Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[Beekissed]

I have that sludge too...and surprisingly it doesn't go past a certain depth. I'm thinking it may just be "eaten" by the enzymes to a certain degree. I had the same thing in the bottom bucket in the 12 wks I had the meaties and it was the same depth...no more, no less. You'd think it would grow and grow until the bottom bucket would be all sludge but it doesn't.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well i was surprised tonight, my alpaca leaned over the fence as i scratched his neck, and started gobbling up the bucket of fermented pig feed in my other hand! They were nibbling a little when the CX were in with them, so i guess they developed a taste for it. i gave both boys a scoop with their allstock and hay. will be watching close for the next few weeks, see what changes they have. My stray cats will also hit the layer ration bucket and knock it over in a second, gobble every bit.

 

[chickenmama22]

I have that sludge too...and surprisingly it doesn't go past a certain depth.  I'm thinking it may just be "eaten" by the enzymes to a certain degree.  I had the same thing in the bottom bucket in the 12 wks I had the meaties and it was the same depth...no more, no less.  You'd think it would grow and grow until the bottom bucket would be all sludge but it doesn't. 

 

Is the sludge grit? I use a one bucket system where I ferment free stale bread with ACV and sometimes bread yeast. We then add high protein chick starter in a separate bucket and use that all up in one day. At the bottom of that bucket theres a black silt-like layer that I think is grit added to chick starter for digestive purposes.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Would scratch work for older hens?

i ferment 1/2 scratch half crumble. supplement with fodder, yogurt and mealworms. mine are all doing great but they are all under a year. Oh and i keep oyster shell as free choice.

 

[Celie]

celie,
i am going through the same thing . i use about a 18.5 % . i think it is this new strain. i raised the cornish x this summer. they were much bigger and weighed more at 16%. ration. i can tell you the 20-22% feed is a waste and creates wet loose droppings. i tried it with this batch for a 10 day trial to see if this would help. it did not. these birds just grow slow. i am at 12 weeks and they are just now putting on weight. .the birds will tell you when they are ready for slaughter. first they eat you out of house and home and then get lazy like not want to move much.
at first they will do the eating thing. then about 2 weeks later they get very slow. when they get slow butcher them. no more real gain will be had from them by waiting.. i have done it. i held cx's over 14 extra days and got no real weight gain. i would expect a 14- 15 week run with these slow growers and get a dressed weight of 6-8 lbs.

It isn't so much their weight that bothers me as it is the fact that they are BALD, except for wing feathers and they are in a barn without excess to electric. They have no protection from the cold with their little necked butts! How old were yours when they got feathers?

 

[Celie]

I have never had that issue with cornish x's. They never stopped growing unless I put them on just pasture. I just butchered out two last week and they both were over 14lbs. Of course they were 4 year old hens, but they never seemed to stop growing. They are great mothers. I have a few of their offspring left and I am considering keeping them. I have never kept offspring other than for food, however they were both good egg layers, forgers and mothers. I might keep a few..just to see. I have keep one young cockerel, the DH insisted, thought he looked beautiful. .I have two young chicks from them that I hope are hens. I am terrible at sexing chicks lately.

I have raised the Cornish crosses too, but from other hatcheries, and kept them for over a year. I would go out and process them as needed. I have 1 pair over a year old, but the hen isn't laying right now. Molting. This breed from Meyers are naked, except for some feathers on the wings. No feathers this late in Fall weather make for very chilly chicks! Did you ever have any go past 5 weeks without growing any body feathers at all?

 

[Celie]

These were mine at 4 wks on FF and free range all day.


And compared with a DP bird at the same age of 4 wks.

Bee,
My chicks do not look like yours in this picture! Yours have feathers on their bodies, mine are featherless, except for their wings. I will try to get some pictures tomorrow. Your picture does look like the size of my Cornish XRocks and the layers I hatched 2 weeks before the broilers arrived. At 6 weeks for the layers and 4 weeks for the broilers, they are all the same size, which is strange, because my broilers have always outgrown my layers at this age. These broilers are definitely a different breed than I am used to, but i can't figure out why they do not have any feathers at 4 1/2 weeks old? Or how I can get them to grow feathers? BTW , Very nice looking birds!

I have that sludge too...and surprisingly it doesn't go past a certain depth. I'm thinking it may just be "eaten" by the enzymes to a certain degree. I had the same thing in the bottom bucket in the 12 wks I had the meaties and it was the same depth...no more, no less. You'd think it would grow and grow until the bottom bucket would be all sludge but it doesn't.

Now that you are speaking of sludge, I used to work in an oil refinery and one of the jobs I did there was waste water treatment. We used good "bugs"(micro organisms) to eat the "BAD" bacteria that was in the waste water, purifying it into potable water before it could be discharged into the Mississippi River. During the process, the good bacteria would build up so many offspring, the excess would have to be scraped off the bottom of the ponds(where the process took place)and burned in the coke unit in the coke making process(to use as fuel to run boilers). The life cycle of these beneficial single cell microbes was 3 days, but their offspring had a genetic memory of about 3 weeks. In other words, if the ponds got hit with a heavy dose of benzene, the benzene eating organisms would build up it ability to eat benzene, and clean up the contaminants, gradually, but when the benzene was gone, the ponds would have an immunity to the benzene for about 3 weeks, even though the original good organisms were long gone, so if another dose of benzene came through, the new "good bugs" would eat the bad benzene stuff right away and not hurt the ponds at all. I don't think I have explained very well the chemical process, but I think you got the picture. This might be similar to what you are seeing in the bottom bucket.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm not sure...with the cold weather and good feeds, the birds should feather out quicker even than birds raised in the spring. Mine were raised in an outside brooder and not kept very warm throughout the process so maybe they feathered out quickly because of this.

What hatchery did you get your CX from?

 

[3 NH reds]

Is the sludge grit? I use a one bucket system where I ferment free stale bread with ACV and sometimes bread yeast. We then add high protein chick starter in a separate bucket and use that all up in one day. At the bottom of that bucket theres a black silt-like layer that I think is grit added to chick starter for digestive purposes.

In my case it can't be grit I ferment only scratch grain or corn. The layer at the bottom is a white/gray goop almost like a pudding

 

[aoxa]

I'm not sure...with the cold weather and good feeds, the birds should feather out quicker even than birds raised in the spring.  Mine were raised in an outside brooder and not kept very warm throughout the process so maybe they feathered out quickly because of this. 

What hatchery did you get your CX from? 

 

Bee.. You actually may have convinced my fiance and I to get CX in the spring...

Actually I don't know if we even have CX here.. Everyone calls them "Meat Kings".

Wait.. Looked it up. They are the same thing, we just call them stupid names.