feeding extra milk to chickens

[Sissy]

have been giving mine yogurt. and they love it
but have to try the receipes on the junket web page..

 

[Sebrightmom]

I give mine leftover milk straight from the goat. They just love it.

 

[BeardedChick]

I tried giving them about a quart of straight milk today and they drank a bunch but not all of it. Mixing it with crumble first might work better...

 

[digitS']

Chickens are supposed to have some degree of lactose intolerance. They had problems with watery poop when I just gave them the milk to drink. I don't know if it was a digestion problem or just too much liquid in their diet but allowing it to "clabber" by sitting at room temperature for awhile might be best.

Yogurt should have all those helpful bacteria . . . mixing that or Kefir with the milk should take care of any lactose that the chickens might have problems with. These "probiotics" have been used in research studies to control infections in chickens. I'm not sure how that all went, however.

Steve

 

[enola]

The runny poop is caused by the excess fluid injested when they drink all the milk. I don't think that is a lactose intolerance.

 

[BeardedChick]

I didn't see any evidence of runny poop on the poop boards...

It is easy enough to make curds, so I'm sticking with that! Plus they eat it up in about a minute.

 

[digitS']

The proof should be in the pooping, so to speak. But, 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.

I don't know how many beneficial micro-organisms I was getting into the milk by leaving it at room temperature for the day but probably quite a few.

Steve

 

[BeardedChick]

I am going to go outside right now and hold chicken behinds against my ear and listen for the tell-tale warm puffs of air that accompany lactose intolerance.

Better bring a q-tip!

Be back in an hour to report my results...

(Just kidding around, Steve. I do wonder how much lactose is still present in the curds. Apparently not enough to bother my crew too much, as they've been eating them for several days with no apparent ill effects.)

 

[Sallyschickens]

Quote:
O.k. this is a fun topic! What curd recipe are you using? Is it easy?

 

[BeardedChick]

Quote:
Warm up the milk to 190. Slowly pour in vinegar (white or apple cider) until it curdles. I'm adding maybe a half cup. Strain off the curds, you're done!

If you have a muslin or cheesecloth bag, you use a little less vinegar and then strain the curds overnight - it becomes 'queso blanco' or vinegar cheese (for people to eat).