Poor Sandy, she is usually good at picking up of problems like two hens in a nest or hens that are not perching etc but she was complaining today that its just too complicated! So lets take a look at it.
Breeding Season Feed:
Regular Seed:
I feed L'Avian Plus Seed to which I add about a 1/3 more of Straight canary. To about 10 lbs the mixture of the two, I add one cup fortified wheat germ oil (horse product). After a day or two I add an additional 40 lbs or the two seed blend. This is feed to all cages till the end of breeding season when I will stop coating it with oil.
Feed Mineral Supplement:
All hens in the aviary have a dish of mineral grit feed free choice. This season I am trying the Higgins one and in the past have used the ABBA Mineral. Egg shell quality is good but the hens did eat more of the ABBA Mineral so will place an order today for the ABBA Mineral.
Periodically Natural vitamineral is added to the egg food. (she hates that word periodically or as needed!)
Extra Seeds:
Hemp seed (hulled) is feed free choice in a separate dish to all sitting hens and those feeding chicks.
Bee Pollen:
Feed to lagging cocks several times a week other cocks once a week.
Fat Cocks:
Unlimited untreated grass seed or Blatners Finch Mix.
Thin Cocks or Hens:
Dishes of uncooked porridge oatmeal and sunflower chips (hulled pieces).
What she says is really driving her crazy is not this part of it but the water routine which I will cover in Part 2.
4 comments:
Hi linda,
I agree with Sandy, i cant seem to balance it out,
Most males and one hen are now suffering from hot leg (gout)
I give them
Versele-laga seed mix
A mix of couscous, quinoa, dandeloin, broccoli, carrots and egg shells ( with Versele-laga moist eggfood or boiled eggs)
Germinated seeds
Omnivit or adec / calcium mix 4 times a week
I did cut all suppliments and eggfood to hot leg sufferers, but each time i offer them Germinated seeds i notice their legs are getting red again.
Do germinated seeds cause high uric acid?
Waiting for part two :D
The protein level is too high. Immediately drop the hard boiled egg and if the germinating seed is doing it stop it. Feed some greens to those with the problem to reverse it? Also drop oily seeds if they are fat enough. Feed more canary seed and blatners finch mix if fat enough and untreated grass seed. Feed them uncooked porridge oatmeal too. Once they have the problem, they are super sensitive to protein.
Hi linda,
I dont know where else to post this. Sorry if it's not related to the above article.
how can we get a hen to have a better incubating temperature. My gloster had 5 fertile eggs when i candled them at 5 days of incubation. On the eights day when i candled again, all had stopped development.
She barely leaves the nest and the male is doing a good job feeding her. But i did feel they r not hot enough when i candled on the 8th day.
When the hen is set do not feed her any eggfood or greens. I feed them a dish of hulled hemp seed and refill anytime. (I do not feed greens while laying except for the peas in the nestling food.)
Eggs that fail to hatch by noon on the 14th day should be moved to a hen whose eggs feel hot. They often hatch in the next 24 to 28 hours under another hen.
Use clay nests instead of plastic ones as they hold heat better. Going to ask Laraine of lady gouldian about getting these in from Germany.
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