Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[fuzziecreatures]

You shouldn't ever need yeast..especially if you've already been experiencing good ferment. Even if a mouse fell in and got fermented along with it all, it should still remain good. Fermented fluids and grains don't usually "turn" unless the LABs run out of sugar to feed upon....that takes a good long time...but shouldn't be happening at all in this situation, particularly if you are adding fresh feed to the mix after you use it.

You don't need to add yeast or anymore ACV, that sour smell you are smelling is very deep fermentation and there is nothing wrong with it. Please, please do not dump out all that feed!!! Feed it anyway...the birds will eat it, trust me. If you are finding you are hitting really deep fermentation before you can feed out your bucket/barrel, mix smaller batches next time if the smells bother you and the animals don't find it as palatable. You won't be seeing bubbling as much at that level as the fermentation isn't just getting started.

Please believe me...your FF didn't turn bad or spoil....the smell is the nature of fermentation and gets deeper into that vomit smell the more it ferments. My chickens eat it every day and are happy to get it, so if your birds are not eating it, cut back on feed a bit until they clean their plates. I've found that, the deeper the fermentation, the less feed they seem to need...I can only conclude the more amino acids are being produced, the more perfect nutrition is available.

Gah! I had husband dump the feed on the compost pile already yesterday about 10am after going to the feed store. The chickens still didn't want to eat any of it on the compost pile. I scrubbed out the barrel, my draining bucket, my stirring paddle and the bucket the paddle sits in. So we are starting from scratch again!

Glad we didn't do anything wrong though.... husband is gonna be mad about all that dumped feed. I was depressed thinking I did something wrong, but now I'm bummed that I wasted all that. Oh well, it did smell like vomit. We decided on smaller batches, with a larger batch going later because of the cold weather. It will be stored in the shed (coop) which can get cold enough to freeze the waterer solid. (Like it did one winter before we got the heated water bowl) I was adding fresh feed and grains about every other day. I did change the lid, I'm not just setting the screen on top anymore. I am putting the lid on but I did drill holes in the lid so air can escape as needed.
Maybe I have more food snobs! One of my dogs won't eat his food anymore, will eat the other dogs food, not his own. Eats his own poo, the other dogs poo, chicken poo, and the chicken feed but won't eat his expensive dog food! Snobs!

 

[Triple Willow]

Oh yes!  Coconut Milk makes AWESOME Ice Cream!  It is very creamy - you can use it pretty much the same way you use regular milk in ice cream recipes. Just make sure you get the Whole Coconut Milk cans, not the Low Fat ones.  If you do a google search for coconut milk ice cream you will get TONS of results!  Here is one with several links on it - http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2012/07/homemade-coconut-milk-ice-cream-recipes.html 

If you don't want to make it yourself, So-Delicious brand makes a wonderful coconut milk ice cream, but it is rather expensive...
 

Joyful promise... I made ice cream from this recipe you gave and it is so good! My picky boyfriend that didn't want any ice cream (bla bla bla lol) ate some, then seconds, then took it home with him! LOL I changed the recipe a little bit but it is really good! I think it tastes just as good as any I have ever bought in a store. If you could just get homemade ice cream to have the texture of store bought, it would be perfect. Thanks!

 

[Lacy Blues]

I need to do that and do it right - let it sit longer. I like to take a tablespoon of good vinegar, juice from half a lemon then put about 1/8th teaspoon of cayenne pepper? in it and drink it. It is rough and if you were to get choked on it you might die but I love that stuff! LOL

I've had that with a little honey but nowhere NEAR that much cayenne! Holy Smokes! I would definitely choke and die!

 

[RoseMarie1]

I add it to the feed in the fall and into winter because I drop total proteins and add fats. That's just something I like to do to mimic the current nutrition being used by wild birds...as they go into winter after the first frosts, they glean less bugs and more seeds and nuts to lay on the fat layer they will need for warmth in the winter. I also let my dog(s) put on a little more fat for winter as well for the same reason and they are fed the fat, skin and bones from the deer we kill to help with that.

For the birds, I want fat under the skin and not so much stored in the body, so I'm hoping by mimicking the diet of the wild birds they will achieve that...and it seems to work in just that way. When I happen to do a cull in the fall under my normal feeding regime(last year's was just not normal!), it seems to yield a bird with fat under the skin but not so much around the vent and organs. I'll be processing a few old hens this fall and will see if this theory bears out once again.

The BOSS isn't a huge part of the ration, but it's there and you can still see some in the feed mix long into the summer from the seeds filtering down into the feed can contents . My birds are currently gleaning grass seeds quite a bit and this will continue into the fall as the fall fescue goes to seed.

I just LOVE how you think like nature stuff and try to mimic that. I hadn't ever even thought about that before. Do they like persimmons? I have a tree I just found in the woods behind mines pen.

For the person talking about the chickens eating animals..... this is totally gross and I couldn't do it because I just have a thing about maggots. chills.....anyway someone told me the other day they had read about someone making like a PVC shoot thing and they would get road kill for their chickens and stick it in that huge pvc pipe and the flies would lay their eggs and the maggots would fall down the pipe into this thing the chickens could eat them. That totally grosses me out but yeah they eat all that stuff.

 

[Triple Willow]

I've had that with a little honey but nowhere NEAR that much cayenne!  Holy Smokes!  I would definitely choke and die! 

I know, it's crazy - but I love it! It's hot... it's so sour! Yum! lol But if I were to ever get choked on it I probably wouldn't want any more. lol I am a lemon addict, can't keep them in the house or I'll eat them all up, with salt! Those things are so bad for your teeth and the salt - bad. Seems like everything bad for you is good.

 

[RoseMarie1]

I mixed up some lime and sulfur and used it around the front of my house then one day I saw a bird that was sick and looked to be dying. I figured the lime and sulfur did it, don't know. I haven't used it sense. I need goats and about six king snakes!

oh dear, wondering IF it was the combo of the two that caused the problems? I'm not wild about mixing things together.

 

[Triple Willow]

....anyway someone told me the other day they had read about someone making like a PVC shoot thing and they would get road kill for their chickens and stick it in that huge pvc pipe and the flies would lay their eggs and the maggots would fall down the pipe into this thing the chickens could eat them. That totally grosses me out but yeah they eat all that stuff. 

A maggot shoot, now that is GROSS! LOL I couldn't get past the smell!

 

[Triple Willow]

oh dear, wondering IF it was the combo of the two that caused the problems? I'm not wild about mixing things together.

I don't know but I had put it right up by the foundation of the house where snakes like to crawl. I believe that bird got in it. The sulfur came from the feed store, the lime I can't remember. It might have been that caustic lime. I still have some of the mix but I'm not going to use it where birds can get to it. Maybe if I watered it in some when I put it down they couldn't eat it...? I was trying to get the snakes out of my front door and garage! lol

 

[RachaelS]

I just LOVE how you think like nature stuff and try to mimic that. I hadn't ever even thought about that before. Do they like persimmons? I have a tree I just found in the woods behind mines pen.

I don't know about your chickens, but I just tired persimmons this year for the first time in my life, and you can just send me whatever you don't want. They ROCK!

 

[Beekissed]

I just LOVE how you think like nature stuff and try to mimic that. I hadn't ever even thought about that before. Do they like persimmons? I have a tree I just found in the woods behind mines pen.

For the person talking about the chickens eating animals..... this is totally gross and I couldn't do it because I just have a thing about maggots. chills.....anyway someone told me the other day they had read about someone making like a PVC shoot thing and they would get road kill for their chickens and stick it in that huge pvc pipe and the flies would lay their eggs and the maggots would fall down the pipe into this thing the chickens could eat them. That totally grosses me out but yeah they eat all that stuff.

They do like persimmons...I gathered a couple of bags of them last year where we get wood and dumped them out. It took them a bit but they ate every last one. You should have seen them waiting like vultures for the deer to drop a peach for them under the peach trees this year!

I'd look out the window and see a deer up there tugging peaches and a whole ring of chickens around her, just waiting.....

They are also doing the same thing with the apples...the crows knock down apples and the chickens are waiting at the bottom of the trees, ready to fight for the fruit. Poor crows.

I wouldn't do maggots in that manner either....I heard a well known author(Harvey Ussery(sp?) killed his whole flock by trying to do the whole soldier fly maggot thing..gave them all botulism.