Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[beverly evans]

Quote:
Rosemarie , You're so right! Something else. Why did you dry pluck him and was it a lot harder than when one plucks the usual way? Or should I even ask since this was your first? Just wondered. His skin was so clean and white! : )

 

[beverly evans]

Do they need grit on fermented feed? Sorry, I am so new at this. Thanks!

I can assume, and someone will correct me if I'm wrong, that chicks don't need grit for fluffy ff mash, but as soon as they progress to any thing with seeds or grains that need grit they will have been moved to the outside where they will find sand and the big girls grit available to them. At least that is the way it works at my house. ff mash made from crumbles would not need it anyway, so it depends on what you're feeding them. : )

 

[Beekissed]

TexasLisa yes they are! Angels here on earth they are! I/we had one with our uncle Sept. was a year ago and I tell you she was awesome! Great woman and just helped me sooo much. I tell everybody they are angels on earth.

I was a hospice nurse for my last three and a half years as a nurse and it was my favorite nursing job ever. It's not so much that we were angels, we just got to be helping people take the most natural step in the world and have the right meds and means to do so~finally~that you cannot get the authorization to use or get in any other situation in nursing. In other words, you get a list of meds you can order and use at your nursing discretion and only have to call the doc initially about the pain meds and then he lets you titrate~adjust~ them as you please. This puts a lot of the control in the hands of the nurse~which is a wonderful thing because you can finally do your job without doctors and paperwork messing it up.

When you have more control over the meds and the wound care, all the sudden life gets easier for your patient and for you and you can affect a real change in the outcome and goals...you can get them out of pain, can relieve the nausea, anxiety, insomnia, constipation, bladder distention, etc. Whatever is making them uncomfortable, you can manage and help them with and it surely makes you look like an angel but it's just having the right tools and the freedom to use them that does all the work....and the compassion and common sense to know when someone is uncomfortable, which should be a natural trait in any one nurse but seems to be a rarity nowadays.

I always advise hospice to anyone who asks because the alternative is mighty grim.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Chicks don't need grit unless they are eating seeds, veggies, etc. FF is such mush it doesn't need extra grinding. For grit, I prefer to take a big chunk of garden soil and put it into the brooder. I do this from day one, though, cause my FF has scratch in it to cut the protien that is in the meat bird crumbles I am using.

 

[LindaB220]

I just saw some funny on another thread. It's called "I think I found the cure to feather picking." It's about 46 pages so after the first few I forwarded until the last ten pages. They had tried everything and finally found the cure Fermented Feed. This went on for 3 mo or so before she reported failure on the picking. But lo and behold, they all love FF.

 

[Beekissed]

Funny thing, isn't it?

I love all the recent FF "discovery"...as if these giant threads haven't been on this forum for the past 2 years, very active for all to read.

 

[therarebreed]

Wow, I've been reading through the first several pages of this thread and I am going to try fermenting my feed! I take ACV everyday and drink kombucha. We try to eat a lot of fermented foods, I never thought of doing something like this for my animals!

Thanks for all of the information!

 

[Darkangael]

Posting some recent "bed time" pics b/c I hate opening this page and seeing the "feet" pic staring back at me

Love that black and gold naked neck I want birds that pretty.

 

[Mrs.H]

I have not been able to read through this entire thread so sorry if this has been asked before but I just bought a few Cornish chicks at TS the other day and they won't touch the FF, any tips? I left it in there for a few hours and watched them but they just wouldn't eat it, kept pecking around for left over dry crumbs on the floor that I had in there before. I even tried top dressing the FF with dry crumbs and they just ate the dry and stopped. Any suggestions would be great!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Take some of your dry crumbles and mix them into your fermented crumbles until the ff is quite dry. That will get them used to the flavor. When they're eating that really well, try leaving it just a tiny bit wetter the next time you serve and keep going like that . Before you know it, they'll be chowin' down on the straight fermented crumbles.