Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Lacy Blues]

Needs air flow.

 

[Bleenie]

Thank you guys. I might switch to something like the cardboard/towel lid, not sure it's getting enough flow with the lid resting on top. I have a 'few' more questions too, lol...

Does anyone know how I 'prepare' Alfalfa shake and also dried beans before I add it to the FF? I can get free shake from a local hay farm and have a bunch of dried beans staring at me so i might as well use them if i can!

I also wanted to ask about feeding brooder chicks FF, do i put a dish in once a day or is it better to do multiple times a day?

And finally, I read someone used yogurt to start their fermenting, what kind does it have to be and can i add yogurt every few days like i read i am supposed to do with the ACV?

 

[colburg]

At this time I am feeding around 20 chickens, some are still young birds maybe 2/3s, the rest are adult birds. we are processing the cockerels as fast as they announce who they are, generally about 2 a day. When we are down to what we want for numbers we'll have 10 good laying hens, 1 roo and replacements coming at maybe 4 per 6 months, all the rest will end up either as gifts or in the freezer. We now have 2 silkie hens and 1 silkie roo, that may change to 1 silkie hen with the ol' gal now being 3 years old so we don't know how much longer she will continue to be our #1 brooder hen. She will hatch 5 regular hen eggs each time she goes broody (she has 10 chicks now, she had more help laying eggs than we thought) plus a couple of her own which become give a-ways. One of her chicks is now broody so she is sitting on 4 regular hen eggs plus 2 of hers. When things settle down to what I hope will maintain the size flock we want the FF should be down to less than 2 gallons per day (maybe).

WOW CRA, that's a lot of food. I know our systems, feed, and free ranging may be different, but I'm feeding 36 layers and 2 roos about 1.5 to 2 gallons of feed per day, and once things green up and the bugs come out, I'll probably cut that to 1 or less per day.

I am not fermenting for meat birds, but had a question... Does the lid need to be tight on the bucket during fermenting or does it need to just rest on the top so there's still some airflow?

I barely even use a lid anymore. When I do put one on, it's only a large plastic tote lid that lays over 2 5 gallon bucketfulls.

Thank you guys. I might switch to something like the cardboard/towel lid, not sure it's getting enough flow with the lid resting on top. I have a 'few' more questions too, lol...

Does anyone know how I 'prepare' Alfalfa shake and also dried beans before I add it to the FF? I can get free shake from a local hay farm and have a bunch of dried beans staring at me so i might as well use them if i can!

I also wanted to ask about feeding brooder chicks FF, do i put a dish in once a day or is it better to do multiple times a day?

And finally, I read someone used yogurt to start their fermenting, what kind does it have to be and can i add yogurt every few days like i read i am supposed to do with the ACV?

I don't know about hte rest of it, but adding the ACV or yogurt is only a 1 time thing. Once it starts fermenting you'll never need to add anymore as long as you backslop.

 

[katzco1]

You can get free frosting buckets from WalMart or Meijer's if you're where they are. They vary in size from 2-about 5 gal. buckets. I plan to use them for nesting. Also going to do the FF, never heard of that before. Getting chicks in about 2 months.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

WOW CRA, that's a lot of food. I know our systems, feed, and free ranging may be different, but I'm feeding 36 layers and 2 roos about 1.5 to 2 gallons of feed per day, and once things green up and the bugs come out, I'll probably cut that to 1 or less per day.
I barely even use a lid anymore. When I do put one on, it's only a large plastic tote lid that lays over 2 5 gallon bucketfulls.

I don't know about hte rest of it, but adding the ACV or yogurt is only a 1 time thing. Once it starts fermenting you'll never need to add anymore as long as you backslop.

I guess that I didn't count all of the chickens (I take care of the feed while the wife manages the ones for the freezer). There are about 20+ of the black pullets/cockerels left in the one batch, then there are another 6 pullets (almost a year), 6 layers, 1 roo, 3 silkies and 10 - 3 week old chicks, 1 bantam and 2 guineas. That is a guess as to the black pullets/cockerels, there were 36 of them to start with, the number dispatched was a guess by my wife. I'm reducing the amount of ferment every day, there were too many ranging in our yard (we also had turkeys) so there is little out there for them to eat. I have a loose cover on the fermenters all the time to allow the gases to escape but keep the most of air out. We are having our first rain in about 1 1/2 months. I'll have to measure the amount of liquid that drains off too. I should have said that is a total of feed and liquid as I try to have at least an inch of water standing on top of the feed when it is finished, I allow it to drain 20/30 minutes before I put it in the trough. Yep, I only needed to use the yogurt as a starter once, the yogurt that I add now is added when the FF is in the trough ready to feed. I make about 1.6 gallons (6 liters) of raw milk yogurt every week for chickens, guineas, cats, dogs and humans, cost me about $4 a week.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Ok, I've heard enough that I need to ask now. Several people have said they make their own yogurt and it saves them a bunch of money.

Would you guys share your recipes please? Do I have to have raw milk? I'm surrounded by dairy farms but I think raw milk is illegal in my state and I don't have my own milk goats (much to my daughter's chagrin). When I've tried to make it before, using powdered milk, it didn't save me any money at all, in fact, I think it cost more that way. I would like to make it somewhat thick as that makes it easier to serve. I understand pectin is used to this so if anyone knows how much, how long, etc.... I'm all ears!

 

[Mrs. Fluffy Puffy]

Ok, I've heard enough that I need to ask now. Several people have said they make their own yogurt and it saves them a bunch of money.

Would you guys share your recipes please? Do I have to have raw milk? I'm surrounded by dairy farms but I think raw milk is illegal in my state and I don't have my own milk goats (much to my daughter's chagrin). When I've tried to make it before, using powdered milk, it didn't save me any money at all, in fact, I think it cost more that way. I would like to make it somewhat thick as that makes it easier to serve. I understand pectin is used to this so if anyone knows how much, how long, etc.... I'm all ears!

We have our own milkcows, so we have lots of raw milk available. Here is how we make our yogurt and or kefir (I prefer the kefir).

We pour about a gallon of milk into a pot, warm it up until it starts to steam, take off the heat, and let it cool completely down. Once it's cooled, pour the milk into quart sized jars, then either add a spoonful or two of yogurt/kefir that is already made up, or sprinkle your yogurt/kefir starter in the jars. Then screw on the lids, and put them in a warm, draft-free spot. We put them in our oven that has a pilot light. We usually make our yogurt at night, so they stay in the oven overnight and the next morning you have some delicious, homemade yogurt/kefir! Simply

~ Aspen

 

[mstricer]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Arielle

What does it way on the bottle??? Is it pasteurized??? If not, try it and see how it works for you. It may not have as many live bacteria as the Bragg's with the mother sediment on the bottom.

The Heinz that I saw at a Tennessee, USA walMart was raw unpasturized with a little sediment on the bottom of the bottle

This is the right stuff. I bought it at Walmart about 3.89 a bottle

Needs air flow.

Can you drill air holes in the bucket lid to allow air flow in the buckets

Quote: Okay guys I want to start this today, but what I'm wondering is, currently my main coop is eating more then 12 lbs of feed a day. 20 chickens (boys and girls) and a pair of midget white turkeys. What would I start their feeding at. How do you measure out the gallon of feed?

 

[mstricer]

So where do you find the recipe to make this. Both with with grains (want to check prices) and with layena

 

[Bleenie]

I did my first FF feeding this morning. The older birds liked it but the teens loved it! I do have another question though...

When I was pouring the feed today it had a Very strong smell. Very yeaty but almost kind of a pukey odor, is that normal?? Lasg night i built a fire and the bucket was a few feet away. I checked on it after about an hour and had to move it because it was almost overflowed! It had barely been working previously so it really surprised me. J am just wondering if maybe it soured the feed or something?


im using crumble feed, corn and oatmeal added so a 3 gal bucket feeds all my birds for one day. The feed breaks fown a lot though so when im done draining I'm left with a large collander full of feed and around a gallon of starter.