Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[RedRidge]

Meant to add... I also have a few wallpaper water troughs that work well... $2/each at Lowe's or Home Depot

 

[RedRidge]

Quote: I have several of these goat troughs I use for rams to keep them from swinging their heads and fighting over food...
I tried using one for FF and they were too deep even for my big birds.

 

[OHhappychicks]

Wow! Rain gutter!!! Who knew!!! and pvc pipe and even the wallpaper troughs!! These are great ideas!! Thanks everyone! Sometimes I have trouble thinking out of the box!

Sometimes on some things I get great ideas, but couldn't think of anything to work for the FF feeders. We might even have some gutter and pvc in the barn!

My DH is self-employed contractor, so we usually have left over pieces of materials laying around. Thanks again!

 

[Costa Rica Art]

Maybe I could secure the towel with a large rubber band...

Go to a tire shop that services truck tires. There you can get a no good inner tube and cut your own large rubber bands. Not only do they work for that but when regluing chair legs they hold things together till the glue is set. Most of the tire places will give you the old tubes, they are glad to see them recycled.

 

[bbdal]

Considering getting some meat birds. We ferment our grains - wheat, oats, milo plus flax and then add pnb and fish meal and lentil sprouts. Any reason to leave out fish meal in meat birds? It is included at 3-4% of diet for 16% protein mix. Obviously we will have to add more fish meal or sprouts to get protein up. We don't want to use sbm. Thanks

 

[RedRidge]

Field peas will give you a good increase but of course that isn't animal protein. Normally the max for fish meal is about 3.5% due to making eggs fishy... But for chicks I don't hesitate to go considerably higher than that if I have no other animal protein at the time. I would think you could increase it for meat birds but it'll get pricey quick... May wanna consider worms or BSF as an alternative.
And you sure don't want to ferment fish meal.... Just add it to the grains after they are fermented. Field peas work great fermented though

 

[ramblinH]

[COLOR=0000CD]Go to a tire shop that services truck tires. There you can get a no good inner tube and cut your own large rubber bands. Not only do they work for that but when regluing chair legs they hold things together till the glue is set. Most of the tire places will give you the old tubes, they are glad to see them recycled.[/COLOR]

Great! I've had this resource right under my nose and never knew (dh manages a Ford store with service shop, ha!)...

I'm betting the smell you are getting is not the peas.

Are you guessing it's probably something else in the mix? Just assumed it was the peas because that's what the smell primarily reeks of ~ thankfully it hasn't deterred me from eating them myself though

I don't usually add anything to my ff to start, unless it gets to smelling funky. Had some ACV handy so tried it first but prefer using LAB. It had been several days since adding the ACV, so put a splash of LAB in yesterday hoping it will straighten things out...

 

[OHhappychicks]

I have a "scum" on top of my ff. Is this normal? It is on top of the water in the 2nd bucket also. It smells just like it should. No mold. Should I skim it off? I admit I didn't stir it for a couple of days and when I went to stir yesterday, the scum was there. I stirred it in. I stirred it this morn, and the scum was back. It was wound around the spoon so I gave it to the dog. I'm going to start feeding it to my flock today, as I need to acquire a trough to feed in.

 

[Demosthine]

I have a "scum" on top of my ff. Is this normal? It is on top of the water in the 2nd bucket also. It smells just like it should. No mold. Should I skim it off? I admit I didn't stir it for a couple of days and when I went to stir yesterday, the scum was there. I stirred it in. I stirred it this morn, and the scum was back. It was wound around the spoon so I gave it to the dog. I'm going to start feeding it to my flock today, as I need to acquire a trough to feed in.

That's completely normal. Some people end up with the layer of film and some don't. Personally, it seems to come and go, partially depending on the weather. It's just a colony of bacteria that has found the right conditions to thrive, but with the way the fermentation works, as long as there is ample air flow, you really shouldn't have to worry too much about bad bacteria developing. If it does, you'll notice it immediately with the distinctly "off" smell.

 

[OHhappychicks]

OK. I didn't think it was bad because it still smells fine, but just checking. Thanks a lot!