Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Lacy Blues]

Try rubbing castor oil on it...it really does work! I know that sounds silly but it works for arthritis pain. I just put it on an area that's hurting for another reason and has been hurting me all day pretty bad and it was just minutes to relief. I've used it on my degenerative OA in my neck and back and it penetrates quickly and works all day. I love this stuff!

This is good to know. Thanks Bee

 

[Triple Willow]

We've got 10* here...practically short sleeve shirt weather. 

The other day it was about 30 here and I went out to feed in a long sleeve t-shirt and no coat and it felt fine. I even stayed out a while. Crazy when 30 feels like a spring day! LOL

 

[Beekissed]

The other day it was about 30 here and I went out to feed in a long sleeve t-shirt and no coat and it felt fine. I even stayed out a while. Crazy when 30 feels like a spring day! LOL

Yep! We were sitting out in the sun on the front porch in that kind of weather the other day until the sun went behind the clouds. I love this time of year....that hope of spring that you can almost just taste on the tip of your tongue. A turn for better days and a change in the wind....it's on its way, girls.

 

[Triple Willow]

Yep!  We were sitting out in the sun on the front porch in that kind of weather the other day until the sun went behind the clouds.  I love this time of year....that hope of spring that you can almost just taste on the tip of your tongue.  A turn for better days and a change in the wind....it's on its way, girls. 

Another storm headed across the south. Hope all those folks make it okay!

 

[Demosthine]

Another storm headed across the south. Hope all those folks make it okay!

And this is why homesteading is so vitally important! I know, I'm preaching to the choir, but it amazes me how many people I see and hear about that has to stop their entire life for some bad weather. A simple, well built fireplace, wood burning stove (or better yet, a rocket mass heater with built in stove) solves a large part of their energy problems. The refrigeration and freezer problem we have down here for power outages doesn't matter for them right now. But without the ability to turn on a stove, so many are just panicking. Water is obviously readily available right outside their doors, everyone should be able to last a month with their regular food supply. I just don't get how people can be so ill prepared.

We very, very rarely have power outages here, though. I keep talking myself out of buying a generator because we've never had an outage that lasted long enough to affect our fridge or freezer, in the 31 years I've been alive. Harbor Freight has one with great reviews that would run both my fridge and freezer, plus all of the lights and ceiling fans in my home, with some power left over. It's such a simple process to set up, too. Flip the main breaker to take your house off the grid, which prevents the generator power from leaking out to the grid. Get a heavy duty, 220-volt extension cord with prongs on both ends. Run it from the 220-volt outlet on the generator to the 220-volt outlet of your house. When you power up your generator, the power flows to your circuit breaker box and is then distributed to the entire house. And with an estimated 10-hour run time per gallon of gas, it isn't a huge expense on fuel, either.

 

[Angelicisi]

I love yogurt, I offer with a few tablespoons of honey stirred in. They gobble it up so very beneficial.

Maybe you could give the runty ones some yogurt?  I know they would get to share it with the others, especially if you mix it into their ff but I guess that yogurt is my "go to" for just about everything.  It helps them through the stress of varying temperatures along with many other stress inducers.  Your barn/coop isn't drafty is it?  Maybe when you close up at night and its good and dark you could snuggle one in between two bigger birds and the other between two other bigger birds? 

Maybe they just need a little bit of help and I'm hoping something like this would do it.  Is it pretty cold in NY right now?

 

[Beekissed]

And this is why homesteading is so vitally important! I know, I'm preaching to the choir, but it amazes me how many people I see and hear about that has to stop their entire life for some bad weather. A simple, well built fireplace, wood burning stove (or better yet, a rocket mass heater with built in stove) solves a large part of their energy problems. The refrigeration and freezer problem we have down here for power outages doesn't matter for them right now. But without the ability to turn on a stove, so many are just panicking. Water is obviously readily available right outside their doors, everyone should be able to last a month with their regular food supply. I just don't get how people can be so ill prepared.

We very, very rarely have power outages here, though. I keep talking myself out of buying a generator because we've never had an outage that lasted long enough to affect our fridge or freezer, in the 31 years I've been alive. Harbor Freight has one with great reviews that would run both my fridge and freezer, plus all of the lights and ceiling fans in my home, with some power left over. It's such a simple process to set up, too. Flip the main breaker to take your house off the grid, which prevents the generator power from leaking out to the grid. Get a heavy duty, 220-volt extension cord with prongs on both ends. Run it from the 220-volt outlet on the generator to the 220-volt outlet of your house. When you power up your generator, the power flows to your circuit breaker box and is then distributed to the entire house. And with an estimated 10-hour run time per gallon of gas, it isn't a huge expense on fuel, either.

We finally gave our generator away...its hoses had rotted from disuse. We have power outages all the time and for up to 2 wks time but there is nothing so vital in our system that it requires electricity and a roaring generator gulping gas to preserve it. We can up our meats and veggies that would spoil and our fridges don't have much of anything that couldn't be thrown out. Other than that, we are prepared for the long haul for power going out.

Around here, when it gets bad enough to use a generator, the gas stations are also limiting gas sales and are operating on generators too, so if you don't keep a constant, large storage of gas at all times, your generator is dead in the water.

It's best to just get setup so you won't need a generator for anything for good while.

 

[KrazyChromatics]

im very torn with what i want to do for these chicks, i do not want to breed inferior survivors, i have made myself callus to a lot of the hardship my birds have gone through with me forcing them to live in the barn (its a new, pre-fab barn we had delivered last dec. not drafty at all but not insulated yet, thats another project) last summer it was brutal hot up there and thats will the windows and big main door open, but i never lost a single animal, not even the bunnies, but i took a lot of care with them, and this was mostly before i started feeding FF, after i started feeding it, the health improvements were very visible, the main thing was getting their moisture up...

i shut the barn up completely at night, and open the door if the weather is above zero, the main thing is getting that sun to them, i have a couple solar powered lights inside but they arent terribly bright, but help to elongate their daytime access, i shut the barn up before the sun goes down so i dont trap cold air, and where their roosts are, i have really thick bedding, i dont clean out he poo in the winter esp in that area and i just keep throwing bedding over, the tarp helps to keep their generated heat lower to their bodies, i have 3 roosts set up like a fan so they all touch except for a playform i put in higher up, and thats where the smallest birds roost cuddled up tight together, its about 6 inches wide and i think ive seen between 4 and 6 stuffed up there...

it was minus 13 last night, im worried about those baby bunnies... ive got the FF on the stove right now heating up... they get a large stock pot full, those 6 roos i plan to butcher today, they eat more than the now 13, (i gave away an older companion bird to someone with one lonely chicken) i have in the big pen, plus i sometimes give a scoop to the bunnies if i haddnt added the fish stuff to the top 6 inches of FF... its an almost full 2 gallon bucket.... i should be cutting the other birds back even more too, but those weaker ones... idk im torn lol... i spose i can cut back the others and seperate the little ones for half the day with free acess to food, but then they dont get direct sunlight... and i feel like thats really really important for them.. they are now starting to gain something, but every morning when i go up there, i half expect to see one or both have not made it, id take pics of everything but i have no batteries for the camera, maybe today ill pick some up from work

 

[KrazyChromatics]

Quote:
or maybe go solar thats the direction we are going... right now we are very dependent on our freezer, not in the winter exactly lol, but also our water pump in electric... we've been discussing this possibility with a lot of interest lately ... we are trying to get more and more on our own, next step is to get down to 2 horses and add a cow... solar is a big one.... weve already got our gardens but they are going to keep getting bigger, we canned for the first time last fall, and we will do LOTS more this year, im going to start tr==drying a lot of the garden stuff to feed to chickens and rabbits next winter... im excited with the prospects

 

[Demosthine]

We finally gave our generator away...its hoses had rotted from disuse. We have power outages all the time and for up to 2 wks time but there is nothing so vital in our system that it requires electricity and a roaring generator gulping gas to preserve it. We can up our meats and veggies that would spoil and our fridges don't have much of anything that couldn't be thrown out. Other than that, we are prepared for the long haul for power going out.

Around here, when it gets bad enough to use a generator, the gas stations are also limiting gas sales and are operating on generators too, so if you don't keep a constant, large storage of gas at all times, your generator is dead in the water.

It's best to just get setup so you won't need a generator for anything for good while.

I'm quickly getting our family headed that way, but so far we haven't reached it yet. I've been canning fairly extensively the last six months and have a good selection put up. We still use the freezer a lot, though, for our larger whole meats like chicken breasts and steak. And I'm not comfortable canning bacon yet. There's just something that doesn't seem right about it. A lot of the rest is dairy products. We're huge on dairy, but don't have a cow, yet. I'm looking in to that, but I have to make sure our zoning will allow a mini-Jersey. The rest is considered a luxury, which is why I haven't committed to buying the generator. I always keep 10 gallons readily available for vehicle emergencies anyway, that I routinely rotate out, so the gas storage isn't a big deal for me, plus the two large SUVs that we keep filled.

With the hot water heater that just went out on us last month, I stripped and kept the tank. I'm turning it in to a rocket heater and stove this coming month while I'm off for my wife's surgery. Even though we don't need the heat here in Arizona very much, If I can get the details worked out to use it as a the stove for canning, I will be totally stoked! We always have a huge surplus of small branches and wood available, we'd never have to worry about it.