Ask the Audience
The blue feather hen has an unusual turquoise blue color on the edges of her feathers due to her getting dusty as she tried to make a nest in her dish of ABBA mineral grit. You can see a picture of the ABBA mineral grit in the first picture of the first blog posting on January 1st. (Click on the underlining to see the ABBA mineral grit.) Congratulations to all of you who sent in the correct answer!
Having the bird marked with a turquoise color is certainly not good for showing, so I do not feed ABBA mineral to show birds during show season because even if does wash off, I do not want any signs of turquoise on my show birds feathers! But during breeding season, seeing the hen suddenly turn turquoise blue, is a heads-up that she needs to be examined to determine what should be done.
Phase 2 Blue Feather Contest:
View the Blue Feather Hen vent picture and select the correct response from the choices provided either A or B or C or D. Write your response including why you chose the answer and how you eliminated the other choices. Send as a comment to this blog posting. The Winner will be posted on Friday so don't delay. Only one response per person will be accepted. (Be sure to include your name or a code name.)
Choices:
A. Immediately pair her with an appropriate mating-ready cock.
B. Immediately pair her with an appropriate cock who is behind in vent development and not in breeding condition.
C. Arrest her development by suddenly dropping the lighting intensity and dropping her total hours of day light exposure to 9 or 10 hours per day.
D.Wait and watch her.
4 comments:
At what day length do you "plan" to start your Vit. E treatment. It must be about 6 weeks before pairing? What light period?
Hi Richard:
I have the birds on natural day length when I start the vitamin E in the water which is six weeks before pairing. For the first three weeks, only cocks get the vitamin E treatment. On the fourth week, I suddenly turn the lights up to 14 hours plus 45 minutes dimmer and start the hens on the vitamin E too. Cocks get the vitamin E till molting but the hens only get the vitamin E till they lay their first egg.
Linda
You plan very well from pair up date backwards? How do you select your pair up date?
Richard:
The tentative date for pairing is when the cocks have been on the vitamin E in the water for six weeks and the hens have been on it for three weeks. After that I make the actual pairing up decision by evaluating the cock and hens vents.
Guess I will write some more about that this week.
Linda
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