Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

lol that's funny, musical coops. 

That wouldn't be a bad thing but I'd want to know where my eggs are! lol How old are your birds now Rose? My Australorps started laying at 19 weeks. I hope enough of mine will lay through the winter that I won't have to buy eggs. If nothing happens, come spring I will have more than enough.

 

[Beekissed]

I was looking at my coop/run yesterday... it really does not smell at all and I saw very few flies. Mine is doing like you have talked about - the litter is just disappearing into the ground. What do you do when you want some good compost/fertilizer? lol

Move the coop and garden there?

Mount a poop board and jealously save all the 'ittle poos? Rake back all the deep litter and put a large tarp down, put the litter back and let it absorb all the wonderful poops until it's full and then pick up the tarp and dump it in the garden? Fence in the garden and make your chickens poo there? I'm just fulla ideas....or...um...full of poo...take yer pick.

 

[armorfirelady]

Mine spend their winter in my fenced in veggie garden. The electric netting won't work with our snow. So come spring I have a garden full of rich compost with lots of chicken poo. I also dump my leaves in my garden in the fall. The girls love spending winter digging thru them and do a great job of helping them break down as they scratch. My garden this spring was wonderful. To bad the wx didn't cooperate lol

 

[Triple Willow]

Sounds to me like you have a good rooster!

Oh yeah, and to think I almost ate him! So glad he escaped that! But I did kill about half a dozen that might have been as good as him. Live and learn. He is a good one. His attention always seems to be on the pullets - and not just trying to hop on them either. Whenever they are eating or whatever he always seems to be walking around overseeing everything. Sometimes I wonder how he eats enough for worrying about them. And if a fight breaks out he is so quick to step in and break it up. The other day I was gathering eggs and one of the pullets thought I got too close to her I guess and she let out a little squawk. I'm not sure because it happened so fast but I think he ran between my legs to get to her to see what was wrong! LOL Once he saw that she was okay he just walked away. He never challenges me at all. I've never petted him but he still comes up real close to me. He is definitely a keeper!

 

[galanie]

Move the coop and garden there?    Mount a poop board and jealously save all the 'ittle poos?  Rake back all the deep litter and put a large tarp down, put the litter back and let it absorb all the wonderful poops until it's full and then pick up the tarp and dump it in the garden?  Fence in the garden and make your chickens poo there?  I'm just fulla ideas....or...um...full of poo...take yer pick.

hahaha Before I moved, jealously saved my poop off the poop board. Yep, packed a 5 gallon bucket of Chicken Poo to move 170 miles away.

 

[Triple Willow]

Move the coop and garden there?    Mount a poop board and jealously save all the 'ittle poos?  Rake back all the deep litter and put a large tarp down, put the litter back and let it absorb all the wonderful poops until it's full and then pick up the tarp and dump it in the garden?  Fence in the garden and make your chickens poo there?  I'm just fulla ideas....or...um...full of poo...take yer pick.

Why Bee you're just the poo-head! LOL Okay, a redneck/hillbillly whatever you want to call it confession... I have an old rundown housetrailer down the road. One year I put a tarp down in one of the bedroom floors and raised bottle goats in there. LOL It worked perfectly, just gathered up the tarp and pulled it out the door. The people that live there now can't even tell goats were raised in their bedroom. - Just kidding! Nobody lives there! hahaha ...would be funny though in a redneck kind of way. hehe If I get all energetic I may raise some youngsters in there this winter and have some pol pullets next spring and see if I can't get some of that crazy money people are spending. A friend told me that in early spring some people are paying $20-25 for a laying pullet! I can't imagine paying that but I'd surely accept their money. We have a local livestock auction every week and there are plenty of chickens that go through there. I feel kind of bad at the thought of sending birds through there because I know there is the chance of them getting sick. ...but there is money to be made there.

You do have some good ideas. Thank you much!

 

[Triple Willow]

Mine spend their winter in my fenced in veggie garden. The electric netting won't work with our snow. So come spring I have a garden full of rich compost with lots of chicken poo. I also dump my leaves in my garden in the fall. The girls love spending winter digging thru them and do a great job of helping them break down as they scratch. My garden this spring was wonderful. To bad the wx didn't cooperate lol

That is a great idea. I saw this drawing a while ago and saved it. They have the coop in the middle then a big run on each side and they rotate each year - garden on one side one year, next year the other. The chickens are always on the other side. The spot in the back is for litter/compost, has a door in the back so it is easy to remove the poop from the coop to the compost pile. Wonderful setup! (Sorry, don't know how to make the pic larger.)

 

[Triple Willow]

hahaha Before I moved, jealously saved my poop off the poop board. Yep, packed a 5 gallon bucket of Chicken Poo to move 170 miles away.

Galanie... I think we might be a lot alike. LOL

 

[RoseMarie1]

Just wanted to show some pics of my RIR & Welsummer mixes. They have been on fermented feed for 3 months and they are 5 months old!

I thought that's what they were! Mine and yours are about the same age. When I first saw them I was like when did I post this pic? lol thought they were mine. ;-)

 

[Beekissed]

Galanie... I think we might be a lot alike. LOL

Me too! One year I was hauling a trailer of horse manure to my mother for Mother's Day clear across the state...half of the load was my MD present as well...and before I could even make it to my own home, the wheel shredded on the trailer(the load was WAY to heavy!) and I had to unload the poop in a wide place in the road, take off the wheel, go get it repaired in the closest town, drive back, put on the wheel, load up half the load and take it home, go get the other half and THEN truck it 4 hrs one way to my mother..finally..for her MD present. It was worth it.

Best garden I ever had that year.