Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[colburg]

Quote:Maybe those peppers and squash just didn't look good compared to their ff. lol

I am going to start using two buckets today. I go through one too fast anymore. Every time I turn around I am out of ff! Well I guess I'll have to wait until the bucket I made this morning gets done cooking so I can use some of it to start another.

If possible, I highly recommend just upgrading the size of your bucket. A 30-55 gal plastic drum, or a simple 35gal rubbermaid plastic trash can will work. The rubbermaids aren't that much, $15-$20 ea. I wish I would've upgraded long ago. colburg

 

[LOVEIGEE]

Does anybody know what will take off some serious hard water and soap scum? In my dreams I spray something on then come back in a while and rinse it off and it is GONE! Hey, a girl can dream! lol I wonder what some ff would do to it...??? I think I will put a little blob on it just to see. lol Have y'all ever had ff pretty much eat something up? One time I covered mine with an old dish towel. The dish towel ended up looking like mice had totally chewed it up! I'm going to try that again and see if it was just my imagination.

Hey TW.......my Mom used to always use baking soda with enough white vinegar to make paste....let it sit on the scummy parts and then secondary cleaned with water/vinegar in bottle (spray). Hope this helps

 

[LOVEIGEE]

I wish I had moved to a bigger container back when I had the meaties because I was replenishing feed every night or every other night. But, then, that was my first experience with the process and I hadn't really had a handle on it yet. If I had to do it all over again, I'd have just moved to a big, 30+ gal. tote and mixed big batches like Kassaundra does...easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

My flock is small enough that my 5 gal. bucket suits it perfectly, but if ever I had that much stock again, I'd definitely move up on the total FF being fermented at one time.

Hey my BF!

You have a picture of a waterer for the meatie chicks over on the other forum. It was a hanging bucket.....how did you make that work?

 

[TexasLisa]

I"ve been trying to catch up on this thread, and I"m just falling further and furthe behind, so I hope no one minds if I just jump in.

Good to see you on this site!!

Lisa

 

[waltandlori]

I asked in another thread and I'll ask here too. Do you put your birds in a bag or whatever you use for freezing, first, or do you let them "rest" in the fridge nekkid before bagging and freezing? I'm in the process of processing lol. I'm having a bit of trouble with swarms of ladybugs, they get between my glasses and what I'm looking at and down my shirt lol they tickle. Almost mistook my finger for something I wanted to cut off....

Walt

 

[Beekissed]

Hey my BF!

You have a picture of a waterer for the meatie chicks over on the other forum. It was a hanging bucket.....how did you make that work?

Hey, Sis in C!!!!

Where you been, girl! With the new chicks they pecked at the red plastic on the nipples and would accidentally hit the nipple bar, getting water...they learned it so fast and all I had to do was peck at the nipples first myself. They are naturally curious and will do a monkey see, monkey do training on the rest of the chicks.

Now, my older birds? Never had any luck training my older flock to the straight nipples and never tried them on the nipple cup waterer more than a little while...they didn't seem to get it even when I baited the cup with BOSS several times. BUT...the pen of cheap meats learned it right away, led by BUD, and used it wonderfully. It was simply wonderful to have them use the nipple bucket verses a water pan.

If I wanted to get serious about the older birds on it, I could lock them down for a couple of weeks and see if they finally learned it but with them getting a lot of moisture from the FF they never seem thirsty enough to access it.

I asked in another thread and I'll ask here too. Do you put your birds in a bag or whatever you use for freezing, first, or do you let them "rest" in the fridge nekkid before bagging and freezing? I'm in the process of processing lol. I'm having a bit of trouble with swarms of ladybugs, they get between my glasses and what I'm looking at and down my shirt lol they tickle. Almost mistook my finger for something I wanted to cut off....

Walt

Folks do both...it doesn't really matter.

Ditto on the ladybugs...they have made their annual appearance here also.

 

[RachaelS]

No one in my house gets the flu shot, but I don't have anyone with a compromised immune system. For us right now, I think we can hold things off by eating good healthy foods! I am also don't have issues with germs (try to expose myself to as many as possible

), I think it will take a lot to take me down. I even eat things past expiration/safe date (if it smells okay ONLY), so far so good.

However, if I had a person with a compromised immune system in my household, I would re-think some of that. Everyone needs to do what is best in their own situation.

 

[Robert M]

Quote:
Thanks, but I can't see over 9 - 10 dollars for a dozen lids, especially when a lot of our stuff gets sold at the Eagles bazaar and we'd never see those lids again.
With the metal lids and jars, we add $1 to the price and tell them there's a .50 deposit they will get back if they return the jars.
We've never gotten more than a few back, so we'd lose almost $2 in lid, ring and jar.
As far as it goes, we have never had a Ball or Kerr lid fail.
We have tried the Mayonnaise jar type lids, but they, also, aren't cost-effective.

 

[RachaelS]

Quote:
Thanks, but I can't see over 9 - 10 dollars for a dozen lids, especially when a lot of our stuff gets sold at the Eagles bazaar and we'd never see those lids again.
With the metal lids and jars, we add $1 to the price and tell them there's a .50 deposit they will get back if they return the jars.
We've never gotten more than a few back, so we'd lose almost $2 in lid, ring and jar.
As far as it goes, we have never had a Ball or Kerr lid fail.
We have tried the Mayonnaise jar type lids, but they, also, aren't cost-effective.

Looks like they are $24.76 for 3 dozen, so $8.25 a dozen or $0.68777777 each. What am I missing? Thinking about getting into canning, considering I bought a high pressure caner and everything, LOL!

http://shop.reusablecanninglids.com...057195A3ECD701346EBA5F7C0BFF97.m1plqscsfapp03

 

[RachaelS]

Double post sorry