Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[jmandawn]

Great thread!

 

[jmandawn]

I have two hawk deterrents that have worked thus far...and I'll let you know if they fail. We live right in the middle of forest land with 1000 acres of public lands on our border, so hawks are abundant here, as well as owls.

Here are my hawk deterrents:

Scary Sue~ she sways in the wind and even revolves. I move her location every day or every other day and it's easy because she is just PVC placed over a metal push in stake.



Jake AKA Chocolate Thunder~he will actually jump up into the air at low flying buzzards and other large birds.



And tree cover, "wings" open on the coop under which to duck...and they do! I can give a roo alarm call and they RUN for cover!

Thank you for the wonderful links you have posted in your signature line!

 

[Triple Willow]

Haha, yes!  Except I only have my layer FF in an old almond bucket from Costco.  A wee little volcano!  Good to know I'm not the only one! 

Oh no, you are not the only one so don't feel bad. I started out making small messes, now I make big messes. LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

@Beverly Evans... No I didn't eat those. I fooled around and let them dry out. I have had "bull fries". They tasted okay but I didn't care for the texture, too soft and squishy. lol I make a point of not getting attached to the roos because most of them will leave or go in the freezer. I wouldn't even pay much attention to the birds when they were chicks because I didn't know who was a roo and who wasn't. Those roos that are made a pet have a real bad track record that would more than likely end in my freezer. lol Yep a bunch of teenage roos can cause drama! Amazing that they can actually turn out to be good flock roos. I bet your three are pretty. Hope you find a place for them.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks for the plug Bee. You have a nice piece of land there, and just think you get to look at it too, hopefully you are not too busy to notice things like that. The leaves are falling here had a couple of frosts already. I have an app on my phone for weather mostly so I can tell wifey how warm (or cold) it's going to be. Today I'm looking at it and I'm not really liking what I see. Today high of 54 low 36,through friday... 48-50 for the high and low 27, now I hate it when there is no autumn and it goes from t shirts to coats in a few days. Last week we had some 80's, oh well welcome to climate change.

I'm never too busy to notice God's artistry...my head is on a swivel all the time gawking at this or that beautiful thing He has made. Some days I sound like a broken record as I say, "Thank you!" over and over as I go through my days. It never gets old to me!! From a beautiful little spider on a gorgeous flower to the sunlight gilding the leaves when the sun goes down, it all fills my heart to almost bursting...such joy and peace! I wish I could scoop it up with both hands and share it with the world...make them SEE. First, I'm thinking I'd have to get them to look up from their cell phones....

Beekissed-----Now that's a winner! Sorry I haven't the time to read over 9000 posts to your thread! I want to start fermenting and sprouting. Whole foods has grains for both. Which grains are best? How many days do you stir up this fermenting grain before you give it to your chickens? When it reaches the "good" point and you feed them some, what do you do with the rest ? Won't it continue its process to spoilage? Must one refrigerate the rest? Or do you ;make it small batches, feed it to them and then start over? Sorry for so many questions but atm you seem to be the go to person. THX for your trouble. You seem to enjoy sharing your knowledge and your Christianity. God bless you!! beverly

Any grain can be fermented and the process improves the nutrients in all of them. You can feed it is soon as you have fermentation going...a sour smell, some bubbles, sometimes you'll see a film forming on the top..all signs of fermentation going on. When it reaches the good point you feed it and just keep the mix going like you would a sourdough bread mix...when you feed out enough in your bucket but still have a little still there, add fresh feed and water, using some of the last batch to inoculate the next and just keep a rolling mix. It won't go into any spoilage, just a deeper fermentation...and that's a good thing! I've got the same scoby going that I started last year, so I never really start over without fermentation...I just backslop from the last one each and every time.

So great to have you here!!! Ask all the questions you like, most anyone here can answer them for you as they have been doing FF for some time now and are getting to be old hands at it now! I've only been doing it for 2 years myself...I think Kassaundra has been doing it the longest of all and in huge quantities~she does it in a 30 gal. trash can!

And blessings to you, Beverly!

Okay good. It just shocked me how it just "appeared". I guess I was expecting a more gradual, visual process. Hopefully someone else freaking about the weird film on their ff can learn from my confusion!

One of many freak outs over film on this thread.....you are not alone!

Thank you for the wonderful links you have posted in your signature line!

Welcome to the thread!

So glad to have you and so glad you enjoyed the links...so much good info to be found there!

 

[OHhappychicks]

Beekissed-----Now that's a winner! Sorry I haven't the time to read over 9000 posts to your thread! I want to start fermenting and sprouting. Whole foods has grains for both. Which grains are best? How many days do you stir up this fermenting grain before you give it to your chickens? When it reaches the "good" point and you feed them some, what do you do with the rest ? Won't it continue its process to spoilage? Must one refrigerate the rest? Or do you ;make it small batches, feed it to them and then start over? Sorry for so many questions but atm you seem to be the go to person. THX for your trouble. You seem to enjoy sharing your knowledge and your Christianity. God bless you!! beverly

Welcome to

!

 

[RoseMarie1]

Oh me to Bee. Me to! Just so thankful and blessed and I'm thanking Him all the time for His wonderful works of creation and how He works etc.
Got my black plastic up on the north side of the roosting area so the wind wont blow on them this winter. Glad to finally have that done.
Their rye grass and clover isn't doing well at all. It WAS coming through the wire on their grazing frames but needed water and I watered it and since then it's just not looked very well at all. Don't think it liked the chlorine because it's laying over still but still green. I think that and the heat must have played a part in it. Getting a little cooler so maybe it will perk up some now. I hope so!

 

[Beekissed]

I hope so too!

You guys will never believe what happened today....went to pick up some feed and was debating on adding more layer mash to the mix or just a scratch grain mix, as it is often cheaper than the layer and I have a good bit of layer in the can. Asked about pricing and found out that the layer mash had decreased in price by $4 on the 50 lbs...paid a little over $10 for 50 lbs of layer mash!!!

So, inside I'm doing a happy dance..sort of like this...

or..maybe this one...

...and was thinking, if the layer mash was that cheap, the scratch is going to be super cheapo. Nope. It was $15 for 50 lbs. So, I opted to get 100 lbs of layer and 25 lbs of BOSS for a grand total of $39 which is sooooooo cheap for around here. Was tempted to buy more layer ration...I've never seen feed prices drop in many a long year and certainly wasn't expecting it to happen nowadays. They never drop..only raise.

How 'bout youin's? Drop in feed prices where you live?

 

[Darkangael]

Wow nice glad to gear it gas dropped there not sure what prices are here yet since no birds yet. Hopefully that will change soon.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... not here as of one day late last week. Can't remember what day I bought feed. Too much clutter in my head. lol It's been a long day!