I had been fermenting for a couple weeks and the chickens loved it. Then they stopped one day....I looked at the jar and it had white mold growing....i thoroughly cleaned the jars and started over....the next batch, no mold, but the first time I opened it smelled pretty "off"....it normally would smell like tart wet cat food....this smelled like rotting fruit or something.... Any idea what might be going on? I've been using masin jars and lids....could they be harboring germs even after washing?
I've just bee using layer pellets....
from ideal 
It's been raining here all day, we lost 2 hens 2 nights in a row, the 3rd night the dogs & I ran out & I found 1 on the ground but alright, caught her & put her in a coop for the night, got the live trap set & last night was awakened by screaming chickens, ran out at 1am found a pullet with all her tail feathers pulled out & her back started on, I was able to catch her, checked the trap & there was a raccoon in it!, when I ran out the door with the 2 dogs the raccoon must have run in the trap trying to get away from the dogs 
awakened again at 2:30am this time I had 3 hens on the ground that I had to catch & put in coops for the rest of the night. There must have been 2 raccoons together & the other one came back 
A friend came & got the raccoon & left me 2 more traps, so I have 3 traps set up, hopefully there will something in at least one of them in the morning 
