Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Shellz]

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I feed mine once a day but I'm betting my temps don't get as cold as yours, so you might consider just feeding what they can clean up right away and do it twice a day.  Others have resorted to heated dog dishes for keeping the FF from freezing. 

My current layer flock and also the rooster pen just eat the FF until it's gone and that takes under 30 min. so mine is not getting a chance to freeze.  They are staying incredibly fat on just that amount...for the layers I have 9 in the coop and they are cleaning up 3 c. and the rooster pen holding 14 birds are cleaning up 6-7 c. per day.  I saw everyone running today when I had a rooster jail break and everyone is WAY too fat on that ration so I could even cut that amount and still have a well fleshed out flock of birds. 


***Thanks Bee! Just bought the biggest heated bowl I could find. 5.5 qt. I've got 19 LF & 3 standard hatchery birds. I'm guessing filling it full 2X/day should do it. Will monitor how it goes.

 

[armorfirelady]

Lacy blues I use those rubber feed pans for my ff. Just turn them over and bang them on the ground till the frozen stuff comes out or give it a good stomp with your boot.

 

[Kassaundra]

I don't know, the leaves look kind of different. I doubt this pic will help any but here is the whole bush. It is all bent over because of the ice. It is loaded with little blue berries. Back earlier it had tiny white flowers on it. You mention picking service berries before. What did you do with them? What do they taste like?

Quote:
All the pics I saw of serviceberries had alternating leaves, your bush leaves seem to not alternate. Some pics showed leaves more similar to yours, but none that grew like those.

 

[Triple Willow]

Here are some better pics. I didn't have anything out there to compare the size to so I layed the large egg beside it. lol

 

[Triple Willow]

@Lacy Blues... I tried that shavings bale sledding today but I needed a bigger hill or less weight., didn't get very far. Too much drag or maybe I should say way too much dragging! LOL But it was fun and the look on the dog's faces was priceless. LOL

@ you rooster experts... One of my roosters has started coming across the pen dancing at me like he wants a date. He stops and looks at me like the ball is then in my court. Do I ignore him or kick him across the pen. It's kinda cute. hehe

 

[Lacy Blues]

If my roosters dance at me, I leave them alone, I try to only deal with them when they come straight at me, hackles raised and head lowered.

Kicking him across the pen will hurt your knees pretty bad if you miss.

Maybe toss some goodies past him so he goes away?

 

[Beekissed]

Maybe they are sloe berries. Try one and see how they taste! See if the chooks will eat a couple. Let us know if they are poisonous.....

 

[Beekissed]

@Lacy Blues... I tried that shavings bale sledding today but I needed a bigger hill or less weight., didn't get very far. Too much drag or maybe I should say way too much dragging! LOL But it was fun and the look on the dog's faces was priceless. LOL

@ you rooster experts... One of my roosters has started coming across the pen dancing at me like he wants a date. He stops and looks at me like the ball is then in my court. Do I ignore him or kick him across the pen. It's kinda cute. hehe

For now....

I'd advance toward him when he does it, make him leave the space by walking towards him. If he continues to dance at you, a little training is in order...just some touching with a light wt. stick or switch on the head, bottom or back until he runs away. Or you can even smack the coop floor next to him to make him jump and run...that's always fun! I'm proactive on the "dancing" when it occurs so they don't get any ideas of taking it to the next step. A quick response that makes them move away or run away is what I use.

 

[Pyxis]

Hello everyone, new to fermented feed and this morning I woke up to this:

It's a weird white film on top that's trapping the bubbles as they come to the surface. Is this normal, or should I toss the batch? It still smells okay, but I don't know... Thanks for any advice!

 

[hellbender]

Sounds good! And delicious!

Jason wanted Rabbits for 4-H and he and his mom decided upon Florida Whites and I bought him a really well bred trio. After the project was over, WE decided to keep rabbits for meat and bought two nice N Z whites, crossed them and those were our meat rabbits. Worked out great 'til Jason went off to college and on with his life. We just didn't need that much meat so we sold the rabbits. I do regret not keeping a few going because the FW's are expensive to replace if we ever wanted to get started back into them when he gets home.