Sunday, October 31, 2010

Questions and Tips for Big Bird!

Please post this weeks unrelated questions and tips here.

TIPS

JERRY NOBLE shares his recipe for boiled seed.

Seed Mix: 2 parts Hemp, 1 part each Buckwheat, Hulled Oats, Red Millet, White Millet, Wheat, Canola Rape, and Canary.

Cover with water and boil one minute, drain and refrigerate overnight. Feed one month prior to breeding and to all birds each day during breeding season.

He also recommended TLC Seed Company out of Minneapolis (612) 627-9606 as a source for clean, reasonably priced hemp.

If you use boiled seed in your breeding program or have experience using it, please comment to this post!


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Linda,

What is the difference /benefit of using boiled seed versus soaked or sprouted seed?

Evon in WI said...

Yes, I have used a similiar boiled seed mix. I switched from soaked or sprouted seeds to the boiled recipe.
I add couscous to the mix for weaning the hatchling. Work good for me,my canaries as well as the finches relish it.

Linda Hogan said...

Deb writes "I've used soaked buckwheat as a breeding aid for birds such as Yorks, Norwich, and the harder to condition Old Variety birds. I tried boiling flax to make a tea for respiratory problems but did not like the consistency and neither did the birds".

Linda Hogan said...

Boiled drained and refrigerated seed has the least risk for being spoiled. Being easy to crack, birds will eat it readily.

Sprouted has a nutritional advantage as the growing small sprout is full of vitamins. I sprout rape and black oil sunflower and sometimes a special mix much like Jerry's mix that does contain a variety of seeds including buckwheat.

Setting in water, unless in the refrigerator provides a good media for bacterial growth. The only seed I routinely soak is hemp and I do that for several days in the refrigerator and rinse daily.