feeding milk and whey

[paoniapoultry]

i raise dairy goats and have an excess of milk and whey. i did some research here on this forum on past posts regarding feeding milk to chickens. seems like the milk should be clabbered. i do this sometimes by adding a little rennet or lemon juice. this seperates the milk into curds and whey, then i feed it. however, sometimes, when i have just finished milking and i know i don't need the milk, or i don't have any clean jars, or i am in a rush and don't feel like going through the extra step of straining and cooling the milk or making cheese, i just bring the fresh raw goats milk from milking shed to the chickens bowls (*gasp* i know). from what i have read on here, maybe this is bad for the chickens? maybe i should always curdle the milk? never feed it as milk? and what about whey? i make a lot of cheese and have gallons of whey leftover from that... is that safe to feed as fresh whey? seems like what they like best is curds. if i feed fresh milk, it takes them a full day to empty the bowl, same with whey, but curds are consumed very fast!

thanks, in advance, for the help.

 

[galanie]

We always hear about chickens being lactose intolerant but raw milk might not bother them like pasteurized milk does. Curds/yogurt/whey would be better but so long as they seem healthy, and don't have consistently loose bowels, go for it. Farmers have fed their hens raw milk for generations.

 

[OwensMom]

I spoke with a vet about this. He said that the birds are not lactose"intolerant". They just don't handle large amounts of milk very well. Milk should not be a major part of their diet but "some" milk is ok so long as they don't have adverse reactions. I have always fed yogurt with no side effects and will continue this in the winter. Now hogs love milkand whey. The best pork is milk fed!!
By the way, I'm just down the road in Hotchkiss!! PM me if you want.

 

[omegorchards]

I actively feed my birds milk every day. I always have excess from my Jersey cow. Once I started feeding milk my birds (geese, ducks, chickens and turkeys) all started to put on a lot of gain. Many old (early 1900's) poultry publications list milk as integral in poultry diet. I use milk to make a wet mash. I add 1 gallon of milk to 16 quarts (volume) of my mash. I also use the same ratio from time to time with cracked corn. I find that the birds will also drink milk over water and feed on my wet mash over dry mash or scratch. My birds are all free range and have free choice feed of dry mash and wheat available to them at all times. Yet the go bonkers over the milk as wet mash. My birds ignore wet mash made with water.