2014 breeding season begins, post your results

[DylansMom]

Ok, so measure the amount needed per bird per pen and it does not matter how much egg. I would suppose that the more egg the less flavor of Safeguard. DW feeds a lot of scrambled eggs, all the birds love them. Babies get the yolks and the peas get the whites.

Change of topic; do you think that one can feed too much egg yolk to young birds? Talking up to two weeks old. We feed the yolks to the new hatchlings for a couple of days and then start mixing it into the medicated starter for the first week or so. We have a lot of extra duck eggs for the birds to eat. You mentioned guinea eggs, we haven't found a guinea egg for two weeks, I think they stopped laying....

Eggs are very high in protein, which has been linked to leg problems in developing Pea chicks. Perosis or slipped tendon is usually not treatable and the chick ends up being culled, this has been linked to too much protein. I had some twisted tibias last year, which I attribute to overfeeding as opposed to high protein, but we did manage to correct it with 3 weeks of taping. Read up on peachick leg problems, I don't give my chicks any egg past the first week and then it is only given to promote interest in the starter.

 

[zazouse]

I feed mine eggs and oatmeal a couple times a week in the winter months never had a problem out of 50 plus of them, i guess if they got eggs exclusively it might be a problem but 1 egg has so much to offer so IMO an egg a day is not going to hurt a bird, they are not gluttons like chickens are


I read that Peas are omnivore and need animal protein in their diet

 

[zazouse]

Ok, so measure the amount needed per bird per pen and it does not matter how much egg. I would suppose that the more egg the less flavor of Safeguard. DW feeds a lot of scrambled eggs, all the birds love them. Babies get the yolks and the peas get the whites.

Change of topic; do you think that one can feed too much egg yolk to young birds? Talking up to two weeks old. We feed the yolks to the new hatchlings for a couple of days and then start mixing it into the medicated starter for the first week or so. We have a lot of extra duck eggs for the birds to eat. You mentioned guinea eggs, we haven't found a guinea egg for two weeks, I think they stopped laying....

make what you think they will eat at one time if some is left over it is not a big deal if they do not finish it by the end of the day the dogs get it, it does not go to waist here, just figure 1 egg per pea 12 peas a dozen eggs make sure the eggs are soft scrambled so the meds mix well, you can even add a bit of their feed if the eggs are to soft after you add the meds.
Why do you feed only the yokes?
My gins are still laying but most the only ones not are sitting them.

 

[DylansMom]

I feed mine eggs and oatmeal a couple times a week in the winter months never had a problem out of 50 plus of them, i guess if they got eggs exclusively it might be a problem but 1 egg has so much to offer so IMO an egg a day is not going to hurt a bird, they are not gluttons like chickens are


I read that Peas are omnivore and need animal protein in their diet

The period of time during which the excess protein can cause the leg problems is very short, so if they get past that point it shouldn't hurt them at all. I have seen perosis and twisted tibias that couldn't be helped and I simply prefer not to take the chance with my young chicks, as with so many things, they may like it but they do not need it, so if I can prevent problems by not feeding it for 2 months I will. They are omnivores and the starter has protein in it. I am not saying all birds fed eggs on a regular basis will develop leg problems, but if you want to talk numbers we raised almost 50 chicks just last year alone without feeding eggs to them and they were also fine. JMO

 

[KsKingBee]

Why do you feed only the yokes?

My gins are still laying but most the only ones not are sitting them.

I'll have to ask DW that. She doesn't like the way I feed so she does most of the feeding, I do the watering, incubating, catching, medicating, and pen building. As far as yolks go I think it is twofold, she doesn't like the yolks so she feeds them, and eggs are the perfect food for birds, at least for getting them started. We only feed the yolks straight for the first day or two and then mix the yolks with starter feed (powdered) for a few days, then go to straight medicated chick starter. The whites are smashed up with the shells and fed to the laying flock.

We haven't got a guinea egg for two weeks, three of us searched the area for two hours yesterday and could not find any nests.

 

[zazouse]

But if you do not feed the entire egg it is no longer the perfect food

 

[KsKingBee]

But if you do not feed the entire egg it is no longer the perfect food

That is a good point, I will severely chastise her for that.

 

[Hens and Roos]

So we ended up having to remove the eggs that our pea was sitting on- our male was not letting up and kept chasing her off- the 4 eggs that we brought into the incubator were cold, so we candled all the eggs and ended up removing 6, of the 4 left in the incubator only 1 shows the most promise, guess time will tell

Have to check with my friend who has pea eggs under her broody.

 

[zazouse]

That is a good point, I will severely chastise her for that.

 

[zazouse]

So we ended up having to remove the eggs that our pea was sitting on- our male was not letting up and kept chasing her off- the 4 eggs that we brought into the incubator were cold, so we candled all the eggs and ended up removing 6, of the 4 left in the incubator only 1 shows the most promise, guess time will tell

Have to check with my friend who has pea eggs under her broody.

She will most likely try again can you move him to another pen?