Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Triple Willow]

@Mypeeps... how old are the chicks? Could it be from shipping?

I have read that bleach will not kill cocci but ammonia will. I guess maybe when cleaning we need to do it twice, once with ammonia then once with bleach. But don't mix them!

 

[Beekissed]

Yesterday I had a chick (that I bought from a store- who bought it from a hatchery) die. It was not moving or cheeping or drinking or eating. It died in my hand. Today I had three more die, two were the same breed as the first one and the third was a different breed. Two more seem to be sick as well.

Symptoms of the first chick:
No interest/ lack of movement
Cloudy liquid out of mouth right after passing (might be due to me force feeding/watering it)
runny poo


Symptoms of current possibly sick chicks:
shivering(?)(move heat lamp closer)
sleeping while standing
No interest in food or water
Smaller in size and less feathering than the others (don't know if this is helpful or even relevant)

Things you should know:
I had chickens four years ago and got rid of them and stopped raising them for a while. I left the coop pretty dirty. Before, I brought the chicks home. I clean out the coop and scrubbed with bleach water.

I started reading about fermented feed and decided to try it. Ingredients are medicated chick starter, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, shell bits, and water. Its currently about a 10 days old.


Any ideas?

Just a bad batch of chicks, I'm thinking. Same breed, same source, same symptoms, recently acquired so not enough time for them to have contracted something at your place....I'd say weak genetics. I wouldn't force feed and I'd kill all that have the same symptoms and go on from there.

 

[Latestarter]

Welcome Back Bee! Good to see ya

 

[butch vb]

try grinding food up in coffee grinder and mix with plain yougart until you get a runny paste only give them warm water to drink I used two waters one plain one alternating acv/ probiotics with electrolites cleaning both daily

 

[beverly evans]

Quote: Take them back to the store with the dead ones for them to see and get your money back. Disinfect the brooder you had then in. Then wait til the store has a totally new crop of babies and begin afresh. : )

 

[beverly evans]

Quote: Bee! So glad you got your computer fixed. We've been lost without you! What have you been up to? : )

 

[Triple Willow]

Take them back to the store with the dead ones for them to see and get your money back.  Disinfect the brooder you had then in.  Then wait til the store has a totally new crop of babies and begin afresh.  : )

Sounds like a good idea to me.

 

[Renee97038]

OK, so I tried to feed fermented food to my Cornish cross chicks for 4 days and they just left it sitting there. Then, I removed the dry feeder overnight and they walked thru the FF but didnt eat any. Do, I just remove the dry feed permanently to get them switched over? My original plan was to feed both dry and fermented. The layer flock loves their FF and follow me out to pasture for their's every morning.

 

[JJSS89]

OK, so I tried to feed fermented food to my Cornish cross chicks for 4 days and they just left it sitting there. Then, I removed the dry feeder overnight and they walked thru the FF but didnt eat any. Do, I just remove the dry feed permanently to get them switched over? My original plan was to feed both dry and fermented. The layer flock loves their FF and follow me out to pasture for their's every morning.

Remove all feed for 12-14 hours and then give them fermented feed with a little bit of dry sprinkled over.

Don't even offer it until they are in a feeding frenzy.

Of course keep the water available even when the food is gone.

 

[Beekissed]

OK, so I tried to feed fermented food to my Cornish cross chicks for 4 days and they just left it sitting there. Then, I removed the dry feeder overnight and they walked thru the FF but didnt eat any. Do, I just remove the dry feed permanently to get them switched over? My original plan was to feed both dry and fermented. The layer flock loves their FF and follow me out to pasture for their's every morning.

Yeah...remove the dry feed and leave the FF until they eat it. Keep the top stirred up if it starts to cake but just leave it there....they WILL eat it and be yelping for more. They are meaties, they will eat YOU if you fall down in the pen and can't get up.