Saturday, January 29, 2011

Good News - Canadian Hemp

As I gather bird supplies for breeding season, I always purchase some hemp. In the past, I have ordered the Wild Wing Organic Hemp, along with some grey millet and high potency mash from Harrison's Bird Foods but as I was checking on the hemp price it had gone up yet again and now is 32 dollars for only five lbs. Seeing the price, I was shocked and did not order anything...

I like to feed hens that are sitting on eggs hemp free choice as it helps keep the incubation temperature high and is a high calorie food for them thus prevent weight loss during setting.

I also needed to buy Petamine Breeding Formula so I called Herman Bros (810-420-5055) my favorite (best price I have found) source. As we visited, I said I did not know what I was going to do as hemp seed has gotten so high. He told me that good quality clean hemp seed, unlike the dusty China hemp, was now available from Canada. His price is $1.65 a lb so I added 20 lbs of hemp to my Petamine order! So far, it looks good! www.hermanbros-seed.com Herman Bros is in Marine City Michigan.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Linda -
Do you soak the hemp seed or give it to the birds "dry?"

Mike

Linda Hogan said...

Mostly I feed it dry in a separate small dish to hens while sitting.

Some people crush it or grind it through a coffee grinder.

I sometimes during song development for competition, I often soak hemp seeds in the refrigerator. They keep probably a week or more if you change the water daily, I also do this on new seed to check for any viability.