Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Windy Bay Farm]

They weren't truly all homemade as I ordered a base and just added some of my own ingredients, but they were all natural ingredients in the base, as well as those I added, and made in the kitchen, so I guess that qualifies as "home" made.    We made soaps, sugar and salt scrubs, bath salts and such and it was a fun time for me and my sisters.  The lip balms had shea butter, cocoa butter, Vit. E oil, ect., the usual kind of balms used to promote skin softness.  I'd add honey, vanilla, etc. so they tasted good if you accidentally licked your lips. 

Since ya'll were discussing lip balm...I thought I'd show you what I picked up at the TSC while vacationing in Maine this summer lol

 

[Triple Willow]

I was supposed to be a draftsman, I worked for sikorsky and was going to get in their drafting program (when they did it with #4 pencil and thick tannish hard paper. Well a disease I've had all my life kicked up and I had an operation, missed the program and wound up in the machine shop. I was there when the sikorsky helo fished Alan Shepard out of the ocean. Only worked there a few years and moved back home (not a city boy I guess), and went back into mechanics. I've been a diesel mechanic for 30 mumble mumble years. I can read blueprints and use all the measuring devices, which came in handy for rebuilding engines (see some things do work out). I built 2 log homes from prints( one quite large) and remodeled 2 or 3 including electrics, plumbing. Now I'm far from a master anything, although certified in some things (nut case). However all things considered I can't hold a candle to learning cad programs and your resume. Dang girl that's an accomplishment- wow. I can't even figure out sketch-it, can't figure out how to get the lines to go where I want them, so I always go back to #4 and paper BTW I still do long division too lol.

Another brainiac... y'all amaze me!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Well, my meaties have very nearly run their course! They're mostly weighing in at 6.5-7.5lbs right now but one or two are still like 4.5lbs. I am getting right sick of the poop and the smell (no matter HOW good it is for my lawn..!) and the cleaning of water and feed bowls... So it's a good thing they're almost gone.... But right after they go I will have a new batch of chickies... My black and copper Maran eggs are due to hatch in a week! I will be raising out the roosters from that batch until crowing age for some skinny but tasty birds if I can't sell any. I candled the dozen last night and confirmed 3 duds and 3 for-sure chicks and the rest are still up in the air. It's so hard to tell with those dark sells... Hope I get at least six the way I wanted!

 

[Triple Willow]

I have looked at a lot of old books and what not. Previously an eighth grade education is equal to a present HS education. Folks that are in their late 70s and 80s went to HS at a time when Latin was still a foreign language, when geometry and calculus were still required math, ect.  I have a three volume home study course for the Civil Service exam published around 1920. Most two year college students couldn't pass that test today.

My grandfather was born about 1900 so he would have probably been finished with school by maybe... 1915 or so. Of course he went to school in a one-room schoolhouse, just like my mom did. I'm sure they emphasized the 3R's. I doubt they learned anything beyond adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing and maybe fractions. Even when my mom was in school the teacher was just somebody from the community that I seriously doubt ever even saw a college much less attend one. Even when she was in school it was literally like Little House on the Prairie.

 

[Triple Willow]

Master carpenters use incredible tools tools they make.  Its amazing what can be done with a piece of string and a weight a level and a straight edge.  Kind of like drafting on a grand scale.  I am good with metal I suck with wood.  I still cant get over the fact that a two by four is really 1.5 by 3.5  or there abouts.... drives me nuts that i have to design on center.....  But master carpenter do heady things like figuring a hip on a roof Compound angles fo eves and how in the heck do they make those birds mouths come out in the right place.....   Or framing up a post and beam roof....  I am in awe... 

With regard to no training....I wouldn't say no training... Like your grandpa people taught me.... good math skills and understanding a little about geometry helped.  And listening carefully when someone took time to teach you something.  When I took the equivalent of an apprentice job at Teledyne Ryan I was terrified all those big bucks tool designers would find me out..... Back then they made 50-75 K a year...  Me Waaay not so much.... LOL  Minimum wage was around five or six bucks back then.

So I read every manual that accompanied the project.  Having to do with ANSI Standards and what Boeing required with regard to their drawing protocols.  Six months in I wound up telling a Drawing checker he was wrong when he marked my drawing in red.....    And proved it.  He hired me away when he left to start his own company....  

Also in all the places I have worked the best ones had machine shops on premisis.... I learned more from those guys as well.  Especially when I messed up.  But often they would tell me tricks about designing according to how it was going to be manufactured...  There is a difference between a hand brake for bending sheet metal and a press brake....  and even if it can be made with the machinery in house.

I would love to be back in the business of drawing and designing.....  My last job took me in the relm of Sustaining engineereing which involves a huge amount of paperwork that has to be appoved by a stupifying chain of people with special interests and standards.  You see Europe has a different EPA standard than us.... Theirs is called ROHS....  Dont remember what the acornym means....  But they wont allow manufacturing with lead of any kind....  That job intailed converting products existing and being sold here in the US over to the ROHS standard because we were beginning to sell those products over seas.  Not only did we have to find equivalent parts and swap them out we had to proove those parts were compliant to the ROHS standards.  Plus since we were sellng internationally we had to comply with ISO9001 standards....  basically documentation and accountability through the whole process from first article to end of life.  This last was also required by the AMA because we were producing equipment for the medical industry.

I burned out....  I would love to work in house lend some of my design skills to a start up company for part time wages.  Or even go through some place and convert their paper drawings to CAD and provide Form Fit and Function checks.  Sadly I cant work for myself..... tried it didnt like it.

No right now I am writing a book.  Living with Grandma and giving her the support she needs.  Even though she is 97 she has every spark she was born with.  I cook dinner take her to the doctor and sleep with a baby monitor at my head incase she falls again.   She broke her hip last year.... sigh.  She gives me a little money that feeds the animals at my house and handles the utilities and fuel.

I need to build another computer though and get my software up and running again so i can practice.... The coop project is keeping me motiviated for that.

deb

Deb, you and a couple of like-minded people need to get together and "do your own thing". With your technical mind there is no telling what you could invent!!! Girl, if I had your mind... oh wow! Please don't let what you have go to waste AND MAKE THEM PAY YOU WHAT YOU'RE WORTH! Cool on writing the book too!

I admire you and I can identify with you taking care of your 97 year old grandmother. I am very glad to hear that she is doing well. I know all about that baby monitor stuff. Harbor Freight has driveway alarms that work well. Set it up outside their room and if they walk past it an alarm goes off where ever the receiver part is (in your room). It works great. Good luck to you, God bless your grandmother and YOU for taking care of her!

 

[Beekissed]

Since ya'll were discussing lip balm...I thought I'd show you what I picked up at the TSC while vacationing in Maine this summer lol

My boys bought me some of that years ago...thought it was funny. I still have it as it's not that great...but an extremely good gimmick for marketing!

Well, my meaties have very nearly run their course! They're mostly weighing in at 6.5-7.5lbs right now but one or two are still like 4.5lbs. I am getting right sick of the poop and the smell (no matter HOW good it is for my lawn..!) and the cleaning of water and feed bowls... So it's a good thing they're almost gone.... But right after they go I will have a new batch of chickies... My black and copper Maran eggs are due to hatch in a week! I will be raising out the roosters from that batch until crowing age for some skinny but tasty birds if I can't sell any. I candled the dozen last night and confirmed 3 duds and 3 for-sure chicks and the rest are still up in the air. It's so hard to tell with those dark sells... Hope I get at least six the way I wanted!

That cleaning of the water and food bowls is something you'll work out the next time you do this...I know I sure did. The second batch were on nipple buckets(WOW, the difference!!) and I didn't even bother cleaning out their feed trough as I found if one poops in it, they will consume the feed anyway, poop and all. With the FF, it's just good recycling, IMO.

I'm always relieved when the meaties are done also because they just add so much more movement to the place and with so many bodies moving around it gets on my nerves a little. It's different with layer flocks...you can have a lot of them but they move differently and they don't bunch up in places as often. And the sheer volume of poop is also a factor, though with the FF they don't smell as bad and the rains are able to wash it immediately into the soil, which is much different than actual meaty poops fed dry feeds...pure toxic waste, those are.

 

[Triple Willow]

Well, my meaties have very nearly run their course! They're mostly weighing in at 6.5-7.5lbs right now but one or two are still like 4.5lbs. I am getting right sick of the poop and the smell (no matter HOW good it is for my lawn..!) and the cleaning of water and feed bowls... So it's a good thing they're almost gone.... But right after they go I will have a new batch of chickies... My black and copper Maran eggs are due to hatch in a week! I will be raising out the roosters from that batch until crowing age for some skinny but tasty birds if I can't sell any. I candled the dozen last night and confirmed 3 duds and 3 for-sure chicks and the rest are still up in the air. It's so hard to tell with those dark sells... Hope I get at least six the way I wanted!

Great about your birds! Wish I had some of your Marans! lol

 

[Triple Willow]

Since ya'll were discussing lip balm...I thought I'd show you what I picked up at the TSC while vacationing in Maine this summer lol

Sounds yummy! LOL

 

[waltandlori]

Since ya'll were discussing lip balm...I thought I'd show you what I picked up at the TSC while vacationing in Maine this summer lol

lol I found those too, just wondering about the flavor???

 

[strssdmom]

Hello All,

I had a question about the fermented feed. Every once in a while I get a whitish grey color film over the top of my fermented feed. It usually happens on the days that I am not home long enough to tend to it and give it a good stirring.

My question is, what is this whitish grey film? Is it mold? Is it bacteria? Or, is it normal?

I just don't know if I should be feeding it like that or not. I am getting tired of throwing it away because I don't know what it is.

Thank you for any insight you can provide on this.