AT one time I had a very large breeding operation that produced 60,000 parakeet, finches, cocktails, lovebirds...(over 200 different species and sub-species) per month. I employed 127 full time employees, 3 Veterinaries.

All were raised in large indoor/outdoor flights covering 80 acres. Raised all my own feeds and had 2 employees that had PhD Degrees in animal nutrition. The 15 years I did this most of the deaths occurring in the different flocks of birds were due to old age and injuries, rarely disease was the cause.

Nutrition is the key to prevent disease. So many say they want to raise their animals with 'natural' foods from the land without thinking how that may impact their health. The first question one must ask is: Are they indigenous to the land? If not, where are they from? The soil in Michigan is different from New Mexico--you get the picture. These nutritional differences of the same vegetation can be very different depending on the soil chemical and biological contents. This difference can be disastrous or it can be so slight you don't see the impact on an individual animal but after generations there may be big changes. Example: parakeets in Australia are very small compared to captive breed birds in America and England especially (English Budgie). There are sub-species of African Lovebirds that are next to impossible to maintain in captivity let alone breed them. The quality of goats milk from different areas varies. The nutritional values of vitamin C in tomatoes/oranges grown out West is different from those grown in southern Florida or Africa.

So when we say 'we want to raise our animals naturally' really doesn't mean much in regards to the nutritional requirement of the given animal. Many time they can't possible get what the need from the land that has been raped of it's nutrients buy poor farming practices for 100+ years.

It's hard for me to stop once I'm started. Just think of the limitations and find a solution that allows you to rise above them.

Seramas,

You mentioned in another post the need for enough protein for proper feathering especially in molting birds. I was hoping you could answer a few questions. I have two feeders for my hens one with Purina Layena and the other with cracked corn and they are free range so the eat all kinds of stuff during the day. I had heard that chickens will self-regulate their feed and naturally eat more of the feed that they need if given the choice. My birds are taking turns molting now and most of them just look a little scruffy but 4 of the 11 molting hens have bare saddles. Because of the molting I would assume they would be going through the Layena faster than the corn, but the opposite is happening. I fill up the corn twice as fast as the layena feeder. Should I take away the corn so they are forced to eat the higher protein feed or should I add another feeder with an even higher protein feed (game bird feed maybe?)? The reason I have corn in there is I heard it helps them keep warm in cold weather. I thought maybe they were getting more protein while free-ranging but now that we've had several frosts I doubt there is many bugs left to eat. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Jenica

I usually feed a complete layer ration and only give them treats sparingly. During molting increase the protein by using soy protein or an easier way to mix 1 part 28% Game Bird ration to 3 parts of a complete 16% layer ration that will increase the protein content to approximately 19%.

As far as any animal (including Humans) eating only what they need is very misleading. What they will eat is a learned trait. What they see mom eating is what they eat. Birds are color sensitive in what they seek out to eat. If you have 3 different colors of corn in three different dishes they will eat the color that is familiar to them. Let's go farther and say you have three pens of chickens and each pen was feed a different color of the same ration mix. You then let the birds out into a larger area together and offered three dishes of the three different colors of food. The birds will segregate to the food that is most familiar. In time they will notice the others eating the other colors and will learn that they are good for eating too.

After they have finished their molt then mix 1 part corn to 4 parts layer ration and serve it in both feeders. If separate they will eat the 'candy' before the main meal. Some of my friends will give their birds the corn in a separate dish about 2 hours before they go to roost then take it away and that way eliminates the mixing and limits the birds to the extra carbs when they need them the most-while they sleep.

Thanks a lot for the advice. Hopefully my hens' feathers will fill in soon once I change their feed. I feel so bad for them in the cold weather. My feed store doesn't sell soy protein so I'll get the game bird ration. I usually give them a scratch feed treat a couple hours before dark so I'll start putting out their corn then instead of leaving it out.

Now that I think about the whole eating what they need thing, I should have known it wasn't true. One of my hens refuses to eat oyster shell and she has very thin eggs, so that should have tipped me off.

Thanks for the advice!

I don't use oyster shells at all. If you are using a complete 16+ layer ration it has more than the required calcium in it. Usually you get a hen that lays thin shelled eggs because they have a mineral deficiency--Boron and Magnesium. These minerals unlock many of the other nutrients so the body can use other minerals properly. These two minerals main impact is to direct the body to use calcium properly. Many people have this very same problem-bone spurs-calcium deposits inside joints and the muscles usually due to deficiency in the above two minerals.

Here is a bit of information about boron: "The Poultry Institute observed that adding boron to mixed feed grains for chickens improves bone development and calcium metabolism. It also found that boron addition changed the bone development, blood and stress parameters and that cholesterol levels of chickens are lowered thanks to boron. The cholesterol lowering capability of boron is now being studied for application in humans." http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=151242

Here is a bit about magnesium Deficiency: "Calcification of Soft Tissue Including Heart Valve" http://www.ctds.info/5_13_magnesium.html

Science is beginning to unlock the long debated issues of the importance of vitamins/minerals in all life forms and the lack of many of these in the foods we all consume-even the people who eat only organic suffer from many deficiencies. If these building blocks (minerals) are not in the soil it can not be in the food grown in it (just that simple).

Back to the thin shelled layer-if you're providing all that is required for proper egg production and she doesn't comply maybe soup is the proper place for her-sometime there are genetically related problems that can and do block the body from properly using calcium and you may never be able to get her to lay good strong shelled eggs.

Hi Seramas, good to actually have someone who knows what they are talking about. This is the first year we tried raising the Cornish X Cross, out of 26 chicks we had 19 that made it till adulthood. We had to kill three hens because they got so fat, over 15lbs and had trouble breathing. The roosters did much better and had 7 reach adulthood and I killed 3 and put in the freezer. We were feeding laying mash and cracked corn mixed at about 50% each, I guess that was too much corn according to your previous post. We live in the four corners region and was researching different corn species. It seems that the Hopi Indians have been growning their own varity of Blue corn for over a thousand years and it happens to have the most protein content of any corn avalible in the world, 30% verses around 6 or 7% for sweet corn which is mostly carbohydrates. I was thinking about switching to the blue corn to feed the chickens and it would seem to take care of their protein content along with other nutrients not found in the yellow corns. Just wondering what you think..Thanks

The difference between blue corn and yellow corn is one of pigmentation, not protein content. Now if you can get your hands on this Hopi corn that has a higher protein content that is another story all together. Good luck finding the right stuff.

well I have a question. I was feeding my chicks chicken scratch before they started laying eggs. When they did start the eggs were prefect. About 2 weeks later the chicken scratch ran out and I switched over to layer crumbles and the eggs have had thin shells since. should I go back to the chicken scratch?

The reason for layer ration is to make sure that the chickens have enough resources to continue to lay eggs, so higher protein and to my knowledge more calcium, however its formulated to meet certain levels of nutrients rather than to be deliver biologically available levels of those nutrients. Since they were only on the crumbles for two weeks after they started laying it is possible also that they simply used up their available reserves of calcium. In order to properly metabolize calcium vertebrates need calcium phosphorus and magnesium, you can supplement these minerals, Oyster shells are a traditional way to provide calcium, and they are also used as a source of grit for the crop.

In addition to that there is someevidence coming from japan that suggest that addition of a fine powder of Stevia can decrease egg shell breakage, but this is for use in production birds and could have negative effects on the long term health of the animals.

"Studies at Colorado State University indicate that the protein content of commercial blue corn is consistantly 30% higher than dent corns in adjacent fields (Johnson and Croissant 1990)."

I just don't trust that, that's the biological equivalent of saying that brown eggs have higher protein content than white eggs. One variety of blue corn has considerably more protein than average, that doesn't mean that all varieties of blue corn have considerably more protein, and testing a handful of fields in the native range of the Hopi where the Hopi corn is more likely to be grown isn't terribly likely to result in a rule we can apply. Also Johnson and Croissant 1990 is not a scientific publication, its a guide for marketing grains that was produced by the colorado cooperative extension service.

I personally cook with blue corn meal, and I notice no difference between it and stone ground white other than color.

egg shells are back to normal now but have white spots on them.