Eggs to chicks

Written by Sue Clarke. Provided by New Zealand Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today, magazine.

Roosters, fertility and why you shouldn't feed more than a little wheat.

Rooster relations

Question:

How soon after the introduction of a rooster to a flock of hens can you expect fertile eggs? And conversely, when the rooster is removed, how long do the eggs continue to be fertile.

– David Harrison, Bulls

Sue Clarke replies:

Assuming the rooster is fertile, then the eggs should be fertile about 36 hours after his first mating with the hen.

The egg that is in the oviduct at the time of mating will not have the chance to be fertile as the sperm have to swim all the way up to the top of the oviduct and lie in wait for the next yolk to be released from the ovary, which could be up to 24 hours later. It will then take a further 24 hours before it is laid, hence the long wait for a fertile egg.

Sperm can remain viable for about a week after mating takes place so to be on the safe side, if you change roosters you should leave 7-10 days between roosters.

Why so little?

Question:

I have just read the article on feeding poultry in the February 2010 issue. In it, Sue states not to feed chickens any more than 10g of wheat/maize a day.

I am currently feeding my lovely little flock of six brown Shavers (in their first season of laying) in the vicinity of 100g+ each/per day. I usually feed this out in the afternoon and give them a little more about one hour before they toddle off to bed for the night.

I also make porridge for them in the morning using raw milk, sometimes adding cooked scrap vegetables to the mix. They are pretty much free range (more than I would really like when they get out into the vege patch!) and they get lots of greens from the garden eg, comfrey, silverbeet, nasturtiums etc.

My birds look very healthy, they have shiny feathers, are very alert and are each laying an egg a day.

I must also mention I am trying to avoid using the standard commercial feeds, mainly because I don't really know what is in them. I am concerned about 'additives' and anything 'not natural' that has been hidden in the mix.

My question to Sue is, why only 10g per day, and what are the side effects of consuming more than this? I thought I was doing the best for my girls and now wonder if I may be doing them some harm!

Also, is there another feeding regime she can suggest that does not include commercial feeds please?

– Nicole Hilton, by email

Sue Clarke replies:

Laying hens need a diet of at least 16% protein, preferably 18%, and wheat is not very high in protein (about 11% digestible protein).

High levels of wheat in a chicken's diet can cause dietary upsets due to the fact it needs more water to digest it, resulting in wet droppings. High levels of ground wheat in a chick's diet can cause caking round the beak and pasted up vents.

Despite your birds being healthy and productive, my advice would still be to restrict the amount of grain to around 10% of the daily diet to allow more consumption of a suitably-balanced diet. You mention you feed raw milk, and this is an excellent source of protein and fat and will compensate for some of the shortcomings of a whole grain diet.

In regards to your concerns about commercial feeds, all ingredients in commercial feed are written on bags of feed and nothing is 'hidden'.

More is known about the nutrition and dietary requirements of poultry than almost any other domesticated species and as a result commercial feed, especially when made by one of the major manufacturers, is a carefully balanced mixture.

It contains mainly 'natural' products including a combination of grains, plus a protein component which might be meat meal, pea meal, soya bean meal or a combination, but also the micro-ingredients essential for normal growth like vitamins and minerals. It also has the often essential amino acids like methionine and lysine that are present in animal products like meat and milk and very necessary in a poultry diet, but which are often sadly lacking in grains and vegetable-derived ingredients.

Calcium, essential for egg shell strength, is added in the form of limestone flour and needs to be 4-5% of the content of a layer diet but much less in a chick or growers diet. Calcium needs to be balanced with phosphorous for it to be available.

There is often a colouring agent included in layer feed to provide yolk colour as the level of natural colouring agents like corn and grass meal is often too low, and the level of barley - which makes very pale yolks - is often the major grain in layer feed. Organic feeds use colourings like marigold, paprika or grass meal to give a yolk its colour.

Another advantage of feeding a commercial pellet is that it has been steam-treated to kill bacteria. In contrast whole wheat is often stored in unbird-proof silos or pits and carted in open trucks exposing it to possible wild bird and rodent contamination (salmonella and campylobacter) every step of the way.

There are no growth-promoting products in commercial feed, or antibiotics as these are only available through a vet's prescription anyway. Chick Starter - a feed especially for feeding to chicks from hatching until week 8 - will usually contain a coccidiostat to prevent this very serious gut parasite from taking hold (this is also standard practice in calf feed as well). Once again, the bag will list it as an ingredient, and it is not put in layer feed.

Feed mills which belong the Feed Millers Association are required to meet high standards as their products must be fit for purpose. The big poultry feed firms supply their feed to huge operations with tens of thousands of birds to feed - birds that don't have the luxury of being able to choose to supplement their diet with bugs or worms or a variety of plants - so their products are finely tuned to provide 100% balanced nutrition in every pellet or crumb. Poultry farmers would soon complain if feed wasn't up to scratch, and samples from every batch made are kept by the mill for testing should there be a complaint. I should add that commercial free range farmers use exactly the same commercial feed.

When I write in the magazine I am trying to cover all bases by saying that readers would be far better to feed a commercial diet and supplement it with free range and household scraps and less grain. I have to assume in many cases the birds may only have access to an area which has become denuded of vegetation and insect life, and their diet may then consist of a daily handful of grain and old cabbage leaves.

To your last question, on a feeding regime that doesn't use commercial feed. Your birds' diet seems to be varied and will provide the essential nutrients due to that variety. In a commercial diet, grains should make up about 60% of the content, protein-rich products should be another 30% and the last 10% should be made up of 5% calcium and 5% of the micro-ingredients: vitamins, additional minerals, rancidity-preventers (as the fats can go rancid in storage which in turn denatures the vitamins), the synthetic colouring (food safe!) and essential amino acids.

You are doing pretty well with their morning porridge and access to the vege garden. Do you supply oyster shell grit for calcium? With a high-grain diet birds also need insoluble grit like fine road metal, but free range birds often find enough stones in their range to act as 'teeth' in their gizzard to grind up the grain and release the nutrients for digestion.

I would still cut down on the whole wheat you're feeding. As a natural alternative, there is a mix that has been mentioned to me called PBM (or somethingsimilar) which is a mix of crushed peas, barley and maize. This would be preferable as it contains a protein source (peas) a high energy/fat and colouring source (maize) and barley, which is a good grain filler. This would mix well with your raw milk for their morning porridge and then a scatter of wheat in the afternoon to bring them home to roost after their free range in the vege garden would be ideal. It means they would not be reliant on one food type (wheat) for almost 90% of their daily intake.

Shaver birds, being high performance birds, need a high performance diet. As a vet once explained to me, you can't run Formula 1 racing cars on diesel!

Sorry if I have been a bit long-winded, I just like to try to explain things as openly and fully as possible.

What a bird needs

A high-performing bird like a Shaver or a Hyline requires quality feed to be at peak production over a long period of time.

This website link gives the feed requirements and expected bodyweights and egg production for a given age: www.isapoultry.com/downloads/1/2007-06a_shaver_brown_fp_product_performance.pdf (740kb)

It gives a description of a commercial feed and what it contains. Note it says 'ingredients selected from' - this is because ingredients will differ throughout the year due to the availability of harvests and imports, but the feed must still be balanced to have a minimum protein, energy and fibre content even when the ingredients are changed. Testing of the levels in each new shipment is carried out, so if a new grain shipment is lower in protein it is supplemented with protein from a different source.

This article was provided by NZ Lifestyle Block, incorporating Growing Today magazine.
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