Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[TexasLisa]

Thank you for your advice. We are planning to take care of her tomorrow after work. It will be a long day thinking about it. We have not done this before. This is to be our first year with meat birds. We ended up giving our cockerels away in the past as I only wanted pets, not meat. Now we are trying the meat thing. We raise our own beef, and pork, but hire a professional. Now I need to pull up my big girl pants and do what is right.
I feel I have done something wrong. She spent the majority of the winter in the coop sitting on a nest. They have a heat lamp on a thermostat, so not sure how this happened. I will be doing the right thing.

I am sorry you are having to go through this. You and your husband will be in my prayers.

Lisa

 

[cortner1195]

Thanks to you all for your posts. She will have to hang in there until tonight when we get home. We have never done this, but understand the process. We were talking last night about it, and neither of us think she is healthy enough for the table. It will be a long sad day, but a growing experience too.

 

[Beekissed]

Thanks to you all for your posts. She will have to hang in there until tonight when we get home. We have never done this, but understand the process. We were talking last night about it, and neither of us think she is healthy enough for the table. It will be a long sad day, but a growing experience too.

For these kind of situations I use a dislocation of the cervical spine..it doesn't involve blood or mess and doesn't take long. There are several ways but I've found it works well to cradle the bird in your left arm as usual, gently but firmly grasp the head with your right hand(this can all be reversed if you left is dominant), let her "fall" away from the left arm until the weight of her body is hanging from her head and simultaneously give a sharp snap up! and then down! like you are shaking out a rug, then a natural swing back to your left arm for cradling. If this did not fully dislocate, it can be repeated but usually if done with enough force the first time it's very successful~you'll know if it is dislocated successfully by her head...it will loll and be limp on her neck and her eyes will close a bit. She will go through the usual body spasms they all go through, but you can cradle her through them if you like, or set her down if that is just too much.

 

[RoseMarie1]

OK don't know IF I have a problem yet but wanted to ask and just make sure because I thought doing ff you wouldn't have pasty butt with your chicks. It's good and fermented to. Anyway I am noticing a little poop on some of their butts but not sure if i's going to pile up on it and get thick like pasty butt.

ALSO do you guys make it thick or a little runny for the chicks? They aren't but 3 days old now and I keep having to stir it up for them because they're packing it down walking on it. lol spoiled chicks already.

They are eating like you would not believe now. They have the life of riley so to speak. They eat and then they sleep. I call em my little pigs. I got a video I will post later if I can remember it, of them eating their ff. They have it all over the wall of the brooder from slinging it.

Going to town in a few and I think I am going to pick up some plain yogurt just to be on the safe side.

 

[Beekissed]

OK don't know IF I have a problem yet but wanted to ask and just make sure because I thought doing ff you wouldn't have pasty butt with your chicks. It's good and fermented to. Anyway I am noticing a little poop on some of their butts but not sure if i's going to pile up on it and get thick like pasty butt.

ALSO do you guys make it thick or a little runny for the chicks? They aren't but 3 days old now and I keep having to stir it up for them because they're packing it down walking on it. lol spoiled chicks already.

They are eating like you would not believe now. They have the life of riley so to speak. They eat and then they sleep. I call em my little pigs. I got a video I will post later if I can remember it, of them eating their ff. They have it all over the wall of the brooder from slinging it.

Going to town in a few and I think I am going to pick up some plain yogurt just to be on the safe side.

No, FF doesn't prevent all pasty butt. From everything I've seen and read, I believe it's from uneven brood temps...either too hot, too cold or big fluctuations of the two. For instance, the last time I had chicks I brooded them in the coop per usual but had forgotten to insulate the floor of the brooder and this let cold from the night time soils seep up through the bedding. I got a few with pasty butt during that time but as soon as I saw that I realized what I had done....I put something down under the bedding, moved the walls of the brooder in closer to conserve heat and within a day the pasty butt was cleared up. That time it was a too cool brooder when they were just a few days old.

I've even had a few with pasty butt when I had a brooder too warm, but a few adjustments to the lamp and the size of the brooder to make it bigger and allow a cooler end away from the lamp cleared that up too. Both of those times I was feeding FF and it was only a few chicks out of many, but adjusting the brooders/temps made all the difference.

I make it thick and they do pack it down and the heat from the lamp can bake the top, but I just stir it up with my finger and they run and clean it up right away. No worries.

 

[artsyrobin]

Reading up on DE, can you add it to fermented feed? As a fly preventative? I am looking at ways to decrease the hoards of flies

 

[Beekissed]

Reading up on DE, can you add it to fermented feed? As a fly preventative? I am looking at ways to decrease the hoards of flies

The mere act of fermenting your feed is going to do that. With less sugars in the end product the flies are naturally less attracted. The only poop that will still have much odor and undigested matter will be cecal poops and there's nothing can be done about those. Deep litter can and will also reduce flies as the poops get covered and incorporated into the bedding and eaten by bacteria, fungi, bugs and worms below the surface of the bedding.

You can add DE if you wish but I never advise to do so.

Another neato trick to ward off flies are the little vanilla pine tree car deodorizers...flies just don't like 'em. I haven't had to use them since using the FF but before that they came in real handy where I lived.....the local farmers would spread poultry house litter on all the fields at this time of the year and again after first cutting of hay and we would get swarms and swarms of flies in the house, the truck, the coops, on the porch, etc. The vanilla trees were the only thing that helped back then....I've since moved from there and now the FF and DL keep any normal fly problems at bay.

 

[RoseMarie1]

No, FF doesn't prevent all pasty butt. From everything I've seen and read, I believe it's from uneven brood temps...either too hot, too cold or big fluctuations of the two. For instance, the last time I had chicks I brooded them in the coop per usual but had forgotten to insulate the floor of the brooder and this let cold from the night time soils seep up through the bedding. I got a few with pasty butt during that time but as soon as I saw that I realized what I had done....I put something down under the bedding, moved the walls of the brooder in closer to conserve heat and within a day the pasty butt was cleared up. That time it was a too cool brooder when they were just a few days old.

I've even had a few with pasty butt when I had a brooder too warm, but a few adjustments to the lamp and the size of the brooder to make it bigger and allow a cooler end away from the lamp cleared that up too. Both of those times I was feeding FF and it was only a few chicks out of many, but adjusting the brooders/temps made all the difference.

I make it thick and they do pack it down and the heat from the lamp can bake the top, but I just stir it up with my finger and they run and clean it up right away. No worries.

OK thanx Bee. Will have to work on those temps then because there are a few of them with it now. Just checked one and it is hard on there. Will have to use a warm paper towel and soak it off.
thanx

 

[Beekissed]

OK thanx Bee. Will have to work on those temps then because there are a few of them with it now. Just checked one and it is hard on there. Will have to use a warm paper towel and soak it off.
thanx

It will come off easier with a dab of oil of some kind and the oil will grease the skids for more of the same kind of poops so they don't stick as badly. If you can, throw a clump of your soil in the brooder with a little grass intact and see if that doesn't help too. Healthy for them and they can get valuable minerals, bacteria, grit and playtime out of the clump.

 

[myguysmama]

Can I join you all here? We've had laying hens for years, but just got our first batch of meat birds on Monday. We got 12 Cornish X, 6 Pioneer and 6 Red Rangers, from McMurray Hatchery. We've lost one of the Cornish so far. We've also got 2 Dark Cornish, 2 Speckled Sussex, and (we think) a Brahma to add to our laying flock.

They all seem happy and healthy and are loving the fermented feed, although I think so far it's more soaked than fermented.