Dried Soybeans - Used for soymilk but now have shredded beans safe?

[Mek]

Hi Everyone,

I just made some home made soymilk from dried soybeans and I want to make sure they are safe for my chickens to eat.
Has anyone else fed soybeans to chickens?

ie the process of making soymilk is to soak the beans over night then grind them and then add water to extract milk and strain.
the milk needs to be cooked for 20 minutes. I should assume the same for the grinded soybeans left over which I would like to feed to the chickens

 

[GallusGal]

Soy is heavily utilized in animal feed and to the best of my knowledge, soybeans are safe. Some legumes can cause digestive upset in birds if fed uncooked or undercooked though, so it might be a good idea to try cooking them before feeding them out. That being said, I wouldn't make soy beans a regular part of a chicken's diet, because unfermented soy products contain a variety of antinutrients, one of them being phytic acid, which inhibits the absorption of minerals like calcium, zinc, magnesium, and iron - basically, no good for egg layers. I'm sure it's fine as a treat, but I would not feed it on a regular basis, especially considering that the chicken feed itself is probably already soy-heavy.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

If I'm understanding your process correctly the beans themselves are not cooked, just the extracted "milk"? If so you'll want to cook the bean solids before feeding to inactivate the anti-nutritional factors.

 

[ejb3810]

Roasted (not raw) soybeans are commonly fed by many racing pigeon enthusiasts. They are a relatively inexpensive source of protein, which they have a high content of. You might find reference on the internet to information on feeds, vitamins, minerals and feeding authored by Dr. Gordon Chalmers that would be helpful to you.

 

[digitS']

I made tofu a couple of times this winter from my garden soybeans. What was not eaten for edamame, was dried. I may be able to do this one more time but don't want to risk eating all of this year's seed

.

Making soymilk seems to be about the same process, essentially.

After I'd extracted the liquid for tofu, the ground soybeans went on a cookie sheet. At 200°F, it took about an hour for them to become fairly dry and look toasted. They then went in a basket and continued drying for about a week.

This soybean meal were so crisp that I felt it necessary to get a little moisture back into them before feeding them to the chickens. The chickens really, really liked them and would usually eat the wet meal before anything else I put with it! I gave them as a "treat," however. Even tho' they seemed very much like their commercial feed, I didn't try to make this toasted soymeal more than about 10% of their diet.

I hope this helps. I was very encouraged by how growing soybeans worked out well for both our diet and chicken treats. This will be the 3rd year for me to grow soybeans in the garden

.

Steve

 

[Mek]

Thank you everyone for your advice. I think I will stick this batch of soybeans bits into the worm farm instead. ... Now I wonder if my composting worms are safe to give them cos there is a lot of decaying material in my worm farm.