Use this post to SHARE a canary tip or provide feedback on something you have tried that made a difference in your birds!
TIPS:
Friday:
1. Leng shares on the advantages of using Kraft Paper
Tuesday:
1. Stepping Up American Singer Song Development
2. Using corn cob in cage trays
Monday:
1. Effect of wheat products on flighted hens
Sunday:
1. Avoiding a dirty face
DID IT WORK?
Tuesday:
1. Test Results of Feeding cous cous & wheat nestling food to old hens.
Monday:
1. Margaret reports on dropping animal protein to prevent incivility.
2. Dropping the light intensity failed to initiate molting. What can I do to get those old hens to molt?
10 comments:
Besides not feeding greens, another important way to avoid getting stain soiling your birds face is to not use printed newspaper on the cage floor.
Often on the show bench, I see not only ugly green smudges but also frequently dark ink rubbing off on the face from newspaper. Use unprinted butcher paper or cobs on the cage floor to avoid this problem.
Did It Work?
Last night at work, Margaret reported that cutting out the animal protein (egg) did really cut the tail pulling and aggression. She also added a tip that putting in swings also helped because it gave them something socially acceptable to do!
Tip
While, dropping protein and increasing carb's helps finish the molt, do not feed older hens any wheat (whole cooked or couscous) or wheat germ products as it encourage them to sit on the floor and lay just like a chicken! Young birds and older cocks can have wheat products without problems.
Linda, for the second year I have hens that do not want to molt. I turned off the artificial lighting and cut back on egg/egg food. I am afraid to cut back any more the the molting hens need the protein.
Ideas?
Not Working? Hen's not molting...
Since molting season is really over, to get these old hens to stop sitting on the floor and laying, you must stop all animal protein (egg) and push carb's. If you keep feeding them as you are, even with all the lights off you changed intensity but at this time of year it probably did not shorten the day length. A sudden shortening of day length is a strong signal but you do not want other birds to molt again.. You could do that if you took her into another room but before I did that, I would strictly feed her only carb's and completely drop the protein: no hard boiled egg or eggfood, no oily seeds and no wheat germ or cous cous just white bread, millet, canary seed, greens, and oatmeal.
If you get her to drop the long flight feathers you know she is starting to molt..
Top priority now is not the extra protein needed during molting but rather it is to get her to molt and once she does we can take care of her extra protein needs later...once she is clearly molting...
The consequence of her not molting is she will likely not breed next year so getting her to molt even though it is late is critical to getting her back in step with her natural cycle.
Tip: American Singer Song Development
With American Singer Competitions starting the first week in October, some of your birds maybe lagging behind the show schedules. To speed American singers along: feed them bee pollen and kerschmeier brand toasted wheat germ, three to six sprouted hemp seeds and be sure they are getting consistent day length of 10 1/2 or 11 hours per day.
Feedback: Testing feeding the couscous & wheat eggless nestling food effect on old hens
I feed the new couscous/wheat eggless nestling food only one day with no other diet change to eight old border hens. After only one dose two out of eight border hens started sitting on the floor!!
Hi Linda. Is that corn cob bedding I see in your cage trays? I have used corn cob bedding in my large flights, but never thought of using it in cage trays. I also wondered whether aspen or pine bedding would be okay to use in the cage trays. Thanks, Rich
Rich
I use corn cob in the cage trays. It is super absorbent and lasts at least a month to six weeks which decreases some of the work. It is a little heavier then shavings which tend to float around quite a bit.. I just do not want to use newspaper because of the print getting on the bird feathers and just the chemical exposure and it needs to be changed daily...I have never used aspen or pine maybe someone who has will comment.
Kraft paper does not stain the birds. I use 50lb kraft paper and I change the paper every week and sometimes twice a week. I don't have a lot of birds so my cages don't get dirty that quickly. The thinner paper tends to be less absorbent (30lb or 40lb). They are available in various widths. I get rolls that are 12" wide by 700+ feet long. I put the roll in a dispenser with a dull metal edge that allows me to rip the paper to the length that I want. It works quite well. These are all commercial products that you can buy at shipping/packing supply stores.
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