Can you feed chooks milk straight from the cow shed???

[cheekychick]

I live on a dairy farm and I am hand raising 3 orphaned lambs at the moment, to whom I feed milk straight from the cow shed. As I am always bringing home surplus milk incase of spillages etc while filling the bottles, I was wondering if I could feed the rest to the chooks. I can only give my cat & dogs a certain amount before they will burst

 

[bluebirdfarm]

i think you have to let it clabber and then you can feed it , i wouldn't give too much though , milk might make them runny / has > he > more runny than already !v

 

[cheekychick]

Sorry for sounding dumb, but what does clabber mean??? LOL Thats what I get for living in a different country

 

[digitS']

Clabber, verb - turn into curds; curdle

I used to use rennet tablets in warm raw milk to encourage it to curdle. I bet you can find them in New Zealand.

The rennet and 8 or 10 hours in a shallow pan at room temperature, would turn the milk into something "like" cottage cheese. (You've got to do a little slicing, gentle stirring, and pour off the whey.) And, speaking of "like" - the chickens really did. Like it, that is

.

Steve

 

[Pupsnpullets]

How 'bout stirring a little apple cider vinegar or lemon juice into the milk. That will curdle it pdq.

 

[Mahonri]

As a kid we gave extra milk (straight from the cow) to our chickens all of the time. I never saw it hurt any of them.

 

[cheekychick]

Cheers for your helpful replies people

I will give them all a try

If anyone else has any ideas feel free to let me know

 

[kstaven]

If you make cheese take the whey and mix it into a mash feed. They will love you for it.

 

[MissPrissy]

Raw milk can be fed to chickens. Mine prefer it clabbered. I do give them the whey from cheese making too. Most of it these days goes to the pigs who love it even more.

 

[digitS']

Here's what the poultry scientists say : "Chickens do not possess the necessary enzymes to efficiently hydrolyze lactose into glucose and galactose."

So in other words, they are lactose intolerant.

If they are provided with the micro-organisms that are found in cultured milk products, chickens can apparently make use of the lactose. In fact, providing them with these "probiotics" has been researched as a way to prevent chicken diseases.

I don't know how many beneficial micro-organisms I was getting into the raw milk by leaving it at room temperature (under a dish towel) for a day but probably quite a few. Actually making cheese should completely culture the milk or any byproduct with the beneficial "bugs." All that should be of help to the chickens.

Steve