Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[perchie.girl]

I don't know what our temperature was today but it was very very nice out. I was out in a t-shirt. Got a project almost completed for gathering and spreading lots of horse manure from the neighbors. It is a large, reinforced box that will hold lots of manure. It has a "tailgate" on it like a dump truck - hinged at the top. Hopefully driving it over the plowed garden area will be bumpy enough to make the manure fall out a little at a time (spreading). Then when it starts getting low, I can stop and use the back side of a gravel rake to shove more toward the back and when it gets a lot lower, the floor of the box lifts up to tilt, causing the rest of it to be able to slide out.

I'll try to get pics tomorrow. I have one more thing to do on it before it is completely ready. This is one of those things that has been in my head for who knows how long, fighting for air! It finally got some today! Yay!

I used to live in Las Vegas in a past life. Do you get alot of wind in Northern Nevada?

I hope that Horse Manure has been composting for quite a while.... its been my experience that it brings in A LOT of weeds And works only as a Mulch to keep the water in. I brought in a load for my Mobile Home garden once Looked nice at first for sure. Sigh I had Navel Oranges, Tangerines, Lemons, Valencia oranges, Grapefruit, Avocado, and Plum. Then I had about sixteen different Roses.

So Far I have found about three different citrus that will grow up at my house now that I have figured out the grey water. I cant dig in the soil for gardening up there Bad Knees but I can work with Trees while using a Walker to get about. I am hoping to Espaliar the citrus around my front Courtyard. If I can keep them low I can tarp them for winter.

I hope to do Aquaponics for growing veggies though.

deb

 

[Chris Duke]

Schmaltz is chicken fat that is rendered out like lard and canned

I just canned two pints of Shmaltz a couple days ago. Great for replacing lard in chicken pot pies!

I was up reading this thread most of the night last night. Good stuff! I was planning on sprouting fodder for the birds already. I think I'm around page 18 or so, and don't see myself getting threw all 1300 pages anytime soon so let me ask.
Has there been any bad side effects over a long duration? (I assume there hasn't been or I would of gotten to it by page 18) Especially with the layers.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: How about building him a Guard Hut.... Something with three sides for prevailing wind and to help him keep his own heat in. Or do like Lacy Blues snag him up and put him inside. Is there enough room for him in there?

deb

 

[Lacy Blues]

I used to live in Las Vegas in a past life. Do you get alot of wind in Northern Nevada?

I hope that Horse Manure has been composting for quite a while.... its been my experience that it brings in A LOT of weeds And works only as a Mulch to keep the water in. I brought in a load for my Mobile Home garden once Looked nice at first for sure. Sigh I had Navel Oranges, Tangerines, Lemons, Valencia oranges, Grapefruit, Avocado, and Plum. Then I had about sixteen different Roses.

So Far I have found about three different citrus that will grow up at my house now that I have figured out the grey water. I cant dig in the soil for gardening up there Bad Knees but I can work with Trees while using a Walker to get about. I am hoping to Espaliar the citrus around my front Courtyard. If I can keep them low I can tarp them for winter.

I hope to do Aquaponics for growing veggies though.

deb

Yes, I get a lot of wind. This year though, hasn't been bad in regard to wind. I don't think it has been composted. I plan to sort of til up my planting area, spread the horse manure as well as all the chicken manure/bedding I've been collecting over the last two years (before I started trying to deep litter) and water it on occasion, letting it overwinter and enrich my soil (it needs lots of help). In the spring, if anything starts growing in there of its own accord, I will run my plow through it again and hopefully that will kill everything off. I'll let it rest a little longer and then I'm hoping it will be ready to plant.

Your plans for citrus sounds heavenly. I hope you can pull it off. Good luck with the aquaponics too. Do you intend to keep fish in the water for fertilizer?

 

[WalkingWolf1]

Quote:
No bad side effects -- you will find the expected variability from such a large and diverse group. Some birds won't touch it (those are few) and others tear through it like it was banana pudding. The best thing you can do for your FF is use it. Don't make larger batches than you will use up. Remember, it is a living, breathing entity -- treat it as such. Should it go "bad" on you throw it out, sterilize everything and start over (try to figure out what made it go south). I'd stay away from alfalfa pellets when starting out -- they tend to increase the aroma considerably and can be confusing for a beginner when trying to figure out how these are supposed to smell. After you get it ironed out and you want to add alf pellets at least you'll know what it smelled like when you had a proper ferment. Not hard but it does take an honest effort to keep up with what needs to be done to keep it vibrant. If you stay with it you will figure out what works for you and your flock in short order. Best of luck with your FF.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote: I have no Topsoil here. Its Decomposed granite.... as long as you grow the right stuff though its great for gardening. Problem is the wild life eat it from the top down and from the bottom up if you dont completely Cage the garden.

When I plant new fruit and citrus trees they will have to go into Hardware cloth cages to protect tender roots till they get established.

When I bought the place it had a 20 x 12 green house room built on to it. Facing Directly south with Plexiglass ceiling and glass walls. It got 140 degrees in there during the summer. It has a paved floor so I decided instead of Rehabing it because the wood was rotting and the ceiling was threating to fall in I decided to just replace the wood and roof it over. So now the glass is gone and its open to the outside. Made the house much much cooler in the summer .... and surprisingly warmer in the winter

I can put the Tilapia tanks along the walls of the house where I can insulate them to keep them warm in the winter. Tilapia need around 75-80 degree temps to be healthy. For that I am hoping to do a mass heater with a rocket stove. The whole bottom half of the house is on grade and my bedroom is down there so I can run the mass heater to heat both.

I am no stranger to Aquatic life At one time I had three hunddred gallons worth of Aquariums in the house and about a 500 gallon DIY pond in the front yard.

The end result of the water running from the Aguaponics will be to have it run through an outdoor pond with Aquatic plants in it for final filtration.... some of that water will run to Drip irrigation to feed veggies in cages for the chickens and other poultry to have fresh greens. I hear Kale is an excellent choice for that role. The rest of the water will be circulated back through the Aquaponics system.

I dont know if water is an issue for you in your location, but here its like gold and every drop has to be carefully conserved. I am on a low producing well and I have to be judicious.

deb

 

[LindaB220]

Thank you Linda! That stuff is interesting. That's one of the cool things about chickens -the short time it takes to produce more. I would like to see what an Australorp crossed with a Leghorn or Ancona would do as a layer. I just can't see my huge Aussie roo breeding my poor little Leghorns or Anconas. What about an Ancona roo over Aussie hens? I'm gonna have to try that if the girls will go for it. I wish I had room for lots more chickens! lol

You ought to try some Buckeyes. They might do better than you think. This past summer we had quite a bit of 100 degree weather with humidity high (70+%) and mine did fine. I got mine from Meyer and really like them. There are also breeders on here that sell them. The two roos I have are pretty nice in my opinion.

Funny you should mention it. I was on another site a few minutes ago Permachicken.com and she had pictures of inner breeding different breeds and I believe she did have some Anconas mixed with leghorns. And they looked good. She has a couple of breeds , one of them crx and bred to another couple of breeds and making her own version of sustainable meat birds. i think shes in Australia or somewhere. Lots of picutres.

 

[LindaB220]

For what it's worth, just a note to say that my zone 8b is gonna be 19 with a windchill of 10 this weekend. Happens every few years.. But they said it was going to be a cold and wet winter.

 

[Triple Willow]

Funny you should mention it.  I was on another site a few minutes ago Permachicken.com and she had pictures of inner breeding different breeds and I believe she did have some Anconas mixed with leghorns.   And they looked good.  She has a couple of breeds , one of them crx and bred to another couple of breeds and making her own version of sustainable meat birds. i think shes in Australia or somewhere.  Lots of picutres.  

I'll have to check that out. I like both of those breeds better than I thought I would. I'll be glad when spring rolls around and everybody's laying and with more uniform egg size. I'll be able to tell more then. Thanks!

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Thanks for all the responses. He's looking no worse for the wear this morning so I'm just gonna leave it as is and let it run it's course... Poor guy . The weather here is relentless and we're still under a blizzard warning for the remainder of the day with extreme cold temps and dangerous windchill. This isn't typical weather for us but it looks like we're in for it this year.

I got the girls and boy closed in their coop with the pop door shut and windows all open at the top of the coop. I'm not chancing any of the brave (dumb) ones to venture out in this weather and then have to suffer more frostbite. All the girls seem to be doing fine as their combs and wattles don't look affected at all. I hate to leave their pop door shut because it's so messy with all the poop but I'd rather clean some poop than deal with frostbite.

Stay safe all !