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Breeding Your Own Chicks
Breeding Stock
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Introduction Breeding Stock Suitable Eggs Incubator Egg Turning Temperature Humidity Candling Pipping & Hatching Optimum Conditions Useful Items |
Ensure that the parent birds are healthy, fertile and not too closely related otherwise there is a greater risk of congenital defects in the chicks. Avoid random matings and select eggs only from good examples of the breed or type. If hens have been running with undesirable cockerels, separate them and avoid taking any eggs for incubation for at least three weeks.
This is because sperms can remain viable in the oviduct for up to 21 days after mating. Coloured leg rings, or those with numbers on them, are a useful way of identifying specific birds.
Breeding birds should ideally be given a breeder diet that has the necessary level of protein, minerals and vitamins, for deficiencies may result in defective chicks. It used to be difficult to buy breeder rations in small quantities but now they are available.
A deficiency of Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) shows up in the chick as down feathering with clubbed ends, as well as curled toes. A shortage of Vitamin D, where the parents are unable to metabolize calcium and phosphorus, can result in rickets in the chicks. This manifests as rubbery or splayed legs and an inability to stand. They may also have twisted breastbones and rubbery beaks that are unable to break through the shell.
Not enough Vitamin E leads to crazy chick disease, so-called because the chick is not able to coordinate its movements and can only look upwards.
Copyright © Katie Thear 2005