Spring Tips for Bird-Loving Folk

Happy Spring! Our outside birds have decided that spring has sprung here in Arkansas, and with that I wanted to offer a potpurri of tips and ideas that you may find useful.

It's time to start looking for your birds to lay eggs! Turkeys born last spring should start to lay (mine have) and other poultry birds should be starting to lay as well. What do your birds need?

Nest Box: A clean, safe place to lay eggs! Refresh those nest boxes with plenty of clean hay. Nest boxes for our Jersey Giant Chickens are 18x18, Ameraucanas can use a much smaller box, about 12x12. Turkeys and Pheasants usually won't lay in a box at all, but I like to offer a box to my Turkeys that is 24x24. The bigger, the better.

Calcium: Are you seeing eggs, but the shells break easily, or seem leathery instead of hard? Your birds need calcium for strong, hard shells. Try giving them oyster shell, you can add it to their feed, free-feed it on the ground as scratch feed, and/or put some in a small J-feeder out of the weather. We do all three to make sure our birds get the calcium they need.

Water: To help promote laying, never underestimate the power of water. Think of it this way, an egg is made up mostly of water so hens need water to make eggs. We recently changed over to an automatic watering system (Bell-style waterers) and noticed a huge change in the numbers of eggs we can produce as long as all the birds are getting the right amount of water!

Feed: Make sure your birds have constant access to fresh feed. All of our birds, chickens, guineas, turkeys, pheasant, and quail are fed a 26% protein gamebird starter crumble throughout life. This grows large birds, promotes good egg production, and eases the inventory and simplifies the feeding routine. We supplement with oyster shell and mineral blocks, inside birds or birds who are caged without access to the ground will also benefit from grit. Do not feed grit to very young hatchling birds. Also, never feed wet, soured or moldy feed to your birds!

Gather eggs frequently so your hens won't go broody. It doesn't matter if eggs are kept for setting or eating, it is always good to gather at the very least twice a day, but keep it reasonable and don't bother the birds with gathering more than 5-6 times a day. The birds are very good at adapting to almost any schedule, it is good to establish certain times to gather eggs, feed, water, do pen maintenance, etc. Your birds will appreciate a steady routine.

Library voices: Your birds will also appreciate some peace and quiet! You can talk near them, or to them, but use a soft and gentle voice. Do not allow your family, children or visitors to scream at your birds (such as screaming at turkeys or guineas to shut up, I promise that the birds can make more racket than we can.) This can upset the hens and some can decide to stop laying due to stress. Other stressors can include a predator attack or a predator stalking the birds or nearby the pen, 4-wheelers or tractors zinging by, helicopters or crop dusters overhead. Don't allow your dog to follow you into pens or your children to chase the birds.

Light up their lives!  A standard-type flourescent bulb in each outdoor enclosure for your birds will help your birds lay more eggs throughout the year. Leave it on 24-7. It can also help your flock to see predators right away, and predators may not be as likely to hang around!

What do YOU need? Tools of the trade to gather eggs:

Rubber boots are always a good idea so you don't bring disease to your flock from street shoes (don't hunt or leave the property in your "bird shoes") For times when it is dry, I like the Airwalk brand shoes (similar to Crocs, but IMHO they are more comfortable and less expensive) that you can buy from Payless. You can use them for a day, and run them through the dishwasher to clean them. Viola, clean and disinfected shoes!

Egg baskets - plastic-coated wire baskets, the ones made out of mesh, can be found at many Dollar stores for...well, $1 each. Stock up! I've found large round ones or smaller oblong-shaped ones, they are all handy and run through the dishwasher with ease. They'll need replacing about every other year, so just-say-no to the more expensive gathering baskets and use what is practical!

EZ Grabber You may have seen it on TV, you can get a foldable grabber to ease the amount of bending or reaching you have to do to gather eggs. It may take a little bit of practice to know how hard to squeeze, but it will make life easier for you and you'll have more time to enjoy your birds than being stuck with bird chores. These things have zillions of uses elsewhere, too. The more expensive ones are about $10-$15 but you can often find them from "dollar vendors" at flea markets and the like for about $2-$4. The flea market variety will work okay, but are not as durable so you may want to buy a few backup pairs.

Mechanical pencil A mechanical pencil is an easy way to mark eggs with the date or other info you may need, I prefer .07 lead size because it is more legible to read on an egg. If you wash eggs, and rub where an egg had writing on it, it can smear or be washed away.

Protective gloves We have started a new policy at our facility, if you are going into outside bird pens or other bird housing areas, you must wear protective nitrile or vinyl gloves. I buy the same type disposable your doctor or dentist uses, they can cut down on cuts and scrapes you might get, keep your hands clean and your nails pretty (I know, guys don't care about that, but it's still a good idea.) and your hands won't smell like chicken poop even after washing....you can avoid getting any cuts/scrapes infected from exposure to poultry....it's just good animal husbandry and good for your health, too.

See also my page on Washing and Storing Hatching Eggs for more info on what to do with hatching eggs from here....

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