Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[kelpieschick]

Did you find that you used less feed~saved money on feed costs~by using FF? And, yes...please let us know about flavor! Good weights!

I think so! I have to crunch all the numbers still but from what I've read we went through less food than what would be expected without fermenting. Other good points were that they did not stink and they were able to run and play right up until the last day. I did lose one though when the heat wave hit so I'm not sure if tweaking their diets would have prevented that or if it was genetic and inevitable. It did look like flip. He was the "spare" that they added to my order so I still ended up with 25. Next time I will be mixing in some whole grains and seeing if I can trim costs a little without affecting weight gain and health.

 

[kelpieschick]

Wow those are awesome weights! Your SMALLEST was 4.36 dressed??? And these were 8 wk old birds??!! I am impressed!

I second the flavor report! Let us know what you think!

Yes and yes. I was surprised too. I thought that they would be smaller than that and i'd already promised the girls at work that I would get them small birds ha ha. I will let you know about flavour once the reports come rolling in!

 

[LilyD]

Why not just feed a 50/50 mix of all flock feed and whole grains and offer OS free choice on the side for the layers? When your chicks get a few months on them, you can return to layer ration and whole grain mix....I've never had a roo affected by the calcium in the layer ration. That's just someone's idea that it MAY be too much for a rooster because he does not produce eggs but that isn't the way it works.

Calcium that is not utilized by the body is flushed out in the urine and muscles use calcium quite a bit...who does the most running and activity in the flock? A rooster...he is constantly on the move, chasing and breeding, monitoring his hens, etc. He is utilizing his calcium just fine and what he doesn't utilize is flushed from his body. No worries.

What whole grains would you add to the layer for the mix and would you add more protein to the mix for meat birds if you were raising those as well?

 

[mammaducky1]

My husband thinks his poor wife is a little demented and it is best to just humor her!

No actually he has been very supportive. I have slowly convinced him of the benefits of ACV for humans and so it wasn't that much of a stretch with the chickens. So far he has had nothing but good things to say and has helped with the feed a few times and never complained that there are a few more steps to take at feed time.

So far so good!

 

[okdfarms]

great thread folks. galanie, how much kefir whey do you use?

 

[Beekissed]

What whole grains would you add to the layer for the mix and would you add more protein to the mix for meat birds if you were raising those as well?

I go with the cheapest grains that they will reasonably consume....I've found that no chickens like cracked corn anymore. I'm assuming it's because it's all GMO now. I stick to barley, oats, a little cracked corn, etc. Just choose what you can afford and what the birds will not pick through. Each flock is different.

For my meat birds, I give layer ration as the base and just mix in the whole grains.....I want to slow down their growth and save money on feed, so I free range and feed the 50/50 mix. If your goal is to crank out some meaties in a hurry, then you would stick with the higher protein feeds...but I wouldn't recommend it. If the reasons you are using FF is for health and costs, feeding high pro defeats that whole purpose.

 

[jrsckn]

Mine disliked the whole oats but would eat the cracked corn but when I ran out of the oats, they wouldn't eat all the cracked corn. They were hungry but they would refuse to eat it even if I let them go all day and night with just that in the trough, it would still be there the next day. For me, I wasn't really able to save money when the only grains they would eat were the processed ones like steamed rolled oats which were $2 more than the meatbird feed. The 50/50 mix slows growth down a quite a bit. I've had my birds for 8 weeks now and of the ones I have left, the 50/50 are the smallest with average weight of 5.44lbs; three are in the 4lb range, four are in the 5lb range, and two are 6lbs. The straight ff chicks average 6.88lbs; with the largest weighing 7.72lbs and the smallest at 5.89lbs. The chicks eating dry crumbles are all 6lbs.

 

[LilyD]

I go with the cheapest grains that they will reasonably consume....I've found that no chickens like cracked corn anymore. I'm assuming it's because it's all GMO now. I stick to barley, oats, a little cracked corn, etc. Just choose what you can afford and what the birds will not pick through. Each flock is different.

For my meat birds, I give layer ration as the base and just mix in the whole grains.....I want to slow down their growth and save money on feed, so I free range and feed the 50/50 mix. If your goal is to crank out some meaties in a hurry, then you would stick with the higher protein feeds...but I wouldn't recommend it. If the reasons you are using FF is for health and costs, feeding high pro defeats that whole purpose.

Okay I will have to see what they have I was thinking of doing some pelleted and some grains but my main goal is to have them eat all their food before it gets eaten by the wild life. I can afford to feed the chickens but not every squirrel on the block. I also want my birds to be the healthiest they can be and if feeding FF will help them to be healthier than I want to try that out and see how it goes. The added benefits of no smelliness and better intestinal health are awesome too.

Next question does the feed puff up in the bucket or does it stay about the same volume as when you put it in? How much do you feed of the FF versus regular feed?

 

[thunderbolt&marjorie]

If you can't see if the amount is lessening in the feed pan, give less feed until you can see a clean plate when you come back. Then you know where the baseline is and can work your way up. The goal is to have them clean the plate but not so clean that it is obvious that they were left wanting more.

I'm happiest when there is just a skiff of residue on the bottom of the feeder...just a thin layer that you can see the bottom through in an even manner all across the bottom of the feeder...this tells me they tried to clean the plate but the residue left wasn't worth the work it took to pick up every little piece of grain....this, to me, means I got full and I'm not hungry enough still to lick that clean.

I hear you! But right now I am only feeding 5 little chicks!

I put a small spoonful on a cottage cheese container lid. When I got home, it was pancaked out; (with little chicken footprints in it!

)

I think they ate some of it, but how much does one two day old chick eat in 10 hours? A teaspoon? A tablespoon?
I would like ot monitor better how much they are consuming, but all that will change tomorrow when the 25 meaties arrive.

 

[Lacy Blues]

Next question does the feed puff up in the bucket or does it stay about the same volume as when you put it in? How much do you feed of the FF versus regular feed?

It puffs up because it absorbs the water. In the individual dish, it will look like the same amount but it is actually less because of the expansion. They will get to a point though where they don't clean it all up and that is because they are getting more nutrition out of less food.

I think they ate some of it, but how much does one two day old chick eat in 10 hours? A teaspoon? A tablespoon?
I would like ot monitor better how much they are consuming, but all that will change tomorrow when the 25 meaties arrive.

Two day old chicks don't eat much at all. It's the 3rd day when you have to make sure they eat, because that's when their yolk supply runs out. Did you hatch them or receive them in the mail? If you received them in the mail then they were probably 2 days old (or more) when you got them. Anyway, they're pretty small and don't have a lot of appetite at that age so just watch them to make sure they're eating. If they stand under the light and cry, they're not and you need to take measures to get them to eat.