Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[chickachee]

Just do a 50-50, or more of the mother stuff than regular vinegar, or???

Thanks

 

[Beekissed]

Nah...shouldn't have to. You can and it will hurry it along to have a 50% mix but any goodly amount oughta do it. Just play around with it and see...I used about 1/3 of the bottle of Bragg's and the rest with regular ACV. Worked just fine.

 

[pigeonguy]

I have a question about UP ACV. I picked up some Heinz UP ACV the other day. It even says on the the bottle "with Mother in it". Bee had stated a while back that there should be some snotty type stuff in it and that is the mother. The store had both the Heinz and the Bragg brand. Both of them looked alike in that they only had a sediment in them at the bottom of the bottle rather than anything snotty. Sorry to keep saying snotty so often.... Do I have "mother-less" vinegar??

Sheila

Somewhere earlier in the thread somebody said to look and see if the bottle said raw on it anywhere.

 

[pigeonguy]

Yup, found it. Unfiltered, All Natural, With the "Mother", Raw-Unpasturized.

Is this it.

 

[babymakes6]

Also, check your local apple orchards-if they make cider, they may also make vinegar. Ours does.

 

[griffinkid02]

I've been contemplatin' on this FF for the winter and I'm thinking that this last bucket will be the last bucket for the year until early spring/late winter rolls back around. The birds have got a good bowel flora going on and I worry about feeding them the wet feeds unless they can consume it all in one meal...which generally doesn't happen in the winter for my flock. They get fed in the morning during the winter months so they can eat on it all day, leaving nothing overnight for the rodents.

When giving cold, wet feeds to outside animals, this chills their core temps....not as much with chickens because the food is stored in the crop a bit, then in the next chamber, then the gizzard and will warm it's way through the system...but my birds are old and don't have a good layer of fat right now. I noticed they avoided the feed altogether this morning and this was feed left over from last night's feeding. I'm thinking that the cold, wet feed was not too appealing to an old, cold bird on a day like today.

I might go back to dry until March and then resume the FF. Still thinking on it....

They will still be getting their ACV in the water, so always getting a good probios shot in the gullet. Just not sure about feeding wet in the winter.

This actually makes a good bit of sense, as i live in the Southeast and out winter temps are unpredictable at best, and flat out random at worst, I have no idea how mine will take to it over the winter. I'll see. As always, the chicken barameter is my rule, if they are eating it with enthusiasm I'll keep at it, if they decide that they suddenly decide they don't care for it, I'll finish out what I've got cooking at that time and restart in the spring.

 

[normanack]

I finally figured out what makes me know when the fermentation is working good. It doesn't smell "polite." In other words, it's not delicate, like when I first added vinegar to the feed. Not bad, either -- just very outspoken!

 

[chickachee]

Is this it.

Yup, that's exactly what I've got. Just has the sediment in it.

 

[colburg]

Yup, that's exactly what I've got. Just has the sediment in it.

Mine looked exactly like what you're describing. Just like the sediment in the bottom of a homebrew. It's live yeast, or LAB. Not slick or snotty.

 

[bruceh]

i have changed all over to fermented feed for all the birds meat and egg laying, my 17 layers slowed way down for the first week or so. 17 layers and 5-7 eggs. now that they have adjusted to the fermented feed, i got 14 eggs today. these are 1st year pullets of good winter layers. the feather age getting a very nice sheen to them. my shiny rooster looks like glass.

i have also discovered an egg eater. so the 5-7 maybe a little higher by 2 eggs.



double post. i posted in another thread. i am trying to have this post removed from that thread.