Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

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've used those rubber tubs. Nice because you can stomp them to break the ice. Once a "passive solar" unit is designed and built it would do about all the work its self. All you would have to do is point it toward the sun - kind of like a solar oven. Before electricity?... living was more difficult but probably more peaceful.

There is a huge old barn down the road from me that doesn't set lined up with anything. I was in it one day and figured out that the old farmer who built it was pretty dang smart because the way it sets he had full advantage of the rising and the setting sun throughout the barn.

 

[vickifiveoh]

Has anyone ever added cat food to your feed before fermenting? I am being told to do that.

 

[Beekissed]

Has anyone ever added cat food to your feed before fermenting? I am being told to do that.

I don't know who is telling you to do that...but unless your cat will be actually eating this feed, cat food is never required for feeding to chickens. It's not formulated for chickens nor is it ever necessary for feeding to chickens if you are already feeding a balanced chicken feed. Would you feed your cat chicken feed? If not, don't feed cat food to chickens either. Two different animals, two different diets and needs.

 

[Beekissed]

I've used those rubber tubs. Nice because you can stomp them to break the ice. Once a "passive solar" unit is designed and built it would do about all the work its self. All you would have to do is point it toward the sun - kind of like a solar oven. Before electricity?... living was more difficult but probably more peaceful.

There is a huge old barn down the road from me that doesn't set lined up with anything. I was in it one day and figured out that the old farmer who built it was pretty dang smart because the way it sets he had full advantage of the rising and the setting sun throughout the barn.

That's the way my last chicken coop was designed as well...and was built many long years ago by another old farmer. In the winter, the sunrise was right into the coop and he had placed huge windows that covered almost the entire wall of the coop. I opened up the other wall to a large window that caught the sunset too and the coops was nigh perfect.

 

[vickifiveoh]

I don't know who is telling you to do that...but unless your cat will be actually eating this feed, cat food is never required for feeding to chickens.  It's not formulated for chickens nor is it ever necessary for feeding to chickens if you are already feeding a balanced chicken feed.  Would you feed your cat chicken feed?  If not, don't feed cat food to chickens either.  Two different animals, two different diets and needs. 

Thank you so much for your response. I didn't think you should, but I didn't know if there was something I was missing.

 

[Beekissed]

Thank you so much for your response. I didn't think you should, but I didn't know if there was something I was missing.

Many folks do it...but I haven't figured out just why. They say they are supplementing proteins but not sure why they aren't just feeding a feed that provides optimal protein for the chicken's needs. It's sort of like giving oyster shells when already feeding a laying ration...just not necessary, though I have tried it a time or two in the past myself. I saw no appreciable differences when I fed OS or when I didn't feed it, so I dispensed with offering it. There are times when shells will be thin during the year and no amount of supplementing protein or calcium will stop that process, I have found. So...I no longer try to stop it. Time takes care of it.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Your chickens are so pretty, can't really tell they are meaties, other than their build ofc. Their feathers look great! Mine are just a week old, and little chow hounds. At what age do I go down to just 3 feedings. Or should I say when do I stop free feed. I basically give them 3 feedings now, but there is enough there to last them almost to the next feeding. Hopefully if it doesn't down pour Thursday and Friday, they will be going out for their first forage experience.

This is my first time with meaties, they are getting ff only. Its a little different from raising layers. I just don't want them to stuff themselves silly and keel over. I want them healthy.

Deb

Aww, thanks so much!

I am glad someone else thinks so... You really can't tell unless you're looking at them moving that they're not some fluffy white bird and those feathers are all hard and flat and tight against the skin. They really don't looks 5lbs, not with my hens next to them. I just feel like showing them off to everyone I know like "SEE! Now THAT is how a meat chicken should look! Not covered in brown grime and poo and lying around panting with half the feathers falling out..."
They're so big right now that when they stretch out you can see patches of skin. But when they are relaxed they are the prettiest birds....

I free-fed the first two weeks.... If the bowl was empty/low and I was outside I gave them more! I started restricting feed when they were 15 days old, in that I only refilled their bowls 3-4 times a day. By 3 weeks they were on 3 feedings a day and by 4 weeks they were on two. To this day they're still on two, just a bigger two.

I strongly suggest checking out a CX feed consumption chart and trying to ferment something close to the correct amount of dry matter for the chickens/day. I was derpy and didn't feed them enough from weeks 3-5 and they are a bit smaller than I'd like as a result. They spent those weeks feathering out and hardly growing at all. I now feed 12 birds 5.5lbs of feed a day, or 0.45lbs of feed each day. Most birds are eating 0.508lbs a day at this point but with so much extra water I decided to cut it down a little bit.

I used this chart for mine;
http://cdn.backyardchickens.com/a/aa/500x1000px-LL-aadf500f_rock-growth.jpeg

 

[KYTinpusher]

I don't know who is telling you to do that...but unless your cat will be actually eating this feed, cat food is never required for feeding to chickens. It's not formulated for chickens nor is it ever necessary for feeding to chickens if you are already feeding a balanced chicken feed. Would you feed your cat chicken feed? If not, don't feed cat food to chickens either. Two different animals, two different diets and needs.

My cat actually likes to eat chicken feed (we keep starter feed in the house for the chicks). We have to keep it locked up or she will eat so much that she throws up.

 

[mlowen]

Has anyone ever added cat food to your feed before fermenting? I am being told to do that.

I've heard some people give cat food as meat protein...not in the ff. I can't free range my chickens, so I try to give them other sources of meat along with good feed, fermented. I "blended" some lamb liver and froze it in "serving sizes" in baggies. Any other leftovers that I get (giblets, hearts, etc) I'll throw to them or freeze for later, depending on if they've been able to forage much or not.

 

[mlowen]

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.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/HouseTS/RobTS.htm

This is an awesome website in general, but this passive solar thing seems much cheaper and easier than the can thing, to me. I would do this, if I had an outbuilding that needed a heater.