Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

Chickens don't really seem to like the oats, so if you add them to the mix, go easy and test the waters first. Barley is cheaper and has more protein and they seem to love it fine. Wheat is hard to soak along with other grains because it's so darn hard but it wouldn't hurt to add it in moderation. I'd buy small amounts first and see what works with your flock before stocking up in bulk.

 

[jrsckn]

Rolled steamed oats are good, they didn't like whole oats; milo and wheat are in the scratch I get and they went over well too.

 

[Kassaundra]

My layers have been eating fermented grains for over a year and most of that time has been mostly or entirely whole oats, my girls love oats, I use the whole seed kind, just like you would plant. I have had no problems w/ wheat either, but my grains ferment much longer then most on this thread, I use a 33 gal garbage can (plastic) and basically fill it all at once and feed out of it for basically a month or so until it is mostly gone then add more. My hens aren't terribly fussy they will eat any fermented grain I give them w/ gusto. I have tried oats, wheat, scratch, I would love to try barley but my local feed store hasn't had any when I have gone. I have not tried peas or legumes b/c they are terribly expensive.

 

[Beekissed]

Have you noticed increased lay also since you switched to FF? I'm wondering how many on the thread have noticed an increase in lay, size and quality of the egg and shell, etc. I'm also wondering about general health and appearance changes since using the FF..anything notable?

 

[jrsckn]

My pullets are 24 weeks old and have been on ff since 12 weeks. They started laying in the beginning of August and now I'm getting 10 eggs per day out of 14 pullets. Most eggs are in the mid/upper 40g range but I get 5 or so 70+g eggs per week and the shells are HARD! At least twice as hard as store bought eggs.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I have noticed an increase in eggs and it seems the shells are much harder as well. The increase seems to wax and wane and I haven't figured that out yet.

They haven't started molting yet but I'm looking forward to it. They all look terrible! I made the mistake of having all their perches on the same level when I moved here because it made it more convenient for me to get by without running into the end of the bottom perch when I came into the coop... and yes, it was the only place that I could feasibly put the perch.

So, a few weeks ago I had my son help me rearrange the perches so they are now on a ladder system. Hopefully when they molt out they'll stay nice looking.

My Delawares started laying right at 20 weeks. Their feathers are BEAUTIFUL. I've only gotten 2 eggs from them so far but that's ok. I'm over run with eggs from all my others. They're a nice dark-ish brown. Compared to a marans egg, they're not DARK but they are darker than my other brown egg layers.

 

[Kassaundra]

I do not ferment thier layer pellets. I tried it when I first came across this thread, but really didn't like the mess and trouble, by that time I was so spoiled to the ease of the fermented grains. I have looked everywhere in my area for a complete feed that is grains (instead of pellets or crumbles) but so far I just get looked at like I suddenly sprouted a third eye or something.(I would take a complete grain feed except for the Ca+ since I keep oyster shell out) My chickens have free choice 24/7 layer pellets, then I put out the fermented grains for them once or twice a day depending on my schedule, anyway no I have not really noticed anything specifically about egg production it goes up and down same as before the fermenting. The feathers look the same to me beautiful just after a molt, then gradually getting less beautiful through the year until molt time again and they look frayed by molt time again. The only significant thing I noticed was a decrease in the smell of the poop.

 

[wingstone]

Have done this with a batch of quail, they finished out nicely by 10 wks....They ate less and were not as stinky as quail usually are....Now with the price of feed I am thinking of doing this for everyone...I have layers, meaties, ducks and a new batch of quail...would it be recommended to give them all the same mix..here is what I have on hand
300 pds wheat
300 pds barley
lots of whole corn
50 lbs cracked corn
50 lbs rolled oats
I also feed meal worms twice a week to everyone.
so what portions of these things would be recommended


forgot to mention the 16 broad breasted white turkeys, (eating most of the feed)

all birds have about 2 acres to forage except the quail. at this point I allready have these things would just need to get some buckets.....I go thru about 350 lbs of feed a week. need to cut cost.

 

[mammaducky1]

Just an update - We butchered our meat birds this last weekend. Started out with 51, lost 3 at the very beginning, so had 48. We culled the roosters a couple of weeks ago, so had 33 hens to butcher at this time. (Had 3 grown children, their spouses, and 3 of 5 grandchildren helping- all in varying degrees) Grandkids helped catch birds and bring to the killing cones. (3 orange plastic traffic cones bought at Home Depot). I slit their throats and let them bleed out and oversaw the overall process. Son-in-law scalded and manned the chicken plucker. Others took turns with cleaning and gutting the birds. This was the first time for everyone but myself and my husband - and we had a blast.

We set everything up under a big oak tree in the yard. Killing cones out in the sunshine, next to that the scalding pot, and over a little ways the chicken plucker (whizbang plucker my husband built from the kit). On the other side of the tree we had a long table set up with a large trash can for the offal, and 4 buckets with ice for the necks and extra fat, chicken feet, gizzards, livers and hearts. At the end of the table were a couple of ice chests with ice for packing the cleaned birds. A water hose was also available for those gutting the birds to clean the carcass with fresh clean water.

The biggest concern for everyone had been the odor of the butchering process. Two of the boys had worked at a bird farm as teens, feeding and tending animals and still remember and hate that chicken smell. They had been impressed when the birds were growing because the FF birds did not stink. Well the same consensus was given on Saturday. FF birds DO NOT have that sick poultry odor when processing. My daughter told me that the main thing she was worried about was the smell while butchering the birds. Once she realized these birds did not stink, and she was shown how to gut the birds, she got busy and did great. She said that since the odor was not a problem, then the process was not that bad. My son-in-law, who had never done anything like this and I could tell was there because he is just a sweet guy and did not want to be the only one who refused, did the scalding and manned the chicken plucker. He told me later, that he thought it was going to be something really gory, and that it was actually a very clean process and not bad at all. He definitely won't mind doing it again.

The cleaned birds averaged 4 to 4-1/2 pounds. I left them to rest in the icebox overnight then used shrink wrap bags to freeze them.

The main thing is everyone is thrilled to get the fresh chicken. Since we had culled roosters from this batch several weeks ago, they had already had a taste of the meat and loved the fact that it has a real chicken flavor and also texture to the meat. The meat is not tough, but does have more texture than what you normally get in the store. They are already asking when we will start the next batch, and everyone is game for helping with the butchering again. They are also asking for ducks, so we may try a batch of ducks as well.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the info on this thread. I stumbled across this and have followed it for the whole 115 pages and counting. Before we started using the FF, when these birds were about 3 weeks old, the smell of the chickens was horrible, even though the chicken tractor was moved every day. These birds just STUNK. Within days of changing the feed to Fermented feed, the smell was gone. These birds were healthy and very active. I could not have asked for a better outcome. I am sure that had we not used FF, this would have been our first and last family butchering day. As it is, I believe we have started a new family tradition!

 

[Beekissed]

Excellent story and feedback! What a great thing to have the whole family involved in the processing...it will help them appreciate all the work that goes into producing their food they eat this winter.