To Whom Shall I Give My Rose - Contestant Number 5

Improving Fertility With Vitamin E

Vitamin E is well known as the fertility vitamin. To improve fertility, one of several choices can be used, but use of more than one of these methods should be avoided to prevent overdose.

Vitamin E being fat stored, must be given at a proper dose to avoid breeding problems due to overdose. Overdosed hens may fail to hatch chicks because the excess vitamin E causes them to re-cycle too quickly and lose their incubation temperature.

Methods for giving extra vitamin E beyond dietary sources include:

1. ABBA High Fertility Water Soluble Vitamin E – This is my favorite method as a measured amount (1/2 teaspoon) is mixed with one gallon water. This is used as the only bird water one day a week. I like to start the males on it about six weeks before breeding and the hens about three weeks before breeding. Males receive the one day weekly treatment till the end of the season while the hens receive it weekly only until they lay their first egg. Yesterday, my males got their second dose of the season.
2. Recently, Donald of South Africa shared that he feeds wheat germ oil directly into the beak. Using a syringe, he delivers a couple of drops into the mouth each week. Feathers around the beak may come out if excess oil repeatedly get on the feathers around the beak. Currently, I have a couple of Border males who are lagging behind. I am trying this method on them instead of the ABBA Vitamin E in the water. After a couple of doses, these males are making improvement. It could possibly be a technique to use on stragglers.
   
3. Bird seed can be coated with wheat germ oil. Doyle shared this recipe with me: two cups of fortified animal wheat germ oil (horse) is blended with 5lbs of straight canary seed and set for two days. Then this is mixed with 50 lbs of canary mix. His initial results using this have been quite good.
   

Breaking News - Miracle Amino Acid Supplement Available in US

ABBA Products now has the amino acid supplement MIRACLE from Italy in stock! This is a fantastic product that greatly improves fertility and breeding success!!! Call ABBA 908 353-0669. In their computer it is under AA Miracle. I placed my order along with some ABBA mineral today!

A special thank you to Mike at ABBA for agreeing to again carry this absolutely wonderful product!!

The photo is my old empty container, I credit much of my breeding success to using this product!

Border Breeder Report & Tips From Donald Sanders

Donald is a Border Breeder in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, their canary breeding season is six months ahead of ours. His birds have started moulting now! Isn't it great to hear a heads up report from him!

Traditional long hair cats (Chinchilla Longhair).They live in Donald's bird room without any problems.

Sprouted seed after 60 hours and which has been washed and patted dry.Will be ready for use at 5am tomorrow morning.

Sprouted seed 1:-3 bottles -from the right new dry seed ,middle soaked and sprouted 24 hours and extreme left the bottle that has sprouted for 48 hours.The blue bottle is the bleach (2 tablespoons) that I put into the seed. The water I use over the sprouted seed is hot water from the tap. This has worked well for me -no fungal growth.If you look at the 3 bottles I use the one one the right first has no water but only the bleach and then I fill it up as shown. The bottle holds about 300ml water when filled only with water.

Donald writes:

Thanks for all the good tips, they really paid off this year! I bred 86 (Border) chicks from 20 hens. It has been so good to see all these chicks and how well the borders fed.

All the people in SA that used the Border Veggie with Breedmax (Belgium) had good breeding results. Breedmax

recommends using 10 grm(1 scoop) for every 150 grams of soft food/Border veggies- it is used every Day as I start to breed I use 10 grms to 100 grms of soft food/Border Veggies.

I do not need to feed any extra calcium but always keep a bottle of liquid calcium handy. If I see that the hen is fluffed up after the second or third egg I then put 2 drops down the beak.Within the hour she has passed the egg and there are no further problems.

The soft food I used was Orlux yellow dry mixed with Border veggies(minus soya) for the feeding hens, the cocks and non incubating or hens that have not laid only BV(Border Veggies) . I use ground soya and this has made the BV very easy. I grate the Broccoli and caulflower. I prepare about (dry)2 cups of ground soya each Sunday. Once it has been soaked and dried (in a towel) I weigh equally amounts for each day. This is stored in the deep freeze. Daily, one pack is removed from deep freeze and allowed to thaw in the fridge. Broccoli and Cauliflower is put into all the food with the appropriate amount of Breedmax put over it.

Once the hen has laid her 1st egg, she does not get any of the above. I normally give her a bit of soft food and 1/4 boiled egg on the morning the chicks hatch.

I feed BV every day for the whole breeding season to the cocks that I run, the other that are in pairs are fed a finger draw full every morning.To all of this I put in 2 cups of sprout seed (2kg black sunflower,1 kg wheat,1kg mung beans and 1 kg black rape)

We do put 2 drops of wheatgerm oil into the cocks beak 2-3 times a week. The wheat germ is one that I buy from a co-op that sells animal and cattle food. The birds are slightly reluctant the first week (first 3 times)but there after they actually pick at the syringe as it approaches.The cocks that get the oil lose a few feathers on the side of the face to no detriment.That is all replaced at moulting. Between these 2 products and Breedmax the birds are really in tune.

This last breeding season (2010)it was recommended that I try 3 products.Oxy-B,Bird Improver and Antifungal.My birds were off colour when I started to breed.I started at 1/2 strength with Antifungal and Bird Improver and Oxy-B at full strength .This was done for a month.just after 2 weeks the hens started to lay. I am giving these products at 1/2 and full strength as above twice a week.there is no prole in the the bird room and all the birds are moulting. THESE PRODUCTS CAN BE VIEWED at www.pigeonvitality.com .

Before breeding I do the doxycycline test.I give the Birds doxy for 5 days,to this I add 10ml apple cider vinegar.When I start(1st morning) I listen to the intensity of the sound in the birdroom. On the 3rd morning I again listen to the intensity of the sound.If the sound has got less or softer I stop after the 5th Day(Finish the course of antibiotic) If the sound has intensified I continue for 30 days or until the birds become fluffed.When they become fluffed it tells you that they no longer need the treatment.

I also do the to the stock birds that battle to come through the moult.(this doxy treatment method is from Dr Rob Marshall's book Canary Health)

I let my stock birds moult out in the breeding cages.Once we get to the start of April I then put them into a mobile flight cage and put the birds in front of the security door that is covered with welded mesh.The sun beats in to their cage for 2 to 3 hours daily.They really love the unfiltered sun and love to unbath .I give them thistles with the soil on and this is devoured. They seem to love the fresh greens more if they have soil on them.

My Moulting soft food mix:
I give soft food (Orlux Yellow Dry)with Breedmax(10grams per 150grm of soft food - including all the extras)broccoli,soya protein powder (5grms per 500grams of soft food)sprouted seed and 3 boiled eggs to my mix.This mix is about

I hope this will be helpful to you, I read your blog on a regular basis.

Thanks for all your help

Best Regards

Donald

Thanks so much Donald for sharing with us!! I am running a small scale test using your wheat germ oil delivered directly into the beak method. I am also going to add the Breedmax dose you recommend to my Border Veggies.

Save A Bird - Water

Evon shares her heart breaking experience:

Wednesday morning regular routine pull all waterers & provide clean tubes and fresh water
for all the birds. Fresh seed to all birds. Egg food to the feeding families.

Than out to shovel and snowblow after the blizzard, 2 1/2 hours.It was an unusually busy
day with additional snow and family responsibilities.

I admit I was tired and the body hurt. Usually I make it back down to the aviary around 4
to refill dishes and recheck birds. This day I refilled the egg food dishes and left.

Before the lights went out.I plugged in an additional heater to keep the birds a bit warmer.
Since the outside wind temperature were dripping below Zero,

Thursday morning this is what I found. (see pic above)I know we don't like to view dead
birds BUT I hope seeing this lovely satinette pair will be a vision for all of you.

CHECK THOSE WATER TUBES!

What you see is the result of haste and a leaky water tube.Usually each cage gets 2 water
tubes one large one small, BUT in my haste, I only put one water tube on each cage.

The birds likely died quicker than expected as I had also turned on an extra heater.

I have been raising satinette canaries for 20+years, this pair was special.I Pray the 3 eggs
this pair left behind will thrive all that depends on a fife foster mom.

Evon, I am so sorry for your loss. All of us have had unfortunate times when things
did not go as planned and we have lost birds.

Once I went to a plant nursery owned by a real Dutchman from Holland. I watched as he tossed plants he had started from seed in the trash. I quizzed him that they were not that bad and he told me "They don't all live here either lady"!I tell myself that story each time I experience an unfortunate bird loss and I am feeling terrible about my part in it, they don't all make it here either!

The satinettes were beauties. I have in the past raised silver brown and gold brown satinettes and I can tell from the photo these were very special and had great striations.

Questions and Tips for Big Bird!

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



Bella, aka Rou Rou, enjoying a morning nap. Remember last Summer when I was so grieved when my other Malinois Tosca had cancer and had to be put to sleep when the hemorrhaging could not be controlled. Tosca was 14 years and two months, the oldest survivor of his litter. Blog followers will remember how down I was and how even posting was difficult for me during that time.

Great News!! Tosca's breeder Sue Haase of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, decided to breed a new litter as all of the people with puppies of that litter were so fond of the litter and she too was grieving so much for the one she kept, River who was a national champion. This week we received news that the sonogram shows 7 possibly eight puppies due around March 4 to 7th!! So a grand nephew of Tosca will be joining our family this Spring!!!

Got any great name suggestions. We know the litter is wildflowers but name can be anything....

Monday:

Garry ask how much fish meal and spirulina to used in his egg food? And do I use kelp?

Garry,

As you breed birds, you will learn many good ideas that improve your birds health and breeding success. A few of the ideas we actually try and then evaluate if it was a positive affect on our birds.

Yesterday, I tried a modification of my original Border Veggies. Which started out as dry soybeans soaked in boiling water and broccoli. A few years ago, Donald suggested I add cauliflower to it. I did and the texture was better, did not pack down and hence birds ate it better.

Last year, when I was unable to get Miracle (from Italy through ABBA Products in the US) I compared Breedmax (from Belgium) to Miracle (which I was running out of). These are similar products with high amino acid content, my experiments started using Breedmax just like Miracle (one tablespoon) to four cups dry nestling food. Both worked but the Miracle recipe was much better for most of my birds, except for Borders, who did better on Breedmax using the same dosing formula.

After reading Darren's post, I tried the frozen green soya and added conditioning seed to encourage eating the green soya. The next experiment was the suggestion of Darren"s and Donald's post, to try the Breedmax in the border veggies. The box said one scope (scope from box) to 100 grams of food, which I weighed and was one cup of the soya/veggies mix. After one day, the change in the males was impressive, much louder and much more breeding activity. In fact it was a little too much for just one day later, I went back and re-read Donald's post and I am changing to 150 grams soya/veggie mix as he does which will work better with the other things I am doing.

The point of this long response is to show that you have to try and see the affect and modify your recipe. If you send me more information on the nestling food, I can give you a guess on where to start your experiments. When I used fish meal, I used a tablespoon to a very large recipe with lots of cous cous (largest orange tupperware bowl) and about a teaspoon of spirulina and cut back on eggs. You must be careful not to overdose the protein, which will cause nestling diarrhea and birds that eat much of it to favor or even damage their feet. Once your birds are breeding, it is generally not a good idea to change things unless you are having poor results.

Have not used kelp.

Tom Hixson - Shares His Method and Tips

A Columbus Fancy Star is BORN !! Tom's First Chick 2011 left the nest yesterday!


First Stafford Chicks, lovely dark cap is sure to be a show stopper!
Tom says "On, the Stafford photo - the red one - - - looks nothing like its mother or father. "

Pea Sprouts
Container of Pea Sprouts

Baby Bok Choy

Tom writes: Although I feel my birds are well fed throughout the year, I pay closer attention to what they get during the breeding season. I feel it is important to keep all the birds healthy especially during the colder time of the year and also to give the chicks a healthy start.

I currently have Staffords, Borders and this year, I started with Columbus Fancy in the aviary.

For the most part, I'm feeding egg food like everyone else. I don't think mine is much different than what anyone else is putting in theirs, but I try to give the birds a variety - - sometimes I'll use cornbread, other times I swap quinoa for couscous. To save a step, I throw the frozen peas in the mixing bowl when I start by couscous. When the couscous is done, I throw it on top of the peas and mix it up. The heat of the couscous/ quinoa is enough to bring the peas up to temperature. I also add bee pollen, which I found the best price at Bulkfoods.com. Bee pollen, like everything is going up - I just checked the current price and compared to an invoice 18 months ago - a 25% increase in price. I add some Spirulina Powder too.

I try not to go overboard with all the products out there. The birds and I could soon be living in the street if I bought every product I hear about, so I try to pick and choose what works for me.

When the hens and cocks are separated, the cocks get wheat germ meal and the hens get Abba's Ova-Aid, which is a calcium supplement. Abba's Fertility E goes in the drinking water for both. I use Petamine Breeding formula in a separate dish.

About a day before the chicks are supposed to hatch, I put Petamine Nestling Food in the cage and offer the hen a bath. I've been told that although the hen's residual moisture will help raise the humidity in the nest enough to help chicks break through the egg shell.

I am feeding a variety of greens, especially to the hens with chicks. It is funny what some birds like for greens - - the borders devour broccoli like there is no tomorrow, but will leave mustard greens hoping something better will come along. The Staffords and Columbus go after anything.

A new Asian market opened close to my house not long ago. I found baby bok choy on sale and Pea Sprouts, which now the birds almost open the door themselves when they see me coming. There is never anything left in the cage with these two items. Bean sprouts are at a good price and good for the price too. I have some Staffords (more likely cocks) which don't seem to care for the stems but will eat the sprouted bean.

When the chicks are old enough to think about getting out of the nest, I give the hen Poultry Starter to give to the chicks. This is 20% protein and I think give the chicks a good start.

One thing I ALWAYS do, I don't care if the bag does say triple washed - - - I didn't see it get washed or how well it was washed, so I always wash whatever greens the birds are getting.

Thank you so much Tom for sharing with us! Congratulations on your Columbus Fancy success! Informative Columbus Fancy web site www.columbusfancy.com

Tom is President of the Stafford Canary Club of America. Visit their informative website at www.staffords-usa.com

Footnote: Tom feeds Pea Sprouts and Baby Bok Choy straight but often puts some greens such as broccoli in his egg food.