Quote:
I will give them as long as it takes unless they seem to be rotting. I did however throw them part of the soaked oats from jar #1 to see how they like them. They didn't really dive in but they still had some corn from last night, so they weren't real hungry.
Do you make your own yogurt or kefir or buttermilk? If so, and your chickens have had it before, pour some over your sprouts, and watch them disappear fast.
KEFIR http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/Makekefir.html
ETA Watch all ten of this guy's presentations:
BUTTERMILK Mine love it, and its lactic acid and bacteria culture is super healthy for them and YOU.
I make it a gallon at a time:
Buy a quart of buttermilk, pour it into a large container with a gallon of milk. Let the five quarts sit at room temperature for 24 hours, stirring occasionally, and you'll have five quarts. Save a quart to use with another gallon of milk later.
BTW, buttermilk will keep for a very long time in the refrigerator.
Store in a glass container(s).
YOGURTMAKE INEXPENSIVE YOGURT THE EASY WAY
(based on directions from Miss Prissy on the Backyard Chickens forum)
by
Joe D. Bryant
You will need:
A small plastic, insulated cooler that will hold:
4 one-quart jars/lids for yogurt/milk OR 2 half-gallon jars/lids for yogurt milk
2 more quart jars to be filled with boiling water
A very large pan to first boil water and then heat milk to 185* F.
Ingredients:
One gallon of milk (1% to 4%)
One cup (or two heaping tablespoonsful per quart if not making a whole gallon) of PLAIN yogurt with live culture
no flavor
no fruit
Stonyfield Farms Organic plain yogurt OR Traders Point Creamery plain yogurt are both excellent and are sold by Marsh and other large chain stores for $5 quart.
I used an Igloo 26-quart cooler that K-Mart sells for about $20.
After the large pan of water is boiling, dip all the jars/lids in for several seconds to sterilize everything.
Pour the large pan of boiling water into the cooler and into two quart jars. Put the lids on the jars loosely. Close the coolers lid with the two jars filled and the rest of the boiling water in the bottom of the cooler.
Set the cooler aside to heat up and proceed to make the yogurt:
After cooling the large pan, use it again to heat one gallon of milk to 185 degrees (I used Anne's meat thermometer because I couldn't find a "candy" thermometer in two stores). Place the hot milk pan in a sink filled with ice water and let it cool to 115 degrees (took about five minutes with ice on outside of pan). Stir in one cup of plain yogurt into the 115* F milk. After mixing well, pour the milk into the four sterilized one-quart glass jars or two half-gallon jars and put on the lids (not tight).
Go back to the cooler, set the two quarts of hot water aside for a moment and empty the hot water out of the bottom of the cooler. Set the jars of warm milk/yogurt mix into the cooler with the two jars of boiling water and close the lid.
After ten to twelve hours, take out the bottles of milk (finished yogurt) and put them in the refrigerator to cool.
Thats it:
For the cost of a gallon of milk, you have four quarts of yogurt that are identical to the cup of expensive plain yogurt that you bought. Save a cup of your new yogurt to make another gallon when this one is almost gone.
), but have not been able to sprout them whole. whole oats are seeds.....so Why aren't they sprouting? What is the difference between seed oats and whole oats?
