Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[tjo804]

Newbie

How much do you make at I time?

I have 9 birds should I make enough for 1 feeding or can it sit in the bucket for a while?

should I put in what they have eaten each day to keep it full? Or empty bucket before I add more?

 

[KuroKitsune]

Newbie

How much do you make at I time?

I have 9 birds should I make enough for 1 feeding or can it sit in the bucket for a while?

should I put in what they have eaten each day to keep it full? Or empty bucket before I add more?

i have 10 chickens and 5 chicks that are 5 weeks old and i fill up a 8qt bucket about 1/3 or a bit more with chick crumbles, a bit(maybe 1/4 cup) of calf manna and a cup or so of alfalfa pellets i add a glug of unpasteurized ACV with the mother and then add enough water to cover it in by an inch or two. i let it sit and soak for awhile and then come by and stir it and see if the alfalfa pellets have completely soften and if they haven't i usually ad just a bit more and that gets them soft while levaing the FF still pretty thick so there is no straining needed.

every couple days i have to add more of everything(icluding water) except the acv to replenish what i take to feed.

if you use everything in the bucket you have to keep atleast a couple buckets going and alternate so you always have one to feed from and one thats working on it all the time cause you'd have to start over everytime and then wait a couple day to perculate before you could feed it so it would be wise to leave some in the bucket so when you ad more to you dont have to wait as long for it to be ready

 

[Beekissed]

Go figure that the batch I am finishing now isn't too fuzzy at the top, lol.



Looks like tiny, threadlike mould.

Nope...we had an excellent tutorial on the other FF thread about what constitutes mold and that ain't it...that's yeast growth.

are of fuzzy white yeast, any of them look familiar?

Most of these ones are of fuzzy white mold. Notice that usually there are also brown or green or black colors as well and they're generally much fuzzier.

Side note, we used to live in Seattle, which is fairly humid. Once we were helping a friend renovate a house. We found some black-colored mold in the bathroom and immediately thought it was the famous toxic "black mold". We hired one of the top plumbing companies in Seattle to come in and look at it (we also need some drain repairs) and he said in his 30 years of experience in Seattle he has only seen the toxic black mold a couple times and this was not it. He said that as obvious as the extent of the mold was, if it was black mold, we all would have been very sick by now. Not that breathing mold spores of any kind is generally a good idea, but this wasn't the really bad stuff. He said the toxic stuff was not common in Seattle because it wasn't warm enough for it to really thrive, like it is in a humid/hot climate like the Southern US.

I figured it was mould, that's why I've been restarting my batch each time. It's so humid here, things can get mouldy quick. It's never in the actual feed, just on the sides of the bucket.

Please don't do that...you are only causing yourself more work and for no reason. That's not mold and you can merely scrape that yeast growth off the side of your bucket each time you stir and dish out for feeding.

Newbie

How much do you make at I time?

I have 9 birds should I make enough for 1 feeding or can it sit in the bucket for a while?

should I put in what they have eaten each day to keep it full? Or empty bucket before I add more?

It can sit in the bucket for a long, long, long while as long as you keep the top moistened by stirring it each day before you feed. Don't refresh your feeds each day if you want a deeper, more fermented feed...and you do, to get the full benefits of this method of feeding.

 

[Beekissed]

Picked up 10 meat chicks(CX) from TSC yesterday, nice big healthy looking chicks and started them on FF right away. I love how quickly they take to the wet feeds, even when the feed is cold, and also the nipple bucket....within seconds.

Will post a video of the feed consistency I'm currently feeding and how this feeder and nipple bucket are working.

 

[EnnisLakeFarm]

I'm still working on getting the consistency to my liking but I treat my FF like sour dough starter. I have a small bucket (one of the plastic Easter baskets from the dollar store) that I filled about three quarters full of flock raiser crumbles, water and a couple glugs of acv. Every time I think about it I give it a stir. And every day after I feed I add in more crumbles and water. I only feed maybe a third of the mix a day. It has a pleasant(ish) sour smell.

 

[LindaB220]

Ok birds are coming tomorrow and battery for my camera is also. Hope to be able to get y'all some pictures soon. I started my Fermented feed today. But by using bokashi it should be ready tomorrow. It is made with rice bran, EM-1 molasses and water. I made it 3 wks ago so we'll see. Excited. It's finally coming together after 6 months.

 

[Triple Willow]

Picked up 10 meat chicks(CX) from TSC yesterday, nice big healthy looking chicks and started them on FF right away.  I love how quickly they take to the wet feeds, even when the feed is cold, and also the nipple bucket....within seconds. 

Will post a video of the feed consistency I'm currently feeding and how this feeder and nipple bucket are working. 

Great, you found some! I have 12 but one is having problems. It is alert and eats and drinks well but it can't hardly get around. For whatever reason its legs are really weak. It has to flap its wings when I tries to walk. I hate it because other than that it is fine, a little runt-ish but fine. Have you ever seen this or seen one come out of it?

 

[Triple Willow]

Ok birds are coming tomorrow and battery for my camera is also.  Hope to be able to get y'all some pictures soon.   I started my Fermented feed today.  But by using bokashi it should be ready tomorrow.  It is made with rice bran, EM-1 molasses and water.  I made it 3 wks ago  so we'll see.  Excited.  It's finally coming together after 6 months.   e

Good luck with the little ones!

 

[Beekissed]

Great, you found some! I have 12 but one is having problems. It is alert and eats and drinks well but it can't hardly get around. For whatever reason its legs are really weak. It has to flap its wings when I tries to walk. I hate it because other than that it is fine, a little runt-ish but fine. Have you ever seen this or seen one come out of it?

I've never seen it in any of mine but you can be assured that it will not last long like that...pretty soon it will weigh too much for those legs to support it. You going to wait and process it then or cull it now?

 

[Beekissed]

Ok birds are coming tomorrow and battery for my camera is also. Hope to be able to get y'all some pictures soon. I started my Fermented feed today. But by using bokashi it should be ready tomorrow. It is made with rice bran, EM-1 molasses and water. I made it 3 wks ago so we'll see. Excited. It's finally coming together after 6 months.

What fun!