Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... I bet that cull will be a real hard one.

 

[Beekissed]

@Bee... I bet that cull will be a real hard one.

It will. I really like that rooster and he has never once displeased me in any way. Gentle, easy to handle, beautiful, quiet, a good flock master for many a long year. He's so smart that I can use voice and hand signals to control him and he doesn't have a belligerent bone in his body.

These things are never easy...but God never promised an easy road in life.

 

[Triple Willow]

@Bee... I hope it goes well, or as well as it can go.

 

[WalkingWolf1]

Well after having read this thread for what seems like forever I finally fermented some feed for -- ME. Yep, I poured up my first kefir. I was gifted 3 gallons of fresh, raw milk and figured no better time to start than now. Made cheddar with 2 gallons and saved 1 gallon for kefir. Hopefully, I'll be as healthy and vibrant as all of these birds. Not sure my wife want's me running out into the forest to scratch for bugs every time she opens the door though

 

[Beekissed]

@Bee... I hope it goes well, or as well as it can go.

I'll be sick to my stomach while doing it...always am with a favorite bird. But, you know what I've found? That when the older birds go, there are always new birds and personalities that take their place and you get to start a whole new story with a different flock. They each have their own story and it's exciting to get to learn a new one, even while there is sadness when a good, old story ends. It's sort of like when you get to the end of a good book and you hate to have it end because the story was so very good...but you can't read another book until you get done with that one.

More books, more stories, a richer life experience.

 

[Beekissed]

Well after having read this thread for what seems like forever I finally fermented some feed for -- ME. Yep, I poured up my first kefir. I was gifted 3 gallons of fresh, raw milk and figured no better time to start than now. Made cheddar with 2 gallons and saved 1 gallon for kefir. Hopefully, I'll be as healthy and vibrant as all of these birds. Not sure my wife want's me running out into the forest to scratch for bugs every time she opens the door though

You'll have to let us know if you grow thicker hair and have more vigor! Sure would love to see how that cheddar works out...I've always wanted to make my own cheese but never got around to it.

 

[Triple Willow]

I hope you have a good pic of him . Might want to put it in a book someday.

 

[Triple Willow]

Well after having read this thread for what seems like forever I finally fermented some feed for -- ME.  Yep, I poured up my first kefir.  I was gifted 3 gallons of fresh, raw milk and figured no better time to start than now.  Made cheddar with 2 gallons and saved 1 gallon for kefir.  Hopefully, I'll be as healthy and vibrant as all of these birds.  Not sure my wife want's me running out into the forest to scratch for bugs every time she opens the door though  

Better keep that crowing to a minimum too! LOL Kefir and cheddar both sound good. I'm a cheese lover!

 

[LindaB220]

Well...killed the last of the cheap meat roosters today.

Glad to be done with all that for now. Fat Cochin, now named Sweetums because he's not a bit fat and is actually very, very thin under all those pretty feathers, was preserved and will be kept in the flock to see what becomes of him. He just wasn't meaty enough to even kill, much like the previous hold over, BUD. I have no idea how old he is, but he's not crowing yet, doesn't have spur development and hasn't got full wattles and comb yet, so I'm thinking he is much younger than his height and size indicate. He might be approx. the same age as BUD was, maybe 3 mo. or more. Strangely enough, though, he has his rooster feathering when BUD did not quite yet. Guess it's just different strokes for different breeds and I'm not familiar with Cochins at all.

This FF sure did put some golden fat on these skinny little leghorn/RIR mix birds..they even had fat on the back of their necks! Roosters don't commonly hold a lot of fat stores like a hen does but all these birds had big fat stores in the abdomen, on their backs and on the necks. Go figure.

I'm so, so glad to be done with processing at this time of year! Got the pen all broken down and stored away, limed the deep litter in that pen space just because and left it in place. Will most likely be canning these birds on Monday.

I'm done with meat projects for this year!

Whew!!! No more feeding an extra group, no more toting water every day and defrosting their water, no more extra crowing....

What a relief!!!

 

[Beekissed]

I hope you have a good pic of him . Might want to put it in a book someday.

I have tons of pics of ol' Tobe. He's a gorgeous guy.