Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[BCMaraniac]

Thanks guys, you're all great!

Son is going in for Botox injections to help cure his daily chronic headaches. Wonder if they have a 2 for 1 deal?

Should keep him comfortable (we hope) until the MRI next month.

Ok, I had wondered about FF amounts too. I was able to monitor them all day back in autumn. I find they eat more now in the frigid Canadian weather. As it stands, my 19 LF & 3 standard birds eat about a gallon of FF per day. Some of these birds are up to 10 lbs. now.

You guys are in my prayers.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I have a couple question about the CX's.  Aren't these the same birds that is sold in super markets?  When considering expense,
and labor, is it not cheaper to simply buy them from the store, unless there is a marked difference in the quality of the meat and taste...is that the case?

I have a couple question about the CX's.  Aren't these the same birds that is sold in super markets?  When considering expense,
and labor, is it not cheaper to simply buy them from the store, unless there is a marked difference in the quality of the meat and taste...is that the case?

Ah. Yes and no. I know for me it is not about the cost as much as my desire to eat healthy, low chemical, well treated animals. To buy an animal from a store (say whole foods) treated even close to how I treat mine would run $5/lb. Some places it runs more. In that sense it is a bargain. I cant grow my own feed and I don't have enough room to raise the chickens in large enough numbers to justify a grain elevator purchase. And it was a lot of work. If all I wanted was chicken meat it would be very expensive.

There is also a marked difference in the carcasses of the birds. The CXs I just got were kept in a step ups from factory farmed chickens but they are terrible inside. Oh, the meat is fine but the organs. Ugh. I wouldn't feed those things to my dogs. You could tell how unhealthy they were by smell alone. And I don't like putting that in my body every time I eat a quesadilla, you know? It is kind of you are what you eat in that case. My CXs were like golden shining suns on the inside compared and I fed those organs to my dogs raw! Almost no smell, perfectly colored livers, healthy animals.

The last difference counts no matter what breed you get. An older bird has firmer stronger tasting flesh, and a bird allowed to use their miscles a lot will develop them differntly. A 5wk egg layer is tiny but if kept unable to move and butchered at 5wks it'd taste like a grocery store bird. And on the other side if you do a slow growth CX it'll taste stronger and be firm.

 

[Beekissed]

Why? I call it, "Three Steps, Drop Down, Pick a Bale of Sick". Any person who asks about the why need only watch Food, Inc. for some enlightenment.

VS

Which bird would you want to put in your mouth when it's all said and done? To buy this quality of meat costs way more than what one pays for the mush under the cellophane at the store. Also, it would cost me the same to grow CX out by 10-12 wks than it does to raise the same number of DP roosters to a good butchering age of 5 mo. and in the end I'll get more bone than meat on the DP and the meat will be more tough. Shall I keep them for less time and get more meat per bird or shall I keep them longer..spend more time and listen to the fighting and crowing...and get less meat per bird? Gee..that's a toughy...

No contest.

 

[hellbender]

Ah. Yes and no. I know for me it is not about the cost as much as my desire to eat healthy, low chemical, well treated animals. To buy an animal from a store (say whole foods) treated even close to how I treat mine would run $5/lb. Some places it runs more. In that sense it is a bargain. I cant grow my own feed and I don't have enough room to raise the chickens in large enough numbers to justify a grain elevator purchase. And it was a lot of work. If all I wanted was chicken meat it would be very expensive.

There is also a marked difference in the carcasses of the birds. The CXs I just got were kept in a step ups from factory farmed chickens but they are terrible inside. Oh, the meat is fine but the organs. Ugh. I wouldn't feed those things to my dogs. You could tell how unhealthy they were by smell alone. And I don't like putting that in my body every time I eat a quesadilla, you know? It is kind of you are what you eat in that case. My CXs were like golden shining suns on the inside compared and I fed those organs to my dogs raw! Almost no smell, perfectly colored livers, healthy animals.

The last difference counts no matter what breed you get. An older bird has firmer stronger tasting flesh, and a bird allowed to use their miscles a lot will develop them differntly. A 5wk egg layer is tiny but if kept unable to move and butchered at 5wks it'd taste like a grocery store bird. And on the other side if you do a slow growth CX it'll taste stronger and be firm.

Thank you.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

No problem. Chicken is chicken and rabbit is rabbit... No matter the breed. But how its raised makes a difference!

My CXs are showing their first signs of improvement. Their combs and wattles are markedly redder after 2 days of fermented feed and sunshine. They are still a mess but not as sickly looking.

Ps. Sorry for the dippy posts and bad typos and autocorrect. I am on *snork* a Kindle Fire. :/ Gimme a keyboard any day over this nonsense.

 

[Beekissed]

It's neat how quickly this FF works on improving the healthy appearance of these scraggly animals obtained elsewhere. The collective information I've gleaned about fermented grains over these past few years seems to indicate that all the nutrients are increased in absorptivity~ vitamins, minerals and proteins all alike. Think of how deficient most chickens are when just eating chicken feed, if simply fermenting it can make such a difference to their feathering, eggs, combs, vigor, etc.

Canning up the cheap meats tonight and will continue into tomorrow. Still have to kill seven more roosters but events here may give them a stay of execution until after Christmas. Just these six birds looks to fill fourteen jars of meat and concentrated stock and a few more of just stock. The next group will not yield as much meat because they are mainly the leghorns...a skinny, sorry bunch of young roosters hardly worth skinning down. I've increased their ability to intake the water, so I'll see if it was dehydration that caused the last ones to have such a hard to process body.

Jake got all the bones and bits of meat that was clinging to them from the stock. I made him share with the rooster pen, the layer flock and the cat but he still had a goodly mound of chickeny goodness to gulp.

 

[BCMaraniac]

Processing cheap meat roos today. I've never processed this late in the year and have found that all the skin and connective tissue is bound like super glue to these carcasses! I'll never do this again, I tell ya. Usually a warm bird can be shucked down mostly by hand and only at key points will you need a knife but I've had to skin every inch of these roosters...talk about tedious!

It's cold and windy today, so hands are stiff for the job. Lesson learned....always there are lessons to be learned about this whole chicken and livestock business.

This free meat has its price.

Today was my day Bee. I finally processed those 4 Red Ranger hens, along with two capons who recently revealed themselves as slips. The weather was great, but my hands are so sore......old Arthur......The hens had huge amounts of abdominal fat, so I retrieved it and am going to try my hand at making some schmaltz. The capon slips had very small amounts of testicular material.....about the size of a small pea, so I am probably going to roast them. I haven't weighed them yet, but intend to do so before I put them in the freezer. I have 8 more birds to process, so I will have to see what the weather is gonna do over the next 3-4 days.

One of the slips was my daughter's Gil-Bird. She doesn't know about it yet.....

That said, this is the little girl who had a calf named Hamburger who sucked her thumb, even when he was grown, and who wanted to know if her burger was "Hamburger" hamburger. When answered in the affirmative, she quipped, "He sure does taste good!" As long as he is properly roasted, she will be fine with the demise of ol' Gil-Bird.

 

[Angelicisi]

Thanks
He's 3 and my girl just turned 5. Both assist in all the animal chores from feeding, rounding them up and were just starting the meat/pet talks with processing time coming...they seem to be taking it all very well. Even had the girl inform her bus driver she was gonna be eating her chicken when asked what color egg it lays lol.
They won't be involved in processing this batch but maybe the Jan 3rd batch we have coming somehow she can help after they're cleaned...she does have tiny hands perfect for cleaning those chickens out tho! . Just teasing sorta lol.
They're so eager to help and at this age its not necessarily efficient having them help lol but its fun and fun to watch them try! The more involved they are the more they can appreciate all we do.

That was darling!!!  What a cutey pie!  Good Parenting Skills 101 and Meat Bird Feeding Project 101 combined.....love it that you are involving your son and teaching him about such things.  And the birds look great..very active, feathered out well and good mobility. 

I hope he will be starring in the next videos too!  I really miss my boys being that age...what a golden age.  Don't miss a second of it. 

 

[Angelicisi]

Thats awesome! Bet they are delious ranging all the time!

My sister lives in Hawaii and catches wild chickens at local outdoor rest stops and brings 'em home for dinner and eggs! XD She knows just when they'll come around... They don't belong to anybody so now they belong to her!

 

[Beekissed]

Good girl! BC, I love it when people treat their kids like they might have some intelligence when it comes to food animals. Little kids are very good at picking up on their parent's emotional cues, so when a kid gets upset over the killing of animals you can almost bet it's because they've heard their parents discussing such things or watched how they acted about it.

I know what you mean about Arthur...for the first time this year I've had to admit that I may be developing some arthritis. Dang it. I don't like feeling limited in my physical being when it comes to chores I've always done.

My knife sharpener quit on me in this last processing and I felt like I was using butter knives, so we broke out the flat file and really put a good edge on the knives in preparation for this next batch. A sharp knife can make all the world of difference when butchering.

The house smells good tonight...canning chicken and making deer jerky. All that's missing is the smell of baking bread!

How big were those red rangers? I'm curious if they finish out as big as the CX.