breeding

[sc anderson]

HI all, Have 8 RIR , 1 year old and 2 years old hen's, Want to start breeding some of them. With a 1 1/2 year old RIR rooster. They are not free ranged. Just had read it's best to feed them a breeding type food? Or one may have problems in hatching with some dieing just before hatching is that true? Would like to have 90% hatch. Feed my hens a little grass, corn and small amount of cat food with these cold day's. The feed I use is Dumor Layer 16% pellets. What do you all use? This article also said to wait weeks before breeding when started with a breed type diet? It was saying need extra Vitaim A, D this and that on and on. Like to keep my life simple and my chickens simple!

Thank you!!!

 

[chocolate m'scovy]

I don't think my roosters knew they were supposed to have a special breeding food.

We just use Layeena. Our hatch rate is not 90%, but then our only eggs have been hatched by self-appointed broodies. However, our chickens are free-ranged so they glean more nutrients than enclosed birds. Is there any way to free-range your birds?

 

[sc anderson]

Can't free-range them we have coyote's here. Sure wish we could.

 

[Mahonri]

I sprinkle a little game bird feed with 21% protien with the layer feed. I had a great hatch rate with my own eggs but I got mostly ROOS!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Like many of the suggestions, recommendations and hints on here, feeding the breeder feed will not guarantee anything, but it will improve your odds of success. The commercial operations feed the breeder feed to improve their odds, but even a 1% improvement when you are hatching hundreds of thousands of chicks a week is a lot of chicks. I don't know what percent it actually helps. I'm just using 1% as an example. And several of the people on this site that sell hatching eggs feed it to improve their customer service. They certainly go higher in my esteem when I see that they do that.

The recommendation I've seen on one of the extension sites is that it is probably not worth the added expense for the hobbyist which most of us are, but if the 90% hatch rate is important to you, it may be worth the added expense to you. 90% can be hard to reach consistently.

Good luck!!!

 

[sc anderson]

Thank you!!!!!