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Post by moderngame20 on Jul 17, 2013 21:41:00 GMT
With feed prices ever increasing I think we all want to get the most out every pound of feed that we can. With that I have found that feeding some yogurt to my birds once a week can aid in the absorption of feed.. thus getting the most from your feed dollar. Yogurt is a live cultured bacteria that provides the birds with good gut bacteria. I find feeding it once a week will decrease in how much they eat while also providing a greater ablitiy to get all that they can in the way of nutrition out of the feed.No different that hyumans as we need good gut bacteria to process our food in an efficient manner. . If you befriend a local grocery store manager you may even be able to get the off code yogurt for free. All the birds need is a little in their systems to do a lot of good. Not sure if this would be benificial to waterfowl but works good for chickens . Just a thought of something I do for my birds especially in time of stress like the heat we are experiencing as of late where they seem to only eat small amounts and drink extreme amounts.
Hope this is helpfull to your birds
Troy
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Post by Woodsy on Jul 23, 2013 12:10:37 GMT
Hi Troy,
If I have a surplus of unpasteurized milk, can it do the same thing? All dairy farmers have quota and if they go over their quota they can be fined. Often some of the smaller dairy farmers dump their milk, only if they are over quota. I don't know if it is the same in Ontario. However, you'll need to find a small dairy farmer that is willing to do this. My Brahmas last year went crazy over milk and turkey grower mix. It reduced the feed bill tremendously!
I am definitely going to try the yogurt trick! I am sure there is a lot of yogurt thrown out at the grocery stores.
Thanks again for the advise Troy!
Woodsy
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Post by moderngame20 on Jul 23, 2013 13:25:47 GMT
Brian
If you have access to surplus milk you are way ahead of most.This is common practice of many old timers in days gone by ... I used to have access to surplus milk with an uncle in the dairy farming business. I would get a 5 gallon bucket and pour off some milk... some times the milk would be from a cow after she had freshened or if there were other reasons ie surplus above quota ect..the milk could not go into the tank... what ever. We would then hold the milk unrefrigerated for a day to let it stand and settle. The milk would start to separate ( although this sounds unapealing to humans) .. the top layer would be skimmed off each day into a bucket and fed to the masses as a treat. The layer would have the appearance of chunky cottage cheese.. we would repeat the process from this bucket for 3-4 days until there was mainly clear way left.The bacteria builds in the unrefrigerated milk not unlike yogurt... ( same affect). Birds always looked great and grew better on this program. Unfortunatly not all of us have access to this commodidty but the grocers dairy counter can provide this at a relativly low cost and if you can get the out dated product all the better. I usually buy 2 650 g containers of yogurt a week for my birds in the growing season .. and that usually gets everyone some ...remember I have mainly bantams...I also give this to the birds once a month in the winter as a treat. Anyway.. a good twist on this and something that has been tried by several past and present.
Troy
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Post by darrensmale on Jul 23, 2013 17:37:51 GMT
I can sure get ample amounts of milk  |
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Post by Woodsy on Jul 26, 2013 0:41:35 GMT
I even have an old cream separator!!! Something I will definately do next year.
Thanks,
Brian
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