FEEDING SOURDOUGH DISCARD TO CHICKENS?

[SaraheThomas]

Hello!
Has anyone fed RAW un-fed sourdough discard to their birds? I am curious ... I worry about impacting crops / hurting them somehow - feedback?

 

[TooCheep]

I'd be cautious, particularly if the culture is active and producing carbon dioxide (rising). It can't be good to have it creating gas pressure in the chicken's crop.

Almost no one feeds significant amounts of bread to chickens as it is low in nutrition, so I'm not seeing much of an upside.

 

[SourRoses]

I wondered about this too, considering the amount of waste involved in maintaining a culture.
Eventually, I settled on "No". It's not backed by science or anything, but it just doesn't feel right. I wouldn't eat raw culture, no way.
Sometimes the top of a culture can get moldy. It's part of the discard process to remove that / prevent it. At different times in a cultures life the microbial balance can shift.
And there are a ton of different strains of bacteria in there... I read a paper about how it's linked to the hands of the baker, and let me tell you... gross. It's a very complex ecosystem in there.
When using it to bake with, there's the safety provided by high heat. In a raw form, not so much.

That said, during jar changes I did a pre-rinse outside with a hose. Sometimes they needed to soak, so I filled them with water and left them. My neighbors chickens free-range and they helped themselves to refreshing beverages from said jars on multiple occasions. All of their chickens were fine. I told the neighbors and they didn't think it was anything to worry about.
I'm still not feeding it to mine!