Announcing a New Feature Column
Here's a great opportunity to share your favorite canary culture tip! Simply send it to me at canarytales@juno.com and put blog tip in the subject line. Each Tuesday, one tipster will be featured!!
The First Ever Tuesday Tipster is Donald Saunders, a border breeder, from South Africa. I received this e-mail January 7, 2009. The canary seasons are about six months ahead in the Southern Hemisphere of the Northern Hemisphere.
Donald, who currently is in molting season and looking ahead to show season, reflects on his past breeding season. He writes: Linda, I have had my best breeding season in many years. Final count is 58 Borders! I must also thank you for the border veggies. We in SA have modified it slightly by putting 1/2 head of broccoli and 1/2 head cauliflower with 2 cups of soaked soy beans. This with the vitamin E really gets the borders into tip top shape. In addition, I am using a new oil which is the palm fruit oil. If you type in palm fruit oil and select the web site, you can see what it contains and the advantages.
Congratulations Donald and Thanks So Much for these tips!! I am a real cauliflower convert!!
The original intent of Border Veggies was to improve border vent development. I had noticed that compare to rollers and colorbred, their vents were smaller and poorly developed. Being concerned that this would add to infertility problems, I needed to get them to eat more soy products, hence Border Veggies came into being. Although it was designed for borders, it works well with all types of canaries. Not just cocks benefit from Border Veggies, it is also good for conditioning hens, once the hens are about three weeks out from breeding.
The basic original recipe is to soak human quality soybeans, available at health food stores, in boiling water for 2 hours to soften them. Soaked soybeans will double there original volume, so you might like to use 1/4 or 1/2 cup to start. The soaked soybeans were then processed in the food processor and broccoli added and processed again.
Have you ever fed your canaries cauliflower? I had never thought of feeding canaries cauliflower or the advantage it could bring to the border veggies recipe. And was I ever pleasantly surprised! Birds loved it and the mixture was much lighter, which meant that instead of wasting what packed down, every trace was cleaned up!
I like to soak enough soybeans (1/2 cup) to make for two days of Border Veggies. Each day I use 1/2 cup soaked soybeans, process in the food processor, and add in 1/4 head of broccoli and 1/4 head cauliflower and continue processing. Extra soaked soybeans are refrigerated and use the next day to make up a fresh batch!
Donald also recommends palm fruit oil. Are any of you familiar with the advantages of using palm fruit oil? If yes, please comment on this blog post.
1 comment:
For years I have made a similiar recipe for my birds however, I add a rich source of Vitamin A and E and that is a simple fruit called KIWI.
My recipe includes broccoli, cauliflower,and Kiwi. I buy all the ingredients on sale.I wash,cut and add to a food processor which grinds and blends everything together. I package 2 cups of the mixture in a zip-lock bags flatten and freeze. The flattened bags takeup very little space in the freezer. Each night I let a container thaw and in the morning add enough egg food to make the mixture semi-moist and crumbly.
All my birds love it. I have noticed my finches have become more productive and feed their own youngsters.
Great for weaning youngsters and keeping the birds healthy year-round. I do warn DO NOT over fill the dishes. Especially during warmer humid days feed only enough to be consumed within 15 to 20 minutes.
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