Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[OHhappychicks]

This is what Bee had to say about using medicated starter. Post 124 page 13

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/644300/fermenting-feed-for-meat-birds/120#post_8853010

Thank you for that hogster160! I really hate using medicated feed and it really irks me that you have to buy a 50# bag of feed or grain if you only need a little!

I know there are probably good reasons, but I think you should be able to buy a 25# bag. I have to wait for a 50# bag of medicated feed to finish with only 6 little chicks!
Also, is there a way to bookmark a page in a thread? There is a lot of info that I would like to mark instead of having to go back and search.

 

[hogster160]

Thank you for that hogster160! I really hate using medicated feed and it really irks me that you have to buy a 50# bag of feed or grain if you only need a little!

I know there are probably good reasons, but I think you should be able to buy a 25# bag. I have to wait for a 50# bag of medicated feed to finish with only 6 little chicks!
Also, is there a way to bookmark a page in a thread? There is a lot of info that I would like to mark instead of having to go back and search.

I use foxfire to access the internet. So when I find something I want to save I add it to the bookmarks. I made a folder for chickens and one for turkeys. Then I just bookmark it to the folder it pertains to. Not sure if there is a way to do that in the byc app tho. You can always copy and paste it to a computer program and set up a file system in like word pad.

 

[Beekissed]

Picked up 6 roosters of indeterminate breeds from a place tonight...you don't want to hear about the conditions in which they were living. Suffice to say, it was not Bee's idea of healthy, humane chicken life. I'll be doing these boys a favor by killing them. They seem reasonably healthy despite their environment, though ragged, pitiful and stinking to the high heavens. Four out of the 6 are heavy boys, so they've been getting a lot of feed at least. It's molt season, so it could account for the ragged appearance, though not the dull feathering.

They were not BOs, RIRs, Leghorns or anything resembling these breeds but looked like a duke's mixture of several breeds and who in the world would know the original breeds in the mix? Doesn't matter, though, because soup doesn't have a breed name.

And one lonely Silkie..oh, the shame of having a foo-foo bird on my land and in my coop.

What if I fall in love with all the fluffy loveliness of him and can't kill him????

They will be treated for external parasites and even internal parasites with a dose of castor oil apiece, internally, and also on the legs and feet. They will also be dusted with Pyrethrin, just as a precaution. Then they will be fed on free range and FF for two weeks before meeting a quick knife. I'll give them 2 wks to get the taste of filth out of their meat and the smell off their bodies. Toby will be having a total FIT all the while with having all these competitors and all of them younger and faster. If the biggest one gets the better of him, I'll kill him much sooner. Toby will be king here for awhile longer.

 

[Beekissed]

Change of plans. Decided there was no way to get FF into these boys without also feeding my flock up on FF...which I'm trying to keep my flock on forage right now with just a dab of FF, so it's a complication. But...God gave me an idea. YAY!

I have a place under shelter that is currently a lounging area for dog, cat and chooks. It holds the feed cans for dog and cat and the water for everyone. I'm going to take all the hay bales out of it, fence it off and put the extra birds in this holding area. It's spacious enough, it's airy enough, it's already got cedar shavings in it and I'll rake up some leaves to augment the existing bedding.

This takes care of so many things, though these birds won't get to free range...but it's soooooo much better than where they were! They won't give Toby any fits, they won't be riding my poor girls and they can be fed separately. They'll have fresh air, fresh water, good feeds and clean footing and that's better than they had before. I'll lose the benefit of getting them out on the grass but they've never seen green grass before, so they won't be missing anything.

I'll post pics when I get it all done and show you these $1 roosters!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Looking forward to seeing the picures... Sound like the place I got my Golden's from. They were in with silkies and polish and there were like 25 birds in a 4X8 coop, which isn't too bad except their pen outside the coop was about 10X10 and nothing but the worst muck poo-y mud I have ever seen in my life. I have literally seen cleaner pig wallows, freshly used. They looked horrid. But they were the right price and laying lots of big eggs... Doesn't take much to make a bird happy after conditions like that. My golden buffs are on par with my Australorps now in every way and scarf down dandelions faster than the black birds can get to them!

 

[OHhappychicks]

I use foxfire to access the internet. So when I find something I want to save I add it to the bookmarks. I made a folder for chickens and one for turkeys. Then I just bookmark it to the folder it pertains to. Not sure if there is a way to do that in the byc app tho. You can always copy and paste it to a computer program and set up a file system in like word pad.

I tried to put in my favorites, but it put the whole thread there. I didn't think of copy/paste. I just started using foxfire last week, so I'm still learning it. Not that it is any harder than internet exp. but finding where everything is. I think when I tried to save it in favorites, it was on internet explorer. I will try it with foxfire.
Thanks!

 

[Beekissed]

Sounds about the same...this place had a coop with no windows that was about 4x5, one tiny roost that fit 3 birds, for about 18 birds. They were trying to roost on the sides of some wooden boxes that were being used for nests but weren't able to get comfortable. The run was about 15x 10 but on the side of a hill.

There were tiny cages here and there full of manure and a little straw, one with a hen and several tiny chicks...they barely had room to pass one another as they moved around the cage.

It was sad, it stunk, it was a bare, muddy/poopy run and the coop was muddy and poopy. They did have good shade but I didn't see any feeders, so they are eating on the ground...on that poopy mud. Consuming their own feces and can't help it.

 

[bluebirdnanny]

Oh poor birds!!!
On home made ACV.... Uh, may not be right and you can tell me but it seems to be working:
I crush and juice apples from my yard then mix it all back together with some water and put it in a jar with layers of netting to keep out the bugs. Set that in my canning cabinet... once a week I take off the mesh, cap and shake it up, put back on the cap...repeat until a good odor and that is my starter.

I have trouble finding the raw stuff in stores here and am soooo remote shipping to here stinks!

I guess it is like the cider from a press but everything is still there.
I make my applesauce without adding anything either so I have used that if I run out. Simply blended in a processor and frozen. Take out when I want it and let some set with water and cook with the rest.

How much more natural can it be without a "real" apple cider press?

Bee, any problem doing that?

 

[Triple Willow]

Hey, will you guys give me some ideas on designing a coop, the inside part? It will be 6'X18'. The back of it (18' across) faces north, the front faces south. The sides (6' deep), east and west. The front side that faces south is shaded by a metal roof that will cover the coop and run (one roof). I am putting a window in both east and west sides and the door will be in the middle of the south side. Once you go in the door I plan to have the roosts on the left and the nests on the right side. I may possibly make it where eggs can be gathered from the outside, below the window.

*Somewhere I need feed storage.
*Do I need windows in the front (south) side along with the door?
*Do I have to have a window in the north side? I'm thinking to just keep the north side sealed up good, no window.
*2X4's for the roosts, all one level or ladder-like? How much space?

I'd really appreciate some ideas. Thanks

 

[RoseMarie1]

Picked up 6 roosters of indeterminate breeds from a place tonight...you don't want to hear about the conditions in which they were living. Suffice to say, it was not Bee's idea of healthy, humane chicken life. I'll be doing these boys a favor by killing them. They seem reasonably healthy despite their environment, though ragged, pitiful and stinking to the high heavens. Four out of the 6 are heavy boys, so they've been getting a lot of feed at least. It's molt season, so it could account for the ragged appearance, though not the dull feathering.

They were not BOs, RIRs, Leghorns or anything resembling these breeds but looked like a duke's mixture of several breeds and who in the world would know the original breeds in the mix? Doesn't matter, though, because soup doesn't have a breed name.

And one lonely Silkie..oh, the shame of having a foo-foo bird on my land and in my coop.

What if I fall in love with all the fluffy loveliness of him and can't kill him????

They will be treated for external parasites and even internal parasites with a dose of castor oil apiece, internally, and also on the legs and feet. They will also be dusted with Pyrethrin, just as a precaution. Then they will be fed on free range and FF for two weeks before meeting a quick knife. I'll give them 2 wks to get the taste of filth out of their meat and the smell off their bodies. Toby will be having a total FIT all the while with having all these competitors and all of them younger and faster. If the biggest one gets the better of him, I'll kill him much sooner. Toby will be king here for awhile longer.

lol @ you with that Silkie! Shame on ya.

Oh man I sure hope poor Toby stays ok with all those roos and I hope they don't gang up on him.
Oh man it doesn't sound like they were in a nice place.
We got to work some more on ours run and had to tear out yet another section to replace posts.Now they only have about an 8' section to their run. 24' of it is being repaired. We have all the posts down now and some wire back up. So hopefully the next time we get to work on it we can get er finished up. They're saying it's suppose to flood tomorrow so I don't know if we can work on it tomorrow or not.