Turmeric? Who has used as an immune booster, & can you give feedback?

[chicknmania]

I am using it as a followup treatment for a pullet with Marek's. She doesn't like it very much, I will try it with the melon.

I got it from Peter Brown but it comes in a horse pill (we're using the Curcumin) and there's so much there it's really hard to assure that she eats it all. Still she is holding her own and is slowly improving so far. I'm hoping she is getting enough, as she is just a small pullet.

We also have the Turmeric that I sometimes mix with the flock's food. Again, they eat it, but don't care for it especially. Hard to say if it works as an immune booster, but I assume so.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I just read all the threads on turmeric here and I'm surprised that none mentioned it as an anti-viral and antibiotic. I was trying to see if anyone has successfully treated sniffles with it and what their course of treatment was, but I guess it's going to be me

I have a couple birds showing signs of illness (my best guess from reading a link on poultry diseases is bronchitis) and since this winter isn't going to be ending anytime soon I thought I ought to do something to help them get better. I started this morning with a heaping tablespoon in the breakfast for 18 birds. I will continue this for the following days/week and post my results, if any.

 

[pdirt]

I just read all the threads on turmeric here and I'm surprised that none mentioned it as an anti-viral and antibiotic. I was trying to see if anyone has successfully treated sniffles with it and what their course of treatment was, but I guess it's going to be me

I have a couple birds showing signs of illness (my best guess from reading a link on poultry diseases is bronchitis) and since this winter isn't going to be ending anytime soon I thought I ought to do something to help them get better. I started this morning with a heaping tablespoon in the breakfast for 18 birds. I will continue this for the following days/week and post my results, if any.

Do you ferment any of their feed? Fermented turmeric is even better than unfermented, it makes much more of the curcumin bioavailable. I make an amazing fermented turmeric tonic I drink myself and hadn't yet thought of adding it to the fermented feed.

 

[chicknmania]

WE give it once in a while. Idk if it works, or not, but have been told by reliable sources that it does. I haven't tried the fermented, how do you do that, or find it? Our flock doesn't like the Turmeric powder very much. But they eat it. We just mix it with their feed.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Do you ferment any of their feed? Fermented turmeric is even better than unfermented, it makes much more of the curcumin bioavailable. I make an amazing fermented turmeric tonic I drink myself and hadn't yet thought of adding it to the fermented feed.

Good to know! I used to ferment barley but now I'm sprouting it. Not all of it sprouts, though - the bottom layer of seeds winds up fermenting. Not sure how I'd ferment the turmeric; if I throw it in with my sprouts while they're growning/fermenting it'll likely just get washed out during rinses. Fermenting the mash just turns into smelly goop after a while so I don't do that.

 

[subhanalah]

Be careful! Do you know what turmeric does to your insides if you eat too much? Not sure if chickens react the same way but man! It's a bad day in the bathroom, that's for sure!

 

[pdirt]

Good to know! I used to ferment barley but now I'm sprouting it. Not all of it sprouts, though - the bottom layer of seeds winds up fermenting. Not sure how I'd ferment the turmeric; if I throw it in with my sprouts while they're growning/fermenting it'll likely just get washed out during rinses. Fermenting the mash just turns into smelly goop after a while so I don't do that.

I've thought about sprouting for the chickens and maybe I will try it someday. Right now it sounds like too much work with all that rinsing. Especially not easy to do in the freezing winter. We sprout a lot of our own grains for us to eat and that's enough work for us! I did sprout some BOSS a couple times and they didn't care for it much, not like plain BOSS anyways. The sprouts sat there in a feeder for a couple days before they were finally gone.

If you do try fermenting feed again, you can just mix in a little turmeric, as the other person said, yes, a little goes a long ways.

There are a whole slew of styles to do just about anything out there, including fermenting feed. I've settled on a batch-at-a-time method (I mix up a bucket about every 10-14 days) using a commercial starter called EM (effective microorganisms). If I didn't also use EM for all sorts of other uses such as spraying down housing and litter in warmer months, putting it in their water, spraying our garden soil and plants as well as drinking the stuff myself (fermented turmeric is one of my favorites!), I would probably use a different starter such as buttermilk or kefir for the feed. I think EM produces not only superior nutrition compared to regular fermentation, but it also produces consistent batches and never goes "off". Of course, you don't NEED any starter for fermentation to happen but only need to provide proper conditions for it to happen, but using a starter does tend to produce more reliable results.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I've thought about sprouting for the chickens and maybe I will try it someday. Right now it sounds like too much work with all that rinsing. Especially not easy to do in the freezing winter. We sprout a lot of our own grains for us to eat and that's enough work for us! I did sprout some BOSS a couple times and they didn't care for it much, not like plain BOSS anyways. The sprouts sat there in a feeder for a couple days before they were finally gone.

If you do try fermenting feed again, you can just mix in a little turmeric, as the other person said, yes, a little goes a long ways.

There are a whole slew of styles to do just about anything out there, including fermenting feed. I've settled on a batch-at-a-time method (I mix up a bucket about every 10-14 days) using a commercial starter called EM (effective microorganisms). If I didn't also use EM for all sorts of other uses such as spraying down housing and litter in warmer months, putting it in their water, spraying our garden soil and plants as well as drinking the stuff myself (fermented turmeric is one of my favorites!), I would probably use a different starter such as buttermilk or kefir for the feed. I think EM produces not only superior nutrition compared to regular fermentation, but it also produces consistent batches and never goes "off". Of course, you don't NEED any starter for fermentation to happen but only need to provide proper conditions for it to happen, but using a starter does tend to produce more reliable results.

The sprouting isn't much work, at least not for me. I bought a wire shoe rack, 3 3-packs of 8x8 cake tins and 2 slightly larger square dishes to catch the water, all under $20. Poking holes in 8 of the tins was a lot of work, but I only water 3x/day. The top two trays rain down through the rows below. I have it set up in my kitchen. There are fully-automated systems available and building one would be simple enough, but I'm not growing nearly enough to warrant such an expense (pump, timer, plumbing). I recently started BOSS and thus far am not impressed! Not only wasn't the first tray of it properly sprouted by chicken suppertime today (day 8) but it LOVES to grow mould! Barley is easy, and my bag of barley is going WAY further than it did when I was fermenting! When I was fermenting it, I was using a splash of acv and liquid from plain yogurt as starter. I like to keep it outside after the first day (otherwise the household fruitflies get WAY out of hand!) but it's been unnaturally cold for so long I actually had a batch that I couldn't feed for over a week because it was frozen solid! And then I found the fodder thread and started doing that instead

 

[pdirt]

The sprouting isn't much work, at least not for me. I bought a wire shoe rack, 3 3-packs of 8x8 cake tins and 2 slightly larger square dishes to catch the water, all under $20. Poking holes in 8 of the tins was a lot of work, but I only water 3x/day. The top two trays rain down through the rows below. I have it set up in my kitchen. There are fully-automated systems available and building one would be simple enough, but I'm not growing nearly enough to warrant such an expense (pump, timer, plumbing). I recently started BOSS and thus far am not impressed! Not only wasn't the first tray of it properly sprouted by chicken suppertime today (day 8) but it LOVES to grow mould! Barley is easy, and my bag of barley is going WAY further than it did when I was fermenting! When I was fermenting it, I was using a splash of acv and liquid from plain yogurt as starter. I like to keep it outside after the first day (otherwise the household fruitflies get WAY out of hand!) but it's been unnaturally cold for so long I actually had a batch that I couldn't feed for over a week because it was frozen solid! And then I found the fodder thread and started doing that instead

Would love to see a photo of your sprouting setup. Not sure I could get my wife to go for such a setup in our kitchen, but perhaps I might be able to do such as system outside in the summer. Interesting to hear that it seems your barley is lasting longer than when fermenting. BTW, some BOSS have been treated (I forget how but I think it's some sort of chemical preservative) to inhibit sprouting. When I did sprout them, they had 1.5-2" long sprouts after 3-4 days but that was in the warm (80s) of summer. I'm not a sprouting expert but 8 days does seem like a long time to sprout anything and it gives it more of a chance to grow mold. Yogurt is actually not such a good starter, though, because it needs about 105-110F to really do its thing. Kefir, clabbered milk, kraut juice and water kefir all work very well at room temperature.

The EM method requires a fairly anaerobic environment. I keep a piece of plastic on top of the food and a bucket lid tight on that. No flies! I keep it inside in the basement furnace room, scoop out the daily ration into a smaller bucket and take it out to the chickens. It doesn't smell either, except slightly sweet-sour. It's only about 50% moisture, so there is no straining. No stirring either except when I first mix the batch up. It just sits there until I'm ready to use it. Takes me about 15 minutes to make a batch every 10 days or so.

My hunch though is that there are benefits to both sprouting and fermenting and the ideal situation would be to do both. But I'm lazy and that just sounds like too much work to do both all the time! Our birds are already getting some pretty excellent nutrition. Oh yeah, I also just started a mealworm farm, which is fascinating!

 

[Phoenixxx]

Would love to see a photo of your sprouting setup. Not sure I could get my wife to go for such a setup in our kitchen, but perhaps I might be able to do such as system outside in the summer. Interesting to hear that it seems your barley is lasting longer than when fermenting. BTW, some BOSS have been treated (I forget how but I think it's some sort of chemical preservative) to inhibit sprouting. When I did sprout them, they had 1.5-2" long sprouts after 3-4 days but that was in the warm (80s) of summer. I'm not a sprouting expert but 8 days does seem like a long time to sprout anything and it gives it more of a chance to grow mold. Yogurt is actually not such a good starter, though, because it needs about 105-110F to really do its thing. Kefir, clabbered milk, kraut juice and water kefir all work very well at room temperature.

The EM method requires a fairly anaerobic environment. I keep a piece of plastic on top of the food and a bucket lid tight on that. No flies! I keep it inside in the basement furnace room, scoop out the daily ration into a smaller bucket and take it out to the chickens. It doesn't smell either, except slightly sweet-sour. It's only about 50% moisture, so there is no straining. No stirring either except when I first mix the batch up. It just sits there until I'm ready to use it. Takes me about 15 minutes to make a batch every 10 days or so.

My hunch though is that there are benefits to both sprouting and fermenting and the ideal situation would be to do both. But I'm lazy and that just sounds like too much work to do both all the time! Our birds are already getting some pretty excellent nutrition. Oh yeah, I also just started a mealworm farm, which is fascinating!