Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Island Roo]

For the best tasting birds, my hatchery (Rochester in Alberta) recommends feeding milled grains without poultry supplement for the last 2 weeks before butcher. A a guideline they suggest:
Up to 15% Barley
Up to 25% Oats
65 - 100%Wheat

I'm thinking of following this advice except I would ferment the whole grain rather than mill it. If purpose of milling is to make the nutrients more available for digestion, fermenting should do that job.

Any thoughts?

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

I would ferment it if only to get rid of the dust and plump up the grains..., but I don't have meaties., just free range.
I don't think milling would improve I either, the grain casing is not that tough, like corn is.

 

[chicks4fun]

The % are good to know as I was giving my birds 1/3 of each in my fermented.
thanks

 

[lhousesoccer]

Update for me - I've been feeding my meat birds fermented chick grower for about a week now. They overrun me when they see me coming with my orange Home Depot bucket! They LOVE the stuff!

Things I've noticed with my chickens:

1 - 10 meat birds have gone from emptying a 3 gallon waterer every 2 days to emptying a 1-gallon waterer about every 3!
2 - Instead of just laying around barely moving, they are all actually up and moving about like my layers, scratching and behaving like chickens.
3 - the litter smell is GONE!
4 - their feather have turned yellow! No fear - this isn't some weird side effect.

I was feeding them the dry grower crumble from old large bowls, which they seem to have a habitat wanting get right in to while they eat. Of course now with the runny liquidy FF, that has turned their whole breast area yellow. SIGH. I have to come up with a better feeding system.

Observations on the fermenting process

1 - I use two identical 5-gal buckets, with 3/32-inch holes drilled in the inside one. I have a rope system to hang it to drain, but it never really does completely drain and so the FF is really watery when I feed it out. I think the holes are too small and I may need to drill them out larger.

2 - the inner bucket does not seat all the way down into the outer bucket, of course because of the ridges around the top of the inner bucket. That leaves about 4 inches of "space" containing most of the water and UP/ACV in the bottom of the outer bucket and not really able to get up into the feed. I think this might be slowing down the fermentation process. I'm going to try a small inner bucket that seats all the way down into the outer bucket so all of the water and UP/ACV is exposed to the feed.

3 - some days my FF bubbles in the bucket, some days it doesn't. I was really excited the first time I saw it bubbling, but then the next couple days it never really did. I don't know if my UP/ACV is losing its poteny and I need a couple splashes more? Does this happen, or should I expect to pretty much go on infinitely with the brew I started without needing to add anything more than water to cover new feed added to the bucket? I've gone through pretty much a whole bottle of Bragg's, and at $7 a bottle, I don't want to have to buy more too often.

4 - I bought 2 bottles of regular ACV from the Dollar Store and added a few splashes of the Bragg's to try and "make" my own UP/ACV. It's been in the basement (dark, mostly) for about a week now. How do I know when it's "done"?

 

[GonzoChicken]

Ihouse-

I'm doing the same thing. Today was the first day it took forever to drain, Normally I get the grain draining and then go water the garden and come back and it's good to go. It's never soupy either, wet yes, soupy no. So maybe after you use the next bucket, go hose it out to get any stuff out of the holes and that should help. It's what I did today. I'd leave the holes at 3/32. Also I noticed that there is a large amount of sediment/mother? in the bottom of the reservoir bucket. If you've been fermenting crumbles or something close it may be gumming up the bottom of the bucket. I'd take a new bucket, grab a measuring cup of your choice or what ever you have, scoop out a little and put it in the new bucket, chuck the remainder of the sediment/mother. Then add water to the new bucket etc... Shouldn't even need to add any new acv to it.

I doubt that the 4inches of space is slowing down the fermentation process, have you been stirring it a couple times a day? When you add more water to cover your grain the water and acv will mix on it's own. I'm using two five gallon buckets as well. What's the temp where you are? That could be part of it. I'm in Denver and it's pretty warm here and mine is fermenting like a champ. How long does it sit before you feed it?

I've only used maybe 3 tbl spoons of red wine vinegar w/ Mother since I started, so maybe you're adding too much UP/ACV to your mix? It really doesn't take much. Mine sits from around noon until 5am when I feed half of it, at noon I feed the other half and add more grain and water, that's it. It's usually bubbling pretty good when I go to drain it.

I've also been thinking about drying out the sediment in the bottom/reservoir bucket and feeding it. Any one have any experience with that? It's kind of gloppy.

Hope this helps!

 

[Wile E.]

I'd use a three bucket system. Take it out, and let it drain. Lower the next batch into a new bucket. Dump the old water on top. Fill with clean water as necessary.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Glad you brought that up, as I'm getting a paste in the bottom too, maybe it's the chaff from all the grain...everything is fermenting still, I'm thinking about spooning it out and mixing it in with the rest, maybe a little at a time, if they don't want it then fine, I can't see where it would hurt. They ate a dead cat once (yuckeroo) so a little fermented chaff paste shouldn't hurt.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I plan to try to ferment my feed with a can of beer, a little of ACV (local) and a little yeast. The things that would be best are not available here in Costa Rica so I will try this as a work around. Any comments will help. Also, I like the idea of the 3 bucket method, Wile E, do you stir the goop up when you pour the water on top of the next batch (just to clarify)? That would put the goop from the fines back into the feed and help keep things nice and clean.

 

[jrsckn]

I use a strainer to drain my feed because the 2 bucket system just doesn't work for me. Once every week or two when I get low on feed in the bucket, I'll hang the bucket, let it drain, put it in a new bucket then pour the liquid from the first bucket over it to mix the sedament/mother in then add more feed and water for the next batch. As long as you keep "feeding" the mother with more grain, you shouldn't need to add more ACV. I ran out a week ago and haven't had any problems. You can expect the bubbling to slow down as the frementation progresses bacause the nutrients are being consumed by the organisms so as there are less nutrients, the bubbling slows.

 

[galanie]

I believe that whether or not the 2 bucket system works for you is largely dependent on whether you are fermenting whole grains or crumbles and meal. Crumbles and finely ground grains plug up the holes and wont' drain well. It does work great with whole grains though.

I've moved to using the paint straining bags for 5 gallon buckets from the paint store for the crumbles. Works much better. Rather than a top bucket, I substitute the bag.