Breaking News Perle Morbide Available in US

Laraine of www.ladygouldian.com is expecting to have Perle Morbide available in 8# and 20# bags about mid June.

I have been putting it in my basic nestling food recipe and both parents and chicks enthusiastically eat it. They actually pick it out first along with the peas! It is a great addition because of its nutrients and relatively low protein level which is so critical to preventing neurological symptoms especially in Borders and other canaries.  I ordered 40# and look forward to continuing it through molting.

Determining the amount to order is always a challenge so please let Laraine know how many lbs you are interested in.

Feeding More Wheat and Wheat Products Part 2

Whole Wheat Cornbread

Recipe

2 cups Cornmeal
2 cups 100% Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp. Salt
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
4 Tbsp. Sugar
4 Whole Eggs With Shell
2 cups Milk
1/2 cup oil

Combine dry ingredients and add wet ingredients. Do not overbeat. Bake in greased 10 inch pan for approximately 35 minutes. Cool and process in food processor. This will grind up egg shell and get it ready to add to nestling food.

My basic nestling food recipe now has additional processed wheat with polenta or cornmeal and processed Whole Wheat Cornbread.

I still am using all the ingredients in the nestling food recipe but in addition I often offer a separate dish of the golden cous cous and quinoa.

Whatever bread or cake  etc. is leftover is processed in the food processor and fed either in a separate dish or mixed in the nestling food. Recently my daughter Kellie, made a strawberry sponge cake complete with icing and fresh raw strawberries on top (since she made it for me, it was splenda instead of sugar).

At least a half cake was left over so after a couple of days, I put the cake, frosting, raw strawberries in the food processor. It was too wet when I processed it so I added dry cornmeal till it was a crumbly moist consistency. It smelled so good that I offered it in a separate dish and the birds quickly cleaned up every bite!

Wheat is also included in my soak seed/sprouting mix purchased from Abba.

Healthy nest of four German Roller chicks. Note the rose pink color and the fat deposit on the rump of the chick on your left. This means you are getting the right portions of carbohydrate to protein.

Feeding More Wheat and Wheat Products Part 1

This time of year when hens are laying their last round and chicks are weaning, I like to greatly increase the wheat products in the diet.

Farmers or health food store sell whole wheat. I soak the wheat 8 hours and then put it in a strainer and sprout it till I can barely see new sprouts coming to increase its sweetness and then cover with water and cook in a rice cooker about 20 minutes till done. It is either fed after processing in a food processor with added polenta or corn meal or just as it is after cooking. So which do the weaning Columbus like best?

24 hours later barely a trace of the processed wheat with polenta remained in their dish.

Columbus Fancy Baby Adopts Big Bird As Its Mother! Weaning Issues

When Momma Bird starting to lay her second clutch, I decided to wean her chicks. But this one refused to eat like the other four Columbus Fancy chicks in the weaning cage and instead it just watches them eat and after awhile, it started crying! What a pitiful sound!

So Big Bird decided to start hand feeding and even though it had never been hand fed before, it enthusiastically accepted its new Momma, Big Bird!

 It likes to perch on my arm as I offer CeDe Handfeeding Food!

When it eats, it like to flutter its wings!

When weaning it is a good idea to but all food on the floor and not to put any perches in until the chicks are eating well. I offer a smorgasbord of nestling food, dry CeDe Handfeeding food, soft white bread crumbs, quartered hard boiled egg, sprouted seed, dry porridge oatmeal, sunflower pieces, hulled hemp, and bee pollen.

The decision to hand feed at this stage should be limited to only the crying chick any chick that will even take a bit of anything will be fine.

If you start hand feeding a chick at this stage it will delay its weaning likely a couple of weeks!

Sandy Says This is All Too Complicated! Part 1 Breeding Season Feed Routine

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.

Hen Won't Accept Hanging Nest

Sandy was upset today! No matter where she hangs the nest, this Columbus Fancy Hen removes the nesting material and places it in the bottom corner directly on the wire! "This is never going to work" she scolds the hen.

Some hens get an idea on their nest placement and they will fight you day after day. So what do you do?

Exactly what she wants!

 Sandy placed the clay nest, inside another bowl which she also lined with a nest liner to make it steady should the couple try to mate on the nest. Good Job Sandy!

 Immediately, Momma is Happy! If Momma is not Happy, no one is Happy!

Happy couple looking forward to raising a family!

I planted this fragrant pansy basket about a month ago with Lucky Dog potting soil! Never have I had so many blooms! Lucky Dog contains beneficial microbes and earthworm casting and is expensive but worth every penny or should I say dollar? Actually, I am making a large bag go a long ways!

I told my farmer brother Larry about it and he said it uses the same principle as no-till farming where beneficial microbes in the mix attach to the roots and allow the plant to take in more nutrients!

When Are We Going to Set the Left Side Hen, She has already laid her last bluer egg? Trio Breeding

 Clearly, the bluish egg signals that the left side hen has finished laying her clutch. But the right side hen is still laying. Usually, we set when the bluish egg is laid so Sandy wants to know if we set her or wait?

I like to give laying hens Avi-Tech calicum in the water while the hens are laying. I also like both hens to hatch the same day, so both have chicks to feed on the same day. So that means we will hold the left side hens a day or two to wait for the other hen. I will rotate the eggs making sure the small end is up to ensure the egg membrane where the chick pips stays moist.