Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChickChickChicky]

How long does everyone leave theirs FF out once it has been put in the pen. Just like some others have said I am having a hard time with amounts. It changes from day to day how much they consume.

I feed in the morning before work so I fill feeders so they don't run out. They are on the roost when I get home. Sometimes its cleaned out when I get home and sometimes there is a little left. It is never much so the next morning whatever is left I scoop into a dog bowl (for easy identification). Anyway sometimes mine will be out 25-26 hours before eating. At that point if they don't finish it I will trash it (happens very seldom). Should I not be leaving it so long?

Since the weather's turned cold I feed my ff in heated dog bowls (with a makeshift plastic bowl insert). I too never seem to be able to judge correctly how much they'll eat on a given day, but always try to err on the side of "too much". The ff always still looks good even after it's been the bowl 24 hours or more (after all, the ff stays in your bucket for days, doesn't it?). The one thing I've found is that any ff left in the bowl will suddenly appear to be a FEAST if it's dumped onto the ground... the birds come a'runnin to clean up every last speck of it that's dumped into the dirt and poop. It's an easy way to get rid of any leftover.

 

[3 NH reds]

Fed the dogs their fermented food yesterday. I will need to give it time to see if it helps but today the hound comes up to see me after she had been gold mining in the cats box, Today is fridge clean out so I can just count on the gas attacks and her looking back to see what is going on

 

[Miss Lydia]

Fed the dogs their fermented food yesterday. I will need to give it time to see if it helps but today the hound comes up to see me after she had been gold mining in the cats box, Today is fridge clean out so I can just count on the gas attacks and her looking back to see what is going on

That ff has alot to work on there.

Mine love to come up and give kisses right after they have been out cleaning up the chicken poo.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

How long does everyone leave theirs FF out once it has been put in the pen. Just like some others have said I am having a hard time with amounts. It changes from day to day how much they consume.

I feed in the morning before work so I fill feeders so they don't run out. They are on the roost when I get home. Sometimes its cleaned out when I get home and sometimes there is a little left. It is never much so the next morning whatever is left I scoop into a dog bowl (for easy identification). Anyway sometimes mine will be out 25-26 hours before eating. At that point if they don't finish it I will trash it (happens very seldom). Should I not be leaving it so long?

I feed twice a day now that the chicks/pullets/cockerels are going on 3 months old. I want to make sure they get all they need. They will clean the first trough by noon and the second before they go to roost. Sometimes there is some left over at night which I leave for in the morning. I turn them out (open the coop door before it is light) and go in the house and dump the next batch of FF into the strainer. After doing my other morning chores, usually a half an hour at least I put that batch into a trough and take it out. If by then they haven't cleaned up the batch from last night I dump that on the ground and they come running and clean it up. Funny that they left it in the trough but as soon as it is on the ground they go right after it. I never trash any feed, if nothing else it goes on the ground, if they don't eat it, that becomes good soil compost which so far has only happen a couple of time since I started FF about 5 months ago. I think once the feed is fermented it will last a long, long time in the feeder/trough, I haven't had any actually go bad in the trough. Also I get raw milk from a farmer real cheap and make yogurt with it. I can dump yogurt on their FF or put it in a dog bowl, they go crazy for it. I am lucky in that it never freezes here but it does get very wet, us being at 3,800 feet we get lots of fog and clouds on the ground which I would think if the FF would go bad when it got old it would here but it hasn't happened.

 

[Mumsy]

How long does everyone leave theirs FF out once it has been put in the pen. Just like some others have said I am having a hard time with amounts. It changes from day to day how much they consume.

I feed at day break and if any is left at noon, I dump it


in the grass in the orchard and they clean it up at their leisure. The dishes are hosed out and I feed a smaller amount three hours before lights out. The dishes are mostly clean in the morning. I add alfalfa cubes to my ferment and the rough bits are the dregs most often left in the dish. My feed dishes are old dry wall mud pans. I drill drainage holes in them.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I love drywall mud pans. That's was I use, mostly.

 

[Miss Lydia]

I wish i had thought of them before buying the goat troughs, but how do you keep the chickens out of them and keep them from turning them over?

 

[Mumsy]

I wish i had thought of them before buying the goat troughs, but how do you keep the chickens out of them and keep them from turning them over?

I cut a pile of 2"x4" boards into short lengths. I set the trough on one board and put the second board up next to it. They can't tip them over. The flock divides up into A team feeders and B team feeders sharing dishes with their team mates and eat as fast as they can. I turn them out of the barn whether they have cleaned the dishes or not to free range after an hour. Some times they scratch the litter into them but the ff is gone already. I keep clean dishes in reserve and it makes feeding go quicker. The soiled dishes go out to be hosed and the clean ones are setting out to be filled. It's a system that works well for me. My flock is small right now. Eight adult birds. When the flock increases, I'll add more dishes. My husband is in construction. I have dozens of these pans.

 

[Mumsy]

I cut a pile of 2"x4" boards into short lengths. I set the trough on one board and put the second board up next to it. They can't tip them over.

I also use a number of short 4"x4" boards that work well. Especially for the Silkies. They like to get up close and personal with the FF.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I have holes drilled in mine on one side near the top so I can hang them on a wall. It doesn't allow for eating on both sides but it keeps them and their litter out of it as I hang them about the height of their backs.