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Moulting (or Molting if you will).
So, let's talk about older birds. My older females are moulting and their pen is full of feathers. Of course, egg laying has pretty well dried up from them. So what do you do for your moulting birds? I pen the moulters together so they can co-miserate. This contains the feathers dropped to one area and I have usually found a moulting bird to be a bit crabby, quite understandably. I try to slip them some natural protein sources, such as excess eggs, meat scraps and lay off the layer feed as they don't all that calcium during this period. Grower feed of the juveniles works well.
Since this is specifically a Rock BREEDERS thread, we probably need to review why moulted out, older birds are so valuable for your program. Breeding solely from cocks and hens as opposed to using cockerels and pullets is simply the best way to go, if you can. Here's why.
A bird changes so much as an adult, and once moulted back, you finally get to see what a gown up version of your line looks like. There's no other way to know if your hens go to absolute junk in the feather or your cockbirds lose their tails. Many times faults that don't surface in our juveniles can plague us when the bird moults back, issues such as cushions, loose thigh feathering and so on. What about egg quality and quantity the second year? Only by keeping older birds can you answer these questions for yourself. Our goal needs to be breeding from older birds. If we really want to keep our strain up to the Standard and breed top quality birds, the only way is breed from older birds.
So, let's talk about older birds. My older females are moulting and their pen is full of feathers. Of course, egg laying has pretty well dried up from them. So what do you do for your moulting birds? I pen the moulters together so they can co-miserate. This contains the feathers dropped to one area and I have usually found a moulting bird to be a bit crabby, quite understandably. I try to slip them some natural protein sources, such as excess eggs, meat scraps and lay off the layer feed as they don't all that calcium during this period. Grower feed of the juveniles works well.
Since this is specifically a Rock BREEDERS thread, we probably need to review why moulted out, older birds are so valuable for your program. Breeding solely from cocks and hens as opposed to using cockerels and pullets is simply the best way to go, if you can. Here's why.
A bird changes so much as an adult, and once moulted back, you finally get to see what a gown up version of your line looks like. There's no other way to know if your hens go to absolute junk in the feather or your cockbirds lose their tails. Many times faults that don't surface in our juveniles can plague us when the bird moults back, issues such as cushions, loose thigh feathering and so on. What about egg quality and quantity the second year? Only by keeping older birds can you answer these questions for yourself. Our goal needs to be breeding from older birds. If we really want to keep our strain up to the Standard and breed top quality birds, the only way is breed from older birds.
