Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[knightie]

I've had a few batches go bad (smell like rotten meat, not the good yeast bread smell) so I threw it out.... What am I doing wrong?

I put my grains in my bucket cover it with water, add some acv and wait a bit make sure it covered (adding water of needed) it sits on my porch with a lid over it (my bucket has a spout so the lid doesn't fit) I stir it everytime I go out the door (3 or more times a day) sometimes it starts to ferment quickly others not so much...

The first time it happened I thought it was because I had been feeding for a week and my mother took care of the chickens while I was out of town and didn't do the ff, so I though it (the fermenting organisms) didn't get fed so they died off, but the next time I had fed it the day before and added fresh but lord was it nasty smeeling. So what's wrong? Ideas?

 

[jrsckn]

Maybe the location of your bucket is the problem, try moving it. Mine got contaminated in my kitchen but I haven't had any issues on my front (north) porch or in my garage.

 

[trifecta]

Hmm, I just started my first batch, its sitting in my kitchen... we'll see if it grows nasty funk in there, LOL. Not sure where else I would put it though. I am hoping it will be ready to feed by Thursday or Friday when the babies get here!

 

[jrsckn]

Hmm, I just started my first batch, its sitting in my kitchen... we'll see if it grows nasty funk in there, LOL. Not sure where else I would put it though. I am hoping it will be ready to feed by Thursday or Friday when the babies get here!

I'm sure it will be fine in your kitchen. Mine went bad because my daughter went weeks without hanging the dish towel under the dish strainer up and it grew some nasty black mold which was right next to my bucket.

 

[JoyfulPromise]

Ok, so we just got a new batch of meat chicks (Cornish X) this morning (5 AM!) and there was SUPPOSED to be 100 of them, but somehow the packers messed up and we only got 64!!!

Anyway, this will be the first time we are trying them on fermented feed from the beginning. I have high hopes from what you all have said on the reduced smell, better formed poops etc. I had no idea how much feed to start with, so I just started soaking 2.5lbs of our starter feed in a gallon bucket last evening with some ACV and water. It looked like a nice mash consistency this morning, so we put a scoop in one of the red 20inch trough feeders without the top, and also gave them a small plastic bucket top with some FF on it to help them find it at first. It took a little while, but one side (our brooder box is divided in two) had a chick that just started pigging out and standing in the middle of the top and eating and eating! So that encouraged others to join him and they have been swarming over the top ever since.

The other side seemed to be avoiding the food, one or two would peck at it and shake their head, but then I sprinkled a tiny bit of dry food on top, and they started chowing down! Yay!

The only thing I am worried about is giving them too much at one time so that it dries out before they can eat it... But we will work it out as we go along. I will keep you all updated on how it goes!

 

[jrsckn]

Just ate my two FF 18 week old barred rock cockerels and they were the best chicken I've ever had!!!! I have 2.5 more weeks on my CX experiment and can't wait to taste them too. Unfortunately, my digital kitchen scale was maxed out this week so no results until I can find an accurate scale to weigh the heffers

Has anyone fed ff to young pullets ? If so, did it affect the timing of laying the first egg? Mine are 18 weeks which is still early, I was just wondering (and I'm starting to get impatient for my first fresh eggs since childhood

)

 

[Jeanette56]

Finally made it to page 89 - Yea!
As soon as I began reading this thread I started making FF for my youngest bunch - consisting of 10 pied Guineas, two Bourbon Red turkey poults and three Peachicks - all between 3 & 4 weeks old. They all took right to it! On side note, I mixed in a little 15% pigeon grain in yesterday's batch and they ate everything except the corn, including the peas. I've got quite a few birds to feed and I like that the damp feed is not wasted as much so I am anxious to get them all started on it. Mostly I'm using 24% starter and just added Game Bird starter since I've got the poults & peachicks. I'll be adding little bits of grain from my other feeds to get them used to eating grains as well. Water consumption dropped dramatically as others have noted. I am getting ready to set a batch of eggs in the incubator and I will be anxious to see how it affects the smell factor since they will spend the first couple weeks on the front porch (screened). If meaties can be kept from smelling bad it should be easy-peasy with regular chicks!
I also have a few pigeons that are setting right now. I intend to start them on fermented pigeon grain. It will interesting to see if it makes it easier for them to feed the babies since it will be softer & slightly predigested.
I've enjoyed all the posts on this subject and appreciated the photos of different birds, feeders & set-ups. I keep various other ferment going when I can - kefir, sour dough, and kombucha so fermenting feed was a natural step for me. BTW - I've used a little ACV in my mix but the primary "starter" I used was some whey that I had been saving. So far, So Good!

Jeanette

 

[Jeanette56]

knightie,
Somehow your ferments are becoming contaminated. I'm not sure what to suggest though. It might help if you got a bucket without a spout so you could keep it covered a little better. Is there anything close by that might have mold or bacteria that could be drifting into your mix? I know when sour dough or kefir starts going off it's because mold or bacteria of some kind drifts in and causes the regular little beasties to get out of balance.
Is it sitting in sun most of the day or mostly shade? What kind of water are you using? Has your grain ever gotten wet or damp? Does it contain whole corn? Knowing the answer to these questions might help us come up with a solution.

Jeanette

I've had a few batches go bad (smell like rotten meat, not the good yeast bread smell) so I threw it out.... What am I doing wrong?
I put my grains in my bucket cover it with water, add some acv and wait a bit make sure it covered (adding water of needed) it sits on my porch with a lid over it (my bucket has a spout so the lid doesn't fit) I stir it every time I go out the door (3 or more times a day) sometimes it starts to ferment quickly others not so much...
The first time it happened I thought it was because I had been feeding for a week and my mother took care of the chickens while I was out of town and didn't do the ff, so I though it (the fermenting organisms) didn't get fed so they died off, but the next time I had fed it the day before and added fresh but lord was it nasty smelling. So what's wrong? Ideas?

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I just had a batch go bad, I think it was the last bag of cracked corn that I bought, it had some corn with what looks like some kind of black mold on the tip of the corn. It looked like it lost part of the tip when it was shelled off the ear. I don't know if this corn is brought in from the states or what, it looked like it had been stored too long or had been in a damp environment. Whatever, I must buy what I can, I'll just have to watch for anything that looks like that and toss it in the yard, if they want to eat it they can. Oh, for the stinky batch I dumped in about a cup of sugar and let that work till the smell changed and fed it, they weren't real happy with it but it did disappear.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Oh, for the stinky batch I dumped in about a cup of sugar and let that work till the smell changed and fed it, they weren't real happy with it but it did disappear.

That's very interesting. How long did it take to change the smell? I probably would have added more vinegar instead of sugar but that would have been a wild guess. I did have some chick starter scratch mixture fermenting in bowls in the house (I still don't have my bucket system set up. Still trying to figure out the best way so I don't spend money and then have to do something different). The chicks started eating less and this bowl didn't get used. When I made more, I forgot about that bowl and it sat on the table for two days, fermenting away, and I uncovered it the other night and boy did it smell! Not bad, but definitely very strong! I added some more vinegar and a little water and used that bowl first in the morning.

I wanted to ask... what do you guys do in the winter? How do you protect your ff from freezing? This is something I will have to take into account before I get my bigger system up and running too.