breeding and care tips at Lakenvelder Farm

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Breeding and care tips

Breeding season has come and gone, Summer is quickly coming to an end and now comes winter. This year has defiantly been a different and difficult one. We went from 18 inches of snow and 30 Deg. F. on Monday to 98 Deg. F. on Thursday and it stayed that hot for 2 months. Our laying season was greatly diminished due to the weather. To top it off, due to the hot weather, shipping chicks, adult birds, and hatching eggs became increasingly difficult. There were several states that had outbreaks of disease and all out going shipping of live birds or hatching eggs was prohibited. This all added up to small numbers of birds and eggs available and huge demands for what was available.
Now to overcome the problems we need to re-think the winter game plan. Usually during the winter we just feed the quail and pheasants a ration of feed that is low in protean and give them a rest until spring. This year however we are going to play mother nature and keep our birds laying fertile eggs. To do this we have to modify 3 things. First we have to modify the birds housing. Second we have to modify the amount of light they receive each day. Third we modify the feed to provide huge amounts of protein.
Housing becomes an important issue during the winter for two main reasons. Most pheasants and quail are feathered, at least all of them I have ever met are. The feathers are hollow through the center of the quill and each barb. Hollow spaces equal insulation, layers of hollow spaces like the feathers on birds equals lots of insulation. If one was to measure the "R" value of a feather, or the resistance to transfer heat and cold, they would find that each feather is about an "R6" insulation factor. Now add layer over layer over layer of feathers and it becomes really surprisingly high. If you ask me, migratory birds don’t migrate south because it’s cold, they migrate because they prefer the food source available in milder climates. I have seen ducks and pheasants that wander about in 30 below weather the same as they do in 60 Deg. Weather. The cold really doesn’t affect the bird, it does however affect the quality and hatchability of the egg. A frozen egg has a slim to none chance of hatching. Storing an egg at 55 Deg. F. to 60 Deg. F. is ideal until it is placed into the incubator so lets build our housing to keep our birds and eggs at 60 Deg. F. Now we all know that when it is 30 below zero and the wind is blowing at 60 MPH like a winter day in Wyoming heat like that would be impossible without costing a fortune so keep your expectations reasonable. Small houses with a "R12" foam insulation and a light bulb will work out well. Plan the size of your housing according to the birds you have. Many are fortunate and have a barn to house the birds in but for those less fortunate here is an easy formula to keep in mind. Water is very important so keep your water fount in the house with the birds. Make sure you have a good one that doesn’t leak or spill. Wet birds are cold birds. My water fonts for the winter months are 1 gallon founts, they are about 10 inches in diameter and work well for quail and pheasants. Floor area is very important, each Courtnix quail needs 6 square inches of floor space so in a square 1 foot by 1 foot you can place 2 quail for breeding, 3 quail in that space would work but less is more in this case. Pheasants however need 1 square foot per bird. That adds up to a lot space for a few birds so be selective and choose only your best breeders for special housing. Lets say you have 20 Courtnix quail that you want to breed during the winter. You need a house that is 10 foot by 10 foot to house the quail comfortable. That’s a lot of house so here is a trick that works for me. My houses are 4 foot by 4 foot and about 3 foot high. We built runs on them that are 3 foot by 10 foot and 2 foot high. We covered the runs with roofing tin and one side of the run with tin. This provides an outdoor area that is protected from the elements and increased our floor footage dramatically. The house will hold around 8 birds that are breeding and the run will hold around 60 quail. In reality we have found that 60 to 100 Courtnix quail will be fine in these little houses and they will freely move from the indoor to the out door areas as they feel necessary. A lot of quail in a small house will generate a lot of heat which will help you heat the houses naturally. Pheasants on the other hand will become cannibalistic in a small pen if they feel over crowded so in the same pens we will keep one male and 2 female pheasants maximum. Place a light bulb in the house, this will keep your water from freezing as well as keep your birds warm. When the coldest nights will only get to around 30 Deg. F. I use 100 watt bulbs If the nights are going to be as cold as 20 below Deg. F. to 30 Deg. F. I will use a 250 watt heat lamp. Needless to say, we keep lots of bulbs on hand and the electric coop in our area loves us. In our barn we use gas canopy brooders and we place the water fonts towards the edge of the heating area.
The next issue of winter breeding is the amount of light the birds receive each day. I have read several studies from some of the major agriculture colleges and they all have one thing to say, " Yup, birds need light to lay eggs". In a nut shell, if a bird receives around 14 to 17 hours of continues light it will lay an egg. This goes for quail, pheasants, waterfowl, pigeons, and those pesky birds that fly around my garage messing up my car. In my case, I use lights to heat the houses so I turn them on and I leave them on. The birds don’t seem to mind sleeping with the lights on and with 24 hours of light they just seem to lay and lay and lay.
There is one exception to this that needs some attention. All birds need a rest from laying eggs. This is the time when they rest their body and do this magical thing called molting. To a game bird molting is a process of out with the old and in with the new. To you are I it is similar to breathing, out with the bad air, mostly CO2, non usable inert gas. In with the Oxygen, a very usable and necessary gas. On a gamebird as old feathers are molted, or dropped off the body so are spent keratin’s, dead skin layers, toxins in the body, and just flat out used up dirty old feathers. Some species of gamebirds actually molt as many as 6 times each year. This is common in waterfowl. Molting also somehow prepares the birds body for the next laying season, especially in those breeds that are seasonal layers like pheasants. Now that we know the importance of molting lets look at how to force a molt. First put on your mother nature hat and think about what triggers a molt. Usually a molt happens early in the spring, just as the days start to get longer. Long hours of darkness and short hours of daylight mean winter is here. When the nights and days are about equal , spring is coming and the molt begins. Forcing a molt is easily done by keeping your breeders in a dark area for 2 or 3 weeks. In our case, with large numbers of birds in large pens we cover the whole pen with canvas or old army tents that sleep 8 to 10 people. Anything you can find that will block the light will work well. Old cardboard boxes, dark bed sheets that the in-laws gave you, even straw bails and tin will work. I would avoid using plastic sheeting, it doesn’t breath very well and condenses really bad. It would be like putting your birds in an uncontrolled green house. If you have a barn just keep the doors shut and the windows blocked with a curtain. They don’t need absolute darkness, they need enough light to find the food and water, just keep it dark enough to fool them into thinking the days are really short. After about 2 to 3 weeks you will find that gamebirds are just about done molting, and by now it is getting pretty cold at night. Now is the time to turn on the lights, not only will it keep them warm but it will confuse them into thinking it is spring and a laying they will go. This is how we keep our birds laying right through the winter.
We mentioned that there were 3 things to concentrate on to force a winter lay, housing, lighting and feed. Feed is very important if you plan on breeding during the winter. Gamebirds in general burn a lot of protean to keep warm. All the insulation in the world will do you no good if you didn’t have a heat source. The internal temperature of a gamebird is regulated in an very interesting manner. It is much the same as the way humans regulate their temperature. Blood flow not only carries the necessary chemicals and gasses to your organs it also carries heat to the organs. Blood flowing through the areas closest to the skin loose heat to the atmosphere around you. If it is 10 Deg. F. out the heat loss is tremendous so you put on a coat to insulate your surface are from the cold. If it is 105 Deg. F. you take off your coat to dissipate the heat from your body to the atmosphere, the problem is that 105 Deg. F. is too hot so you perspire, water evaporates off your body and acts like an air conditioner to cool your skin so the blood can dissipate the heat. In the winter when it is cold out you generate extra heat to warm your toes by jumping around, jumping up and down creates muscle energy thus warming you up. Gamebirgs do something similar, they fluff their feathers out thus creating extra air space for insulation and holding the feathers erect creates muscle energy, thus warming the birds blood and internal organs. The problem is however they in doing this they burn energy in the form of proteins. Proteins, especially fatty proteins are found in the gamebirds diet. Typically a gamebird feed contains 19% to 22% protean. This is enough protean for the average bird on the average day. Winter is not the average day, now add the energy it takes produce an egg in the case of the female or if it is a male gamebird it takes an incredible amount of energy to go "Cruising Chicks" if you will, just ask any man around. Lets take a look at how to increase the amount of protean in your feed. The ideal amount of feed protean for a winter breeder would be around 29% to 33%. There is a very simple ingredient you can add to feed that is all natural and is incredibly high in protean weighing in at 44% pure protean that is very digestible. Soybean, High in protean, also high in nasty old fats. The solution is processed soybean, In whole form soybean is full of fats and acids that are actually poisonous to gamebirds. Processing soybean involves boiling the bean, grinding it to sand like granules, then adding the good, protean filled fats back to the soybean meal. Now don’t worry, you don’t have to go through all this trouble. Soybean meal is readily available at any feed store, it is used in any farm animal feeding operation to fatten up livestock. But now you ask, "How much soybean meal do I add to my gamebird feed"? If you add too much protean you would have birds bouncing off the walls, or more realistically, they would waste a lot of soybean meal. Not enough protean added you simply wouldn’t pick up the anticipated egg laying cycle and reduced egg clutches and reduced fertility would be the result.
A simple formula that works with any feed is the Pearson Square Method. Set up the square below using the protein percentage listed on your gamebird feed bag.

Soybean meal 44 -- (29-19) = 10 Parts Soybean
Target Protein 29
Gamebird Feed 19 -- (44-29) = 15 Parts Gamebird Feed

By cross subtracting the protein in Soybean meal and the target protein desired you come up with how many parts, this can be cups or buckets, of Gamebird feed to add. By cross subtracting the protein in your Gamebird feed and the target protein you end up with how many parts of soybean meal to mix.
In the case of our example one would mix 10 cups of soybean meal with 15 cups of gamebird feed. The mixed feed now has a total protein of 29% and would increase egg lay rate and it would increase egg quality as well as chick growth rate.
This formula works with any feed, it can be gamebird feed, scratch grains, laying mash, soybean meal, or even wheat. Simply substitute the protein amounts listed on the bag of feed and pick your target protein desired.
You can find this formula as well as other tips on my web site, WWW.lakenvelderfarm.com

We have talked briefly about the three essentials of winter gamebird breeding, housing, light and feed now it’s up to you. If you maintain a clean, comfortable, and disease free environment for your gamebirds they should be fooled into thinking it’s an early spring and start laying. Keep your eggs from freezing by collecting them often. Watch future issues of Game Bird And Conservation Gazette for detailed instructions on artificial insemination, just in case you end up with a bunch of lazy males that won’t do their part. As long as you can force the egg laying cycle to begin, usually, the males will follow suit and do their part.

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