QUECHUA /Tojuda/ Ameraucana/ Easter Eggers{ In vino veritas

[Chickanmanfromarkansas]

coq au vin: Was your stock from Ideal wierd acting? The ones that I ordered from them (25 pullets and 10 cockerals) I recieved and they appeared fine until they were about 2 months old, then they started acting wierd. It started with one and then every day another 1 or two would develope this, They were walking weird and the they died after a day or two. I had to destroy the whole bunch so that I would not breed this problem on. I contacted Ideal about the problem but they deny that there was anything wrong on theur part. Just curious if yours were acting this way?

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
The symptoms you seem to be describing here sounds like Mareks.

If you leave moulted feathers about- and/or forget to thoroughly sanitize every few months and moulted feather and dander are collecting in corners and so on- you will very likely have your birds come down with Mareks.

Supplement with vitamin C -those chicks that are one month old until ~ six months. Start collecting rose hips now so that you have enough to supplement with all winter.

Additionally, look for products like Babycakes, which are loaded with cranberry seeds .


Food is Medicine

 

[Chickanmanfromarkansas]

Don't think it was mereks. They were in a pen that we use to put growers into until they are big enough for a regular pen (coop).
There have been others in that pen and they never had any thing like that. Futhermore, the pen is cleaned out and sanitized after each group of birds leave. There are about 100 to 125 other chickens around the place and they never got whatever it was that these chicks had. Anyway I don't have to worry about them since I destroyed the whole batch. Ideal was notified about the situtation and they coose not to do anything about it, so I just am not recommending them or their chickens to anyone.

 

[wolftracks]

Resolution I was directed to you for some information.

Rather than just adding it here I'm giving a post to my link.

I had some birds years ago that I want again, but no one knows for sure what they were. I could almost swear we all imported birds called Ameraucana, but the birds today don't fit into the correct egg catagory.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=5014930#p5014930

Hope you can help

 

[cashdl]

Resolution,

Do you have a list of must have supplements or food you feed your blue egg layers to keep them healthy and happy. You have mentioned quinoa. I am assuming you cook it or do you feed it raw?

Are there things you put in your birds water.

I would love to see a general guideline on how you think blue egg layers should be fed and maintained to keep them healthy, happy, producing and fertility up. I remember you posting on the Araucana club about things you use to keep hatch rates up. My hatch rate has taken a huge nosedive in the last two months and am wanting to revamp my whole approach to feeding and maintaining my breeders.

Lanae

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
Hi Lanae,

As blue egg layers are the product of the indigenous cultures of South America and Meso America we only have to look at their food basket to ameliorate the diets of these fowl.

Traditionally, since the first day Pacific Junglefowl were introduced to South America and Central America by seafarers, the primary food has been parts of fish and crustaceans inedible to humans. They would also have been fed plenty of taro and other high starchy Polynesian roots before introduction to South America.

Turmeric is a mainstay of Polynesian culture even while it is not known to have taken root in South America. It is an important supplement to every poultry diet regardless of species, breed or class.

Getting back to blue egg layers- grow Indian corn; quinoa ; sweet potatoes, chili peppers and pumpkins-these are the non-animal staples that these birds would have been maintained on for countless generations.

In my opinion, quinoa and cooked sweet potatoes are the two most important supplements for the daily maintenance of these fowl.
For reproductive health one must supplement animal fat and animal protein - a can of sardines once every few weeks is a nice supplement.
To guarantee a higher hatch rate for the earring inarius races, quinoa and crustacean chitin are recommended.
Everytime you and your family have prawns, shrimp, crayfish or lobster, save the shells and process them into small fragments that can be frozen for storage.

~ three weeks before you begin to start setting eggs- begin ameliorating the diet with the crustacean meal- mix this material into cooked sweet potato, canned corn,
raw quinoa and hot chili peppers. This should be the only food put out each morning and only as much as they can eat in a few hours at most.

All pellets and mashes, crumbles- these need to be pulled for reproductive season. Replace with Farmers' Helper UltraKibble; Mazuri Extruded Pheasant kibble or any other extruded (baked as in dry pet food) mixed into canary seed or wild bird seed and scratch, OYSTERSHELL and the occasional treat of a can of sardines -whole in the skin with bones in olive oil.

Optimal formula ForageCakes should be provided to adult breeding groups/pairs. These will need to be slightly soaked on one edge before feeding.
Wash them off every few days and if they become very hard bricks- by the pounding pecks of the birds- soak slightly again.

The foragecake is rich in antioxidants- in nuts and micronutrients etc. It is what you keep in front of breeding birds- to improve the sperm mobility and health of the roosters
as well as increase the nutrient value of the egg yolks themselves- naturally- the egg yolk is what nurtures the growing embryo- better food - better birds-- guaranteed.

Another issue people sometimes fail to catch on to is the issue of sperm competition. These archaic races are not polygamous - if anything they are serially monogamous-
in other words, keep your ratios of males equal to females or very nearly so.

 

[cashdl]

I have been feeding scrambled eggs cooked quinoa and oats all mixed together with yogurt to my birds every morning and they get layer mash the rest of the day.

We almost never eat shell fish but I live close to the ocean so can probably get ahold of the throw away parts of shell fish fairly cheaply. Canned sardines I can easily do.

So I shouldn't cook the quinoa. The birds love it.



So canned corn, shell fish left overs, cooked sweet potatoe, and raw quinoa = breakfast

Farmers helper, canary seed, oyster shell = daily

sardines once weekly.

forage cakes all day.


Lanae

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
Get rid of the mash. Replace with scratch grain, oystershell and ultrakibble or comparable product ( baked pellet similar to dry dog food). Mazuri makes an exotic pheasant kibble as well as a crane kibble-. Baked feeds are much more sanitary, much more digestible and leave no waste. Its the soy that hasn't been heated to the degree necessary-that's problematic- the crude protein is largely indigestible to chicks and hence should not be in the egg yolk.

 

[cashdl]

In the baked kibble, what protein content should I be looking for. I live in the middle of no where and while I do have several feed store choices they don't have the pheasant kibble or crane kibble. It looks like Mazuri is made by Purina or the other way around so anything else Purina makes that might work. Also lets say in a pen of 4 birds I put in a 1 gallon can of feed and it usually last the day and by bed time is either gone or scratched every where. Am I feeding too much, too little. Alot get wasted in their bedding.

For 1 gallon of feed what ratio would be kibble, scratch grain, and oyster shell.

I read somewhere that birds love cat food as a treat so I put some purina cat food in the pen. Next day I had a dead roo and two days later 2 pullets died. Maybe just a weird coincedence but I havn't done it again.

Hopefully I don't come off as dense, but I love things spelled out, that way I get it right.

Lanae

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
40% protein is my first choice. I use UltraKibble exlusively.

Your husbandry protocols may need some revision.
Feed must never be allowed to mix into the litter. This is how we create mycoplasma, sinusitis and choriza infections.