Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[sonjanz]

WOW... I did not intend to start a fight on here... I was just poking fun. Sorry for making waves.

Nothing To apologise for Dipstick from your end.. I could see you wee poking fun in a nice way...a flock of drunk chickens would be funny to watch...would also save adding wine to the cooking liquid!!
Welcome,I too have been wading my through this thread and you learn some people will always oppsose others...their veiw is the only one that counts...but for me differing veiws is how i learn and what makes the world go round. the hard thing with the net is the written word can be so abrupt with no emotion to temper it!

 

[Angelicisi]

As yet I am still reading page 303 so if anyone has suggested this after that page please ignore this I know this wont be of any help to any of you experienced guys, but I had a bit of a problem working out the percentages of protein in my birds feeds mentally with pen and paper, so I created an Excel spreadsheet to do this automatically for me - depending on what sources of protein I wanted to put in for a bit of variety in different batches. I.e. as you enter an amount of say dried mealworms the spreadsheet automatically calculates the new percentage so I could then, say, take out the fish meal and it would automatically recalculate the final protein percentage. The only column to be altered is the AMOUNT column and the spreadsheet does the rest. If anyone thinks this would be of help particularly to any newbies (or anyone mathematically challenged like myself) I will happily either send them a copy of this spreadsheet via email - or maybe someone more experienced on this forum could put it up somewhere so it can be automatically downloaded by anyone who wants it. The list below is what I have listed as items I will on differing occasions be putting into my feeds - depending on what I have available or just to mix it up a bit for variety, I could easily add more items if anyone wanted providing they just give me the protein percentage of that item.
FOOD
LENTILS
FISH FOOD
LAYERS PELLETS
WHEAT
OATS
BARLEY
SUNFLOWER SEEDS
DRIED PEAS
DRIED EARTHWORMS
ALFALFA SEED
LIVE MEALWORMS
DRIED MEALWORMS
I am always looking for an easier way of doing anything - and if I can get something to do something for me - I will.

Cheat sheet...I have a table to help calculate an end result after mixing too somewhere

 

[wolfpup]

The point is that I also had that original cheat sheet - BUT I still had to do the math by 'pen and paper' I dont want to work that hard when I can do it automatically - which is why I created the spreadsheet - anything that saves me time is worth it. Its not only what is shown above - that was purely to show what was currently to me to feed my girls.

 

[wolfpup]

Mondays is my day to clean out the coop for my layers (hubby does rest of the week as we clean out daily) and this morning when I stuck my head in I noticed a complete absence of any smell whatsoever

, also the little poop that was on the floor was pickup-able - for the first time ever

. They have only been on ff for 4 or 5 days! Another BIG plus for me is that my two dogs are always sniffing round the ff at every available opportunity, they are fed a BARF diet - but one of the dogs still drops massively offensive 'fluffs' in the evenings, so for the last two days I have given them one strainer spoonful each with their dinner - no smelly farts for two days from either dog

.

I have tried searching some of the UK forums for fermented feed users - and there is an embarrassing dearth of chicken owners who do it on the forums I tried. I then checked on two self-sufficiency forums I belong to and only found one person who does it - but an encouraging number of people who are interested in my findings (said I would report after two weeks as I want to see if there is an increase in yolk size etc) so I will be able to share the knowledge I have learned from this invaluable thread thanks to all of your generous posts.

I am extremely pleased to have found a way to improve my girl's health and boost their immune systems - and very happy to be able to spread the word to my fellow chicken lovers about the benefits of ff.

 

[TexasLisa]

Mondays is my day to clean out the coop for my layers (hubby does rest of the week as we clean out daily) and this morning when I stuck my head in I noticed a complete absence of any smell whatsoever

, also the little poop that was on the floor was pickup-able - for the first time ever

. They have only been on ff for 4 or 5 days! Another BIG plus for me is that my two dogs are always sniffing round the ff at every available opportunity, they are fed a BARF diet - but one of the dogs still drops massively offensive 'fluffs' in the evenings, so for the last two days I have given them one strainer spoonful each with their dinner - no smelly farts for two days from either dog

.

I have tried searching some of the UK forums for fermented feed users - and there is an embarrassing dearth of chicken owners who do it on the forums I tried. I then checked on two self-sufficiency forums I belong to and only found one person who does it - but an encouraging number of people who are interested in my findings (said I would report after two weeks as I want to see if there is an increase in yolk size etc) so I will be able to share the knowledge I have learned from this invaluable thread thanks to all of your generous posts.

I am extremely pleased to have found a way to improve my girl's health and boost their immune systems - and very happy to be able to spread the word to my fellow chicken lovers about the benefits of ff.

That is wonderful news!! I love going into the coop and there isn't a 'chicken' smell!

I am curious. What are you doing to the dog's food? Just ACV and water?

Lisa

 

[Beekissed]

I know I've said this before....but I'll say it again...I'm fascinated by these CX chicks when they are allowed to free range early and left to their own devises. They are FAST! I just saw them speeding to the coop and huddling down because some crows went overhead....good survival instincts intact even though they are bred for commercial use. They are 3 wks old today.

I'm also amazed at how hard they work for their food....they are on the move constantly and when I go to feed them a second time in the evenings their crops are bulging already. That's food I didn't have to buy and feed to them, though I know they work off a good bit of that by running around, they seem to be all the more healthy from it for the exercise they are getting.

I'd be very surprised if CX that get this much exercise and natural foods at this early age were to just keel over with a heart attack later on and I think that might be the misstep many make by waiting until these birds are 4 wks or older to get them out on ranging. By then they have had very little exercise and have gained too much weight for good mobility, so any high temps, humidity or sudden activity may strain their cardio system too much.

The other day I found a couple of their stools with bloody mucus in them and one would think, "Oh, no! They are at the right age for it and they have had exposure to adult birds and their feces since day one....could this be coccidiosis?" But, judging from the extreme vigor of these chicks I'll be very surprised indeed if I see any have problems stemming from this. Early exposure, FF from day one...all of this is calculated to help a young bird form antibodies for coccidia and to prevent an overload of it in the bowels, so it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

I had the same thing in the Delaware chicks I raised in the coop last year...a little blood in a few of the stools....and nothing came of it, they all thrived and were incredibly healthy.

 

[wolfpup]

Hi Texas Lisa

With my dogs being on a BARF diet - usually consisting of a 'soup course' and 'main course' :-

Soup Course
2 raw eggs (about three times a week), one grated fresh carrot, one tin mushy peas, half tin of water, one half teaspoon Spirulina, - all whizzed in the blender and split between them. This is the usual mix - but they dont get it every day - say 5 times a week. AVC is in their water. Am now seriously considering fermenting carrots for them.

Main Course
2 fresh chicken carcases (not mine I hasten to add) I get these from a local butcher 60p a kilo. It costs me around £5 to feed the dogs for the week.

I would find it easy to add the spoonful of fermented grains to the soup course - but have just 'dolloped' it in with the chicken. They dont leave anything.

I have a white Utonagan and a jet black LabXcollie - both are rescues and both big, the Ute was 12 weeks old when I got him and I was his third owner, the LabXcollie is around 14 - I got him 3 years ago as his owner was put in prison and he was sent to the pound to be destroyed. He was rescued by 'The Oldies Club' - they only rescue older dogs - he was 11 then, - an hour before he was to be destroyed - I got him 3 months later as no-one else wanted such an old dog. He was crippled with arthritis, and he attacked me badly twice in the first month. Luckily I have a fantastic (if expensive) vet, and he diagnosed him with focal epilepsy - and since he has been on his tablets he is fine - no further fits. He runs rings round my 6 year old Ute and no sign of his arthritis now (he still has it of course - but we manage it better than previous owners)

He runs like the wind - have even seen him keep up with a greyhound ! He makes us laugh every day.

 

[TexasLisa]

Hi Texas Lisa

With my dogs being on a BARF diet - usually consisting of a 'soup course' and 'main course' :-

Soup Course
2 raw eggs (about three times a week), one grated fresh carrot, one tin mushy peas, half tin of water, one half teaspoon Spirulina, - all whizzed in the blender and split between them. This is the usual mix - but they dont get it every day - say 5 times a week. AVC is in their water. Am now seriously considering fermenting carrots for them.

Main Course
2 fresh chicken carcases (not mine I hasten to add) I get these from a local butcher 60p a kilo. It costs me around £5 to feed the dogs for the week.

I would find it easy to add the spoonful of fermented grains to the soup course - but have just 'dolloped' it in with the chicken. They dont leave anything.

I have a white Utonagan and a jet black LabXcollie - both are rescues and both big, the Ute was 12 weeks old when I got him and I was his third owner, the LabXcollie is around 14 - I got him 3 years ago as his owner was put in prison and he was sent to the pound to be destroyed. He was rescued by 'The Oldies Club' - they only rescue older dogs - he was 11 then, - an hour before he was to be destroyed - I got him 3 months later as no-one else wanted such an old dog. He was crippled with arthritis, and he attacked me badly twice in the first month. Luckily I have a fantastic (if expensive) vet, and he diagnosed him with focal epilepsy - and since he has been on his tablets he is fine - no further fits. He runs rings round my 6 year old Ute and no sign of his arthritis now (he still has it of course - but we manage it better than previous owners)

He runs like the wind - have even seen him keep up with a greyhound ! He makes us laugh every day.

Thank you for the information!

I had to look up the Utonagan breed. I thought I knew most breeds, but hadn't heard of that one. They are absolutely beautiful animals. It looks like they are only in the UK.

An 'Oldies Club'....I like that!

Lisa

 

[wolfpup]

The breed has been going about 25 years now - and in that 25 years there has not been a single recorded attack - on a human or another dog. Fantastic breed - but not to be left on their own a lot - before they changed it, the URL for the main Ute society was ........................................................www.destructadog.co.uk ! He tried to dig up the radiator pipes in the hallway and the lounge - dug all the way through the carpet, took most of the wallpaper off the hallway, ripped the stair carpet up, got trapped in the lounge one day and tried to claw through the lounge door (almost made it too). He learned how to open the front door so we had to tape a can lid over it so he could not escape with this then partner in crime (an elderly spanielXcollie). He chewed completely through my side gates and escaped on numerous occasions. In total with replacing the carpets with wood flooring, replacing the front door, side gates, re-doing the hallway stairs and landing etc etc he cost us around £3,000 - and that was BEFORE he started on the garden ! dug so many holes in the lawn we dare not walk on it, completely ate the wooden poles dividing the garden by the little rose trailer gateway, tried on many many occasions to dig up our dead cat. I absolutely idolize that dog - and as soon as I retired - so did he from causing damage.



Find it hard to believe??????????? I have the photographic evidence to prove it.

 

[TexasLisa]

O dear! It sure took you a while to understand what he wanted, didn't it???

Lisa