Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[LBKS]

It can be done but greens have to be blitzed or cut in less than 1" pcs. Try just a little batch at first with some ff. Let us know.

Will do! Just need to wait for the grass to grow again -- it's either too short to mow or waist high and ready to be cut for other uses. For once I really wouldn't mind the lawn portion growing like weeds

 

[Beekissed]

Knee deep in bunnies and about to start another batch of CX meaties, fed on FF of course! Chasing predators away like crazy this week too. Being busy keeps me outta trouble tho!

Got a call today to go pick up another 5 bunnies too....seems easter excitement has worn off and peeps are bailing on their buns

but they'll have a sweet life here

That's a sweet gig...you sell the bunnies, they pay to raise them and then give them back. It's a win/win. I read about a lady doing that with pot bellied pigs, which she had gotten out of the ads when someone no longer wanted them, bred them and sold the piglets, then got them back for free and sent them to be butchered for eating...and just kept doing that. Can't get a better setup!

 

[Triple Willow]

Knee deep in bunnies and about to start another batch of CX meaties, fed on FF of course! Chasing predators away like crazy this week too. Being busy keeps me outta trouble tho!

Got a call today to go pick up another 5 bunnies too....seems easter excitement has worn off and peeps are bailing on their buns but they'll have a sweet life here

They will have a sweet life there or be sweet in a stew? HA! That is a pretty good deal. You are one productive woman! Are you selling rabbits and chickens to eat?

 

[Angelicisi]

We breed new Zealand whites and raise them for breeders as well as meat it is sweet! We break even on the chicken because we want the price as low as possible for friends and family to be able to get real food with out the steep cost of $5 plus dollars PER pound! (It pays for feed and our dinner meat as well as the next batch of ordered chicks.)

Now rabbits , we eat the culls, raise breeders and they pay for themselves and food and *most* cage materials , so while we don't make a lit of extra they both just about pay for themselves. - the key was doing all the labor of it ourselves!

That's a sweet gig...you sell the bunnies, they pay to raise them and then give them back.  It's a win/win.  I read about a lady doing that with pot bellied pigs, which she had gotten out of the ads when someone no longer wanted them, bred them and sold the piglets, then got them back for free and sent them to be butchered for eating...and just kept doing that.  Can't get a better setup! 

They will have a sweet life there or be sweet in a stew? HA! That is a pretty good deal. You are one productive woman! Are you selling rabbits and chickens to eat?

 

[RoseMarie1]

Any idea why a grown chicken walks backwards with her head down toward the ground? Saw her do it twice this evening. She's eating and acting normal otherwise. I gave her/them some fresh garlic and some vitamins and electrolytes this evening. It's been raining here for days now almost all day long each day and they wont stay in the dry so wondering IF her equilibrium is messed up or something from all this rain and her getting wet? Just guessing and have done some research and folks are saying needs more protein but there's NO WAY she's needing more protein because I up-ed their layer feed to 22% to see IF it would help with the feather problem. THEN on top of that they JUST ate a belly full of boiled deer meat 2-3 days back. Figured I'd tried to nip it in the bud with the fresh garlic and vitamins. I will remove the vitamin water tomorrow evening.

 

[Beekissed]

Any idea why a grown chicken walks backwards with her head down toward the ground? Saw her do it twice this evening. She's eating and acting normal otherwise. I gave her/them some fresh garlic and some vitamins and electrolytes this evening. It's been raining here for days now almost all day long each day and they wont stay in the dry so wondering IF her equilibrium is messed up or something from all this rain and her getting wet? Just guessing and have done some research and folks are saying needs more protein but there's NO WAY she's needing more protein because I up-ed their layer feed to 22% to see IF it would help with the feather problem. THEN on top of that they JUST ate a belly full of boiled deer meat 2-3 days back. Figured I'd tried to nip it in the bud with the fresh garlic and vitamins. I will remove the vitamin water tomorrow evening.

Had a hen doing that some years back....that was one of the first questions I asked here. No one could give me a good answer but someone had loosely said they thought it was a metabolism/nutrient uptake issue....but that hen got over it soon enough and never had that problem again. Never did find out why.

I'm guessing your girl will be the same way....one day she'll be doing it and then soon you'll notice she isn't doing it any longer.

 

[Angelicisi]

I hope she's ok, Does she 'look' distressed? Always good to give them a boost! I ask only thinking that I saw my hen chase a night crawler in a puddle backwards, but Clearly saw she was trying to get somethin after I approached her.

I don't think protein is the issue unless she's not absorbing it or she had absorbed a bit too much.
Is her head shaking or tilted sideways?
Does she go about her business with the other girls or is she falling back in socializing/eating/dusting-well no dust in the rain here right now)

Any idea why a grown chicken walks backwards with her head down toward the ground? Saw her do it twice this evening. She's eating and acting normal otherwise. I gave her/them some fresh garlic and some vitamins and electrolytes this evening. It's been raining here for days now almost all day long each day and they wont stay in the dry so wondering IF her equilibrium is messed up or something from all this rain and her getting wet? Just guessing and have done some research and folks are saying needs more protein but there's NO WAY she's needing more protein because I up-ed their layer feed to 22% to see IF it would help with the feather problem. THEN on top of that they JUST ate a belly full of boiled deer meat 2-3 days back. Figured I'd tried to nip it in the bud with the fresh garlic and vitamins. I will remove the vitamin water tomorrow evening. 

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I've taken the advice on feeding fermented feed to my meat birds for my last few batches. Since I usually feed my laying hens a warm mash at breakfast time, I decided to switch that morning treat to fermented feed for them as well. The wierd thing is that while the meat bird feed has a not unpleasant, sweetish/sour dough bread type of smell, the fermented layer pellets have a sort of nasty, spoiled smell. I've started over with a fresh batch several times and still find the wierd smell. The hens don't seem to mind, and gobble it up, but I wonder if it may be bad for them. Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Beekissed]

I've taken the advice on feeding fermented feed to my meat birds for my last few batches. Since I usually feed my laying hens a warm mash at breakfast time, I decided to switch that morning treat to fermented feed for them as well. The wierd thing is that while the meat bird feed has a not unpleasant, sweetish/sour dough bread type of smell, the fermented layer pellets have a sort of nasty, spoiled smell. I've started over with a fresh batch several times and still find the wierd smell. The hens don't seem to mind, and gobble it up, but I wonder if it may be bad for them. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Could be your feeds have different protein sources...some report feeds with fish meal protein having a really rotten meat smell. I've never had that because my layer mash has soy proteins instead of fish meal.

 

[ak rain]

Due to last minute decisions I am getting 6 Cornish and 3 turkeys and a bag of flock raiser today on the plane. I like ff but it would be just wet today. Should I feed dry until ferment or just go forward knowing ferment will come.???
Ak rain