- Dec 12, 2013
- 190
- 53
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Hi Ron,
How can I go about this without giving the scientific uninitiated an excuse to blow up? Yes, fermented food is more concentrated with nutrition creating the illusion that it is beneficial. There is a catch however. In order to create this sort of dietary wonder there is a great expenditure, i.e., a large waste of food energy. During the fermentation of the carbohydrate (sugars mainly) to alcohol as an exothermic reaction that is where the food energy is wasted. If one had an extremely sensitive thermometer, which does not exist outside of the laboratory, a measurable amount of heat emission could be detected slowly but surely over time. That is energy being liberated which the chickens could therefore not profit from. Evidently these subscribers either do not remember their high school chemistry or they never were exposed to it in the first place. Another way to visualize the situation is to use the example of three bricks being imaginatively subjected to fermentation. Let's say there are two red bricks and a green one. Each brick represents a source of energy. When fermentation occurs one of the bricks is converted to heat energy and is thus eliminated. Let's say that this is the green one. Before the process began each brick represents 1/3 of the energy source. After the fermentation each remaining brick now represents 1/2 of the remaining energy giving the illusion that there has been an increase. Yes, they represent a greater concentration of energy but at the loss (cost) of the liberated (and lost) energy represented by the green brick! The fact that the birds make great gains on such a diet does not take into account that there was a large initial expenditure of valuable energy in the first place. That is a terrible waste to achieve the effect! I am troubled by seeing my fellow chicken hobbyists being snookered being thusly cheated out of perfectly good nutrition the birds will not have available. One cannot multiply energy by sacrificing a great deal of it in the first place. The laws of chemistry (entropy) simply do not work that way; one does not get something in the real world by destruction of a portion of whatever it is. I hope that this little essay has awakened the native intellect inherent in all of us capable of rearing chickens. Get over the false illusion my dear friends!
Most sincerely to all,
Neal, the Zooman
How can I go about this without giving the scientific uninitiated an excuse to blow up? Yes, fermented food is more concentrated with nutrition creating the illusion that it is beneficial. There is a catch however. In order to create this sort of dietary wonder there is a great expenditure, i.e., a large waste of food energy. During the fermentation of the carbohydrate (sugars mainly) to alcohol as an exothermic reaction that is where the food energy is wasted. If one had an extremely sensitive thermometer, which does not exist outside of the laboratory, a measurable amount of heat emission could be detected slowly but surely over time. That is energy being liberated which the chickens could therefore not profit from. Evidently these subscribers either do not remember their high school chemistry or they never were exposed to it in the first place. Another way to visualize the situation is to use the example of three bricks being imaginatively subjected to fermentation. Let's say there are two red bricks and a green one. Each brick represents a source of energy. When fermentation occurs one of the bricks is converted to heat energy and is thus eliminated. Let's say that this is the green one. Before the process began each brick represents 1/3 of the energy source. After the fermentation each remaining brick now represents 1/2 of the remaining energy giving the illusion that there has been an increase. Yes, they represent a greater concentration of energy but at the loss (cost) of the liberated (and lost) energy represented by the green brick! The fact that the birds make great gains on such a diet does not take into account that there was a large initial expenditure of valuable energy in the first place. That is a terrible waste to achieve the effect! I am troubled by seeing my fellow chicken hobbyists being snookered being thusly cheated out of perfectly good nutrition the birds will not have available. One cannot multiply energy by sacrificing a great deal of it in the first place. The laws of chemistry (entropy) simply do not work that way; one does not get something in the real world by destruction of a portion of whatever it is. I hope that this little essay has awakened the native intellect inherent in all of us capable of rearing chickens. Get over the false illusion my dear friends!
Most sincerely to all,
Neal, the Zooman
My friend who raises meaties keeps them in a mobile coop that he moves every two days or so. We helped him process some back in November and they were filthy, disgusting birds.
