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.