Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[cortner1195]

Sorry to say but YES. They could have been outside a few weeks ago.

What do you mean 24 Cornish cross and 5 broilers? What are your broilers?

The broilers are Red Ranger Broilers. Yes on the Cornish Cross.

 

[cortner1195]

And if I may ask, why do you keep your chickens in utility trailers?

My brooder box of choice. Lots of space, and easy mounting of heat lamps. Easy cleaning. We start them in either a cow water tank, or the small trailer that pulls behind the 4 wheeler. Then move them when they need more space. Now they are ready for more space again. We have been doing this the last several years. It is a nice middle ground when it is still too cold out to move them.

 

[cortner1195]

I am glad to hear that I can move them outside. I need to wrap the hog fence in chicken wire, and add the straw bales. Saturday is their day! I am also planning to move the little roadside hen to the grow out pen this weekend. She is not quite old enough to lay yet, but she is not far off. Her comb, and wattles are just starting to grow and redden. My daughter has a little hen that we call Sunny as every day is sunny in her world. Best guess on her is that she was oxygen deprived in the egg. Her litter mates take care of her, and show her where to eat, and sleep. She is doing ok, so I hope this little hen will do well too. I am not sure the rooster will ever accept her, but we will see as she matures, and he is more interested.

 

[WIchickens]

Great news on the temps to go outside!

New questions - what do you guys serve your fermented feed in? How long can it sit out for, or is it gone lickity-split? We are getting 25 Cornish x in a couple weeks and want to try this fermented feed thing. Any pictures you all have of your set up would be great! We just bought a farm over Christmas.....so it's like a blank slate

 

[fasschicks]

I just got my new chicks yesterday. Yeah! I have 17 or 18 of them. They are running around so much I can't get an accurate count (got some packing peanuts with one batch). I have fermented chick feed ready for them, but they don't seem to have any interest in it. They were hatched Monday and Tuesday this week. I put out regular dry feed and they go crazy over that. When they bite into the FF, they shake their heads and run away.

Is it an acquired taste for them? I was afraid to take away the dry feed because they are only a couple days old and don't want any of them die from not eating. Any thoughts? This is the first time I have had chicks, so a new process all the way around for me. Thanks for any suggestions you can give me for bringing the kids up on FF.

Wendy

 

[Regin]

I just got my new chicks yesterday. Yeah! I have 17 or 18 of them. They are running around so much I can't get an accurate count (got some packing peanuts with one batch). I have fermented chick feed ready for them, but they don't seem to have any interest in it. They were hatched Monday and Tuesday this week. I put out regular dry feed and they go crazy over that. When they bite into the FF, they shake their heads and run away.

Is it an acquired taste for them? I was afraid to take away the dry feed because they are only a couple days old and don't want any of them die from not eating. Any thoughts? This is the first time I have had chicks, so a new process all the way around for me. Thanks for any suggestions you can give me for bringing the kids up on FF.

Wendy

Sprinkle some dry feed on the FF. They will eat it.

 

[fasschicks]

Thanks! I will give that a try. I assume I should remove the dry feed then? Hopefully if they get hungry enough they will start to eat the FF.

 

[LindaB220]

Great news on the temps to go outside!

New questions - what do you guys serve your fermented feed in? How long can it sit out for, or is it gone lickity-split? We are getting 25 Cornish x in a couple weeks and want to try this fermented feed thing. Any pictures you all have of your set up would be great! We just bought a farm over Christmas.....so it's like a blank slate

I say welcome even though you've been a member a while. Jump in and start talking. Lovely to have you. Your CX are gonna love the FF. Put out enough that they can eat it in 10 min or so. Add more or less if needed. I feed twice a day. Buy a white rain gutter and cut it in half. Put caps on each end and it will give your 2 five foot long troughs. I had a handyman make me a 6' long trough with 2" x 6" and it was a mistake. Too heavy to move and I'm an older person. 1" x 6" would have been much easier. They last longer. You can put 2" x 4" wire across the top to keep birds out.

or not. I didn't.

Here is a thread I want you to read. It will simplify your life. It's done in the coop itself.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/956958/mama-heating-pad-in-the-brooder-picture-heavy-update

Good luck Sweetie.

 

[Herdsman01]

Thanks! I will give that a try.  I assume I should remove the dry feed then?  Hopefully if they get hungry enough they will start to eat the FF.

I would remove the dry feed completely. If they have an option of two different feeds they'll choose the one they're most use to. It may take a while but soon one will start pecking at it, then they'll all start pecking at it. Thus year is my first time feeding FF and the chicks love it. They were started on dry feed for the frist couple days but once their FF was ready I took away the dry feed and placed FF in their brooder. They were unsure about it at first, but now they go crazy over it.

 

[Herdsman01]

Great news on the temps to go outside!

New questions - what do you guys serve your fermented feed in? How long can it sit out for, or is it gone lickity-split? We are getting 25 Cornish x in a couple weeks and want to try this fermented feed thing. Any pictures you all have of your set up would be great! We just bought a farm over Christmas.....so it's like a blank slate

I assume you'll be getting your CornishX as chicks? This the feeder I'm using for my chicks. The wire is from an old role of fencing I found. I'm not sure of the size of the pattern, but you get the idea. So far it works great and drastically reduces the amount of standing/stepping in their feed. I tried a bigger pattern at first but this smaller wire pattern definitely works better. Obviously this feeder will only work while they're little, and soon I'm going to need to modify the wire to make it bigger for theire heads. I'll use this until they out grow it then I'll need to find a different type of feeder. This picture isn't that recent and the the chicks have grown a bit so I've actually set the feeder up on small blocks so there's less littler being thrown into the feed. Hope this helps!

Also I'm feeding twice a day and I feed enough that it probably sits out for a few hours before they finally clean it up. They eat when I first put the feed out then they graze on it throughout the day until it's gone. It doesn't ever dry out which. This is just what I do and not sure if it's right but the chicks are always hungry morning and night and clean up every last bit of feed.