Milk - for Chickens?

[Peppercorngal]

My friend with a flock of 12 feeds her chickens warm milk soaked bread every night. She says it helps them quiet and sleep the night. It seems that milk is not a good food for a chicken. Lots of bread isn't either. Does this sound right to you? And who cares whether chickens sleep well?

 

[The Phantom]

No idea. Mine sometimes get it as a treat. And drink it from a baby bottle!

 

[cavemanrich]

Many peeps have many different opinions as to what to feed their chickens. Lets take bread... It is not a complete nutrition compared to chicken feed that has a balanced amount of needed nutrients, protein minerals, vitamins, etc. It will not hurt your chickens, but will act the same if you give your chickens too much scratch, or other treats. It dilutes the percentage of the needed items like protein. I do not see milk as being bad for chickens ether. Again , it offsets the balance that is more ideal nutrition.
The results, will not necessarily be sick or dead chickens. You may see less than ideal egg production results.
I do give my chickens a variety of feed as well as generous amounts of scratch, bird seeds, and other things including kitchen scraps. (never spoiled food). My chickens live long lives. 13 was oldest. Maybe I would not win any egg laying contests, but that is not important to me.
WISHING YOU BEST....and

 

[Peppercorngal]

Many peeps have many different opinions as to what to feed their chickens. Lets take bread... It is not a complete nutrition compared to chicken feed that has a balanced amount of needed nutrients, protein minerals, vitamins, etc. It will not hurt your chickens, but will act the same if you give your chickens too much scratch, or other treats. It dilutes the percentage of the needed items like protein. I do not see milk as being bad for chickens ether. Again , it offsets the balance that is more ideal nutrition.
The results, will not necessarily be sick or dead chickens. You may see less than ideal egg production results.
I do give my chickens a variety of feed as well as generous amounts of scratch, bird seeds, and other things including kitchen scraps. (never spoiled food). My chickens live long lives. 13 was oldest. Maybe I would not win any egg laying contests, but that is not important to me.
WISHING YOU BEST....and

Yes, I agree. Chickens can have most things to eat, but I thought the practice of giving milk and bread every day would hurt egg production and make them fat. My chickens get quite the variety. I give them yogurt, never milk. They love grapes and watermelon too. Dove and Quail seed is another of their favorites.

 

[cavemanrich]

Did you say watermelon???? Oh yes, mine love that also. I give them the ends to enjoy as well as all the green outer rind we leave behind. I have a old school meat grinder (manual) set up in the chicken area that I chop up the rinds and other veggies. The result is like it went thru a cheese grater. There is no trace of waste since the pieces are small. They wolf it down like mad.
Here are a couple of my cuties enjoying watermelon. The rest of flock are foraging and not aware of the treat there yet.
View attachment 1258712

 

[BlueBaby]

Actually, the French feed their White Breese lot's of milk.

http://bressefarm.com/

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Milk is high in protein and most of the most needed vitamins. Milk is also an animal sourced protein and as such is very good for chickens. I think that the University of Wisconsin used to have old poultry magazines from the ninteenteens on line. I think that they were all WHITE LEGHORN WORLD or something like that. These periodicals were full of adds for dried buttermilk baby chick food, which is a very very good chick ration.

 

[chickens really]

Chickens can't process Dairy very well. Bread is not good either. Regular Chicken feed is all they need..

 

[Mr.chickens]

I also mix wheat floor with milk (residue of my daughter feeder) and give my hens.

 

[Chickassan]

I've given one of mine yoghurt and a little buttermilk when she had gleet don't know if it helped but it did give her really loud gas.