Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[therarebreed]

Welcome to the thread. I, too, love kombucha. You can ferment with it as a started just like ACV. I've heard that you can mince up your extra scobys and give as treats to your chicks. A little extra goodness. I won't get my chicks until Mar 20 but I plan on day 1 starting with FF. Mortality rates drop for babies.

I feed my chickens the scoby and they love it! Actually, the way I discovered they liked scobies was when I tried to bury them in my garden beds. The chickens dug them up and ate every one!

I have plenty of kombucha, I may start my feed with that instead! Thanks for the tip!

 

[therarebreed]

Good for you! And keep on reading; you will find a wealth of information you'd not find elsewhere. And welcome to the thread. The people on here are really special in all the best possible ways. : )

Thank you! I'm enjoying all that I've learned so far.

 

[therarebreed]

Hi therarebreed.

You will love the results you get with the FF. I was just noticing a day or two ago... I put a bucket of dry feed in my 5 gallon bucket and add the water. When it is done fermenting I get two of those same buckets back out. So not doubt the feed goes much further! Good luck to you!

Good to know! Thanks!

 

[LindaB220]

I am working on getting Cream Legbars. There are a few people I speak with on these forums that have them and are willing to ship eggs.

Yeah, I'm really interested in them also. The blue color is so much prettier. But, first, to get the incubator.

 

[LindaB220]

I'll post part of a blurb I posted elsewhere about this bi-annual problem....


Now, lets think about your problem. You've had these chickens for some time I expect? Not new flock members? And, suddenly, in the past few weeks or more you've noticed an egg reduction and have discovered these chickens are eating eggs? You'll have to ask yourself this question, "Why all the sudden have these chickens turned into so-called cannibals?" The above post can maybe help you think a little more objectively about the problem and do some thinking about when it started and why it started in a broader sense than "my chickens are eating my eggs and I want those eggs for myself!".

I myself have found broken eggs in my nest of late but they failed to eat the egg contents, just the shells...I wish they had cleaned up the contents as I had to clean out the nest because they did not. I welcome it when they do because 1. it's normal behavior and 2. they are getting a little extra protein and it can't hurt as they are building up to the peak of laying season.

I've never had an egg eater....I've had literally hundreds of them down through my life. All chickens are egg eaters at some time or another when a shell gets damaged near them...it's natural and nothing to worry about. Egg shells will strengthen and this too shall pass. It always does. It has for the past 37 years of my life and I expect it will in the next years of my chicken keeping life as well.

Relax, give it time..this too shall pass. If you'd rather not wait you can devise some roll out nest boxes so you won't have to wait or worry about this natural cycle of life.

I'm surprised at this. On some other threads the first thing they say is "It can't be cured, so cull, cull, cull." It's nice to think that it is no big deal. It'll stop in time.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm surprised at this. On some other threads the first thing they say is "It can't be cured, so cull, cull, cull." It's nice to think that it is no big deal. It'll stop in time.

It always has for me and for my mama and her flocks. Folks just get too impatient nowadays and want everything NOW...no, yesterday! When dealing with livestock and natural cycles it can't always be NOW. There's a rhythm to chickens that most folks on these forums fail to see or get into, but if you do you'll suddenly see flock keeping in a whole new light...it's sort of like the seasons, gardens, and the ocean tides and waves...they all have a natural rhythm that it's best to just surf into instead of fighting it.

 

[Triple Willow]

Thanks! what is the ideal temp?

Well it will ferment at a wide range of temps but it seems to work best for me at room temp. To get it started I would try to go with room temp then you could move it to a cooler spot such as your garage. But that's just my opinion. I'm sure it's done in many different ways. It's pretty hard to mess up if you just follow the basic instructions.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I'll post part of a blurb I posted elsewhere about this bi-annual problem....


Now, lets think about your problem. You've had these chickens for some time I expect? Not new flock members? And, suddenly, in the past few weeks or more you've noticed an egg reduction and have discovered these chickens are eating eggs? You'll have to ask yourself this question, "Why all the sudden have these chickens turned into so-called cannibals?" The above post can maybe help you think a little more objectively about the problem and do some thinking about when it started and why it started in a broader sense than "my chickens are eating my eggs and I want those eggs for myself!".

I myself have found broken eggs in my nest of late but they failed to eat the egg contents, just the shells...I wish they had cleaned up the contents as I had to clean out the nest because they did not. I welcome it when they do because 1. it's normal behavior and 2. they are getting a little extra protein and it can't hurt as they are building up to the peak of laying season.

I've never had an egg eater....I've had literally hundreds of them down through my life. All chickens are egg eaters at some time or another when a shell gets damaged near them...it's natural and nothing to worry about. Egg shells will strengthen and this too shall pass. It always does. It has for the past 37 years of my life and I expect it will in the next years of my chicken keeping life as well.

Relax, give it time..this too shall pass. If you'd rather not wait you can devise some roll out nest boxes so you won't have to wait or worry about this natural cycle of life.

Bee, I put a fresh egg into the coop and two of the chicks RAN up to it and started pecking it open and ripping it apart. This is not an already broken egg or anything. I mean they literally ate 3-5 eggs today as they were laid! :| This is not chickens eating funny eggs. These are perfectly good eggs I brought inside and were fine, or freshly laid. I watched a chicken sitting on her freshly laid egg, went to collect and waited just to see... She left the nest and these two came in, immediately broke open the egg and stared eating it. The egg was brand new perfectly formed, there was food JUST put on the ground outside and it was clear and sunny, all the other girls were out.

If the chickens were just eating broken, cracked etc eggs, I would not have any concern. Sometimes I feed those back to my chickens as it is by smashing them on the ground. That's why I asked. This is not the "I found a tasty broken egg" behavior I have seen in most birds.

By egg reduction I mean I went from 3-5 eggs a day to NONE.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, I put a fresh egg into the coop and two of the chicks RAN up to it and started pecking it open and ripping it apart. This is not an already broken egg or anything. I mean they literally ate 3-5 eggs today as they were laid! :| This is not chickens eating funny eggs. These are perfectly good eggs I brought inside and were fine, or freshly laid. I watched a chicken sitting on her freshly laid egg, went to collect and waited just to see... She left the nest and these two came in, immediately broke open the egg and stared eating it. The egg was brand new perfectly formed, there was food JUST put on the ground outside and it was clear and sunny, all the other girls were out.

If the chickens were just eating broken, cracked etc eggs, I would not have any concern. Sometimes I feed those back to my chickens as it is by smashing them on the ground. That's why I asked. This is not the "I found a tasty broken egg" behavior I have seen in most birds.

By egg reduction I mean I went from 3-5 eggs a day to NONE.

That is odd behavior but I'd be asking myself why now? Why haven't they been doing this all along? Maybe there were some fragile eggs that got broken at first and they got their first taste of eggs in a nest and decided they were tasty grub. Who knows? Now they like the flavor and taste of your eggs or maybe they are feeling like they need the extra nutrients right now as they enter into peak laying season. Maybe they are needing something in their diet right now that the eggs are satisfying...fats, a need to forage, etc.

I'd try something...maybe a suet cake with BOSS in it to see if they are just needing some extra fats in their diet. Let them out to free range so they can get some natural fats and proteins. Change the nests a little to decrease access except just by one bird at a time and make them work to get to the nests...maybe raise them higher or make them deeper. Or, you can wait it out and see if they will work this out of their system.

I can honestly say I've never had birds that did that but I'm thinking it's because my birds are all out free ranging and coming into lay by ones and then right back out to the range. Maybe this foraging and activity outside the coop satisfies something in their nutritional needs or activity levels that inhibits this sort of behavior.

It's definitely abnormal, as the chicken as a specie would not have survived if this were normal behavior. I'd give them something better to do or eat at laying time.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I feed layena pellets, but I also give out scratch and BOSS every other day or so. They were ignoring them quite thoroughly today. I can only assumed they were happy to simply feast on the eggs instead. Sometimes (once a weekish?) I throw out an extra handful of oyster shell to make sure they have all the calcium they need. They are not skinny, confined to their coop at all, or unhealthy looking, big red combs and wattles are really coming in and I am hearing egg songs. Foraging is hard right now because of the snow and frozen ground but I scatter their feed outdoors, they don't just get it in a bowl they have to dig and scratch for it. They also have a rabbit hutch right near by which regularly has hay, 18% rabbit feed and cracked corn spilling out of it into their pen and is nice and sheltered and snow-free underneath. They have a few other snow-free areas in their pen, too, which is 800+ square feet, including areas up off the ground. They even have a small compost pile with food scraps inside their pen. Their water and food is always OUTSIDE of the coop to encourage them to be OUT even though they don't always want to be, and sure enough they all typically can all but 1-2 be seen outside every day, albeit hanging around the coop but always out. These are not exactly poorly cared for birds, you know? They live in Suburban Birdie Paradise! These are the best cared for chickens within many of the neighboring cities! I have high standards.

I saw my first eaten egg weeks ago, around the middle/end of January in the deep cold. Froze, out of the nest, half missing and the yolk clearly eaten out by pecking beaks but only AFTER it froze. I could see the beak marks. I chalked it up to exactly what you mentioned, Bee. I am young, but try to be wise and I know if a bird gets an open egg they will eat it happily, it's good for them, and the eggs were cracking from the cold. The chicken layed a fragile egg, it froze and cracked open, they ate it, no biggie. I tossed it out for them to finish off. I saw another similar one a few weeks ago and the beau found egg and shell leftovers in the nest box. Now I found one nest with a LOT of yolk at the end of it on the wall, and then the incident where they decided to just attack the fresh, totally fine eggs and I am wondering if they haven't been trying to deliberately crack open and eat the eggs all along and that is why I was only getting 3-5 eggs a week for such a long time? Then the warm hit, the hens started laying like crazy again or so I thought but now I wonder if they are not ALL laying (I have 8 hens, been getting around 4 eggs a day) and I am just having half the eggs eaten by the marauding birds.

So yeah, hence my search for answers! Moving/changing the nests isn't an easy option since they're part of my coop wall. As in there is no wall where the nest boxes are. I oculd try to load them with LOTS of bedding.... These two birds seem to not want to bother leaving the coop at all! But they even found the eggs in my outdoor "nest box"! (Sideways bucket, deep and skinny at one end.) There was egg yolk all over it! I saw one day that some of my hens were fighting over a nest box or so I thought... I now recognize it was one hen trying to lay in peace while the other two kept trying to see if she'd layed an egg for them to eat (!!!). She got mad and kept pecking them back, even shortly after she'd layed the egg and she tried to defend it from them, and so they started to fuss and fight a little. I was trying to figure out why they were trying to steal the egg from her like broodies, but obvs not brooding. I took away the egg and was thought it was kind of odd. Now I know!

I'm really not sure what to do with them I will HAVE to separate them out so they don't teach my other ladies this I think. It is a VERY bad habit and at least 2 are doing it! Shouldn't be too hard to catch them. Put an egg in the nest and wait for one of them to crack it open! 9_9; Wash, rinse repeat... I just don't want to cull if I don't have too. Getting chickens is a pain for me. But this is really unacceptable behavior. I will also try feeding more, more treats, etc.
.. But...

I am at a total loss.