Sept. 29, 2025

Getting Ready For Breeding Season-Part 2

Show Notes
Transcript

In Part 2 of Getting Ready for Breeding Season, The Poultry Keepers Podcast continues the conversation with deeper insights into preparing your flock for success. This episode covers critical topics every poultry keeper should know, including:

How to manage lighting for optimal fertility without stressing birds
The role of water systems and continuous flow setups in maintaining flock health
Why nutrition—especially amino acids like lysine, methionine, and threonine—directly impacts egg quality and chick vigor
Ideal egg sizes for hatching strong, healthy chicks
Housing and nest box designs that reduce stress and encourage reliable laying
The importance of fresh greens, sprouts, and even alfalfa in boosting vitamin A and embryo development

Whether you’re raising heritage breeds, managing a small backyard flock, or preparing birds for show, this discussion provides actionable steps to elevate your breeding program.

To listen to this episode, visit www.thepoultrykeeperspodcast.com

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WEBVTT

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Welcome to another episode of The Poultry Keepers Podcast.

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In this episode Jeff Mattocks and Carey Blackmon complete their discussion on Getting Ready for Breeding Season.

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So let's get started shall we.

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When I ran my lights, for my flock my lights would go off.

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When I knew for sure I had a full sun was up, right?

00:00:31.420 --> 00:00:37.151
So my light was coming on at 3 30, 4 o'clock in the morning going off at 8:00 AM right?

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I knew the sun was up regardless of time of year at 8:00 AM right?

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And then the rest of the day was natural light.

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So I wasn't burning the extra electric.

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And so again, I had four hours of light stimulation in the morning only.

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Yeah.

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So for me, but I never had really old birds.

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So I never had, there was only a few that turned into pets that stayed to like their fifth, sixth year.

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And that's before I learned about, feed limitation, overweight, right?

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Dying of fatty liver, that sort of thing, right?

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So that was way back in my poultry nutrition, journey.

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And so learned a lot since then.

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Like for me.

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Doing that in November and December.

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There's a lot of days where you don't really even see sun.

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So again, in my mindset, I'm using that low light this's dm.

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It's LED now, so it's not, trust me with 10 people living in your house.

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The lights is the least thing that you're worried about running your light bill up.

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My thought was on those days where the sun didn't really do a whole lot, it still provided some kind of regularity to the day, which created a less stressful environment for the birds.

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Okay, so even on your cloudy, overcast, like gray days.

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Yeah.

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Your foot candles or your luxe, however you wanna measure, it doesn't matter.

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You end up at the same place, but they're still enough light, right?

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So they're still getting stimulation.

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Back in those days you were still thinking, like everybody else how bright does that lake need to be?

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But you can have a fully overcast day.

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And there's still enough light coming through those clouds.

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Unless you're in the middle of a hurricane or something and it gets pretty black or tornado, but

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and for me there is a pretty solid canopy of trees over a large part of my yard.

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My birds large,

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so that's not really a big problem.

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I'd be curious.

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It's, go out there with your lux meter and measure it sometime when you think they might need more.

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But you'd be surprised.

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I think you'd be surprised.

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I think I've got it pretty well dialed in.

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If anything, on where the light is within 10, 15 feet of it, it might be a little on the high side, but before it gets to the other light, it's like on the average to the low side of what it is.

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'cause I tried to set everything up to where it's somewhere in the range without having essentially a nightlight in every breeding pen.

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cause.

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When you order a certain number of 25 foot extension cords the Amazon delivery guy kind of looks at you a little funny when he brings like a dang case of them.

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But I did that.

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I was sitting here thinking, just why don't you run a continuous power line and just, cut into it with just regular, the gray type that's UV protected type.

00:04:03.876 --> 00:04:08.145
Instead of you do an extension course, but hey whatever gets it done.

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I did that for part of the yard, but when I added on to it, I actually found some of the strings of lights, like for camping that you can put.

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It.

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They also use'em at construction sites where you can screw up, it's like an extension cord, that has, so I use that and I just use the screw in bulb and, run it through that way

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all now I understand.

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Okay.

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Yeah.

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Hey, how are it doing?

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That also allows me to if I need to move the bulb one way or another.

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I can just hop over one of the empty spots,

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Not to take a left turn, but where are you at with your continuous flow water system?

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So with the continuous flow water system, I have it working on about a fourth of the yard.

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So one of the projects that I've had for the last six weeks, I've been adding some grow out space.

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Like I didn't have enough and I built me a 16 by 16.

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I also built a 14 by 22, and I'm gonna build another one that's probably gonna be a 14 by 26, maybe 32 for turkeys.

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Because I'm getting more and more people wanting heritage turkeys.

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As finished birds or as?

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Both.

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Both.

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Okay.

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Both.

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A lot of people are wanting pulses and then they're discovering that pulses are pretty much suicidal.

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And then they're wanting.

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Juveniles like Drakes and stuff.

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So the big thing I see moving in the pasture poultry world is buying started Turkey puls.

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Where they're already six or eight weeks old.

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So you get'em past that, you get'em past that suicidal age.

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Yeah.

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You may want to think about that.

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But anyway, let's get back on topic.

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Pre prepping your breeders for breeding seed, but

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The.

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The continuous feed water, it's working out really well.

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The noise that it makes draws them to it, like in the the reservoir.

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They can hear it in the pipe.

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Okay.

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And I'm using Turkey sized nipples.

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Where the nipples are.

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And like last night I went out and some of the, some of them were being curious about it and I hit it with my finger and it started squirting out water.

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And one of the roosters looked at me like, I just handed him a million bucks or something.

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Light just went off and he went over there and wore it out.

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So hopefully them wanting to play with it and being able to hear the noise that it makes when it jiggles will.

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Make them drink more water.

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You got the cups in there too, so they have a choice.

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Yeah, I got

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cups.

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They got those little pecker cups where they can hit that yellow thing in the middle and

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Yep.

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So

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they've got choices.

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They can have a nipple or a cup,

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but Yep.

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They got choices.

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I'm, I have not yet, but I may also put a place and bale in there because I haven't really had issues with'em freezing up.

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There's been a couple times where it was in the teens for several hours overnight that I had to go grab the rubber hose and whip it really good to, to get it to break up the ice and then start working.

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But

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yeah.

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Now have you put any ice in the reservoir yet?

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Frozen bottles.

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You haven't been hot?

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No, it hadn't really been that hot.

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Okay.

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Thankfully it, it did rain.

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Yesterday, which blew a lot of people's minds'cause we hadn't had that in two weeks.

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So

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there

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was

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that You'll have video for us in a full description soon, right?

00:08:06.841 --> 00:08:07.411
Oh yeah.

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Okay.

00:08:08.550 --> 00:08:13.511
I wanna, I'm gonna sit out there and get some that might be what I do Saturday when I'm not doing anything.

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Oh,

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perfect.

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Is set out there on my bucket.

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And just

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get your favorite of my chicken, favorite beverage and a cigar and just sit out there on your bucket.

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Yeah,

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that sounds like a plan for Saturday.

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I like it.

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Yep.

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Yeah, so I'd join you if you weren't 14 hours away.

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It would be a little far, but you're always welcome when you're thinking about feed is obviously the requirements for birds during breeding season is different for laying season.

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What.

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What do you wanna look for?

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What do you wanna stay away from?

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What would you ideally do there?

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Look, you, again you have to evaluate how important is your breeding season to you, right?

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And then you've gotta make your decision on what investment you're gonna make in that breeding feed.

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But you've got to up your vitamins, your amino acids and get the bird prepared.

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You need at least 21 days before you start collecting eggs, okay?

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Just to see the difference.

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You'll start seeing differences in seven to 10 days, but to get the full impact of elevated nutrition.

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Going into the egg, which means it's going into your chick.

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You need about 21 days.

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Now.

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You also need to be like, when we had Jason Yukon month or two ago, right?

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It's important to weigh your eggs, okay?

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It's important to get your egg size right.

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Okay.

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It does, you no favors to be set in small undersized eggs or oversized eggs.

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And that's gonna be a function of controlling the amount of feed that you're giving that bird, okay?

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'cause if they're eating too much, your egg size is gonna be too large.

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And if they're not eating enough, if they're one of the ones getting pushed back that don't get a chance to feed her.

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Those egg sizes, in the medium range are gonna be iffy what kind of chicks you're gonna get out of'em.

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Now, the upper medium, right at the cusp of being a large egg weight-wise will still hatch out, especially on a heavy breed bird.

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It's gonna hatch out a good check, okay?

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So you want to be at the very top end of the medium scale through the large.

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And about just into the extra large or about halfway through the extra large weight range, so you're talking, you really don't want to be over 60 grams, 60, 62 max, right?

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Your target weight should be 54 to 60.

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As far as egg weights for most breeds, right?

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That doesn't apply to a banum.

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That doesn't apply to a duck.

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I'm talking about chickens, right?

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So

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you pull out a bantam egg.

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That's 60 grams.

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Yeah.

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And you definitely need to re-look at your feeding program.

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Yeah.

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Somebody's claw is hurting.

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So anyway, bad.

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Bad.

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She's struggling.

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She's struggling.

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All right, so obviously the three aminos, you wanna make sure there's plenty lysine, methionine, and three aine.

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Yep.

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All that stuff gets, people don't really get it.

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Those building blocks of proteins are getting transferred into the egg, which means they're gonna be your chick development.

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And that chick vigor, when those chicks pop that chick vigor is huge.

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It

00:11:49.835 --> 00:11:50.105
is.

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I, I've actually.

00:11:52.625 --> 00:12:09.695
Been able to see birds, that eight feed that you designed as chicks, breeder, birds, and seeing their chicks come out and their chicks come out hello world.

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Here I am, watch out.

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And I've seen, I've fed in the past feed that.

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I thought was good and it's been dang, I gotta find something to put in the, I gotta give these birds something.

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They look puny when they hatch out.

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So it definitely transfers from the hen all the way through the chick.

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But that next chick feeding it right all the way from chick till she's a layer makes the next level.

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Better or easier or whatever.

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Yeah.

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Since I've been doing that for a couple years I don't do crap in a brooder.

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Like I've got four chicks that's two weeks old in the, in my, one of my brooders over there.

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Literally all I did was put some water in there and put some feed in there, take them out.

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I took the hatching basket out there to the brooder with me, tossed them in there, plugged the heat plate up.

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I changed water out every other day.

00:13:13.379 --> 00:13:14.429
It's a big difference.

00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:18.470
Just look, I think everybody listening knows.

00:13:19.284 --> 00:13:26.125
Proper nutrition is important, whether it's for you, whether it's for the chickens, whatever animal you've got, right?

00:13:26.664 --> 00:13:35.115
If you don't realize that, proper or balanced, nutrition is important, and you're lost.

00:13:35.804 --> 00:13:36.225
Sorry.

00:13:36.884 --> 00:13:37.274
Just,

00:13:37.845 --> 00:13:39.970
so we, we talked about that.

00:13:40.870 --> 00:13:46.440
What about housing and what do you, what kind of nest boxes, how big do they need to be?

00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:48.269
How do we need to set up these pens?

00:13:49.029 --> 00:13:51.789
Your nest box is dependent on the size of your breed.

00:13:52.230 --> 00:13:57.690
Like your Rhode Island Reds, they're true Rhode Island reds, and they're a much bigger bird.

00:13:57.830 --> 00:14:01.940
You're talking about eight pound hands in that eight pound range.

00:14:01.940 --> 00:14:03.485
And they're wide and girthy.

00:14:04.384 --> 00:14:23.335
If I had a standard bread Rhode Island Red, like you and Sue and Rip have, I would be looking for a nest box that's 10 to 12 inches wide, probably close to 12 to 14 inches tall and about 14 inches deep.

00:14:23.394 --> 00:14:28.164
So she, a hand needs to be able to comfortably go in and turn around.

00:14:28.764 --> 00:14:33.715
Just make it a little, just like she's gotta move her head to do it right.

00:14:33.774 --> 00:14:42.664
So just so you could almost measure a bird from her tail head to where her neck attaches.

00:14:43.085 --> 00:14:47.075
And I need to be just about an inch wider than that.

00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:49.460
Just so she can do the whole turn.

00:14:50.330 --> 00:14:50.570
Okay.

00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:53.350
I really want curtains on those nest boxes.

00:14:53.350 --> 00:14:54.399
So she has privacy.

00:14:54.399 --> 00:15:00.490
When she lays her egg, it, it eliminates or reduces the chance of a second hand in there.

00:15:01.240 --> 00:15:04.000
Everybody likes their privacy when they're doing private things.

00:15:04.389 --> 00:15:04.659
Okay.

00:15:04.779 --> 00:15:07.090
So it just, it's a good thing.

00:15:07.220 --> 00:15:07.549
Yep.

00:15:08.090 --> 00:15:15.600
Before breeding season, you want to get some really good clean bedding material in those nest boxes if you're using bedding material.

00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:19.850
But I'm a fan of some really great chopped straw.

00:15:20.110 --> 00:15:26.110
If you can't get some good chopped straw, use some larger flake type pine shavings.

00:15:26.710 --> 00:15:32.375
Don't use peat moss in the nest boxes because when they come out and the bloom is on the yig.

00:15:33.274 --> 00:15:35.014
It is gonna stick like a glue it.

00:15:35.014 --> 00:15:35.294
Yeah.

00:15:35.394 --> 00:15:41.485
So now you're gonna have a peat mos covered egg doesn't hurt it, but you're gonna wanna wash it before you put it in the incubator.

00:15:41.485 --> 00:15:44.674
But chop straw shavings are really good.

00:15:44.674 --> 00:15:46.985
Never, ever use hay for bedding.

00:15:47.565 --> 00:15:51.009
For whatever reason it leads to skin disorders.

00:15:51.068 --> 00:15:56.989
It often harbors things like mites mites and external parasites like living in hay.

00:15:57.724 --> 00:16:02.254
Whereas they don't really care for straw or they definitely don't like pine shavings.

00:16:02.644 --> 00:16:02.913
But

00:16:02.964 --> 00:16:06.443
And by straw you're talking about that stuff that's slick like bamboo.

00:16:07.344 --> 00:16:09.474
Depends on what kind of straw you feed a cow or a horse.

00:16:09.474 --> 00:16:10.494
Nothing like that.

00:16:10.644 --> 00:16:10.943
No.

00:16:10.974 --> 00:16:14.153
What you would spread out when you put down grass seed.

00:16:14.994 --> 00:16:15.264
Yep.

00:16:15.269 --> 00:16:15.698
Exactly.

00:16:16.599 --> 00:16:35.703
Alright, because there's very little sugar content in straw, whereas in Hay there's a fair amount of sugar content and when it gets damp or moist from the end being in there just her perspiration or body moisture, it's actually gonna start creating some molding or fermentation going on.

00:16:36.604 --> 00:16:41.734
So you're stimulating further fermentation things like straw and shavings.

00:16:42.254 --> 00:16:42.974
Don't do that.

00:16:43.514 --> 00:16:53.563
Now, this is the one time when I actually go for a pine shaving over pretty much anything else because the pine oil.

00:16:53.884 --> 00:16:58.754
Of the pine it naturally repels, any insects.

00:16:59.173 --> 00:16:59.264
Yeah.

00:16:59.264 --> 00:17:04.753
So things like mites and lice don't l living in that piney No, they don't like it environment.

00:17:05.284 --> 00:17:11.824
So yeah, the best nest boxes I saw had three to four inches of pine shavings in the bottom right.

00:17:11.824 --> 00:17:16.604
She can get in there, she can get really comfortable, she's got a nice fresh mattress.

00:17:17.114 --> 00:17:17.594
And she's

00:17:17.594 --> 00:17:18.074
good.

00:17:18.628 --> 00:17:18.898
Yeah.

00:17:19.709 --> 00:17:20.009
Yeah.

00:17:20.009 --> 00:17:26.788
And and if an accident happens, you clean it out and you put some, you keep your veil of pawn shavings right there and you do it again.

00:17:27.118 --> 00:17:31.078
Oh, Brian says five gallon bucket laid on the side with a lid cut in half.

00:17:31.138 --> 00:17:35.759
Works well for him with American games all now

00:17:35.878 --> 00:17:38.999
I see a lot of buckets either screwed to the wall.

00:17:39.159 --> 00:17:42.338
I do the nest box up about 16 inches off the ground.

00:17:43.148 --> 00:17:45.308
Not too high, but I don't like it on the ground.

00:17:46.058 --> 00:17:48.108
But the buckets and that just, that

00:17:48.108 --> 00:17:52.028
just helps keep trash and crap essentially out of it.

00:17:52.388 --> 00:17:52.628
Right?

00:17:53.528 --> 00:17:53.588
I'm

00:17:53.588 --> 00:17:57.009
not against the buckets and what he's doing with the half cut lid.

00:17:57.909 --> 00:18:01.659
It should have a per trail on the front so she can fly up to that and enter.

00:18:02.334 --> 00:18:05.358
But I would use, if it was me, okay.

00:18:05.538 --> 00:18:17.699
I would use black buckets so no light gets in through the sidewall, whereas most of your white, yellow, most of your other colored buckets are gonna allow some light penetration in there.

00:18:18.298 --> 00:18:20.878
Again, she's looking for the darkest place.

00:18:21.269 --> 00:18:30.959
The instinct of a hen or any poultry is to look for the darkest place to lay their egg.

00:18:31.558 --> 00:18:31.888
Yep.

00:18:32.128 --> 00:18:36.419
That is their natural instinct, so we might as well make'em happy.

00:18:36.638 --> 00:18:39.578
And like I use a, I use five gallon buckets a lot.

00:18:40.328 --> 00:18:40.568
Yeah.

00:18:40.659 --> 00:18:42.489
And I use black ones.

00:18:42.588 --> 00:18:56.358
One of my first laying pin that I had layers in back before I ever met Rip was I had a black five gallon bucket with, I cut.

00:18:56.898 --> 00:19:07.854
It was more, a little more than half out the top, but I screwed from inside a two by four right above the lip because I didn't want'em to cut their legs when they were getting in it.

00:19:08.753 --> 00:19:15.473
And then I screwed another one to the bottom of the lid so they could, so they had that perch to get on it.

00:19:16.344 --> 00:19:23.273
And then I got three fender washers and some screws and stuck the thing to a tree and screwed it.

00:19:23.304 --> 00:19:26.574
That thing still screwed to this tree, to a tree this day.

00:19:27.473 --> 00:19:34.463
And sometimes the free rangers I'll find eggs in it, but five gallon buckets are great.

00:19:35.364 --> 00:19:53.324
There are another thing you can do with a five gallon bucket is set it on the ground right side up, and if you cut it in half, basically the part at the top where the lip is, and right below that, if you cut that's almost the perfect size for a Turkey.

00:19:54.223 --> 00:19:54.584
Really?

00:19:55.304 --> 00:19:55.483
Okay.

00:19:55.483 --> 00:19:56.023
Yes.

00:19:56.864 --> 00:19:58.394
And Frank Reese Jr.

00:19:58.394 --> 00:20:04.844
Put me on that because his, he said he uses, they're the same size as milk crates.

00:20:04.844 --> 00:20:09.163
They're one foot squares on the ground with an open top.

00:20:10.064 --> 00:20:12.284
And I was like, okay.

00:20:13.183 --> 00:20:21.294
And I don't know if it's because turkeys or communal or whatever, I don't know, but that mine.

00:20:22.193 --> 00:20:25.253
I was getting eggs all over the place where my turkeys are.

00:20:26.153 --> 00:20:32.544
Took that cut part off the bucket instead of finding a milk crate or whatever.

00:20:32.874 --> 00:20:34.733
Stuck some straw down in that.

00:20:35.513 --> 00:20:37.943
Came back the next day, had two eggs in it

00:20:38.844 --> 00:20:38.963
there,

00:20:39.013 --> 00:20:39.304
okay.

00:20:40.203 --> 00:20:40.594
Yep.

00:20:40.624 --> 00:20:43.653
Now turkeys have a different instinct, right?

00:20:44.134 --> 00:20:44.374
Yep.

00:20:44.423 --> 00:20:45.923
And they are ground layers.

00:20:46.564 --> 00:20:55.753
Not that chickens aren't, but they are, they're ground laying birds but they don't necessarily look for that darkest place, they're not looking for a darker place,

00:20:55.834 --> 00:20:56.193
right.

00:20:56.433 --> 00:20:56.673
Yeah.

00:20:57.574 --> 00:20:58.709
Rob corrected me.

00:20:58.743 --> 00:21:01.263
Not the darkest, not quite the darkest.

00:21:01.263 --> 00:21:03.544
But they do fairly dark.

00:21:03.949 --> 00:21:05.338
To get, for laying their eggs.

00:21:06.239 --> 00:21:06.449
Yeah.

00:21:06.499 --> 00:21:07.969
They want a little privacy.

00:21:08.118 --> 00:21:08.179
Yeah.

00:21:08.179 --> 00:21:09.229
When they go do their business.

00:21:09.229 --> 00:21:09.739
Yeah, they do.

00:21:10.638 --> 00:21:11.318
I don't blaming'em.

00:21:11.318 --> 00:21:11.804
I do too.

00:21:12.703 --> 00:21:16.903
But, on the farm I count buckets.

00:21:17.804 --> 00:21:19.364
You can do everything with that.

00:21:19.903 --> 00:21:24.384
You can, and you know what, if you're using a white one or a yellow one or something, but let's light in it.

00:21:24.788 --> 00:21:31.808
I would just either paint it or I would figure out a way to, to lay something over it, to darken the inside.

00:21:32.048 --> 00:21:33.548
That's the only thing I'm suggesting.

00:21:33.548 --> 00:21:36.368
I'm not saying don't use the white or the yellow or any other color.

00:21:36.878 --> 00:21:40.189
I'm just saying, let's do something to help make it a little darker.

00:21:41.088 --> 00:21:45.068
I'd like for it to be up off the ground, right around 16 inches to the opening.

00:21:45.669 --> 00:21:48.159
Helps keep it cleaner, helps keep things out of it.

00:21:48.868 --> 00:21:54.538
You're le less likely to go out there and find a rat snake or a bull snake or something in it if it's up off the ground.

00:21:55.169 --> 00:21:55.469
Okay.

00:21:55.739 --> 00:21:56.278
But you

00:21:56.278 --> 00:21:56.669
don't

00:21:56.669 --> 00:21:57.028
want

00:21:57.028 --> 00:21:59.638
it higher than your lowest rost point?

00:22:00.538 --> 00:22:00.808
No.

00:22:01.378 --> 00:22:02.489
They'll try to roost on it.

00:22:03.118 --> 00:22:03.358
Yeah.

00:22:04.259 --> 00:22:14.818
And using a five gallon bucket and screwing it to a wall or something like that you gonna have to have a very talented chicken to balance on it.

00:22:15.118 --> 00:22:20.519
Because they'll get up there and they'll start scratching, trying to land and stay straight, and then they'll fall off.

00:22:20.548 --> 00:22:21.929
They're just like, eh, screw this.

00:22:22.828 --> 00:22:24.689
You don't really want'em, mar them on it anyway.

00:22:24.689 --> 00:22:24.898
No,

00:22:24.898 --> 00:22:25.499
you don't.

00:22:25.709 --> 00:22:26.278
That they do.

00:22:26.278 --> 00:22:27.358
That's why it works.

00:22:27.568 --> 00:22:28.019
Somehow.

00:22:28.019 --> 00:22:30.148
You've gotta establish a per trail, right?

00:22:30.148 --> 00:22:33.479
They need a place to come land before they enter.

00:22:33.719 --> 00:22:35.249
So figure out your portrayal.

00:22:35.878 --> 00:22:39.673
I've seen a lot of'em screwed to the back of a shed, in, in a row.

00:22:39.784 --> 00:22:49.294
If you don't have'em screwed in there, if you've got two support bars, like the back sits here and the front sits here with a slight, just a ever so slight downhill angle.

00:22:49.953 --> 00:22:51.064
That worked pretty good.

00:22:51.614 --> 00:22:52.604
I've seen that set up.

00:22:52.753 --> 00:22:57.013
But, and they were in a fully enclosed, not fully enclosed.

00:22:57.013 --> 00:23:03.624
The front side was open, like a run-in engine, so the back was fairly dark, if you have it placed at the right time of the day.

00:23:04.523 --> 00:23:04.854
All right.

00:23:04.854 --> 00:23:05.153
What?

00:23:05.153 --> 00:23:05.933
What did we miss?

00:23:06.144 --> 00:23:16.824
So one person says, never hear if it's important to have greens during any season, such as grass clippings, weeds, et cetera.

00:23:17.723 --> 00:23:23.183
For those that only have small flock, chicken runs or greens, really necessary.

00:23:24.084 --> 00:23:29.003
Alright, so the right kind of greens are high in vitamin A.

00:23:29.183 --> 00:23:33.544
So greens are going to help they're gonna help with embryo development.

00:23:33.544 --> 00:23:37.773
They're also gonna help with chick vigor and health when the chick comes out.

00:23:37.804 --> 00:23:44.554
So I'm gonna say, yes, a small amount of greens is gonna be beneficial.

00:23:45.094 --> 00:23:45.394
Okay?

00:23:45.483 --> 00:23:49.384
Now the most I've ever seen chickens eat.

00:23:50.058 --> 00:23:54.169
As far as greens as part of their diet is 5% by weight.

00:23:55.068 --> 00:23:55.308
Okay?

00:23:55.338 --> 00:24:04.068
So it's not a large amount, but it's better if they're fresh greens and not fermented, like he, he was talking about grass clippings.

00:24:04.969 --> 00:24:06.888
You gotta get those grass clippings in there.

00:24:07.788 --> 00:24:09.949
Pretty quick within an hour or so.

00:24:10.038 --> 00:24:15.558
'cause they, they start wilting and fermenting and doing other things once they're cut.

00:24:15.949 --> 00:24:20.259
And they actually can start turning rancid on you after a few hours.

00:24:20.648 --> 00:24:30.719
So they need to be really fresh grass clippings, if your runs don't have grass and you can't get your bird on living greens, I'm not, I'm all in.

00:24:30.749 --> 00:24:31.979
The grass clippings are fine.

00:24:31.979 --> 00:24:32.788
I did it too.

00:24:33.689 --> 00:24:40.858
Sprouted lentils are fine, but you do need, so if you're gonna sprout, a lot of sprouts are done in the dark or they don't get a lot of sunlight.

00:24:41.098 --> 00:24:48.719
What you're after is the green and the chlorophyll in there is where you're gonna be getting your vitamin A from.

00:24:48.949 --> 00:24:51.048
Not, I don't want a white spr.

00:24:51.769 --> 00:24:52.128
Okay.

00:24:52.179 --> 00:24:55.449
I want something that's got as much green as I can give it.

00:24:55.969 --> 00:24:58.814
I would even be sprouting if you wanted to.

00:24:58.814 --> 00:25:12.943
I'm not a big fan of fodder and sprouting, if you have no other choice sprouting something like wheat or barley or any of your cereal grains sprouting those for six or seven, even eight days it doesn't take a lot.

00:25:13.104 --> 00:25:14.243
It's hard to even measure.

00:25:14.243 --> 00:25:19.913
I would say a quarter cup of sprouts per mature bird is enough.

00:25:20.483 --> 00:25:20.814
Okay.

00:25:20.814 --> 00:25:27.923
And it's now, if you're gonna sprout a grain, don't give'em the seed part down that's been sitting in the water.

00:25:28.384 --> 00:25:30.423
There's a good chance that there's some Molt down there.

00:25:30.913 --> 00:25:36.624
Just give'em the tops where, you know, above the seed, out of the water, clip that off and give it to'em.

00:25:37.523 --> 00:26:01.064
So what I did was actually a couple years ago, got a lawnmower that had a bagger and a mulching blade, and about once a month I'll use it and cut the grass when it's good and green and I'll take, I'll take the bag off a handful, throw it in, handful, throw it in, and I'll give'em a handful of that.

00:26:01.663 --> 00:26:03.814
And then, the rest of it'll go to the pigs.

00:26:04.443 --> 00:26:10.653
Because the coy coons they do like to graze on grass, but I do that for that reason.

00:26:10.653 --> 00:26:13.213
I just a little bit something green.

00:26:14.114 --> 00:26:14.713
They're good.

00:26:15.614 --> 00:26:16.844
Has anybody got any questions?

00:26:16.844 --> 00:26:17.834
Where At our hour.

00:26:18.493 --> 00:26:19.844
I think we had a really good show.

00:26:20.743 --> 00:26:21.403
It turned out, yeah, I

00:26:21.403 --> 00:26:26.894
mean, back to the greens, if people have access to it, if they're in a horse area or something like that.

00:26:27.463 --> 00:26:30.814
Feeding just, good green alfalfa hay.

00:26:31.413 --> 00:26:41.463
If you can get some good green and alfalfa carries more vitamin A than the grasses due right then just a straight grass, like a grass out of your yard.

00:26:42.034 --> 00:26:46.144