Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Chickengirl1304]

Do chickens just need to fill their crops once a day? Trying to figure out how much to feed. I have 28 layers and feed layer crumble fermented. Someone said 4oz per bird to fill their crop. So is this once a day? Feed about 6lbs? I don't want them to be hungry but I also don't want them to just eat to eat because its there

 

[bakingintherain]

Someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure as a general rule you feed what they will clean up in 15 minutes, someone said theirs eat about 1/2 cup each or so

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong but I am pretty sure as a general rule you feed what they will clean up in 15 minutes, someone said theirs eat about 1/2 cup each or so

And then that's it for the day?

 

[Kilsharion]

And then that's it for the day?

In my Menagerie which has no free ranging allowed, I fill their feed trough twice a day which brings it to about a cup a bird a day (1/2 cup in the morning and 1/2 cup late afternoon); and, I have a custom dry mix (variation of finely cracked grains + mealworm + cricket + sunflower kernels) mix that hangs for them to snack on.

My free rangers get a 9" pie tin almost full per group of six (they tend to cluster in their brooder groups) - this would come out to about a cup a bird. They munch on it throughout the day, not all at one sitting. They kind of use it to supplement their foraging throughout the day. In the evenings they have treat time where we sit out and have our drinks and feed them scratch and whatever other goodies we may have for them that day.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Is 50 pounds of feed/week for 20 five week old chicks a lot? I'm feeding about half and half - dry feed and FF (plus a little grass). These chicks are really pretty big but it seems to me that they are eating like hogs! I'm careful not to waste much feed at all. I think I am going to start a worm/compost bin to put the small amout of feed in that does get messed up and not ate.

Sounds like an awful lot to me.

Do chickens just need to fill their crops once a day? Trying to figure out how much to feed. I have 28 layers and feed layer crumble fermented. Someone said 4oz per bird to fill their crop. So is this once a day? Feed about 6lbs? I don't want them to be hungry but I also don't want them to just eat to eat because its there

No, you need to let them fill up in the evening before going to roost. If you have free range, you'll still need to allow them to fill up before going to roost but if they're caged, you'll need to feed them twice a day or give them WAY more than you think they'll eat, once per day. I'm not sure but I don't think chickens eat just to eat. They are foragers and if allowed, they will eat all day but that's only because they only get one little morsel at a time, whereas when feeding from a trough, they gobble it up by the mouthful til they're satisfied.

 

[bbsnooks]

I am brand new to the fermenting feed experiment. I have some very smelly meat birds that I am wanting to feed the fermented feed to. My first batch never started bubbling. I used layer, water and ACV with mother in it. I think the first failure was due to the fact that I used a metal colander inside a large bowl filled with the water and ACV. I guess the metal was the problem.

So, yesterday I scrapped the first one after 5 days of waiting and stirring. I drilled some holes in a bucket and filled the bottom bucket with warm water and a couple of glugs of ACV with mother. Added the chick starter/grower to the bucket with the holes and lowered it in. I had to add more water and ACV as it all soaked into the feed. It's more than 24 hours and still nothing in "percolating". I have it in my kitchen near the window and have it covered loosely with a paper towel. What in the world am I doing wrong. Everyone makes it sound so easy.

I.. use . "rested " water..
by that i mean . its been in a bucket for 6-24 hours.. to let the chlorine.. disapate. I dont know how long it really takes.. so i usually put a big tub out to "rest" before i start a batch... If the next one has trouble.. you may want to try that.. and possibly measure the "glug".. you may need less than you think.

 

[Kilsharion]

I.. use . "rested " water..
by that i mean . its been in a bucket for 6-24 hours.. to let the chlorine.. disapate. I dont know how long it really takes.. so i usually put a big tub out to "rest" before i start a batch... If the next one has trouble.. you may want to try that.. and possibly measure the "glug".. you may need less than you think.

Quite a few treatment facilities do not use Chlorine any longer - they use chloramine. Letting water sit out won't do anything to neutralize chloramine.

You may want to find out exactly what your municipality is utilizing.

If you are worried about the chlorine/chloramine content in your city supplied water, you can use something like campden tablets (been used for years by home brewers to remove chlorine and chloramine from tap water for brewing). They can be found at any home brewing supply house (online or in your city). Vitamin C works, according to some. As does boiling for 20 min.

You can read the discussion on the home brewer's thread if you like, here.

 

[knjinnm]

I.. use . "rested " water..
by that i mean . its been in a bucket for 6-24 hours.. to let the chlorine.. dissipate. I don't know how long it really takes.. so i usually put a big tub out to "rest" before i start a batch... If the next one has trouble.. you may want to try that.. and possibly measure the "glug".. you may need less than you think.

I.. use . "rested " water..
by that i mean . its been in a bucket for 6-24 hours.. to let the chlorine.. dissipate. I don't know how long it really takes.. so i usually put a big tub out to "rest" before i start a batch... If the next one has trouble.. you may want to try that.. and possibly measure the "glug".. you may need less than you think.

kacklinkelly
I doubt if your water has plain chlorine, it most likely has chloramine which is a much more powerful sanitizing agent that takes much longer to break down when left resting.
It is doubtful that water is your problem since the feed and vinegar would quickly overwhelm chloramine in the water.
Give the mixture time to work, make sure it's not to cool, room temperature should be good.

 

[Kilsharion]

kacklinkelly
I doubt if your water has plain chlorine, it most likely has chloramine which is a much more powerful sanitizing agent that takes much longer to break down when left resting.
It is doubtful that water is your problem since the feed and vinegar would quickly overwhelm chloramine in the water.
Give the mixture time to work, make sure it's not to cool, room temperature should be good.

Chloramine is also non-volatile, which is why treatment plants are switching to it. There are many ways to remove chloramine if you're worried about it. And, fermentation can be affected by chlorine/chloramine in your water depending on the levels used by the treatment facility. It's been a problem to work around in homebrewing for years. Most facilities don't have enough chlorine/chloramine in their water to cause problems. However, some do...and, many brewers (fermenters) prefer to remove it from the equation all together.

 

[colburg]

Is 50 pounds of feed/week for 20 five week old chicks a lot? I'm feeding about half and half - dry feed and FF (plus a little grass). These chicks are really pretty big but it seems to me that they are eating like hogs! I'm careful not to waste much feed at all. I think I am going to start a worm/compost bin to put the small amout of feed in that does get messed up and not ate.

That sounds like a huge amount to me. We have 26 four week olds that are still on their 1st 50# bag. It's been fermented since day 1. We just started turning them loose in the yard so they haven't had much other than a little grass and the FF we give them.