Texas

[RUNuts]

Later Edit- So when she was tossed over the fence this evening she was obviously sliced open by the car, so I can feel better about not running her over at least. Why on earth would a chicken be by the radiator fan(silkie drama)?

Any chance the silkie was eating bugs off the radiator? Slightly toasted. Just stick your head in here...

 

[RUNuts]

I've been doing fermented feed for about 8 years steady now for my 70 hens. This summer, though. I just could not face mixing up the grains in my hellfire oven of a feed room, so I switched to layer pellets for a couple of months. It's only been 3 weeks now and I'm remembering why I loved the FF so much. The smell of chicken poop just slams into me when I walk into the barn. I had completely forgotten how much they would smell before I started the FF. They don't seem to like it as much either. I've got another can and a half before I need to restock, but now I'm starting to think I might not wait until mid September to start back.

Still trying to figure out how to get rid of these extra roos. I've got a friend who's into hunting/gathering/all-natural-sourced eating and he's coming for 5 of my adult roos, but no one is interested in the littles.

I sitting in a swamp and the mold out did my attempts at fermented feed outdoors with commercial feed. Are you doing the fermentation inside or in the oven of a feed room?

Shame about the littles. You don't raise for your own consumption?

 

[AllenK RGV]

I always did my FF indoors until my wife insisted it be moved outside. By then the cultures were mature enough to keep out the mold.

 

[electrycmonk]

So would a greenhouse or pseudo-greenhouse building be visible for setting up a corner dedicated for FF? What is the spectrum of temp. & Humidity for ideal health of the production?

I'm in preparation to rebuild/upgrade the wellhouse(4x8 currently) into a 10x20 (12x22?) and have planned it for a semi-gardening other 1/2 and I still have about 12+/- feet to extend for a greenhouse section towards the coop/run as well.

 

[AllenK RGV]

So would a greenhouse or pseudo-greenhouse building be visible for setting up a corner dedicated for FF? What is the spectrum of temp. & Humidity for ideal health of the production?

I'm in preparation to rebuild/upgrade the wellhouse(4x8 currently) into a 10x20 (12x22?) and have planned it for a semi-gardening other 1/2 and I still have about 12+/- feet to extend for a greenhouse section towards the coop/run as well.

I would suggest you start it indoors and get the base of your ferment healthy before moving it outside. That is just me. When it smells ripe and pugnant it is ready if not molding over. If you got the time for it go ahead I just found it to be a time sink and dubious as the yeast and bacteria get their piece of your chick feed.

 

[aart]

@DorothyH here's the end of the chat thread(as of now)

 

[AllenK RGV]

I remember sleeping hungry last night but didn't think it was this bad. Lid was from a Costco Size container of cashews.

 

[electrycmonk]

I remember sleeping hungry last night but didn't think it was this bad. Lid was from a Costco Size container of cashews. View attachment 2270316

Some of those holes have a twisty "s" shape of a drill bit??? What the heck is this mystery alluding to? Did you sleepwalk to the drill bits to force open and consume entire jug of cashews?

 

[electrycmonk]

@AllenK RGV
Duuuude, I hope that #8/Isaias fizzles out or bears hard to the east and disoves in the north Atlantic. As the stuff I saw was a steamroller absolutely soaking Florida and S. Ga and S. Carolina like a wet mop and bucket tipped over.

I don't like when my wierd darker dreams that I wake from become reality or arrive with erie potential to fully develope in reality....

July 28/29th I wrote in a notepad about Atlantic storm systems from those darker dreams...

When I posted in this thread I edited down & removed some of the text and then just put "?'s" next to the numbers 10 & 11.

9 is named, and has reached H1 status sooner then I saw.

10 is already a number with 6 days to build strength to get named by next Wednesday.

 

[NickyPick]

Hmmmmm, I have been aware of fermented feed in threads but, have yet to really read into it. Do you have any threads you would recommend reading to really get a solid grasp of? Or do you have some recipe or notes you'd like to share here in this thread?

I started reading that loooooooong FF thread in the meat birds forum way back when. I think a lady called Beekissed was doing an experiment with her broilers. They then started talking about how it would work for layers, so I started. I really hate the mush you get with wet pellets, so I have a grain mixture. Oats, barley, scratch, BOSS and catfish pellets. Since I got turkeys, I've been adding a half scoop of wild game crumbles to the wet mixture before feeding. I've had healthy hens and tons of eggs for 8 years now, so I don't see any drawbacks to it as a feed. My main pros were, the lack of smell in the coop and the feed lasting longer than the same amount of pellets (so my costs were less).