INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[vickichicki]

Oh Jchny you rock my world.

Thanks for breaking that down for us. I had read through many posting but none specifically mentioning what they used. I was figuring it was just grain and corn.

Going to set this up this week. Have no where good to store it. We are garageless and my laundry room is lacking in space. Might be a silly question, Can I keep this outside while it is working?

Thanks for the tips on the smaller buckets. I would have just 5 gallon bucketed it and whined about moving it to around... Doh.

I assume a trough would be the best way to serve it?

 

[vickichicki]

More questions darn it...

When you are adding more dry food to the mixture, you leave the exsiting liquid? I assume it requires a water top off due to soaking into the feed, does it require an occational top off with vinegar too? Or once the mixture has started, it just continues? At some point does it need to be thrown out and the cycle restarted?

Wow... never knew I had some many questions. Just want to make sure I get it right.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Oh Jchny you rock my world.

Thanks for breaking that down for us. I had read through many posting but none specifically mentioning what they used. I was figuring it was just grain and corn.

Going to set this up this week. Have no where good to store it. We are garageless and my laundry room is lacking in space. Might be a silly question, Can I keep this outside while it is working?

Thanks for the tips on the smaller buckets. I would have just 5 gallon bucketed it and whined about moving it to around... Doh.

I assume a trough would be the best way to serve it?

Hehe, thanks! If its not freezing temps it should be fine. put it somewhere that no critters can get it tho, animals in general love the stuff.
I dont seal the lid, its covered loosely. So if you have to seal it drill a few holes so the good bacteria can thrive and breathe.
I use a trough, its a pvc pipe sawed in half, like 4 inch diameter. I made 2 so far but i need a few more. My chickens, ducks, geese, BBW turkeys, everything here eats it.

 

[vickichicki]

Hehe, thanks! If its not freezing temps it should be fine. put it somewhere that no critters can get it tho, animals in general love the stuff.
I dont seal the lid, its covered loosely. So if you have to seal it drill a few holes so the good bacteria can thrive and breathe.
I use a trough, its a pvc pipe sawed in half, like 4 inch diameter. I made 2 so far but i need a few more. My chickens, ducks, geese, BBW turkeys, everything here eats it.

Here is my two cents in return for your wonderful advice... Small guttering sections work well for a trough. You can buy a 10ft stick of vinyl 5" wide for 6 bucks from Home Depot. The end caps are not worth the price, they are 6 bucks for one.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

More questions darn it...

When you are adding more dry food to the mixture, you leave the exsiting liquid? I assume it requires a water top off due to soaking into the feed, does it require an occational top off with vinegar too? Or once the mixture has started, it just continues? At some point does it need to be thrown out and the cycle restarted?

Wow... never knew I had some many questions. Just want to make sure I get it right.

Its ok, good questions to ask! Yes, I always add more water too, Rarely will you ever need the vinegar again. Once my grain started to ferment, I just keep the grain and water topped off, and haven't needed vinegar since. I use the 2 cups, and add about that much back per each bucket I mix. I started doing this like august last year. if the smell changes and starts to smell like alcohol, or a spoiled odor, the definitely add more.

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
Oh yes, they sure will work! We have the pvc on hand so we used it, if I have to buy, i will get the gutter instead, way cheaper and no cutting

 

[vickichicki]

Its ok, good questions to ask! Yes, I always add more water too, Rarely will you ever need the vinegar again. Once my grain started to ferment, I just keep the grain and water topped off, and haven't needed vinegar since. I use the 2 cups, and add about that much back per each bucket I mix. I started doing this like august last year. if the smell changes and starts to smell like alcohol, or a spoiled odor, the definitely add more.

Thanking you kindly for answering my questions. Quite excited about getting this started. With the chicks growing bigger everyday they are eating through food like there is no tomorrow. Hoping this will cut down on my food bill for them.

When we get our produce stand up and running this year that will help tremendously.

Having 5 squillion chicks is such a great idea until I have to run to the feed store. Currently buying pellets and crumbles.. would be nice to only have to buy one kind.

You might know this... oh knowledgeable one.

. Is scratch the same as cheap bird food.. minus the sunflower seed?

 

[vickichicki]

Well heck, I think it time to hit the hay.. Finally got the roof job finished right in time for the rain to come over. I am super exchausted and punch drunk at this point.
Managed to answer 101 questions in the coop design thread, refraining from going to the 'what breed' thread as I will be up all night googling pictures and hatcheries so I can help people out.

When people check back into the thread in the morning they are going to be super impressed with the 90 posts we have had this evening

 

[Mother2Hens]

jchny & mememe~ I'm going to have to open a Home for Wayward Chickens to save them from stock pots! At least animal lover isn't going to cook her mean chicken. : - ) I used positive reward training for my RIR when she was a "teenager" last summer. When I'd be sitting on a porch step outside and I'd pick her up to pet her, and put her down, she would ruffle her feathers and walk around behind me a give me a big peck on my back! She would do that every time! It was hilarious, but of course I had to stop that behavior. Her favorite things in the whole world are blueberries, so I would pick her up, put her down and immediately give her one blueberry before she had a chance to even start to ruffle her feathers. I repeated that several times a day for several days and she never pecked me again. She prefers organic blueberries from Fresh Market. haha, not really, but she does NOT like frozen blueberries.

strssed mom~ I know how you feel when you can't get out and play with your chickens! I took them out for their usual field trip today and it sprinkled twice, but I could tell that the rain was just passing through so we stayed outside. I'm sure my neighbors think I am the weirdest!

jchny~ Poor baby goat Bo! He has had a lot of new experiences to deal with. I bet he's sleeping at the foot of your bed right now!
Do you follow the same process for cat food? A few years ago, we adopted a stray cat, approx. 6 mos. old at the time, who we found hanging out with our other cats on the back deck. We gave him the unimaginative name Tiger. He's a great cat, but has always been small. We've had him neutered and he's been well taken care of, but he has always had a tendency to throw up food (dry food) a few times a month. I've tried different food, but it sounds like fermented food would help him if he would eat it. I assume I could cut your recipe into a fourth of the size to ferment smaller quantities of food. We have three cats, but you are used to fermenting massive amounts!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Well heck, I think it time to hit the hay.. Finally got the roof job finished right in time for the rain to come over. I am super exchausted and punch drunk at this point.
Managed to answer 101 questions in the coop design thread, refraining from going to the 'what breed' thread as I will be up all night googling pictures and hatcheries so I can help people out.

When people check back into the thread in the morning they are going to be super impressed with the 90 posts we have had this evening

LOL get some good rest, glad the roof is done.

Oh my, i start reading and lose track of time often. love this website.

Quote: No its way lower on proteins. Scratch is more a treat, cheap layer is usually soy based but meets the "standards"