Poultry Nutrition

So many blogs and papers and Facebook groups on nutrition. Which feed at what age? Loads of options available at stores and online. How on earth do you find credible information? Education. The only one that it matters to is you and your birds and your farm.

Let’s break that down for a minute.

What I do here at the Roost will likely be different than what you do. Your needs will be different. Why? My quail are a hatching egg business. My reputation will only be as good as my customer’s hatch rates. Fertility isn’t hard, but actually getting chicks on the ground with vigor is direct result of breeder nutrition and health. My chickens are for show, they need to be big, colorful and healthy. If you want some eggs from a pet flock, their needs will be considerably less.

I am not a poultry nutritionist. I have learned alot by reading, talking to Carey of Champion’s Blend and relying on Jeff Mattocks at Fertrell. I do not need to understand every nuance, that’s what they do. I need to understand my needs and to articulate those so that they can tell me what I need, pros and cons of all angles so that I can make an informed decision for myself.

I received a request for help from a man who had quail. His issue was hatch rate. His fertility was good, he had a good incubator and method, his ratios were correct. This led me to ask about breeder nutrition. What the complaint was, his quail were growing, even pipping, then dying before hatching. This tell me that the chick lacks the energy to hatch, energy is received from the yolk which is created by the hen who is fed……what? The answer was a cheaper, layer feed. He realized it was lacking so he was mixing in some starter to “fix it up”. He is unwilling to spend more on feed. I am not saying any of this as a criticism, just relaying the conversation. I explained that it was his farm, his rules. We had diagnosed the problem, I feel correctly, it was up to him to decide what worked for him. He said he would continue with what he was doing. The point here, is the trade off for the cheaper feed is less hatch rate. That’s fine for him but I could not do that here or my reputation would take a dive.

So in a world of information at our fingertips, sometimes the answer isn’t so clear. Make a list of what you need, do you just need eating eggs? hatching eggs? best hatch rates in the world? your farm, your rules. Then talk to knowledgable people doing the same thing and see what they feed, preferable a similar environment. A caged bird’s needs will be different from a free ranging bird. A game bird will be different from a chicken.

I will not promote the homemade feeds on TikTok, some of those are downright crazy. I do buy several different feeds for my farm and it changes with the seasons. If you want more info, check out Poultry Breeder Nutrion Facebook group run by Rip and Jeff. Also, we are creating a library of feed tags on PoultryNerds.com that will be live soon, and if your feed tag isn’t there, you can upload it for analysis and suggestions.

Whichever feed you choose, offer grit and clean fresh water, that really does go a long way for flock health.