The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

oops! I forgot to say that yes, I wanna hatch too.... BUT NOT YET!!!!!


I am going to be doing lots of hatching this spring....I haven't decided yet when I want to start up.

 

[drumstick diva]

Alaskan does the spouse know this

 

[Alaskan]

Alaskan does the spouse know this

What? What spouse????










OH!!!! THAT SPOUSE!


Nope, of course not.

 

[hennible]

yep.... I am thinking that that is the key.  I have been trying to follow that route since the spring....  I think it having a better outcome than previous things I have attempted. 





ker-duh, YES! 

I REALLY like my Brinsea.  I have the 40.  My house does not have a stable temp to save its life..  (the joys of wood heat), the Brinsea can keep the temp rock solid!  This is truly almost miraculous.

You DO have to unscrew the top, clean it out, and put it back together, about every 3 hatches.  I haven't had any problems doing that (I haven't stripped the screws, or whatever).  You do need to be careful, since the metal screws screw into plastic threads.

I do NOT recommend staggered hatches in only one incubator......  I need a second incubator just for a hatcher.......not sure what I should buy for that.



yes, you are correct, snow is depressing. 




Good nutrition for the breeder birds makes a BIG difference in hatchability and just vim and vigor of the newly hatched chicks.  Everyone seams to use a different combination of stuff for their breeders, but I would recommend adding something good in addition to regular pellets.

Yep brinsea it is... I was drooling over the 40 today, but alas, even my super tolerant hubby would kick me out to the coop if I bought that one,( after all I'm going to brood these things in the house, and I think I'm gonna bring the ducks in to use the bathtub this winter rather than try and bring water to swim in out... So he tolerates a lot )so the brinsea 20 it is... For now ~evil laugh~
So boost nutrition but what aspects of nutrition? I suppose I should try harder to provide greens, sprouts would be good...
What else? Protein?

 

[Alaskan]

Quote:
I think vitamins would be best. Don't go crazy on the protein, I would go for 20% not 16%.

Soooo...... any high power food..... sprouts are awesome, kale, and pumpkins.

Different things I have heard of breeders using:
cat food
fish food (like for Koi)
calf manna

I don't use any of the above....I like nutritional yeast, it has a bunch of good things in it. Of course, some eggs are good too since you get your complete amino acids from them.

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any comparative studies as to what supplements for the breeders are the most helpful.

I DID incubate supplemented verses unsupplemented eggs last year...big difference...but I haven't compared different types of supplementation.

 

[hennible]

Nutritional yeast is cost effect and simple, thanks good idea... Pumpkins and kale I got, perfect. Ok I'm feeding FF mostly, I guess the yeast can go in the dry feed but they choose to eat FF way more... Any thoughts on how to give them the yeast?

 

[Wisher1000]

I feed my breeders layer pellets (6 parts,) chick starter (2 parts,) Calf Manna (1 part,) and black oil sunflower seeds (1 part.) I also find that it is very important to worm on a regular basis.

 

[hennible]

thanks wisher

 

[ronott1]

I feed my breeders layer pellets (6 parts,) chick starter (2 parts,) Calf Manna (1 part,) and black oil sunflower seeds (1 part.) I also find that it is very important to worm on a regular basis.

thanks wisher

layer feed has too much calcium for roosters. It causes kidney failure.

 

[hennible]

I'm closing in on info overload
Thanks ronott1 that's important... Same for drakes I think.