The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aaggjg]

Okay can we talk about fermented feed AGAIN?

I have been doing FF for a good year now. I have my bucket and I put in my commercial bought feed cover with water and voila... I probably added a splash of ACV a year ago.... My bucket has been going for a long time. My hens have never taken to their FF the way others claim that theirs do. Still I've stuck with it. I only feed once a day and gage how much I need to feed based on next day leftovers. I supplement their FF daily with a bunch of sprouted grains and then I throw a few handfuls of scratch in the run to get them back in after free play. I also give them some greens, fruit and occasionally some meat or fish. I worry that the fish meal or whatever the protein is in my commercial feed is all getting left as sludge in the bottom of the bucket. What do you all think???

I do not ferment my scratch as I like to leave a big container down in the yard by the coop and we have way too many rodents around... Anyways, I decided I would soak some scratch for the girls as soaked is better then dry. My scratch is a random blend of various whole grains and some split peas... whatever I have on hand. Well I soaked way too much and it started fermenting; bubbles and white scum on top.... Today I took down a container of the fermented scratch and the girls went nuts for it! They were gobbling it up! The FF in their dish ?? They could care less about but they ran for the fermented grains. This got me thinking WHY?? Is it that the commercial feed is partially milled?? Is there an ingredient that has gone bad or one they don't like?? I have tried various organic commercial feeds and they have the same reaction to all of them. With todays findings I am wondering if I should start making my own feed? They seem to actually like it not just eat it because there is nothing else there .... Hmmmmmmmm

Thoughts???

 

[aoxa]

Okay can we talk about fermented feed AGAIN?

I have been doing FF for a good year now. I have my bucket and I put in my commercial bought feed cover with water and voila... I probably added a splash of ACV a year ago.... My bucket has been going for a long time. My hens have never taken to their FF the way others claim that theirs do. Still I've stuck with it. I only feed once a day and gage how much I need to feed based on next day leftovers. I supplement their FF daily with a bunch of sprouted grains and then I throw a few handfuls of scratch in the run to get them back in after free play. I also give them some greens, fruit and occasionally some meat or fish. I worry that the fish meal or whatever the protein is in my commercial feed is all getting left as sludge in the bottom of the bucket. What do you all think???

I do not ferment my scratch as I like to leave a big container down in the yard by the coop and we have way too many rodents around... Anyways, I decided I would soak some scratch for the girls as soaked is better then dry. My scratch is a random blend of various whole grains and some split peas... whatever I have on hand. Well I soaked way too much and it started fermenting; bubbles and white scum on top.... Today I took down a container of the fermented scratch and the girls went nuts for it! They were gobbling it up! The FF in their dish ?? They could care less about but they ran for the fermented grains. This got me thinking WHY?? Is it that the commercial feed is partially milled?? Is there an ingredient that has gone bad or one they don't like?? I have tried various organic commercial feeds and they have the same reaction to all of them. With todays findings I am wondering if I should start making my own feed? They seem to actually like it not just eat it because there is nothing else there .... Hmmmmmmmm

Thoughts???

Mine like fermented anything, but I have to say they like fermented whole grains better than dry whole grains.

Do you mix scratch in with your ff and ferment it that way?

 

[ki4got]

Quote: I got a bambi Saturday, the heart and liver also in the fridge with about 65-70 pounds of meat. 8)

since the dog eats raw, and hubby isn't overly thrilled with venison, most of it will go for dog food... no biggie. saves me having to shop around for cheap meats. LOL

what i'm planning on doing is grinding it in the meat grinder. I use roughly 50/50 chicken quarters (whole with bone) and deer meat, and about 10% organ meats (liver, heart, gizzard, etc from any/all sources I can find - deer, beef, chicken, etc). then I make them into roughly 1/4 pound 'meatballs' and freeze them for the dog's meals and supplement extra food as needed. 2 of these a day is not normally enough for him, but an occasional leg, thigh, turkey neck, etc makes up the difference.

i'm also going to mix in some FF, scratch, crumbles, whatever, and freeze in 'chicken' sized portions (big enough for a pen of 3-4 birds each) to give them something to work on over the winter... I like the idea of suet feeders, and may just make my portions fit those. then it can be hung out of the dirt and they can peck away.

it'll be very much like the suet that leigh blogged about, but probably less fat than real suet has.

the only setback right now, my hand grinder is a bolt-on without a home. hoping to find an electric one that is capable of grinding chicken bones, like the old one is. otherwise, i'll have to grind the chicken then use the electric one to re-grind/mix it all together

 

[Shan30]

lucky you!
Personally, I'ld mix the liver soup with dry grains - the fermented is already moist.  Liquid works so well to bind stuff together so they eat all of it.  It would be great to add to mash, or top dress feed.  If you put it in bowls, I'm thinking some would end up wasted, either spilled, or not consumed fast enough.

the ground up heart - easy to use any way you want.  nice to have on hand during the winter when they aren't getting bugs, etc.

I was curious about this too actually. I got my first deer yesterday morning !!!

I gave my mom the liver and the heat was way too damaged but I wondered how much of what remained would be ok for the birds. We freeze everything before eating due to parasites so wouldn't I have to do the same for them? And I did actually see a worm while working on it.

 

[ki4got]

Quote: my bucket gets roughly 50/50 20% grower pellets and sweet feed (all grain, roughly 10% protein). I haven't even had to train the outdoor birds to it. LOL just put out the babies 'yesterday dishes' with whatever's left over and it's been scoured clean when I come back down at lunch time.

the chicks get the pellet ff for breakfast, and the mix for dinner. WOW they can pack it away. they're going thru a FULL 10" ceramic feed bowl twice a day right now (12 chicks, most are about 3 weeks old).

 

[stonykill]

the heart is my favorite part to eat. In the rare occurrence I don't obliterate it killing the deer. Tends to be where my .308 150 grain ends up.

 

[armorfirelady]

Quote:
Doesnt that SIlkie Roo know if that big Roo gets out he will get his butt kicked?

Maybe he is like a pesty younger sibling.....he knows the big Roo is in the cage scure so he feels free to torment him.......I also wish I could understand chicken so I knew what they were saying to each other

Okay can we talk about fermented feed AGAIN?

I have been doing FF for a good year now. I have my bucket and I put in my commercial bought feed cover with water and voila... I probably added a splash of ACV a year ago.... My bucket has been going for a long time. My hens have never taken to their FF the way others claim that theirs do. Still I've stuck with it. I only feed once a day and gage how much I need to feed based on next day leftovers. I supplement their FF daily with a bunch of sprouted grains and then I throw a few handfuls of scratch in the run to get them back in after free play. I also give them some greens, fruit and occasionally some meat or fish. I worry that the fish meal or whatever the protein is in my commercial feed is all getting left as sludge in the bottom of the bucket. What do you all think???

While my girls ate their FF commercial feed they always picked out the oats I mixed with it first.

They are now on straight grains and they eat it like candy when I first put it out. They still pick out their favorite pieces first but they seem to like the grains better.

 

[Shan30]

 the heart is my favorite part to eat. In the rare occurrence I don't obliterate it killing the deer. Tends to be where my .308 150 grain ends up. 

Mmmm yes heart is tasty, I took him in a shot gun only area so it was obliterated. (My new hunting rifle is a 7mm 08)

Wasn't sure hunting bigger game would be my thing but it didn't suffer and wow what a rush!

The island only has black tail and they don't get all that big.

I just imagined how happy the birds would be if I bagged it all and let them pick through but it's probably a bad idea.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Okay can we talk about fermented feed AGAIN?

I worry that the fish meal or whatever the protein is in my commercial feed is all getting left as sludge in the bottom of the bucket. What do you all think???

Today I took down a container of the fermented scratch and the girls went nuts for it! They were gobbling it up! The FF in their dish ?? They could care less about but they ran for the fermented grains. This got me thinking WHY?? Is it that the commercial feed is partially milled?? Is there an ingredient that has gone bad or one they don't like?? I have tried various organic commercial feeds and they have the same reaction to all of them. With todays findings I am wondering if I should start making my own feed? They seem to actually like it not just eat it because there is nothing else there .... Hmmmmmmmm

Thoughts???

RE: stuff on the bottom of the bucket -
I just take my spoon (or whatever I'm using to scoop out the feed) all the way to the bottom of the bucket and scoop up from there to get a good distribution of everything. Mine has fish meal and the mineral mix (fertrell) in the bucket. It all goes into the feed, but I do mix my own now. RedRidge separates out her fishmeal/powders, but I haven't ever done that. I just put it all in.

The Commercial ff
Is your regular feed pellets or crumbles? I'd be interested to see you try an experiment. You may have already done this so if you have, you can just say if they react differently but... Since you feed the scratch on the ground, I'd be interested to hear how they would react if you toss some on the ground. Will they eat it differently from the ground than in the feed pans?


Regarding "White Scum" on the top...FYI

-The White Scum" you describe is Kahm Yeast. Some people have mistakenly called this the "mother". That is INCORRECT.

You can usually smell that yeast/mold smell when you have it.

Here is a representative photo of kahm yeast growing on fermenting tomato juice from http://www.wildfermentation.com/raw-tomato-preserves/kahm-yeast-on-tomato-juice/

You can see that it is kind of like a light "web" growing on top.

The Kahm yeast won't hurt the chickens (or people), but it WILL change the flavor of the ferment and the chemistry in your bucket if left, causing the yeast/LABs ratio to get out of balance.

When lacto-fermenting food for people, you regularly skim any kahm off the top of your fermenting foods as it really does change the flavor...most people wouldn't want to eat the products when they have this...your chickens probably won't care for it either. It is usually quite preventable if the fermenting food is well under the liquid in the vessel but if there are any "floaties" it does enhance proliferation of the stuff.

When I'm planning on fermenting long-term, and because I do LACTO-FERMENTATION, I don't want the yeasts to get the upper-hand in the bucket. I skim off any kahm and take action to change the balance back to the LABs being in dominance.

 

[Leahs Mom]

the heart is my favorite part to eat. In the rare occurrence I don't obliterate it killing the deer. Tends to be where my .308 150 grain ends up.

I have a heart and liver coming tomorrow from my friend at work that gets venison for me every year.

How do your prepare the heart for eating yourself? I've had plenty of liver in my days, but have never prepared a heart before.