The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have never been trendy either, and will never be. I have no tattoos and am not sporting a beard, thank god, I wear what's comfortable and will never wear heals or do my nails. I have been called odd, and other not nice terms. I thankfully now don't care. I make up my own mind.

You speak your mind and don't worry what others think. Your opinion matters, as well as your experiences. People need to hear what you are saying.

 

[getaclue]

When my grandmother was alive, she loved buttermilk. Her favorite late evening snack was breaking up cornbread into a mug, and pouring buttermilk over it, then eating it with a spoon. Yes, buttermilk is soured milk, but that doesn't mean you can make it by setting a gallon of milk outside in the summer heat for a week, then drinking it. Yes, lots of people are stupid. There, I said it.

Truthfully, I'm feeling pretty good.

 

[speckledhen]

I have never been trendy either, and will never be. I have no tattoos and am not sporting a beard, thank god, I wear what's comfortable and will never wear heals or do my nails. I have been called odd, and other not nice terms. I thankfully now don't care. I make up my own mind.

You speak your mind and don't worry what others think. Your opinion matters, as well as your experiences. People need to hear what you are saying.

We are much alike in many ways, but "beard", Lisa? LOL! Yeah, when they say "odd", they don't mean it in a quirky, cool way, usually.

I'm not an expert in everything, never pretended to be, but my gut and experiences with crop issues in chickens over the past dozen years tells me this is not a good trend.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Aren't beards trendy right now? All the young men are sporting one it seems. I definitely don't want one.

In all my birds I only had a crop problem once. Never have I seen even half the stuff people are seeing. I always approach any animal husbandry with first understanding what a natural wild diet would be for the species, or equivalent species than try to provide that. Wild chickens aren't eating fermented feeds, so they didn't evolve to eat it. The further you get away from a natural diet the more you will see health problems in my opinion.



Shed update. My crazy husband plans to work on it during our hot weather this weekend. He can handle more heat than I can. I will hide in the house, and run out occasionally to fill and refresh waters.

It is supposed to go from steamy 90's to cool 60's within a week. These temperature swings combined with migrating birds is why I see more chickens die in the fall than any other time of the year. We will see if I get any casualties. I generally will lose one or two, but not every year.

 

[speckledhen]

Some guy challenged me saying that wild bird will eat fermented fruit on the ground. I told him that you cannot compare wild birds to domesticated chickens who are fed by keepers and basically must eat what is put in front of them and they can't get away from it. But, maybe a wild bird will peck at fermented fruit, I don't know. But surely, he won't gorge on it daily to the exclusion of all his other natural foods. I also told him to wait for my Part 2 video. He asked if saurkraut was okay since it was properly fermented. Who wants to feed chickens saurkraut? What a dumb question! I mean, really, c'mon.

If they want chickens to have extra vitamins, give them VITAMINS. Let them range on green forage. Don't force smelly, sour feed on them and risk hurting them. Geez. Why are they so intent on feeding them something UNNATURAL?

By the way, that shed looks AWESOME!

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

You tell them! I have seen a few nature shows where birds eat fermented berries and than act all drunk. Happens her occasionally with wild turkeys and crab apples. Not sure how it turns out for them though.

Least they can do is get their facts straight if they want to debate you on the issue.

Thanks on the shed. The husband is out in the heat working on it, I'm in the house where I belong.

 

[speckledhen]

You tell them! I have seen a few nature shows where birds eat fermented berries and than act all drunk. Happens her occasionally with wild turkeys and crab apples. Not sure how it turns out for them though.

Least they can do is get their facts straight if they want to debate you on the issue.

Thanks on the shed. The husband is out in the heat working on it, I'm in the house where I belong.

And that's a good example of fermented food turning to alcohol. But, they can leave and eat natural forage afterward to offset the effects. Penned chickens who are fed whatever strikes the owner's fancy have no choice. And, again, that's the wrong kind of fermentation entirely. Why are they so adamant about it? I can't figure it out. I figure I'm being fussy if I make them a heavy-on-eggs protein cornbread once a year.

Avia Charge 2000 is a great vitamin supplement for birds. It's a powder you add to water. Has every vitamin and mineral they'll need. But chickens on rich green forage don't need it.

 

[kitkat5505]

The shed is looking great!

I'm not into the trend of fermenting everything either. I've tried a friend's homemade apple kombucha and it basically tasted like mild apple cider vinegar, yuck. I don't care about whatever health benefits they say fermenting has, it smells and tastes gross and I prefer my foods fresh lol.

 

[speckledhen]

The shed is looking great!

I'm not into the trend of fermenting everything either. I've tried a friend's homemade apple kombucha and it basically tasted like mild apple cider vinegar, yuck. I don't care about whatever health benefits they say fermenting has, it smells and tastes gross and I prefer my foods fresh lol.

Now, I had a very hard time finding any anti-fermented feed articles, but here was one I located. Interesting.

http://www.rawfoodexplained.com/fermented-foods/the-harmful-effects-of-fermented-foods.html

 

[Leahs Mom]

There is a huge difference between yeast fermentation (which is what the ff proponents on byc are achieving) and lacto-fermentation (which is what the studies done with chickens showing benefit were reporting on).

Without special equipment, it would be extremely hard for someone with a large flock to achieve a TRULY lacto-ferment chicken feed.

I agree with you all and have much more to say. But I don't discuss ff on open forum. If anyone wants to discuss, pm.