Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

bee, i know you all to well. as things settle down. you never give up the birds. you giving up the birds is like saying al is done with cornish. it is just in our blood. you , the old timers, and myself will die in a rocking chair talking about and looking at our chickens,

You may be right....but there are other worlds in which to sing...and keep chickens. I hope to be there soon and who will say what I will be doing there except the Almighty?

well I sure HOPE she does Bruce, because that sadden me to hear her say that because I am learning so much from her. She'll be lost without her chickens. 

So funny, sweet Rosemarie! Y'all would have gotten to the same place, just a more circuitous route, I'm thinking. You are all wise in chickens and getting more wise with every passing day, from what I'm reading. I love to see this whole chicken thing grow and grow. You know I couldn't find one thing about FF here in the states when I went Googling 2 years ago? Now do a search! All I could find back then was some foreign studies done for commercial purposes...and those were enough to get me into fermenting. Now I do a search and there are blogs by folks who you'd think invented the process, they are so sure in their knowledge of it!

Same thing happened with ACV. Some years back just a few of us on BYC were using it and mostly we got scoffed at...now you can't throw a stick without hitting someone who is using ACV in the water.

This new age brings some speedy transitions in information and soon you all will run circles around this old gal..already are! I'm content in this old rocking chair, with my old birds, and both of us winding down into leaving this place. Yesirreee! I'm rearin' to GO!

 

[bruceh]

bee,
i owe a lot to you. my organic husbandry far out weighs my old methods. i know this not the forum thread for this. however a lot of folks read this thread. be you and i discussed natural worming.
pumpkin seed and castor oil gets a AAA+ in my book. i gave the birds this combo as their daily ration last night. holy cow they went at like a cornish x takes to food. my results were as of this morning. some worms found in the droppings not many. i never had any visable signs of worms. so this tells me that the birds carry worms but not an over load. as far as the castor oil goes. it is now proven that castor oil has properties in it that are super beneficial to the birds. on visable inspection of the birds. i found deep deep red combs, face and waddles. they look rejuvenated. even the 3 year old rocks look like pullets. eggs were clean as if i washed them. this is just in 1 day. the long term effects are not know yet. my feeling is that it will beneficial. i will do the same ration this evening.

bruce h

 

[Beekissed]

Most excellent feedback, Bruce! Wish you had taken pics of the worms..I LOVE to see the gory stuff! Befores and afters are always neat. You'll have to keep us updated on it as time goes along if you have better performance on these birds as well.

I love it when a plan comes together!

 

[bruceh]

i most certainly will. i may top dress the feed 1 x week to see what changes take place. i honestly feel that if the circulation benefits this much the feathering will be fantastic as the oil will condition the skin. i have done much reading on castor oil. i may this evening get my gnarly bunch off the roosts and apply on the bare spots to see if the oil has any real effect on the feathering.
i found an old time farmers notes on the web about the things they used before medicine. very interesting as soon as i find it again i will post the site. this thread handles all live stock and treatments.

found it :http://www.pfi.iastate.edu/OFR/Anthelmintics.htm


there is a lot of good reads on castor oil and other natural remedies for chickens.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

What would the dosage of castor oil be for deworming?

 

[AletaG]

What would the dosage of castor oil be for deworming?

X2 (and the amount of pumpkin seeds; dehulled, or with hulls?)

 

[bruceh]

for those interested in how to feed the pumpkin seed and castor oil.. this is what i did. please get a pen and paper ready. this is very long and detailed.

i feed roughly 45- 50 birds they free range all day. i took 4 lbs of raw hulled pumpkin seed. put it in a bowl. then i took the castor oil and poured some on the pumpkin seed . then i stirred enough to coat the seeds . then i put some more oil in enough to make it wet. like a ceaser salad. after i divided into 3 bowls so everyone would get some.
tonight there is enough left over for a second feeding. this will be there ration until it is gone.

when you do this look at the combs face and waddles. before and after the feedings. mine was a shock to me .like they found the fountain of youth.

 

[bruceh]

As I mentioned in a previous post... most of these production birds do not lay a long time... they last a lot in their earlier years.
My HRIR will lay until they are 10 yrs old and will dress a beautiful carcass, but they only lay about 180 eggs a year.
So... it's a trade off. And... finding really nice HRIR is a tough thing to do... very few really around.

redridge ,
i raise heritage rhode island reds as well . they are just beautiful birds. mine are sweet and smart.do you use a certain line bird. mine are from lloyd flannagan.deep black cherry. soory i get excited when people mention the reds.

 

[Beekissed]

when you do this look at the combs face and waddles. before and after the feedings. mine was a shock to me .like they found the fountain of youth.

Same here...awhile back I used the castor oil on the bird's legs due to some lingering signs of scale mites left over from last year. While I was doing that, I went ahead and dosed them each a dropper full of the castor oil because my granny used to tell me that everyone in the hills used to take some each spring as a "tonic" and that it got rid of folks' worms. Why not? I was thinking, let's give the old birds a spring tonic?

Their combs and wattles started showing a cherry red color within a few days of the "tonic" dose and have not diminished in color all summer, no matter who is laying or not laying at the time. Their scales returned to a deep, rich yellow and looked very supple and young. No signs of mites since then and that was in March. No mites or lice on the body, no scale mites, rich color on all extremities and richness of feathering.

Gotta give a shout out to the old folks...they sure know their stuff when it comes to home remedies.

 

[AletaG]

for those interested in how to feed the pumpkin seed and castor oil.. this is what i did. please get a pen and paper ready. this is very long and detailed.
i feed roughly 45- 50 birds they free range all day. i took 4 lbs of raw hulled pumpkin seed. put it in a bowl. then i took the castor oil and poured some on the pumpkin seed . then i stirred enough to coat the seeds . then i put some more oil in enough to make it wet. like a ceaser salad. after i divided into 3 bowls so everyone would get some.
tonight there is enough left over for a second feeding. this will be there ration until it is gone.
when you do this look at the combs face and waddles. before and after the feedings. mine was a shock to me .like they found the fountain of youth.

Ignoring the Smart Alecky comment.... So I have 20 birds, so about 1.75lbs plus enough castor oil to make a salad. And should be enough to feed them twice, eh? This is instead of FF, not in addition to? (mine free range all day, and have access to dry IF they want it... then I give them each about 1/2c FF per bird, sometimes they eat it all, sometimes there's barley left , which they pick gone by dinner time.) Looking forward to it, as my adopted OEGB's seem to be positively ancient!