The Great Egg Shipping Experiment!

[misbhaven]

Sounds like you need to get creative... for vitamins any childrens vitamin without iron would give them a boost..people give infant drops to weak chicks all the time I bet one or two chewables crushed in their water would do it.

 

[LindaB220]

Sounds like you need to get creative... for vitamins any childrens vitamin without iron would give them a boost..people give infant drops to weak chicks all the time I bet one or two chewables crushed in their water would do it.

I put Azomite (rock dust) with 80 something minerals in my normal 5 gallon bucket of fermented feed 2Tbls

 

[ronott1]

Thanks ron!

I had two breach in this last hatch....possible causes from the nice list you posted would have been

- too high humidity (since I do not have a dedicated hatcher, those poor eggs have a humidity spike every time a set hatches)

- maybe not enough turning when I hand turn eggs when a set is hatching

- not enough B vitamins....I know ducks need lots of Bs, and I have not been giving them any fancy breeder rations. Both breach were ducks.


Total €%# on the nutrition point..... I have three sets of eggs already laid, two of them are being set while we speak... But, I guess I will know for next time.

I would join you all in your fish food feeding frenzy, but that isn't easy stuff to get up here. I feed the ducklings brewers yeast, so they get their extra Bs, so I am not sure why I didn't give any to the breeders.

Ah well.

Calf Mana is a reasonably priced way to get supplements and animal protein(whey powder) to them.

There is another couple of techniques you can use with the eggs in the incubator now. Cooling and misting. both help with the development of the chicks. Upside down at day 19 is almost always a development problem. Both misting and cooling help with development as does the turning.

An easy way to combine both misting and cooling is to pop the top off of the incubator before doing chicken chores. Mist the eggs with fresh cleat water. Go do the chores and when done, come back and put the top back on the incubator(make sure it is turned back on). Cooling them for up to tow hours a day from day 8 to lockdown really helps with chick development. The little guys will hatch better and be much more vigorous.

Sounds like you need to get creative... for vitamins any childrens vitamin without iron would give them a boost..people give infant drops to weak chicks all the time I bet one or two chewables crushed in their water would do it.

Chicken vitamins should work for adult duck breeders. Order online or get them from a feed store. Nutri drench and rooster booster products are commonly sold everywhere(Maybe not Alsaka?)

I put Azomite (rock dust) with 80 something minerals in my normal 5 gallon bucket of fermented feed 2Tbls

I have azomite pinned to order some. It would be good but does not have Vitamin A or B vitamins.

 

[LindaB220]

Calf Mana is a reasonably priced way to get supplements and animal protein(whey powder) to them.

There is another couple of techniques you can use with the eggs in the incubator now. Cooling and misting. both help with the development of the chicks. Upside down at day 19 is almost always a development problem. Both misting and cooling help with development as does the turning.

An easy way to combine both misting and cooling is to pop the top off of the incubator before doing chicken chores. Mist the eggs with fresh cleat water. Go do the chores and when done, come back and put the top back on the incubator(make sure it is turned back on). Cooling them for up to tow hours a day from day 8 to lockdown really helps with chick development. The little guys will hatch better and be much more vigorous.


Chicken vitamins should work for adult duck breeders. Order online or get them from a feed store. Nutri drench and rooster booster products are commonly sold everywhere(Maybe not Alsaka?)

I have azomite pinned to order some. It would be good but does not have Vitamin A or B vitamins.

The fermantation add B vitamins and other stuff:

actually create new vitamins, specifically B vitamins and Vitamin K2 , as well as some types of enzymes."

I got this off a site.

 

[ronott1]

The fermantation add B vitamins and other stuff:

actually create new vitamins, specifically B vitamins and Vitamin K2 , as well as some types of enzymes."

I got this off a site.

That is great!

They need vitamin A though. Does fermentation add Vitamin A? It is listed as a cause, if deficient, of mal positioned chicks.

Even with fermented feed, I would give them a vitamin with Vitamin A in it.

 

[Alaskan]

Thanks for the hints.

I am thinking that I am going to have to get a dedicated hatcher...since I am sure the high humidity spikes have done bad things...my first set hatched much better and more vigorously than this set #3, which would point to a non-nutritional something.

However, I do think I should make sure I change things nutritionally for the next breeding season.

I don't like the idea of adding stuff to the water, since I then need to perfectly clean out waterers. I also don't want to ferment feed, again...more work.

I think I might be able to find calf manna here (not sure...maybe in the next town over), and that would be easy to put on their feed, and I think I will add the brewers yeast to the calf manna.

But, should I start feeding that one month before I start to keep eggs for hatching?

I think I could feed them brewers yeast year 'round, but the calf manna might give them too much protein and kill off my drake, if I feed it non stop.

 

[ronott1]

Thanks for the hints.

I am thinking that I am going to have to get a dedicated hatcher...since I am sure the high humidity spikes have done bad things...my first set hatched much better and more vigorously than this set #3, which would point to a non-nutritional something.

However, I do think I should make sure I change things nutritionally for the next breeding season.

I don't like the idea of adding stuff to the water, since I then need to perfectly clean out waterers. I also don't want to ferment feed, again...more work.

I think I might be able to find calf manna here (not sure...maybe in the next town over), and that would be easy to put on their feed, and I think I will add the brewers yeast to the calf manna.

But, should I start feeding that one month before I start to keep eggs for hatching?

I think I could feed them brewers yeast year 'round, but the calf manna might give them too much protein and kill off my drake, if I feed it non stop.

The calf manna has the amount to add to the feed for different animals in the use instructions on the bag. I am fairly sure it has Ducks on it. The supplement has been studied and approved for all of the species listed so it should be safe.

I would think too much calcium would kill the Drake but not extra protein.

Your plan sounds like a good one. If you can find a used incubator, even a still air (add a fan kit to it) then you would be in great shape,

 

[hildar]

I sent out over 40 dozen eggs last week only 1 box had issues and only 23 eggs out of the 28 sent made it. But still out of 40 dozen sent that wasn't bad. I just wish that all the postal workers would start handling things better. You would think that with the price we pay for priority mail that they would handle it gently, but nope they still throw them, or at least some postal workers do.

 

[ozexpat]

Jeffers sells an electrolyte and vitamin compound that's 1.99 for a 4oz pack.

I put 4 tablespoons in 110pounds of feed that I mix myself. I also add 4 human selenium tabs. If you are buying chicken feed by the bag that already has premix vitamins, you really could use a quarter of what I use.

If you have an aversion to soy meal which is around 50% protein you can use fishmeal or blood n bone. These are 70+% protein.

I use both fish meal made from tuna and soy meal mixed with corn or rice bran as my feeds. 1kg of each in 50kg of 14% protein base will bump up to about 18%.

Using catfish food is a great idea if you can't get raw ingredients of feeds.

 

[ozexpat]

http://www.jefferspet.com/vitamins-electrolytes-plus/camid/LIV/cp/A2-V5/

Link to vitamins and electrolyte. I also use it in water for newly hatched chicks for the first few days and whenever birds get stressed by coop moves or other things that upset equilibrium