Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[pigeonguy]

Anyone know if rabbit food is dangerous for chickens to eat? My birds keep eating all my rabbit food

Mine eat it all the time and they are fine.

 

[Mumsy]

Scooped out of the bucket after stirring. The green alfalfa is the grassy bits.

I thought that the alfalfa cubes would be a much higher fiber content (loaded with sticks). Are they not?

Tag reads on the back no less than 16% protein.


Mixed into and fermented with the FF it has the appearance and texture of chopped grass or coarse spinach. I have seen no sticks or tough bits. I scooped it out of the FF bucket and the alfalfa is well blended and mixed in. My birds went crazy for it. Cleaned their dishes.

My recipe is as follows: All purpose crumble, medium coarse Scratch, BOSS, Alfalfa cubes, and coarse ground whole dried pumpkins seeds. I don't measure. Couple scoops of crumble, couple handfuls of the rest. I'm not feeding meat birds but I am feeding a Breeding age 1 1/2 year old roo, four six month old pullets, and two 3 1/2 month old chicks. They all get this twice a day as much as they can eat in fifteen minutes. The weather is too dirty for them to free range right now. They get fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and orchard as I have it. The rain and wind is raging on in this region.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I have 2 - 5 gal buckets in my pantry, 1 for birds, one for pigs. Scoop out what i need into my feed buckets, replace that feed, and add water if needed. Stir, cover, walk away... still using the same liquid in both just adding water if needed. Mine smells wonderful, and good enough to eat.

Cannot be more pleased as to how the animals look and the lack of odors. Our friends came over for a bonfire last weekend, and were shocked when they met our pigs. The wife said "they dont stink"

WOW, that made me feel good and DH was grinning.. The only time i can smell them is after a hard rain, no complaints there!

 

[B J Hopkins]

Same here, my bucket never fully gets emptied. This way when I add feed and water it cooks real fast, and then I add enough extra feed to thicken it up. I don't think my system is complicated at all...one bucket, food, water and ACV, making no more than four days worth just makes it easier on me.
I've also noticed that if it's too thin the birds have different poos. Also, when it's too thin my Silkies end up with crusty heads.

My Silkies (1 white, 2 black) don't get very messy eating the FF, but my 2 baby Showgirls have crusty top knots! Makes them even spiker than normal!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Scooped out of the bucket after stirring. The green alfalfa is the grassy bits.
Tag reads on the back no less than 16% protein.


Mixed into and fermented with the FF it has the appearance and texture of chopped grass or coarse spinach. I have seen no sticks or tough bits. I scooped it out of the FF bucket and the alfalfa is well blended and mixed in. My birds went crazy for it. Cleaned their dishes.

My recipe is as follows: All purpose crumble, medium coarse Scratch, BOSS, Alfalfa cubes, and coarse ground whole dried pumpkins seeds. I don't measure. Couple scoops of crumble, couple handfuls of the rest. I'm not feeding meat birds but I am feeding a Breeding age 1 1/2 year old roo, four six month old pullets, and two 3 1/2 month old chicks. They all get this twice a day as much as they can eat in fifteen minutes. The weather is too dirty for them to free range right now. They get fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and orchard as I have it. The rain and wind is raging on in this region.

I have to try some, thanks for sharing it! I am looking at fodder and other ideas for greens, this may be a good option too. We usually get snow in late december.

 

[Turkeytruff]

We've been in the midst of torrential rain and wind storms here in the PNW for days now and no end in sight. My seven birds are confined to coops with out access to green stuff until the storms pass so the thought of adding alfalfa to my FF sounded intriguing.
A 40 lb. bag of alfalfa cubes cost me $12.
I will ask about the timothy grass pellets next time.
I soaked six alfalfa cubes in warm water for a few minutes then tossed the whole thing in the FF. Stirred once. Gave a sample to all the birds. They gobbled it down faster than ever I've seen since getting them! Especially the 3 1/2 month old Silkie chicks!
My FF is two weeks old now and a bucket full of bubbly goodness. Sometimes it's soupy sometimes it's thick as mortar. Never seen any mold ever. No mess, no fuss, just scoop and go. I use the two bucket method. It works very well for me and I just use one scoop and one bowl each feeding. About two gallons going at any time. The same liquid with mother I started with two weeks ago. I just add every other day to keep it percolating. Pretty straight forward and easy.

Hi Mumsy I have been reading about your amazing Johnny cakes and the saga of your rooster. Glad to hear you finally got your hens! what breeds are they? I live up on Vancouver Island and we have also had torrential rain and 2 outages. Think we need to get a generator! I have just yesterday started putting alfalfa pellets in the FF. Today was the first time they had them in there and they gobbled it all down.

 

[aoxa]

Scooped out of the bucket after stirring. The green alfalfa is the grassy bits.

[COLOR=4B0082]I thought that the alfalfa cubes would be a much higher fiber content (loaded with sticks).  Are they not?[/COLOR]
[COLOR=4B0082] [/COLOR]

Tag reads on the back no less than 16% protein.


Mixed into and fermented with the FF it has the appearance and texture of chopped grass or coarse spinach. I have seen no sticks or tough bits. I scooped it out of the FF bucket  and the alfalfa is well blended and mixed in. My birds went crazy for it. Cleaned their dishes.

My recipe is as follows: All purpose crumble, medium coarse Scratch, BOSS, Alfalfa cubes, and coarse ground whole dried pumpkins seeds. I don't measure. Couple scoops of crumble, couple handfuls of the rest. I'm not feeding meat birds but I am feeding a Breeding age 1 1/2 year old roo, four six month old pullets, and two 3 1/2 month old chicks. They all get this twice a day as much as they can eat in fifteen minutes. The weather is too dirty for them to free range right now. They get fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden and orchard as I have it. The rain and wind is raging on in this region.

I find alfalfa smells awful. That doesn't stink up the FF?

 

[Bogtown Chick]

11 birds on FF x about 10 days. Good things: Poop is firmer--a few that are runny here and there. Waste of food to a minimum. They seem to like it as much as their scratch. Eggs are heavier!~Cooked some eggs for the fam this past weekend and I couldn't get over the size of the yolks. Wow.

Things that are a drawback for FF: A few more dishes and mess in my laundry tub as I brew my FF. Cold mornings/days the FF does freeze for me. I also note that it can stick on my boy's waddles and I've got some frost bite going on the edges of those waddles...but not sure that could have just been from his water, then cold air, too. Need to be more diligent with the Vaseline applications. Had some seasonably higher temps last 3-4 days so FF it is!~ Temps are going to dip down again tomorrow afternoon and I might just save this FF for spring and/or if there is a health concern. Have always had ACV in their water since they were peeps, so we'll still have that going.

Overall conclusion. I like it. Will do it again when it works well with temps or whenever I feel the flock needs it.

 

[Mumsy]

I find alfalfa smells awful. That doesn't stink up the FF?

Not in my mix. A few hours after adding it yesterday the aroma got richer and more fermenty smelling. Not stronger but definately different. It smells yummy to my nose. I like pickles. That must be why. I observe my birds as they eat. Today I'll be watching them to see if they still find it delectable after it's been fermenting 24 hours.

 

[3 NH reds]

Did not feed mash to the Turkey yesterday so this am nothing but fights over it. And I found a mouse in the ff this morning, he dug down into it and died. Not sure what Turkey think of this but I will find out.