Momma's Boys

DKB 3506 #68 hatched two German Roller babies on July 15th! Father was DKB 3501 #30.


Their chicks have a beautiful rich deep yellow coloring and in German rollers, within a nest, the dark rich colored ones are generally males. But with only two to compare, it seems their color is rich like their papa, so I am already calling them boys. Click on the photos to get a good look at these truly beautifully colored roller chicks!

I call them "Momma's Boys" cause they have never accepted a bite of supplemental feeding from me, instead when I approach they snuggled down in the nest and try to hide!

Momma is frantically busy keeping them well fed! Big Bird is frantically refilling her dishes!!

Who is that Masked Good Looker?

This beautifully marked Stafford weaning chick has evenly marked wings and a distinctive mask over each eye! Click on each photo for an enlarged view!


Left Mask

Right Mask




I love variegated birds!! I can hear Rich seconding that!! With beauties live this, I just stand and admire, no wonder it takes me longer to take care of this cage!!

Questions, Breeder Reports and Tips for Big Bird!

Please use this post for this weeks comments and questions unrelated to current posts.

Tips:All of my birds are enjoying small dishes of regular uncooked oatmeal right now. It helps tell the hens that protein levels are lower and therefore time to stop breeding, adds some grams on the thinner birds, and all including newly weaned chicks enjoy chewing on the flakes!

Breeder Report:

Request:

Hello, Everyone,

I am putting together a USA list of all the canary shows. I am
hoping you all can supply me with contacts or show info about
shows around the country.I think I have NY, NJ, MD and CA covered.
I have the Greater Chicago show, but am wondering if there are
others. I have a few in TX & FL. Most of these are canary and
finch shows. I am also interested in specialty shows like
all-Gloster shows. I intend to put the information together and
distribute it to all participants. Hopefully we can generate
some interest in people attending a show or 2 that they haven't
attended before.

Feel free to pass along my email and phone number. If all goes
well, I can pull the whole thing together by the end of this
weekend and then email out to everyone. I can always send out
an updated list in a few weeks if I miss a few. I appreciate
any help you can give me.
--

Mary Anne Buckles
mabuckles2@ca.rr.com
562-533-4810

Questions:

Cheepening and Stretching Good Eats!

Untreated wheat can be purchased either directly from a farmer or feed store for about 5 to 6 dollars a bushel (about 60 lbs). More expensive but still reasonably priced, wheat can be purchased from health food stores. Birds also like sprouted wheat.

To cook, I rinse well and then soak it over night or at least two hours in boiling water. Then I cook it several hours on low heat until plump and somewhat tender and cool. Freeze any extra for future use.

About two cups of cooked wheat is processed in the blender. It will not grind it up fine. Then I add about two cups of ABBA green or red or other dry nestling food and process fine as shown above. If lumpy, add more dry nestling food.

Add 1/2 cup of either Kaytee Exact or Scenic Hand Feeding Formula. Scenic is a a little higher protein and much less expensive than Exact. Process again to mix.

With my hectic work schedule, it is hard to find time to take care of birds and make egg food. So I cut my regular molting egg food about 1/3 with this to make the nestling food go further. I often feed it as is once a day after the first morning egg food feeding instead of a second egg food feeding.

Could cheep be Shakespeare? Oh well, I can't see Russia from my porch!

Good Eats Cheep!

Being life style controlled diabetic and not eating bread, frequently my family tires of bread products while they are still good. Today, my husband ask "do you suppose the birds would eat this whole wheat pita bread"?

Sharing some of the whole wheat pita as I tore it into smaller pieces with our two Belgian Malinois, I put most of the pieces in my food processor and processed to small bite size pieces.

Then off the aviary and feeding to the birds! As expected, they loved nibbling on the bite size pieces and quickly consumed it all!

Using Molting Eggfood For Color Enhancement and Luster

During molting season, I like to simplify my breeding formula but still provide oil for luster and beta carotene for color enhancement.


I like to make a huge yellow tupperware bowl full and then freeze it in gallon ziploc bags. The day before I need it, I move it from the freezer to the refrigeration section for thawing.

First I but six cups of whole wheat cous cous in the bowl and add one cup poppy seeds and 3/4 cup olive oil. Mix well and add six cups of boiling water. I have a six cup electric tea pot which makes this step easy. Stir occasionally till fluffy and room temperature.

Then process one lb carrots in the food processor.

Add four cups of ABBA green 92 for yellow birds or ABBA red dry nestling food to the grated carrots. Mix into the room temperature cous cous mixture.

Add six eggs to four cups of petamine with 1/2 cup of Scenic High-energy Hand Feeding Formula and process. Then mix into the cous cous, carrot mixture.

For red birds I add one dipper bogena with carophyll red to one cup of the nestling food. I feed the red nestling food containing bogena once a day.

Caution, changing coloring agent during the molt will cause uneven coloring.

This Weeks Questions and Comments

Please use this post for questions or comments unrelated to current posts.

Questions

Thursday

I currently have one chick who appears to have eye problems. One eye is smaller than the "normal" eye, which makes it appear as though he is squinting. His other eye continuously has a sticky, clear film over it and his eyelid appears to be droopy.

Aviary Surprise

Look what I found in a bottom flight in my aviary!! This flight is where I put old birds and those judged unfit for breeding. I just let them live out their life in peace.

The birds are a mostly Staffords but a couple of rollers. And boy was I shocked to see they somehow successfully raised a chick with nothing provided but seed and water and occasional greens..!! The seed was not plain but rather the petamine and vitamin wheat germ oil coated excellent seed I get from Bird of Paradise 316 263-0850.

It is very wild acting compared to my pampered chicks but hopefully he will warm up to me once it is fully weaned!

Record Breaker

My previous record for late hatches was July 4th. July 15th the saddle-back German import hen hatched these two chicks. The father is DKB import 3501 #30!

She is feeding very well, so much so that this morning I gave her some frozen peas with the egg food and quartered hard boiled egg. She has only raised one chick so far this season but that one was stuffed most of the time so I am hopeful she will raise these!!

Really counting on her as I have no other hens that would feed at this late date. It also means I have to wait to shut my overhead lights off. Being from the imported rollers, these chicks are a special treat!!!

This Weeks Breeder Reports, Questions and Tips

Please use this post for unrelated questions, breeder reports and tips.

Tips
This German roller weaning age chick fails to grip with its back toe on the right leg. Standing or perching it will not open up the back claw. This is often commonly called "slip claw".

The left leg is normal but the right back toe is frozen forward.

To fix this problem, I taped the back toe in proper position with paper tape. I will change the tape weekly and each time mold it more in a semi-circular normal position.

Photos by Robbie Hogan, my grandson from Arizona. This is Robbie's 15th birthday today!!


Questions

Monday

1.With the end of the breeding season now upon us how do you get hens to stop laying,nesting and get them to start moulting ?

Friday

Richard's Roost said...

Has anyone tried using split bands instead of tape? I tried super gluing the toe back and literally became one with the bird :)

Gwen wrote

Hi Linda, I have very recently bought my first color fed canary
she is beautiful, a rich salmon color, I bought some coloring agent locally called pastochemi R
I cannot read the forien language on the box, at any rate she will not eat it...she picks around and leaves it in the dish, she decided to nest, I am very surprised I thought she would molt, her trip out of the pet store was very stressful as I am her second buyer, she has what I am gona call a sneeze/cough she goes psst psst psst, I had her on baytril, but when I put that in the water my birds drink very little, it smells very bitter I am sure it doesn't taste good, so when she went to laying I changed back to plain water as I think a hen needs lots of water to make eggs, she laid only one egg, I do have a male in with her so I am letting her sit.
Guess I need to know what that psst psst psst is all about, I had a bird a few years back that did that a lot throughout his life, I had him to the vet and used baytril but never got it cleared up for him, he lived a long life
he was my very first canary, my vet did not seem to concerned about this as he was bright eyed and ate and sang thru it all. I am concerned about this hen, the psst psst psst, and I am not liking the look in her eye, do you have any suggestions? as soon as I know if her egg is fertile or not I need to treat this, I tried boosting her beneficial bacteria 1st
I have also tried a product called tonic and bitters, no change....
any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated

Linda Hogan said...

Gwen

I am not familiar with that coloring agent. I use Bogena.

I would treat her and try to get her healthy and not stress her with breeding. Baytril is a good antibiotic but with numerous infectious agents that cause respiratory problems, it may or may not work. It is worth a try..

De-stress the bird and try petamine and do not try to breed it. Baytril might work.

The eye problems may be due to Mycoplasma and if so they will not respond to many antibiotics, may require tylosin.

Antibiotic eye drops can often clear it up too. I find that even if I get it cleared up, stress of breeding will usually bring on more eye problems for the "cured" bird.

July 17, 2010 10:13 AM

Please use this post for unrelated questions, breeder reports and tips.

Tips
[Image]This German roller weaning age chick fails to grip with its back toe on the right leg. Standing or perching it will not open up the back claw. This is often commonly called "slip claw".

[Image]The left leg is normal but the right back toe is frozen forward.

[Image]To fix this problem, I taped the back toe in proper position with paper tape. I will change the tape weekly and each time mold it more in a semi-circular normal position.

[Image]Photos by Robbie Hogan, my grandson from Arizona. This is Robbie's 15th birthday today!!


Questions

Monday

1.With the end of the breeding season now upon us how do you get hens to stop laying,nesting and get them to start moulting ?

Leave your comment

More Late Bloomers

This Border chick is starting to eat corn on its own and the parents are still feeding it. No supplemental feeding is necessary at this time.

Finding chicks out of the nest when they are less than 18 days old, generally means they are not being fed enough. This one is eating some hard boiled egg on its own and papa bird is feeding him some. I am not supplementing it because it isn't crying and seems content.
Momma German roller has two more eggs which will likely not hatch at this late date because most hens no longer have good incubation temperature.

These three German roller chicks are hardly ever fed by the parents. I often find one on the floor. They beg till they fall out of the nest. I am feeding them ever couple of hours or sooner if they are empty. I have my husband Pat feeding them on the evenings that I work.

He says:" Don't any of these birds feed their chicks anymore?" I explained that it is really too late in the season and that is why it is so much of a problem... He wonders why I have chicks now then??? Lately, I have been wondering that too!!

He reported that last night, one chick in the nest of three ate well for him and one ate so so but the smallest one wouldn't eat for him at all. I ask him did you tickle it under the chin to get it to open up and he said "I did, and when that didn't work, I told it a joke". LOL (I bet he said more than a joke!!)

I shared with him my pearls of wisdom regarding jokes. "It took me a long time to realize that when folks don't laugh at my jokes, it might be cause they are not funny!!" Know any funny bird jokes he could use???

Late Blooming Stafford Chicks

This chick is being partially feed by its parent. First thing in the morning it accepts my hand feeding but then it tries to hide in the nest the rest of the day. The parents will feed it peas and corn and sunflower sprout but little egg food. I especially like its two black eyes, like a bandit!




The momma bird has built a nest on the floor and laid two infertile eggs. On occasion she will feed this special chick but mostly I am feeding it! Unlike cry baby, it never cries but accepts feedings like a well bred bird!

No Peace On The Prairie

While I was at work last evening, the German import momma struck again! The first time she threw a stuff baby out of the nest when I banded it right before leaving for work. This time she decided she was fed up with not having adequate nesting material and resourcefully started gathering it herself off her chicks!





Every chick had damage an a couple were bleeding. Growing feathers are full of blood until they mature. When broken, they bleed profusely. To fix the problem, I wash the area and identify where the bleeding is coming from and then pull the feather completely out being careful to not leave the feather tip to bleed.

Born On The Fourth Of July

These German rollers chicks are Yankee Doodle Dandies for sure as they were born on the Fourth of July!!

This ties the latest date I have ever hatched chicks! I still have a few more that might hatch but problems abound for late hatches!

The hen had three fertile eggs but by noon on the 14th day, July 3rd, none had hatched. I tried floating them in warm tap water and only one wiggled.. I tried the other two eggs in hotter water but still no moment. I opened first one and then the other fertile egg and the chicks had not developed adequately likely because of the hen's poor incubation temperature. The eggs were barely warm in the nest.

Another German roller hen was due on the 4th so I moved the live egg from the hen with poor incubation temperature over to the other roller as her eggs felt pretty warm. Typically, chicks in underdeveloped eggs who are still alive by noon on the 14th day when moved to better incubation will hatch on the 15th day. If not moved this live chick will die in the shell like its two siblings. By moving that live egg, two chicks hatched on the 4th of July! Boy did that get me singing the jingle!!!

Hatching was only the first hurdle. Often hens wait a few hours to start feeding new hatches but the incubating hen failed to feed the two chicks them at all by late afternoon on the 4th I took a chance and moved them under the hen who couldn't hatch her fertile eggs and she is feeding them! Looks like this late hatch project takes a village to get it done!!

Identify This Very Promising Chick

This might turn out to be one of the best chicks I hatched this year! What is it????