Chickens & milk!

[galanie]

Someone always pipes in with "chickens are lactose intolerant" but this is a human deduction. Soured milk or milk made into kefir, live culture yogurt, or buttermilk doesn't seem to bother them at all. Once it's soured, or turned into live culture kefir or yogurt, it no longer has that same lactose. Same with raw milk. They digest it fine. It's just fresh homogenized milk that causes a problem. And this is from science plus observation.

 

[dragonlair]

Mine get fresh goat milk every morning mixed in with their layer crumbles. They love it and give me the hairy eyeball if it's not there.

 

[Tracy the chick]

Aw man i dont know what to do? Do i give them sour milk or fresh milk? They havent had there treat yet... I was thinking that the milk would help my skinny chickens bones with calcium... By the way the skinny chicken has been wormed. He was poorly at 8 weeks old but is totaly fine now at 22 weeks old just on the skinny side... I take all your comments on board...

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Fresh milk ONLY if it's raw milk. Don't give them fresh homogenized milk. Sour the homogenized first.

 

[centrarchid]

How does homogenization affect the chickens ability to process milk? There are no chemical differences.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
I don't know, but it just does. I've noticed a big difference myself in the taste so there have to be some differences in the content. But again, I don't know, it just does.