Nutritional needs during egg laying

I've noticed since she started laying that my hen is up earlier and looking for food, and she seems to be spending a lot more time wandering around picking at food than the other birds.

How much do the nutritional needs change when a peahen goes into a laying cycle? It makes sense that she would need more food to churn out all those eggs...

On the liquid side she has to consume and retain the liquid weight of the egg. On the non-liquid side she must consume enough protein to replace the protein lost in both the egg itself and the energy of the process. On the minerals side she must also replace the calcium in the egg as week as other minerals/vitamins.

If you maximize the egg production from a hen is is practically impossible for her to keep up. She will be lighter by the end of the year.

AugeredIn said:

On the liquid side she has to consume and retain the liquid weight of the egg. On the non-liquid side she must consume enough protein to replace the protein lost in both the egg itself and the energy of the process. On the minerals side she must also replace the calcium in the egg as week as other minerals/vitamins.

If you maximize the egg production from a hen is is practically impossible for her to keep up. She will be lighter by the end of the year.

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Makes perfect sense... What do you do to help the hen meet the increased nutrition and fluid needs?

I was wondering how many protein % everyone use in the breeding season and in winter?

q8peafowl said:

I was wondering how many protein % everyone use in the breeding season and in winter?

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I keep my peafowl with 22% protein all year round. As peachicks they get 28% protein medicated. I also keep oyster shells in the feed. I can take a picture of the bag, and the food pan if you want to know how much I use and what I use. Also my peafowl have access to grass, and whatever bugs in the grass. Reason why I have the same protein level for the adults year round as well as oyster shells always in the feed is because when my hen stops laying then the male is molting his train and growing in another one, and when he's done growing in his train the hen will start laying soon.

One small cat food bowl for oyster shells.

I use one coffee can of Meat Bird Crumbles 22% protein.

I shake the food so the oyster shells are dispersed through out the food.

12'x12' pen filled with grass

Laying season feed is 40% layer pellets (22% Protein), 30% Game Cock Conditioner (16-18% protein), 30% high quality TSC cat food (35% protein).

AugeredIn said:

On the liquid side she has to consume and retain the liquid weight of the egg. On the non-liquid side she must consume enough protein to replace the protein lost in both the egg itself and the energy of the process. On the minerals side she must also replace the calcium in the egg as week as other minerals/vitamins.

If you maximize the egg production from a hen is is practically impossible for her to keep up. She will be lighter by the end of the year.

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Great post!

-Kathy

My feed is only 16% protein, i can't find higher here in Kuwait, i give them mealworms also, in that enough for increasing the protein in their nutrition? Don't know anything about cat food, i read it many times that breeders gave their peafowls cat food, how this work exactly? Should i give them cat food everyday or what?

I use dry cat food (as well as dairy products, when I get day old dairy from my grocery store hook ups) to boost protein levels for the peas when necessary. contrary to some peoples claims my peas will in fact eat dairy...

q8peafowl said:

i give them mealworms also, in that enough for increasing the protein in their nutrition?

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You have to push the numbers and see what the end protein level is based on how many meal worms vs feed they consume each day and see what the averaged protein level is...

Live meal worms are about 50% protein, dried ones have about 58% protein...

So weight out the foods and use this equation...

For live meal worms (50*weight of worms)+(16*weight of feed) divided by both weights combined
For dried meal worms (58*weight of worms)+(16*weight of feed) divided by both weights combined

So lets say for example you gave them 150 grams of feed and 30 grams of live meal worms, the math looks like this...

(50*30) + (16*150) / 180
1500 + 2400 / 180
3900 / 180

=21.7% protein feed