Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Kilsharion]

Yes, but we are both monogastric (one stomach) and sometimes stuff applies to other species as well. Just info and some folks enjoying ironic language stuff and others maybe not "getting it" that it was funny.

Indeed.

Quite often what works for one species works quite well for another. Lessons learned in one instance play very well in other instances.

Point in case, my wine, mead, beer and vegetable fermentation - all human oriented, as you are aware - experiences have made my fermented feed experiences a bit easier to understand and determine if I'm getting a good fermentation vs a bad fermentation. It's all fermentation, afterall - whether it's for bovine, porcine, poultry or human consumption.

And, I love playing with the meanings of words, to the point of irritation for others, it's true. So, it's interesting to see when others do such a thing, as well. Semantics - what a wonderful thing.

 

[Ashdoes]

I've noticed a lot of the new people like the one bucket better then the two bucket system. It is a lot easier to get the consistency we want, without draining. It takes me less then five minutes to feed the chickens, and most of that five minutes is walking from the house to the barn and back. I've noticed my chickens like the FF a little thicker, then they just gobble big chunks at a time. When it's too runny they spend more time picking out the scratch, which means they're picking through the FF and flinging it all over each other.

I think maybe everyone should agree to disagree and get back to talking about FF, before the Mods shut down this thread for all the bickering. Which is very possible, as many of us have seen from previous threads that are no longer active.

 

[Kilsharion]

I've noticed a lot of the new people like the one bucket better then the two bucket system. It is a lot easier to get the consistency we want, without draining. It takes me less then five minutes to feed the chickens, and most of that five minutes is walking from the house to the barn and back. I've noticed my chickens like the FF a little thicker, then they just gobble big chunks at a time. When it's too runny they spend more time picking out the scratch, which means they're picking through the FF and flinging it all over each other.

I switched to the single bucket option, last week. I'm thinking I prefer it, myself. My chickens are still running around looking like they've got some sort of weird malady; but, that's because they go crazy trying to get the "goodies" in the bowl before their sisters (brother) can. This morning it was bananas that were in with the ff....chicken soccer insanity. The first time I noticed the marks on my chickens I was freaked out - thought they had some sort of parasite going after them. After making Dinner suffer through my pawing to see what in the world was going on - he was very sweet about it all - my brain woke up enough for me to realize, "Duh! It's dried FF". **head desk**

 

[opalwednesday]

Has anyone used fermented feed for Pheasants?

 

[mstricer]

I have a mash feed that I use - it has finely ground fish meal and kelp in it.  It winds up glomming together (is that even a word?) and forms the consistency of....did you ever make mud pies as a child?  Mixing dirt and water?  Kinda like that.  It stays in the strainer pretty well.  I use a slotted spoon; but, same idea.  I used a colander when I was moving it to a larger bucket and hardly lost any of the FF.  The thing is - it does get gooey, so it takes quite a while to drain if you are wanting to serve it "mostly dry".  I just pull it out, give it a good bounce or two and dump it in the bowls.  My husband calls it 'feed soup'.  But, I also add milk and whatever treat of the day they are getting - this morning it was left over bananas that I had cut up last night for part of our dessert.

I've also noticed that if you let the finer mashes that have been used in FF dry out, they form a rather solid mass.  I'm trying something out this weekend and seeing if I can made feed blocks out of dried FF.  No idea if I can, if I should or if they would even be interested - I just want to see if I can....because, I'm silly like that.

Thank you!! Now my next question is probably getting on the anal side of things but I'll ask it anyway: type of water used. I'm thinking I will have my FF going in the basement. there I can access our cold water that has gone through the water softner, but our attached garage has a faucet that uses our well water before the softener and in the kitchen we have an Reverse Osmosis filter...would one type of water be better or worse than the others? Crazy question I know.....

Have you ever noticed that your chickens say " hey why are you giving us that nasty well water, we won't drink until we get thw Osmosis water." Seriously my birda would drink from a puddle if it was closer to them. Just saying.

 

[Kilsharion]

Have you ever noticed that your chickens say " hey why are you giving us that nasty well water, we won't drink until we get thw Osmosis water." Seriously my birda would drink from a puddle if it was closer to them. Just saying.

 

[stone_family3]

Exactly, my chickens get rain water, it's cheaper than tap

Have you ever noticed that your chickens say " hey why are you giving us that nasty well water, we won't drink until we get thw Osmosis water." Seriously my birda would drink from a puddle if it was closer to them. Just saying.

 

[Kilsharion]

Exactly, my chickens get rain water, it's cheaper than tap

I wish we got enough to be able to do that. We're hot and dry down this way. Even my well (pretty darn deep) can get down to sludge toward the end of the summer.

 

[ash10383]

hahaha ok, yes good point....they will get the well water and they will like it darn it ...I guess if they've never had it they will never know any better....Same concept of why my 18 mo son gets so excited when I give him certain whole grain unfrosted cereal flakes for dessert. he hasn't had much candy or cookies (except what Grandpa has given him) so the cereal flakes are a treat! (never mind the corn syrup in them as a "healthy, good for you cereal", that's a another subject for another day)

 

[tweber]

If you have a still you can distill the liquid and have moonshine. Basically you are making a mash.