Diary & Notes ~ Air Cell Detatched SHIPPED Chicken Eggs for incubation and hatching

[mlm Mike]

@mlmddh any clue what gender or color it will be? its very loud compared to a chicken chick, it has a cool chirp.

Sorry, not a clue on color or gender.

 

[Sally Sunshine]

Quote: no but a friend sent me a pic of a blue too, and it looks the same

 

[rbaker0345]

BEAUTIFUL pictures OZ. So glad that you got to spend some time with your family, it must be so hard to be away from them and from your beautiful farm. I love your livestock pics- the cow (was that a cow?) and the spotted pig are my favorite.

 

[rbaker0345]

I definitely think I need to add a supplement to the feed I give my breeders. I have my free range birds hatching perfectly healthy chicks left and right but the chicks that my breeders (who are in chicken tractors which I move every couple of days) hatch out keep coming out with horrible orthopedic/neurological problems.

So, this last hatch that I had, I had a silkie come out with a neurological problem and another that was just a bit mushy/sleepy. I already had suspicions about vita E/selenium deficiencies so I poached up a yolk from one of my free range birds (assuming that the free range yolks would contain a proper balance of nutrients). The neurological silkie had this weird problem where it was walking on its hocks to the point where its head was between its legs and it could barely lift its head and would hardly open its eyes. I had it in a sling.

I gave them the poached egg yolk and within an hour that one silkie was up and walking. He's still got a little hitch in his giddy-up but he is very energetic and is now the first one at the food dish. The sleepy one is also looking great. I've already started adding a supplement with Bcomp and Vita E/Selenium

 

[ozexpat]

I give 3 human selenium tablets per 100lbs feed

 

[scooter16]

Sorry I have been swamped and we are on vac this week, everyone knows summer is my busy time, but I will return, promise!
Over run with kids and animals, and my down time I play candycrush as its a no brainer relaxing much needed time for me!
I still go insane, but the medication helps that muwhahhhahhhahhaaaaa

How are ducks on egg laying? Do they come close to chickens? I just had a greater than 50% hatch on shipped eggs to Wisconsin from Ohio......I have to "toot my horn." !!! Were packaged large end up and super cushioned with tons of newspaper. None cracked and one loose air cell out of 22. Prior 2 hatches of my shipped eggs were 14%. This lady was awesome. Speckled sussex and Blue/Black/Spalsh Orpingtons.....Just had to tell someone.

Scooter 16 (Lynn Marie)

 

[DaveOmak]

I give 3 human selenium tablets per 100lbs feed

OZ, Good morning.... or evening.... whatever it is.....

About the selenium... I have been reading, which is dangerous to say the least....

The Selenium tablets I have found are from 50-200 mcg per tablet....

The Selenium additions that growers use is anywhere from 150-300 mcg / Kg of feed....

http://www.avitechnutrition.com/pdf/technical-bulletin/2002/Trace Minerals In Poultry Nutrition.pdf

Minerals Babcock Bovans Hyline AverageValues for Laying Flock
All values are in mg/Kg of feed
Selenium (mg) 0.3 0.25 0.15 0.23

Soooo, what I come up with, for an "in the middle" addition is.... One 200 mcg Se tablet per 1 Kg or 2.2 #'s of feed...

Are you taking into account that there is additional Selenium in some of your feed...... OR are your Selenium tablets higher in Se than what I get in the States..... OR is there some other factor, influencing you decision.....

Just trying to figure what to do.... This is predicated on 1 mg = 1000 mcg.....

Now I do realize there are misprints on the WWW..... The folks they hire to type the pages, may not even know what it is they are typing.....

Dave

 

[casportpony]

What about vitamin E? When horses get a selenium supplement it's one with E.

-Kathy

 

[ozexpat]

my error. I get myself a little confused at times because my recipe is based on 100kg and I normally conver to 50lb as thats what the sacks are here.

I add 12 x 300mcg tabs to 100kg of feed.

The nutritional requirement of Selenium is 0.2-0.3 ppm in feed or 200-300mcg per kg

Rice Bran has 0.16 ppm Selenium
Fish Meal is a whopping 2.1 ppm

My layer mash is 2 kg fish meal, 50kg Rice Bran and 1 kg Oyster shell so a batch is 103 k. This averages my feed to 0.225 ppm without addition Selenium

I am just topping them up to 0.3 ppm (well actually 0.29434 ppm) lol

My vitamin and electrolyte premix has 500mg of Vit E per kilo. I give 80grams so 40mg per kg. The requirements of a layer hen is 15-30 mg/kg (this is in addition to the 49mg per kg in rice bran)

 

[rbaker0345]

I am not sure about avians but I know that in horses, vita E is necessary for the uptake of selenium in the body.

I am glad you did that math for me Oz, I am terrible at stoichometry. I always have to do individual serial proportions, it takes me forever.