Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[B J Hopkins]

Title this post " AM I CRAZY"...... In the mornings, I get up, make coffee, wifey's tea and we go out on the porch and watch the sun come up. Come in make her some lunch, and see her off to work. (this is the nutso part) As she goes down the drive I wave, walk up the ramp to the chicken coop open the door and say "good morning girls, looking good", go in get the water jug and say " alright listen up we need more eggs y'all been slacking, there's 8 of you , now I wanna see 6-8 eggs c'mon now get with the program". Go up to the goat haus Call it that just because it sounds cool lol, open their door ( which is also the ramp), back off so's I don't get trampled, and say good morning boy's, they see I didn't bring feed and keep pushing I'm telling them you know how it is you get your feed after I'm properly dressed, get back look out etc. Next I go back to the garage on the house and the meatys are all stirred up so I feed them say good morning they run around in out of the tractor i'm talking get back in there, hey don't do that , leave her alone , now stop that, where's you manners etc..... The critter whisperer, except I don't whisper...... Now I ask you " AM I NUTZ"??? I am kinda glad I'm all alone up here on the hill.

Walt

Not nuts. You sound like me. I talk constantly to my critters. Do you name them? I've not named my RIR's as they all look alike, but 98% of my flock is named, standard chickens YES SILKIES TOO, and 11 turkey.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Get out them egg cartons, woman! Going to have a lot of eggs rolling in! Congrats!!!!

thank you Bee. I can't wait for them to come rolling in. So tired of buying these old store bought eggs!

Was buying from my niece and hers have slowed down on laying so was having to buy them from the store. NOW I can make is some homemade ice cream. Don't like using the store bought ones for the ice cream since they're not cooked ones. So now I can make some.


NEED to show my nephews HOW to make FF. so they're hens will lay better!

 

[RoseMarie1]

They aren't really squoze, the plastic just conforms to their shape so that it looks like it's tight..but it isn't. Even the small chickens look like that in the cones as the plastic is soft and easy to mold to their shape. Think of it more like a baby in a baby harness, where it's not squoze into it but it conforms to their shape as they hang in it.

It's good that you see these pics if you eat chicken at all, even from the store. This is the reality of food and the price that is paid for every bite that is consumed. For me, it just makes me appreciate my food more and it's one reason I don't mind killing my own..it's more personal and I feel the gravity of my decisions, which we all should do. I know that America blithely eats its way through many thousands of chickens a year without ever realizing that it's a life they are eating and they are more comfortable that way, but I'm just not like other folks in America and more like primitive folks in other countries. For me, animals equal food, someone must kill the animal to get food. End of story. Takes all the worry and stress out of it if you can bring your mind down to basic equations like that.

um all I can say is, I'll try thinking that way.

now you got the spelling right there woman! So you must say that to huh?

Oh yeah I have helped dress chickens when I lived at my grandpas house but never had to kill one. They always rung their necks as they called it. I just didn't kill it. We had to pluck them and everything. Now far removed from where my food comes from and how it gets to the table. We dressed 100's of pounds of fish and everything since he was a trapper and a commercial fisherman. Well let me back up, HE had the license but his sons and daughters and grand daughters actually did the work.

Oh yeah I have dressed coons, rabbits, frogs, chickens, pigs,hogs, deer, and you name it. Just didn't have to kill it myself. Yep you sure appreciate your food when you have to do all the work to get it, that's for sure!

 

[RoseMarie1]

BEE L@@K what I got tonight.

my very first egg and guess WHERE it was. IN THE NEST! Do I have some smart chickens or what?

I am soooooo eggcited!!!!

It's the brown one. The other is a lg. store bought egg.

Just hoping they ALL lay in the nests now. ;-)

 

[Triple Willow]

um all I can say is, I'll try thinking that way.   now you got the spelling right there woman! So you must say that to huh?   Oh yeah I have helped dress chickens when I lived at my grandpas house but never had to kill one. They always rung their necks as they called it. I just didn't kill it. We had to pluck them and everything. Now far removed from where my food comes from and how it gets to the table. We dressed 100's of pounds of fish and everything since he was a trapper and a commercial fisherman. Well let me back up, HE had the license but his sons and daughters and grand daughters actually did the work.   Oh yeah I have dressed coons, rabbits, frogs, chickens, pigs,hogs, deer, and you name it. Just didn't have to kill it myself. Yep you sure appreciate your food when you have to do all the work to get it, that's for sure! 

 

I'm with you RoseMarie, the dressing part is okay but I hate the killing and I always will.

 

[Triple Willow]

BEE L@@K what I got tonight. my very first egg and guess WHERE it was. IN THE NEST! Do I have some smart chickens or what? I am soooooo eggcited!!!! e It's the brown one. The other is a lg. store bought egg.

Congrats Rose! I know how excited you are, I was too. I hatched my older flock out and from egg to laying eggs seems to take forever! Actually it was March to August. lol Now some of them are wanting to sit on eggs themselves.

 

[Triple Willow]

Hey all!

Just to let all the FF people know: I have found the PERFECT FF scoop. It's a reptile substrate scoop!

You can get them in the reptile section of Petsmart. It's a fine mesh scoop with a flat raised edge; it scrapes the bottom of the bucket and strains the liquid away quickly. I've been using it with starter crumbles and it holds everything but the liquid.

My beardie may not approve, but I am pleased with how well it works

Good tip, thanks! I like beardies. Look like little dinos!

 

[waltandlori]

for some reason there seems to be a "favorite nest". Don't know why. A bird of mine started laying in a corner in a pile of nice clean shavings, next thing 2 or3 others were.

Walt

Congrats, now for the rewards.....

 

[TexasLisa]

Good Morning Fermenters!!!

Congratulations RoseMarie! I am hoping mine will start laying withing the next week!

I named all of my flock except for the 4 Musketeers chicks. They are barred rocks and are hard to tell apart.

Lisa

 

[Triple Willow]

for some reason there seems to be a "favorite nest". Don't know why. A bird of mine started laying in a corner in a pile of nice clean shavings, next thing 2 or3 others were.


Walt

Congrats, now for the rewards.....

Ya know, we are always told to put the nests "up" here or there when really out in the wild chickens would be laying eggs on the ground somewhere. I don't think it is a big deal unless the eggs are getting dirty. It's nice to have them all in one spot and up where we can reach them better, but it's not natural to the chicken. Sometimes people act like they think a big chicken like an Austrlorp would hop up in a tree and build a nest to lay eggs in. lol