Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ChocolateMouse]

Ferment definitely impedes sprouting. It's not water at that point... It's vinegar and alcohol, etc. Plants need a certain PH to grow (which is why soil PH is important during gardening) and this PH is gonna be WAY too acidic for that.

 

[Mosey2003]

Has anyone tracked how much Cornish Crosses should be eating week to week when feeding fermented? I'm good with my grown egg layers, but I'm contemplating getting 25 meat chicks and I don't want to be over or under feeding them...

 

[Molpet]

Has anyone tracked how much Cornish Crosses should be eating week to week when feeding fermented? I'm good with my grown egg layers, but I'm contemplating getting 25 meat chicks and I don't want to be over or under feeding them...

after a week of free feed, I just feed them all they could eat in 10 min 2x a day

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Each bird will eat 2.5-3lbs of dry feed per one lb of live body weight by 8-14 weeks old. So if you have an 8lb chicken, you have probably fed it about a half bag of dry feed and it will dress down to about 5-6lbs. I don't know what this looks like on a week to week basis. I plan on 20-25lbs of feed per bird from start to finish and expect carcasses ranging from 4-6lbs.

 

[Mosey2003]

Thanks, I guess I'll just have to eyeball it.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

HELP. I started a small batch of fermented feed. I used the powder at the bottom of the crumble bag, put it in a mason jar and covered w/ two inches of water. But I put a lid on it and I think that's where I went wrong. 36 hours in and I opened the lid and it stinks really bad.

So I need to start over. I need a very small batch. I just have one hen who is under the weather and I think she'll like this. If I were to put say a cup of powdered feed into a mason jar, how much ACV should I add to help speed up the process? Maybe just a quarter or half teaspoon?

And then I take it I don't put a lid on this but just cover w/ a towel?

Could someone give me some pointers?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

"Smells very bad" could mean a lot of things. Can you be more descriptive? It could mean that the ferment is just fine.

Fermented feed works by allowing the same bacteria and acids that exist in our gut system to break down the food in advance of consuming it. This makes the nutrients more available because it's already partially digested, which means that some materials that take longer to break down into absorbable forms get the extra time they need to break down and we don't spend any energy breaking down the easier to break down nutrients.

Which means the the feed is literally being digested in advance. This can lead to some funny smells. FF can smell like anything from sourdough starter to vomit. It should smell sour and sweet and may even smell sickly, gross, or like cheap beer. If you trap those gasses in the jar with the feed, you're gonna get some even more bad smelling results.

Here's what I would do in your situation;

Use a quart sized jar. this allows you to mix a few days of feed which allows for better bacterial growth and nutrient break down.

Fill it about half way with feed and add water up to about an inch above the feed line. Add about a teaspoon of unpastuerized unfiltered ACV. Let this soak in and then keep adding water and allowing it to soak in until it's about the consistancy of a thick oatmeal.

Cover the jar with a light cloth, not something heavy like a towel. But something like cheesecloth or another thin, breathable fabric. Wrap a rubber band around it to keep the cloth in place.

Let it sit 24 hours somewhere warm but not too sunny. Don't be picky. It doesn't have to be perfect, just not in direct sunlight and not cold. A kitchen counter should work fine.

After that, feed your bird. Since it's a sick bird it should be getting lots of feed. If you're using a quart jar you should have filled it with 2 cups of feed. Think of how many cups of feed your bird normally eats and feed a proportional amount based on how much dry feed you used. For example, if your bird usually eats one cup of dry feed and you put in two cups of dry feed, feed out half of the jar regardless of how much volume that is. If your bird normally eats 1/2 cup of dry feed, feed 1/4 of the jar regardless of how much volume that is. The feed will expand dramatically, but most of that expansion is gasses and water which contain no nutrition, so you have to base how much you're feeding on the dry weight of the feed you're using. This wouldn't be a particular issue usually, normally birds are good at self-regulating, but with a sick bird it's up in the air. You can adjust how much you feed from there (more if she's eating it all every day, less if she's wasting it).

After each feeding, put in a proportional about of dry feed (ie, if you fed 1/4 of the jar, add in 1/2 cup of dry feed, if you fed half, add 1 cup, etc.) and fill it with water and mix it until it's the consistency of thick oatmeal again. Put the cloth back on with the rubber band and walk away fro another day.

The smell will get stronger as it ages, and that's OK. Unless it molds (black, green and blue mold, like what you'd see on bread, mostly) it should be safe to feed out regardless of what it smells like.

Good luck! Hope your hen feels better!

 

[Molpet]

HELP. I started a small batch of fermented feed. I used the powder at the bottom of the crumble bag, put it in a mason jar and covered w/ two inches of water. But I put a lid on it and I think that's where I went wrong. 36 hours in and I opened the lid and it stinks really bad.

So I need to start over. I need a very small batch. I just have one hen who is under the weather and I think she'll like this. If I were to put say a cup of powdered feed into a mason jar, how much ACV should I add to help speed up the process? Maybe just a quarter or half teaspoon?

And then I take it I don't put a lid on this but just cover w/ a towel?

Could someone give me some pointers?

a member made this FAQ
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

"Smells very bad" could mean a lot of things. Can you be more descriptive? It could mean that the ferment is just fine.

Fermented feed works by allowing the same bacteria and acids that exist in our gut system to break down the food in advance of consuming it. This makes the nutrients more available because it's already partially digested, which means that some materials that take longer to break down into absorbable forms get the extra time they need to break down and we don't spend any energy breaking down the easier to break down nutrients.

Which means the the feed is literally being digested in advance. This can lead to some funny smells. FF can smell like anything from sourdough starter to vomit. It should smell sour and sweet and may even smell sickly, gross, or like cheap beer. If you trap those gasses in the jar with the feed, you're gonna get some even more bad smelling results.

Here's what I would do in your situation;

Use a quart sized jar. this allows you to mix a few days of feed which allows for better bacterial growth and nutrient break down.

Fill it about half way with feed and add water up to about an inch above the feed line. Add about a teaspoon of unpastuerized unfiltered ACV. Let this soak in and then keep adding water and allowing it to soak in until it's about the consistancy of a thick oatmeal.

Cover the jar with a light cloth, not something heavy like a towel. But something like cheesecloth or another thin, breathable fabric. Wrap a rubber band around it to keep the cloth in place.

Let it sit 24 hours somewhere warm but not too sunny. Don't be picky. It doesn't have to be perfect, just not in direct sunlight and not cold. A kitchen counter should work fine.

After that, feed your bird. Since it's a sick bird it should be getting lots of feed. If you're using a quart jar you should have filled it with 2 cups of feed. Think of how many cups of feed your bird normally eats and feed a proportional amount based on how much dry feed you used. For example, if your bird usually eats one cup of dry feed and you put in two cups of dry feed, feed out half of the jar regardless of how much volume that is. If your bird normally eats 1/2 cup of dry feed, feed 1/4 of the jar regardless of how much volume that is. The feed will expand dramatically, but most of that expansion is gasses and water which contain no nutrition, so you have to base how much you're feeding on the dry weight of the feed you're using. This wouldn't be a particular issue usually, normally birds are good at self-regulating, but with a sick bird it's up in the air. You can adjust how much you feed from there (more if she's eating it all every day, less if she's wasting it).

After each feeding, put in a proportional about of dry feed (ie, if you fed 1/4 of the jar, add in 1/2 cup of dry feed, if you fed half, add 1 cup, etc.) and fill it with water and mix it until it's the consistency of thick oatmeal again. Put the cloth back on with the rubber band and walk away fro another day.

The smell will get stronger as it ages, and that's OK. Unless it molds (black, green and blue mold, like what you'd see on bread, mostly) it should be safe to feed out regardless of what it smells like.

Good luck! Hope your hen feels better!

Thanks for this. I really appreciate you taking the time. I started a new batch of feed. The first one really is simply awful smelling. I dumped into the compost bin and it was way worse than the poop and rotting fruit in there. Ugh. The hen is starting to eat. Little bits at a time. My fear is that I have a busy few days coming up and need to leave her in the hands of my pet sitter who may not be able to coax her into eating like I can. So I'll keep working w/ her.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

a member made this FAQ
https://tikktok.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/fermented-feed-faq/

I'm pretty sure where I went wrong was screwing a lid on the thing. I should have just put a towel over it. I've made fermented feed before but was a while ago and I'm used to that sweet/sour smell you get as it ferments. But this was just fowl. No pun intended. I couldn't bring myself to feed it to her. Don't want to make her sicker.