Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Lacy Blues]

I had to take out one of the roosters about a week ago. He had gotten weak in his legs and was pretty under weight for some reason. So, I did the deed. To make a somewhat long story somewhat shorter...

I thought he was the same bird as the one which had a crooked back (?) but it wasn't. So, anyway, I thought maybe something might be wrong with him and didn't plan on eating him. But, he didn't smell bad at all when I opened him up. I hadn't plucked him so I ended up just taking the breast meat. I salted it and let it soak in water for about 4 days then put them in the freezer. They were there less than a week when my daughter decided she wanted to make some chicken parmesan for lunch. She used this breast meat and cooked it slowly then added the spaghetti sauce and parmesan and shared it with me.

Now, usually, I do not like breast meat. It's too dry. Anyway... I wanted to taste the meat so after eating the sauce and cheese off the meat, I kept chewing. I could actually TASTE something and it was quite delicious! Not dry nor bland.

Oh, by the way... we did not raise the cornish x meat birds. We are raising Delaware chickens for meat. I don't know if the flavor is due to the delaware or to the ff but either way... I'm sold! The two together are the best chicken I think I've ever tasted.

 

[siroiszoo]

How long did the process take with so many helpers? I will either have to do this by myself or hopefully with the help of my husband. Therefore, I will need to break it down into some one week, some another week, etc...

 

[mammaducky1]

It took us about 2-1/2 hours, which I think was way too long for that many helpers, but remember just about all the workers were novices. My husband and I caught, killed and processed nine birds in about 1-1/2 hours one evening. I would suggest starting with about 5 or 6 on your own and see how long it takes. You really do get faster as you go along. If everything is organized (i.e. water is the right temp for scalding, etc., then it goes a lot faster. That was one thing that held us back was keeping the water the right temp for scalding. I will eventually get me something that is thermostatically controlled to keep the water temp correct.

 

[armorfirelady]

Just started my first batch of fermented food. I used layer pellets, cracked corn, scratch & rolled oats. I am thinking if it warms up tomorrow that it should be ready for the hens to taste in the evening.

Should the water be over the ingredients? Everything in their is wet. I have stirred it once & plan on it again tonight & tomorrow before work.

 

[Beekissed]

You can try to keep it submersed but mostly the grains will soak up all the excess water anyway....but I try when I first fill the bucket by placing the water a good 4-6 in. past the feed if I have the room in the container.

 

[Island Roo]

I had another customer comment how amazing my birds taste and the wonderful smell in the house as the bird roasted. And we talked about the smell of the bird before it is cooked - almost no smell at all (compare it to a grocery store bird). I explained that it is probably because the bird is so fresh and not processed in a big stinky factory.

After reading some recent posts here about smell, it has me thinking that the uncooked bird smell may have to do with the FF. Or even the roasting smell.

I have only raised meat birds on FF and I'm not really to keen to try the other way. Can someone who has done it both ways comment on the smell? (other than live bird smell which we all know is less bad)

I feel kind of silly asking but I have never seen a chicken carcass that smells so clean - even from other local farms.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I've raised meat birds the other way. They smell bad enough before slaughter but usually, after they've been plucked, once you open that cavity.... eeewwwww

With the ff diet, I was waiting to be hit with that awful smell and it just didn't happen!

 

[jrsckn]

I processed my ff and regular birds at the same time and we had an assembly line going so I didn't have time to notice a difference.

I'm taking an animal nutrition class at Michigan State this semester and we start a broiler project tomorrow mixing our own feeds so this should be a fun learning process. We have 6 feeding options: profitable growth rate, cheap feed cost to market weight, rapid growth weight, high carcass value, and lean carcass at market weight. I can't wait for the results and then apply them to ff next spring.

 

[armorfirelady]

After 24 hours in water & ACV w/Mother & some stirring up I gave the girls a couple of spoonfuls of FF. The water was a grayish color like I have seen in pics on this forum. No bad smell to it. It has a sweetish nice smell to it. The dogs are quite interested in a taste as well. I used layer pellets, scratch, cracked corn & rolled oats. They layer pellets broke down quickly but with the other ingedients it didnt go thru the holes in the bucket. Its a nice thick consistency. I gave it to them about 20 min before their roosting time & 2 of the girls had already roosted for the night but the other 2 knew something was up when I knocked out the dog bowl of leftover yogurt. They came running!!! They initially started picking out the corn but ravenously ate the others stuff as well. I left them in their glory to finish up & and it was dark when I went back outside to lock them in. I am thinking tomorrow I will give them 2 more spoonfuls with their veggies they get every morning before work.

They still have access to regular layer pellets but they are almost gone. With their new giant run I only usually see them eating the pellets in the evening. They spend most of their time in the big run & today they figured out how to pick the cherry tomatoes off the vines growing outside the veggie garden fence in their run. Fun to watch them eat them since they just realized if they peck the skin the goodness is inside.

The hens are 22 weeks old and not laying yet. So I am curious with them not laying yet if it will help with their production over the winter? I have been told that they wont start laying till btw 24 & 28 weeks or so? (Partridge Rocks) I am also curious if they will grow faster with the FF. I cant weigh them to check but they are double the size of when I got them a month ago and about half the size of the full grown one I saw at the state fair.

 

[bruceh]

so today my meat bird chicks started their fermented feed. the amount of feed used is roughly 1/2 of what i would normally. the chicks took to it like raid on entebbe. i am not sure if i like the consistancy of the mash. it looks hard for the chicks to get to. the mash gets kinda pancaked down. we will see . so far i like it though.

32 meat chicks cx's today i used 10 soup laddle full