The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[aoxa]

All on fermented feed?

Yep. It's not highly fermented though, as I go through it so fast it doesn't sit more than 5-6 days max.

 

[aaggjg]

BEST!!!! Yep your birds know it is turkey day.....

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/05/11/egreetings/image/01.swf

 

[delisha]

I am down to 63 birds for the winter. I have two more males to butcher out. I will do it few days before Thanksgiving if the one gets large enough. One is ready now. We are smoking them for the holidays.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Yep. It's not highly fermented though, as I go through it so fast it doesn't sit more than 5-6 days max. 

Ideally, how long would you like it to sit?

About how much do you think you feed per day?

 

[mlowen]

Related to old freezer...off topic, not chicken related, necessarily: my father made dog houses out of old open topped freezer boxes (like you see in grocery stores.) He cut a door along the bottom edge of one end and built a roof to put on the open top. Old blankets, straw inside on the insulated "floor." We lived in MS and those houses kept the dogs cooler in summer and warmer in winter. They might be good hen houses in a predator proof run?

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
ok... yeah I mis-interpreted the second time. LOL no worries. like I said, about coffee, work, byc, etc. the brain doesn't always comprehend tone in an email.

as for the pvc feeder, i'm thinking of doing one with 4 90 degree elbows, making a square of the feeder for the free ranged bunch, roughly 2-3' on a side. that way they can line up inside and out, to fit the whole fam damly of free rangers. currently 28 birds, 3 to be sold this weekend.

the cochins are all captive since the predators seem to think they taste better recently. (daytime, so thinking a hawk or 3 )

as for quantities of feed, I doled out 4 bowls of roughly 3 cups of FF this morning, they were all cleaned out within 20 minutes, to just the free range bunch. then 1 bowl to each of the other pens. the sfh bowl was clean (3 girls), mille cochins and mottled cochins (5 birds in each pen) still had a little in the bowl, but don't know if they've got the idea of FF yet. the assorted pen (partridge, silver laced & red bantam cochins plus one bantam blrw/cochin cross) was also cleaned out. that last pen needs a bigger bowl, but i'm hoping to split them up soon as the 2 new pens are done (sunday?

).

also thinking of tossing the sfh girls out so I can use their pen for cochins too, then that'll free up 2 baby pens, the small hoop coop and the big hoop coop to toss the older babies outside, and to start pairing birds up again as they start laying. I know my LF blrw don't mind the smaller pen, so that's likely a given...

then again, if I've got a bunch of young cochins without a corresponding mature roo, they may all go in the big hoop coop. that would free up 3 of the new breeding pens I could put dorkings and ee's in...

thinking 'out loud' and realizing, I just need to get the rest of my new pens DONE! 2 finished, 2 nearly finished, 6 to go... with help they'd go quick, but i'm still limited by materials right now, until i'm done going to shows. then the extra $ can go into lumber.

ok i'm done rambling. LOL hubby's home. hehe

 

[Scott H]

Quote: I keep seeing this on this site but it must do something.....

Quote: O.K. seems like I stirred up the FF discussion on here and I'm glad because I'm going to try it. I got some crappy organic feed which is whole grain based and non GMO. I say crappy because the grain is suspended in a brown powder which I guess is all the nutrients the grain doesn't contain to make it a well rounded feed. Well, the girls sort thu this flipping out the powdery stuff to find what they want. Never did this with pellets or crumbles.
So I'm going to dump this stuff in a bucket with some 3 grain scratch, and some pellets and let it sit. Should be epic. I will offer free choice pellets during the day and put some FF out when I get home at night. Maybe this organic feed won't be wasted.

 

[ki4got]

ok on the FF topic (again? still?) I picked up a scratch feed today, that includes whole grains of corn oats wheat milo and boss... suggestions for adding this to the FF? it was only a couple dollars more than basic layer pellets so I thought I'd give it a try, but wondering about the whole grain thing.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

O.K. seems like I stirred up the FF discussion on here and I'm glad because I'm going to try it. I got some crappy organic feed which is whole grain based and non GMO. I say crappy because the grain is suspended in a brown powder which I guess is all the nutrients the grain doesn't contain to make it a well rounded feed. Well, the girls sort thu this flipping out the powdery stuff to find what they want. Never did this with pellets or crumbles.
So I'm going to dump this stuff in a bucket with some 3 grain scratch,  and some pellets and let it sit. Should be epic. I will offer free choice pellets during the day and put some FF out when I get home at night. Maybe this organic feed won't be wasted.

I love the idea of a feed that's whole grain plus supplements, but think the supplements need to be in a pellet so it isn't yucky like you describe. Fermenting is probably a good way to rescue that feed. I'm sure you paid enough for it.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

ok on the FF topic (again? still?)  I picked up a scratch feed today, that includes whole grains of corn oats wheat milo and boss...  suggestions for adding this to the FF?  it was only a couple dollars more than basic layer pellets so I thought I'd give it a try, but wondering about the whole grain thing.

Whole grains are great to ferment or sprout ... the BOSS will float, but that should be okay ... other people use it.