Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[RoseMarie1]

RoseMarie, wanna know something crazy? My DH keeps our house so cold inside that even during the blaring heat of summer I sleep with a heating pad... So, y'all don't feel sorry for me. I'm not really griping. I live in Texas for a reason. I LIKE it HOT!!!

LOL well I am wrapped up in a quilt now. Thyroid issues make me get too cold sometimes even when it's hot.

 

[Triple Willow]

Do any of you have a solution for freezing water besides heating it using electricity. I have been searching for a solar solution to the problem. I've seen different versions of these "solar heat collectors" that you could use to heat the whole coop (or garage, house, etc). But I'd just like a solution to frozen water during the winter.

 

[Triple Willow]

...forgot to post this : http://www.coloradowindpower.com/page.php?26

 

[Lacy Blues]

Interesting link. Is this something that you would cut a window in your coop and install this into it to heat the air in your coop? It looks like a great idea but I'm wondering about application?

Also, he says the air needs to travel through the cans. I don't know how that can happen when he blocks the airflow top and bottom with his dividers. Did he just miss posting a step where he cut holes through his dividers to line up with those in his cans?

I'm wondering about possibly doing something like this at the windows in my feed barn room where I plan to keep my fermented feed and hopefully my mealworms and maybe some day I'll get dubias and also to grow fodder in this room in the winter.

 

[Jo Anne]

where would you suggest I purchase grains that you use?

 

[Triple Willow]

Interesting link.  Is this something that you would cut a window in your coop and install this into it to heat the air in your coop?  It looks like a great idea but I'm wondering about application?

Also, he says the air needs to travel through the cans.  I don't know how that can happen when he blocks the airflow top and bottom with his dividers.  Did he just miss posting a step where he cut holes through his dividers to line up with those in his cans?

I'm wondering about possibly doing something like this at the windows in my feed barn room where I plan to keep my fermented feed and hopefully my mealworms and maybe some day I'll get dubias and also to grow fodder in this room in the winter.

With the cans you have to leave a couple inches at the top and the bottom for the air to move. I have also seen this with bottles of water used instead of the cans. If they didn't get too hot and melt I think that would work better because the water will hold heat longer. It might be good to put in a little anit-freeze, just in case. I believe this talks about making a hole where outside air can come into the collector. I don't think that would work good at all. The "professional" ones that I have seen have a hole at the top where the hot air goes into the building and a hole at the bottom where cool air from inside the building (house, barn, shop, coop, etc) comes out into the collector to be heated - then goes back into the building. They build the heat collector then connect it to the building by drilling holes in the wall to meet up with the holes in the back of the collector. So the collector is really just hanging outside the building and connected at the holes in the back of it. Hard to explain. There was a company making these and installing them on houses. They say they really work. I bet you could use this idea and come up with a way to keep water from freezing. I first saw these in Mother Earth News magazine several years ago. I love that magazine!

 

[Triple Willow]

They are doing something kind of similar for "solar water heaters" for houses. That is a big thing in some areas, saves quite a bit of money.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Lacy Blues... http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/mothers-heat-grabber.aspx

Really good design...
http://homesolar.m.webs.com/site/mo...53a1&fw_sig_is_admin=0&fb_sig_network=fw#0113

 

[Beekissed]

Do any of you have a solution for freezing water besides heating it using electricity. I have been searching for a solar solution to the problem. I've seen different versions of these "solar heat collectors" that you could use to heat the whole coop (or garage, house, etc). But I'd just like a solution to frozen water during the winter.

I always used a black rubber feed pan like the ones they use to feed horses...the water still freezes by the end of the day, but with the moisture in the FF they don't drink as much anyway and the rubber pans make it easy to just dump out the frozen water and replace it. Complicated solar units for nothing more than chicken water always seem a little too much work, worry and fuss. What did they do back in the old days, before everyone had electricity?

where would you suggest I purchase grains that you use?

Feed store...not TSC.

 

[galanie]

I always used a black rubber feed pan like the ones they use to feed horses...the water still freezes by the end of the day, but with the moisture in the FF they don't drink as much anyway and the rubber pans make it easy to just dump out the frozen water and replace it.  Complicated solar units for nothing more than chicken water  always seem a little too much work, worry and fuss.  What did they do back in the old days, before everyone had electricity? 

I was thinking the same thing. While frozen water can be a bother, I'd rather dump and refill than do all that. Or get a simple dog bowl heater and be done with it. They don't use that much electricity. Or you could use a car battery hooked to a power inverter if you dont' want to run a cord out there.