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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 16, 2013 13:24:37 GMT -5
"... Honey is antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal, and antibacterial -- it never spoils!..." Hmmm. Wondering how people make mead and vinegar out of honey? They add water which physically dilutes the sugars. With sufficient water the antiseptic, antibiotic, anti-fungal, and antibacterial properties of concentrated sugar solution are no longer active. The more correct statement would be "-- it never spoils if kept dry and uncontaminated." |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 16, 2013 13:53:31 GMT -5
MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: What is the the percentage of protein? The USDA's food nutrient database would answer those kinds of questions for you. For example, here's protein percentages of some common animal feeds. Brown Rice: 8% Yellow Corn: 9% Rye: 10% Popcorn: 11% Millet: 11% Sorghum: 11% Durham Wheat 14% Peas: 25% Lentils: 26% Favas: 26% Soybeans: 36% Cottonseed meal: 50% And in regards to sprouting... Pinto Beans: 21% Sprouted Pinto Beans: 5% OK. I admit that I haven't actually fed Fava beans to animals, but I threw some on the compost pile yesterday, and I would have fed them to animals if I had animals to feed. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 17, 2013 12:47:41 GMT -5
LOLOL Joseph, strike my question in the Homesteading thread!
First... Steev, you asked about the honey in the water to stop molding... disaster. Didn't work at all. We stopped doing that about 3 weeks ago. For a week we used nothing in the water, molding persisted. Returned to adding a SMALLER amount of bleach to both the soak water and watering water. There is still a bit of molding, but insignificant in comparison to what it was.
As for using honey to make wine and vinegar... All I can tell you is that it works. We are asking $30 a quart for our most recently bottled meade and getting it. Tomorrow I'll be bottling our first batch of muscadine wine. I'm making 3 quarts available for sale at $20 per quart. One is on reserve.
A friend was explaining the dry/wet feed issues to me. Interestingly... it doesn't seem to matter if you are feeding sprouts or dry... for the chickens the required weight of feed is the same. Now, THEORETICALLY, you won't get the same feed to meat ratio... But since we are talking layers that's not really all that important. We eat the extra roosters and even if it's skimpy, just add more water to the pot and you are good to go. On the other hand, if you want to talk flavor... That's another thing entirely and I am convinced that therein lies the REAL superiority in feeding sprouts versus dry crap. They LOVE the sprouts cause they TASTE good. Dried crap is dried crap is dried crap. They eat it because they are hungry but they aren't impressed and in turn their meat isn't impressive.
So, for now at least, we are going to stick with the sprouted fodder. A little bleach goes a LONG way. Solid bottom metal trays better than open OR solid bottom plastic. Add about 1/2 c. water when you spread the soaked grain to the tray and spread it out evenly. VERY KEY to keep seed MOIST but NOT wet particularly the first 24 hours after spreading as they are beginning to sprout. WET = MOLD. Keep the trays covered (we use the muslin curtains I made when the boys were babies) the first 4 days in the tray. Uncovered and in the sun or under a lamp (we have shelves in a south facing window) for the last 2 days.
I really appreciate your questions and input because it helps me to really analyze and focus on the issues that are most important. Thanks!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Nov 17, 2013 13:14:14 GMT -5
LOLOL Joseph, strike my question in the Homesteading thread! Ya right... Since I already did the math on sweet corn I'm gonna go ahead an post it anyway. Dry sweet corn = 10% protein. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Nov 17, 2013 16:25:23 GMT -5
LOLOL Thank you!  It is very much appreciated! 10% huh? interesting.... I am surprised... I was kinda expecting it to be lower than that... probably equating gluten content to protein content since I work with that knowledge in bread making. |
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Post by mnjrutherford on Dec 13, 2013 22:51:03 GMT -5
Apparently, sprouted barley has 15% protein at 7 days of growth.
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Post by steev on Dec 14, 2013 0:07:25 GMT -5
OK, I'm lazy, so perhaps I could work this out myself, but my question is: are we talking %protein dry, or wet, sprouted, or grain? I think we need a nice, graphic tabulation of what's being found here. One picture, yadda, yadda. Tabulated data can make information so readily convincing and useful.
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It is very much appreciated! 10% huh? interesting.... I am surprised... I was kinda expecting it to be lower than that... probably equating gluten content to protein content since I work with that knowledge in bread making.