy (about 24% instead of 46%). I have not tried to avoid Corn totally, but we do use only Organic corn that we get in bulk. Other main ingredients in our feed mixes include wheat and Oats and a small amount of Black oil Sunflower Seeds.

I made myself a nice spreadsheet on MS Excel where I can change the ingredients/amounts in my current feed and see instantly the total Protein in the feed and the percentage of each ingredient in the total feed. That has really helped when working with changing availability of feed components.

Hope this is helpful to you!

 

[LilyD]

Has anyone tried this with birds like turkeys or ducks. I purchased 8 turkeys that have been doing well but even though I keep them very clean they really do smell. I am wondering if this will work for them as well.

 

[MyTDogs]

Ferment 'em...added protein and they should blend nicely into the fermented mix.

As for all those other feed components? Hard to do and isn't worth the fooling with trying to find feed such as that~VERY expensive and hard to find.

Soy isn't the end of the earth unless you have someone who has a soy allergy eating your eggs~and I've never heard of those people actually reacting to eggs from chickens fed soy products though I've read it MAY happen. If not, you have more soy in your daily diet from regular foods produced commercially than you will ever get residually in those eggs or your chickens.

Yes, the FF does take care of the storage mite issue & dust but the point is I paid a lot of money for a product that is already infested & degraded before it ever gets to my birds.

I have been reading this thread all the way thru so I am familiar with fermenting oats & barley along with crumble/pellets. I was just interested in what others have fermented successfully. These are grains that I have around & so I guess I will try it & see how it goes. Hopefully my ducks will be able to take on the SSS.

Thanks for the input

 

[MyTDogs]

Joy,

that sounds wonderful but I don't think organic is affordable for me right now...I am having a hard time finding anyone who will even mix anything but the basic processed stuff for me

I realize that birds need meat- mine free range during the day. I would be interested in learning where I might get fish meal that is not treated with ethoxyquin. The closest I can even find to fish meal at all is catfish food. I have even owondered if I could raise some goldfish or something for them- LOL! I think that down here in FL we are seriously lacking in organic/natural options. Perhaps I just haven't found out where to look....

Do you ferment any of your beans or just feed as is?

Thanks for the advice

MyTDogs - We make our own soy-free feed for our layers and meat chickens. We use alternative safe beans for protein, such as Adzuki beans, Garbanzo Beans, or Split Peas, Lentils, whatever happens to be available at our local Organic grain processor (or given to us from a friend's leftover Y2K stores!). All the beans/peas I just mentioned do not need roasting to be safe for chickens, so we just grind them coarsely in our small feed grinder. We also use Organic Fishmeal (chickens NEED animal protein, especially if they are not free-ranging) to help boost the protein, since these other beans are not as high in protein as Soy (about 24% instead of 46%). I have not tried to avoid Corn totally, but we do use only Organic corn that we get in bulk. Other main ingredients in our feed mixes include wheat and Oats and a small amount of Black oil Sunflower Seeds.

I made myself a nice spreadsheet on MS Excel where I can change the ingredients/amounts in my current feed and see instantly the total Protein in the feed and the percentage of each ingredient in the total feed. That has really helped when working with changing availability of feed components.

Hope this is helpful to you!

 

[Beekissed]

Any chance you have access to any of the culled fish or fish offal from the fishing industry down there in FL?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Now, yuck, there's a job to pass on, shoveling out the hold of a fishing boat in Florida in the summer! They prob wouldn't even charge you for it..

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Poster hen for fermented scratch for broodies

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I am glad I found this thread! So many people c/o that their broodies are run down, mine has never looked better and she hatched 7 of her 7 eggs...I know its ff for meaties but it can be applied across the board. I do keep dry maintainence in the coop, just because it's there, but all I feed in addition to free range is fermented scratch from the local supply. They have a bag of calcium that has lasted 3 years so far. No additional suppliments, no exotic mix, just ff scratch and what they scare up...all the broody eats is that spoonful once a day.