Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[mollymaloney]

Excuse me...what is ACV?

Thanks

 

[Noncentzter]

Quote:
I use the lids from two 30 gallon plastic garbage cans.- yes they are walking in it and stepping all over each other...we have 30+ chickens...

ACV = Apple Cider Vinegar, it's the cloudy kind with 'mother' in it...

 

[flyinchicks]

A FF story.... I keep my FF in my greenhouse. A few weeks ago I was putting my scoop in a ceramic bowl. The bottom of the bowl got hard crusty FF juices in it ( forgot to rinse one evening) so I put water to soften and set it to the side. I then forgot about it. Out of sight, out of mind. Last night I didn't shut the door good and the cat comes in. I hear him drinking and he's drinking out of this bowl. So I go to dump the bowl thinking he souldn't be drinking that and as I am walking outside I notice something black in the bowl of water. I dump it on the ground and its a mouse...dead mouse. I kinda giggle thinking even the mice love anything FF. I went inside and told the family and my 14 y.o. runs out to see the mouse. By this time the cat has already found it and is devouring it. Funny thing is Red (the cat) kills mice and moles all the time but does not eat them.

So mice apparenly like the FF. Cats apparently like fermented mice and I need some decon.

 

[Noncentzter]

 

[Beekissed]

A FF story.... I keep my FF in my greenhouse. A few weeks ago I was putting my scoop in a ceramic bowl. The bottom of the bowl got hard crusty FF juices in it ( forgot to rinse one evening) so I put water to soften and set it to the side. I then forgot about it. Out of sight, out of mind. Last night I didn't shut the door good and the cat comes in. I hear him drinking and he's drinking out of this bowl. So I go to dump the bowl thinking he souldn't be drinking that and as I am walking outside I notice something black in the bowl of water. I dump it on the ground and its a mouse...dead mouse. I kinda giggle thinking even the mice love anything FF. I went inside and told the family and my 14 y.o. runs out to see the mouse. By this time the cat has already found it and is devouring it. Funny thing is Red (the cat) kills mice and moles all the time but does not eat them.

So mice apparenly like the FF. Cats apparently like fermented mice and I need some decon.

Never heard of a cat eating a mouse that is found dead...good to know! Fermented mice are well preserved in the pickling of the ferment and that cats like them. This may open up a whole new world of FF for pets....

 

[mrsamplias]

Never heard of a cat eating a mouse that is found dead...good to know! Fermented mice are well preserved in the pickling of the ferment and that cats like them. This may open up a whole new world of FF for pets....

 

[colburg]

Quote:
I use a 6' long piece of 6" PVC cut in half lengthways. A couple of endcaps glued on and it works great.

 

[chickachee]

I use a 6' long piece of 6" PVC cut in half lengthways. A couple of endcaps glued on and it works great.

We basically have that too. Ours is only 4" PVC, 5' long (fits under the poop board in the coop). Hubby put eye hooks in the end caps and we use the hooks to hang the feeder with chains. Hope that makes sense!

Sheila

 

[PeepsCA]

Quote:

Trough style feeder that is lifted up to chest height on the age of birds you are feeding. These are incredibly easy to build from wood, pvc or rain guttering. If you attach the trough to a wall, you are losing valuable feeder space(they can only use one side of the feeder) and mobility and ease of cleaning.

My Guineas and my Turkeys (all feathered hogs) both were constantly standing in my 8 foot gutter troughs that I had screwed down to some scrap 4"x6"s while they were hoovering down their FF (and scratching thru the feed to pick out the whole grains first), so I've found out that mounting the gutter section to the walls of their coop was the only thing that keeps them out of the troughs, and there's less picking thru the feed as well. What works for one coop doesn't always work for all coops.

As for ease of cleaning them... they are usually licked sparkling clean, like so many others have reported, but if they ever do need cleaning a couple of quirts of ACV and a few paper towels would work fine I'm sure (I always have ACV in a squirt bottle handy lately, been using it on my horse's hooves for a thrush preventative this year since it first started raining this season). Or if worse comes to worst I can take out the 5 wood screws that I used to mount each gutter section and take them out of the coop and wash/scrub them by hand

 

[aoxa]

So my new buckets are overflowing from the bottom bucket out where the two buckets sit together. I didn't have the chick bucket more than half full, but the big chickens need a full bucket, as I go through one bucket a day (at least). I didn't put holes all the way to the top. Do you think that is why it's overflowing? I still have two buckets to drill. I'm going to do the holes all the way to the top to see if that helps.

Aoxa, to avoid overflow I always make sure that I do not let my FF mix bucket's water level go past where the top of the outer/bottom buckets is (you can shine a light thru your buckets to see what I mean). I do have holes drilled all the way up to the first rib (bottom rib) on both of my FF mix buckets (I have 2 2-bucket systems going) and even with all those holes if I over fill the FF mix buckets with water, I'll have a mess within a few minutes. Not overfilling is the key. HTH.

That's exactly it. Fixed the issue It was not getting through to my feed bucket fast enough to stop it from overflowing. Now it is just fine Holes to the rim. That's the key!