Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ozexpat]

Hey Oz... I feed two servings a day on the weekends. During the week, I feed one large breakfast that lasts most of the day because its dark by the time I get home.

Two servings is fine. Bernie the Filipino Chicken Phenom, aka my gardener, can handle that.

I want to blend rice bran which is 14% protein with starter mash at 22%, All mash is about 30 bucks for 50kg while rice bran is 17 bucks.

 

[Rockashelle]

Two servings is fine. Bernie the Filipino Chicken Phenom, aka my gardener, can handle that.

I want to blend rice bran which is 14% protein with starter mash at 22%, All mash is about 30 bucks for 50kg while rice bran is 17 bucks. 

That's great pricing! I only use a cup of the mix in my five gallon bucket for that very reason. I use 2 coffee cans scratch milled grains, barley, a cup of cracked corn (just during the winter, I try to avoid corn) and a third of a coffee can of meat bird crumbles. I've added a cup of alfalfa pellets in as well but they weren't as crazy about that. When I fed it, that were ravages after it. Stopped and looked at me as if I had just burned their best piece of prime rib. Lol! From my experience with the Dorking breed, they do a little better with higher protein content especially when the bugs are hibernating.

Maybe along with the chicken calculator app you're creating, you could start a FF nutritional content app! It would help me greatly!!!



PS - gotta love Bernie!

 

[Ashdoes]

I feed once, late afternoon, that way they free range most of the day finding their own food.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

My FF has been "cooking" more than a week, and still no bubbles.... I moved it next to the woodstove, so it has to be at least 70 (because I plopped it right in front of the blower) and still nothing. I added more ACV, still nothing. What am I doing wrong??

This is my bucket setup, made from stuff I had lying around.... Normally I keep it covered with the towel to keep debris/children out of it. As you can see, no bubbles, no scum on the top. I stir and feed twice a day, add new feed after the second feeding and stir again.... should I just continue waiting, or will the whole grains not foam and bubble?? I know it's not going bad, because it doesn't smell rotten... but neither does it seem to be fermenting like the other people's on this thread.... HELP!!!

Two things that could effect your ferment, does your water come from the city and have choline in it? Or is the feed medicated? Either one could affect your ferment. If you are on city water just put your needed water in a pail for 24 hours, that will allow it to degas before you use it. If it is medicated feed then you'll need to switch to non-medicated feed or try yeast to get you started. If you try yeast you might add some sugar for a kick start. Make sure your ACV is non-pasteurized and has mother in it.

 

[Kilsharion]

I feed once, late afternoon, that way they free range most of the day finding their own food.

Funny, I feed once in the morning and let them forage the rest of the day...it's just so bloody hot in the afternoons

 

[Kilsharion]

Two things that could effect your ferment, does your water come from the city and have choline in it? Or is the feed medicated? Either one could affect your ferment. If you are on city water just put your needed water in a pail for 24 hours, that will allow it to degas before you use it. If it is medicated feed then you'll need to switch to non-medicated feed or try yeast to get you started. If you try yeast you might add some sugar for a kick start. Make sure your ACV is non-pasteurized and has mother in it.

Depending on his feed, he may not need sugar. If it has molasses in it (which some do), he won't need to add sugar at all. Just the tablespoon of yeast. It will kick off within ~20 min with as long as that's been sitting there.

None of the following are recommendations - just things I have tried to get an idea of what is and is not required to get a good ferment going. I used Purina Crumbles in the below scenarios to test fermentation (I have other results from my particular feed; but, yeah, most people don't use it, so I went with one of the more common feeds) :

• I have used tap water from the city and had a ferment just fine. It took adding 1 tbsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar to get it to really go.Though just the ACV with mother did give me a wee bit of fermentation.
• I have used medicated feed and tap water from the city - again, it took adding 1 tbsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar to get it to really go. Though just the ACV with mother did give me a wee bit of fermentation.
• I have fermented without ACV at all. It took adding 1 tbsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar to get it to really go.

BTW, he never answered about the paint in that bucket. It is more likely to have a negative impact beyond just affecting fermentation....

 

[BlueMouse]

Did you use un pasteurized apple cider with vinegar?

Put a tablespoon of active dry yeast in it and give it a couple hours - you should see it explode in activity.

I did use the braggs unpasturized acv, I'm wondering if I just didn't use enough? I used less because mine isn't a 5 gal. bucket.

as per the active dry yeast, I keep reading conflicting reports about using that in your ferment (I'm at page 320) Of course it should ferment eventually with just grains and water with the wild yeast in the air (a la sourdough starter). But I have no idea as to what an all whole grains ferment should look like when it's working? I'm feeding it and the birds like it fine. This AM when I went to stir/feed there was a teeny tiny little patch of foam on the top, so maybe it's doing fine and I'm over thinking it

.

I'm on well water here, and I used our RO to start it off with, we have some iron here, makes the water taste yucky sometimes.

We've had that bucket for a few years, I'm not even sure where it came from, but it's always had that paint on it and it's never come off with any kind of scrubbing or soaking. I did another good scrub and soak before I used it for feed.... I guess it's been around so long I kind of think of the paint as part of the bucket, and I never really thought about it being a problem for feed.....

My feed is just mixed whole grains and scratch, it's not a purchased feed mix. 1 part scratch, 1 part barley, 1 part whole oats, 1 part field peas, and 1/2 part flax seed. according to the link posted earlier in this thread about calculating feed protien, it comes out to 16% or so. then I supplement for winter with meat scraps from the kitchen, grease drained from cooking ground beef, and a can of mackerel every so often.... I know general consensus is new chicken people don't screw with mixing your own feeds, but we really wanted to avoid GMO grains and soy, and organic isn't available by us, so this was the best alternative I could think up. Still a little corn in the scratch which is probably GMO, but it's at least better....

 

[Costa Rica Art]

Nice looking set up! Any other pictures of it. What is your bedding?

The deep litter is wood shavings from a local sawmill where they use shapers to make different kinds of trim. I am fortunate that it comes at a very nice price so I can use lots of it.
The brooder area is 4'X10' allowing the chicks to reach a nice size before getting out with the chickens. At this time the left end, about 4'X4' has another hen in it with 7 chicks. She had hatched 1 chick of her own, the other 2 eggs weren't fertile as this was her first nesting, then to give her purpose I went to the feed store (granero) and bought 6 meat chicks for her to raise as well which went right under her (at night). She is one fearsome momma, she will peck you if you try to reach in to get the feeder.
This is the right end of the brooder area, these chicks are now about 5 weeks old and momma has gone off with papa.
This is the left end of the brooder area which is now sectioned off for the new momma hen to raise her 1 chick and 6 meaties. The 10 chicks shown here are now the 5 week old chicks, there are only 6 as 4 were given away.
This shows the brooder area in the correct perspective. In this photo the left area had not been sectioned off. These cockerels were the 36 that we were told was a 50/50 run, wrong, out of the 36 we ended up with 4 pullets, the rest are resting in the freezer.
We have had difficulties figuring out what chickens (to buy) are good for what here so we have decided that raising our own and culling them to end up with good layers is the best way to go for us.

 

[Kilsharion]

I did use the braggs unpasturized acv, I'm wondering if I just didn't use enough? I used less because mine isn't a 5 gal. bucket.

as per the active dry yeast, I keep reading conflicting reports about using that in your ferment (I'm at page 320) Of course it should ferment eventually with just grains and water with the wild yeast in the air (a la sourdough starter). But I have no idea as to what an all whole grains ferment should look like when it's working? I'm feeding it and the birds like it fine. This AM when I went to stir/feed there was a teeny tiny little patch of foam on the top, so maybe it's doing fine and I'm over thinking it

.

I'm on well water here, and I used our RO to start it off with, we have some iron here, makes the water taste yucky sometimes.

We've had that bucket for a few years, I'm not even sure where it came from, but it's always had that paint on it and it's never come off with any kind of scrubbing or soaking. I did another good scrub and soak before I used it for feed.... I guess it's been around so long I kind of think of the paint as part of the bucket, and I never really thought about it being a problem for feed.....

My feed is just mixed whole grains and scratch, it's not a purchased feed mix. 1 part scratch, 1 part barley, 1 part whole oats, 1 part field peas, and 1/2 part flax seed. according to the link posted earlier in this thread about calculating feed protien, it comes out to 16% or so. then I supplement for winter with meat scraps from the kitchen, grease drained from cooking ground beef, and a can of mackerel every so often.... I know general consensus is new chicken people don't screw with mixing your own feeds, but we really wanted to avoid GMO grains and soy, and organic isn't available by us, so this was the best alternative I could think up. Still a little corn in the scratch which is probably GMO, but it's at least better....

Wild yeast colonies are not always populous and can take some time to come out of dormancy - especially if you live in a cooler climate. In early brewing days, they would go to specific areas where they had had success before and brew there. The reason was because they knew they would be able to get a viable culture - and, flavours of fermentation can be affected by the colony that decides to populate your mixture.

If you are wanting a truly wild culture, you will need to sweeten the pot. Yeast needs sugar to get kick started. It is their morning java, if you will. That's basically what they eat. And, the hooch is their waste....when people say beer tastes like pee, they don't realize how accurate they are

If you are putting actual meat in the bucket, be aware that fermented meat smells foul. Seriously foul. Fermented fish meal is bad; but, fermented meat (like fermenting the canned mackerel) is even worse.

Mixing your own feed can work out well, so long as you remember to actually find the true ratios and attempt to keep your mix as close to what nature intended as possible. Overdosing your feed on seeds, for instance, is a bad idea. One of the best ways is to take a sample of your feed and send it off to be tested. You can find quite a bit of good information on feed composition, and some really informative studies that were done back in the early 1900s in some of the older (published early 1900s) poultry books.

Some of the non-GMO, non-soy and organic feeds ship. I know H&H does; but, generally shipping winds up being fiscally non-viable.

 

[Kilsharion]

This shows the brooder area in the correct perspective.

**steals photo and goes and waves it at husband** What a wonderful setup!! You did a spectacular job.

I've been wanting something more than what I have for ages....I wonder if I can appeal to his ego enough to get him to build me one. **laughs** He mills his own lumber in our workshop, so I am blessed with always having an over-abundance of shavings....I never thought I would be so happy to have so much of the stuff. I used to get so frustrated having to haul it to the dump....now, though? I go out and ask him if he's making anything in the next couple of days because I need more litter.