Yogurt and chicks

[chickalicia]

My baby chicks eating yogurt for first time! They love it! Even the lime flavor kind lol

 

[chickenmommaof7]

Aw What kind are they?

 

[Tatiana110]

Such beautiful chickies! Some look like Dutch Leghorns, about 1.5 months old?



I give mine home-made yogurt on the 2nd day. They love it very much!

 

[chickalicia]

Homemade? Wow. How do you make that? They are of a BBRed old English kelso breed if Iam saying that right

they are yes one half to two months Ty some of them have white feathers on them a lot. Which I find strange. Only white on roo is by his tail feathers and no white on mama. They have it all over their wings and some on their chest. But boy thy loved the yogurt. Lol

 

[Tatiana110]

you just need a yogurt starter. We got 4 different yogurt starters - 2 of them need 110-115F temperature to culture (Bulgarian and Greek yogurt), and the other 2 culture at room temperature (filmjolk and matsoni)

This is where we got our starters from back in 2011, and I never buy any yogurt since.

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/filmjolk-yogurt-starter.html

 

[Vian]

I have an Instant Pot, which is a 7-in-1 cooker that has a yogurt function (you can buy dedicated yogurt makers for like $25 though) I take about 2-3 quarts of milk and bring it to about 180 degrees, then let it cool back down to around 110 degrees, then add a cup or two of store bought plain yogurt and whisk it in, then let it sit in the instant pot for 5-8 hours on the yogurt setting, which keeps it around 100-110 degrees. After the first time you make it, you can just reserve a cup or two of the fresh yogurt to start the next batch the same way. I've heard though that you don't want to use it to start a new batch after 2 weeks, but I'm not sure why.

I also used some of my home made yogurt as a starter to ferment the chick's feed. Or if you like greek yogurt, you can strain it and use the whey that's strained out to start fermented feed.

 

[chickalicia]

Wow. That's awesome!! I will def need to get me one of those. We love yogurt here and well lol so do my chicks! And to add flavor like vanilla I just add vanilla flavoring or something ? Or strawberries?

 

[azygous]

My chickens adore yogurt, but I got tired of all the work scalding the milk, then the seven hours it took to incubate at a tight temperature bracket, especially when I discovered how much easier it is to make keifer, which is very much like yogurt.

I also discovered that you don't need keifer starter. Like yogurt, you can buy a bottle of keifer and use a small bit to start the keifer. And all you have to do is add it to milk. No need to scald like when making yogurt.

I use an empty Coffee Mate quart bottle, add milk and about a fourth of a cup of keifer, shake gently to mix, and wrap a heating pad around the bottle on low, and 24 hours later, you have a nice, thick quart of keifer.

I use some from the previous batch to start the next. It doesn't seem to hurt it at all. I never had problems using previous yogurt to start the next batch, either.

 

[Tatiana110]

Wow. That's awesome!! I will def need to get me one of those. We love yogurt here and well lol so do my chicks! And to add flavor like vanilla I just add vanilla flavoring or something ? Or strawberries?

You can add any flavor or fruit after you made yogurt - just mix it in and enjoy!

 

[Vian]

Yeah, you make the yogurt first, THEN add sweetener and fruit/flavorings. I made a really good pina colada by adding coconut flakes, crushed canned pineapple, and a little coconut milk, plus sugar. With most fruits, I usually make sort of a jam of them, cooking them down with sugar, then mix it into the yogurt. That way it both flavors and sweetens the yogurt.