Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Here's a little Peterson Farm Brothers to cheer everyone up on this cold winter day.....

 

[BCMaraniac]

Thanks, Bee, BCM and TW ! It hasn't started here yet but it's a comin'. I live on a hill that overlooks the Gulf of Maine and I can usually see the black of the clouds as the storm approaches from the west long before it even hits us. And by golly, the western sky is getting darker by the minute so it won't be long before we get what's coming to us ! We're stocked up on supplies, lots of food and wood a plenty so we should be good to go. This December has been unseasonably cold for us... We live so close to the ocean that it moderates our temps such that it stays somewhat warmer in winter and cooler in the summer... Although this past summer was unbelievably hot and humid.. I haven't seen humidity here like that in quite some years. Got to cleaning the coop up a bit today and actually had to take a chisel and hammer to get the poop off some of the roosts as it was frozen solid... Chickens aren't liking this weather much.. They stay hunkered down in their coop and rarely, if at all, venture out. They're not liking their precious feet getting too cold... Dainty, spoiled brats !!

Isn't that a parenting issue???

 

[Beekissed]

I have just the opposite problem...my chickens hate staying in the coop and it takes major snow or winds hard enough to blow them across the lawn before they coop up. Oh, they'll wander in and out of during the day for food and water but they don't like to stay there. I think they are just busy bodies and are afraid they will miss something going on...like food or something.

 

[TexasLisa]

Thanks, Bee, BCM and TW ! It hasn't started here yet but it's a comin'. I live on a hill that overlooks the Gulf of Maine and I can usually see the black of the clouds as the storm approaches from the west long before it even hits us. And by golly, the western sky is getting darker by the minute so it won't be long before we get what's coming to us ! We're stocked up on supplies, lots of food and wood a plenty so we should be good to go. This December has been unseasonably cold for us... We live so close to the ocean that it moderates our temps such that it stays somewhat warmer in winter and cooler in the summer... Although this past summer was unbelievably hot and humid.. I haven't seen humidity here like that in quite some years. Got to cleaning the coop up a bit today and actually had to take a chisel and hammer to get the poop off some of the roosts as it was frozen solid... Chickens aren't liking this weather much.. They stay hunkered down in their coop and rarely, if at all, venture out. They're not liking their precious feet getting too cold... Dainty, spoiled brats !!

Your description of storms rolling in over the Gulf sounds beautiful!! Any pics?

Stay safe and warm everyone!!

Lisa

 

[Triple Willow]

Your description of storms rolling in over the Gulf sounds beautiful!!  Any pics?

Stay safe and warm everyone!!

Lisa

Ditto! Sounds pretty, before it gets there of course. lol Yes, pictures please!

 

[mlowen]

Thanks, Bee! I just LOVE the Peterson Farm Brothers!!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Be safe. I definitely don't envy you up there. We have had unseasonably cold AND warm temperature here in TN...the yoyo effect.....down as low as 9 degrees and as high as 71. I think it yanks the chickens around and really affects their laying.

Well, at least one quote came through. There was another and I'm trying to remember what it was as I don't want to go back 6 pages to try and find it. Man alive, you guys sure can talk some days! Having lots of fun too. Bee, you should write poetry or at the least commercials for travel agencies!

Wanted to mention, with yoyo weather, its a really good idea to up the yogurt. But if you've got a good ferment going on your feed, that's probably good enough. I still use yogurt sometimes, not as often as before though.

Now, I've tried to remember that other post. Darn "quote" won't quote!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Bee - it actually kind of sucks for me because some things just won't always go away that easy. For example, in my rabbits sometimes they get weepy eye. This happens when they step in some poop in their cage and then rub their eyes and the tear ducts get infected. You can have just a tiny bit of poop in the cage and this will happen. One of my kits had this happen and I tried treating with saline and chamomile tea flushing 2X's a day and compress 3X's a day. No dice. So I had to order meds online. Now that's not even an option for me, but this particular medication is one of the safest around, is super duper cheap and weepy eye can be contagious. That rabbit went on to be a breeder for someone. Frankly, I'm not ashamed to say that I ordered extra terramycin ointment for just in case when those regulations take effect. It'll last forever as it's suspended in petroleum jelly. I may order some more combipen as well because it's also rabbit safe and is one of the few things that can combat things like abcsesses in rabbits without chopping them open... Which btw it's already illegal to get a local anesthetic for rabbits as it is.
People complain about how mean wittle farmers chop on their animals for C-sections and dubbing and removing lumps without pain meds and locals and post-surgery antibiotics... But they don't realize that those farmers can't GET those products. Drives me nuts to be honest.

I'm not happy they're cracking down on meds because for those of us who try natural remedies first and use chemicals as our back up plan it makes it even harder for us to raise our animals the way we want. Especially modern breeds. We have to keep around that much more stock to account for culling due to illness and frankly I just haven't got the space. I need all my adult rabbits to make it through from year to year until they've run the course of their good breeding lifespan. Good rabbits can be hard to get around here.... I am the only reputable NZW breeder within a 40 minute drive of where I live! I drove out like an hour and a half for all of my rabbits. I'd hate to do that again.

And now that I've just said I have no space I should tell you guys that I am also getting a bunch of free chickens! XD To be fair my chicken pen isn't very full right now with only four birds and some 600-700 sqft of space, whereas every rabbit cage I own has a rabbit in it... Someone apparently inherited their neighbor's chickens when they passed away and is now giving them away because there's some 40+ chickens and they can't keep 'em all. Nine month old pullets just coming into lay and CX meat chickens right around butcher age. I will be grabbing some cardboard boxes, poking some holes in them and carting as many chickens as I can fit into my sister's pod car home with me for free!

So I, too, will be butchering a bunch of free meat birds in the freezing cold! 2 inches of snow so far today and two days ago it was about 10 degrees outside with a wind chill of like -5. I will also be building a new coop in this since my coop is really only built for 5-6 birds tops. I will be building an extremely heavy and hodge-podge coop out of whole pallets on cinder blocks.

Wish me luck!

Here it is!

Talking about manure on rabbit feet and eye infections.

Years ago, I used to live in El Paso, Texas and our roads were caliche (very dusty clay stuff) and if our road got a lot of traffic for any reason, the dust would fly through the air and lodge itself in the eyes of my horse. Irritated eyelids and tear ducts and the whole mess... weepy eyes. The vet would come with a saline solution and a small hose... very small. There was a place in my horse's nostril that was a drain point for the eyes. He would put that little tiny hose in that gland and squeeze the saline solution bottle until it poured out of her eyes, thereby flushing that gland out.

I don't know if its possible to do anything like that with rabbits; heaven knows the duct on the horse was small. Just thought I would mention it as you know your rabbits and it might be a solution?

 

[BCMaraniac]

Well, at least one quote came through. There was another and I'm trying to remember what it was as I don't want to go back 6 pages to try and find it. Man alive, you guys sure can talk some days! Having lots of fun too. Bee, you should write poetry or at the least commercials for travel agencies!

Wanted to mention, with yoyo weather, its a really good idea to up the yogurt. But if you've got a good ferment going on your feed, that's probably good enough. I still use yogurt sometimes, not as often as before though.

Now, I've tried to remember that other post. Darn "quote" won't quote!

Bee was gone for 2 days so we've been catching up....that and discussing a bit of midwifery....

I made sauerkraut this year, and didn't have enough room in my pot for all of it when canning time came, so I put 3 pints in the refrigerator without heating. I had been thinking about adding some of the juice from it to boost the ferment since it would still have all of the culture intact. Do you think that would work as well as the yogurt??

 

[Beekissed]

It might be a tic high in sodium....not sure. I'm not sure just how much salt chickens can handle...they don't seem to crave it like other livestock/animals.