Bird Breeding: All about incubating eggs and raising chicks

Setting Birds Up for Breeding … Housing Birds

Incubation / Egg Laying

An egg can be fertilized 24 hours before actual egg laying. Eggs remain viable for 10 days after they have been laid before losing viability. It is best to start incubating eggs as close to laying as possible.

Below are some relevant web resources:

• Infertile / Clear Eggs (causes and resolution)
• Thin-shelled, soft-shelled, no-shell, porous, misshaped / deformed eggs and other egg shell irregularities
• Storing Eggs for Maximum Hatchability: The correct way of storing fertilized eggs before incubation begins.
• Incubators: Description, Function, Options … Incubators for Sale
• Important Incubation Procedures to Follow
  • Incubation Humidity and Ventilation (humidity levels bird eggs need to be kept at at different stages and ways to regulate it)
  • Temperature requirements throughout the egg incubation process and pertaining to the different bird speciesIncubation Times: Parrots / Birds
  • Eggs: Failure to Hatch – Causes and Solutions
    • Deformities in newly hatched chicks
    • Dead-in-Shell / Embryo Mortality
• Candling Eggs to Verify Fertility and Development
• Repairing Cracked Eggs
• Information on Housing Chicks, Temperature Requirements, etc.
• Caring for POULTRY Chicks from Day One to Independence
• Chronic Egg Laying
• Failure to Hatch / Dead-in-Shell Diagnosis – Embryo Mortality (Death): Causes and Corrective Measures … Signs of Deficiency in the Embryo Nutrient … Find out if the embryo in a cold and neglected egg is dead or alive
• Saving eggs that were opened prematurely
• From “Egg to Parrot” – Illustrations of how the chick develops inside the egg

Taking Care of Chicks:

• Basic Supplies / Items You Will Need to Successfully Rear Babies
• Brooders & Intensive Care Units … Brooder Temperatures … Step-by-Step Instructions to Build Your Own Brooder
• Hand-feeding Protocol
• Hand-feeding Methods
• Handfeeding Utensils
• Hand-feeding Formulas / Weaning Foods and Feeding Syringes (includes recipes)
• Don’t have time to be the only caretaker of chicks? “Co-parenting” is an option.
• Weaning Protocol
• Banding Chicks
• Early Socialization: A Biological Need and the Key to Companionability
• Weaning and Fledging Chicks … Sprouting: Healthy Weaning Food (Methods and Instructions)
• Saving Eggs and Chicks During an Electric Outage

Chick / Handfeeding Problems

• Beak Deformities
• Burned Crop (from feeding food that is too hot)
• Chick Deformities
• Constricted Toe
• Crooked Toes
• Crop Emptying Problems – Slow and Sour Crop / Illustration of Crop Bra
• Setting a Broken Leg, Toes or Wings
• Non-Toxic Disinfectants / Disinfecting in the Bird Nursery (External link to the Green and Healthy Website)

Bird Nursery – Information about:

• Gas-filled Crop (Candida)
• Hydration Therapy for Chicks
• Punctured Crop or Esophagus
• Splay-legged Chicks

Reproductive Dysfunctions / Breeding-related Challenges:

Provides Info on Breeding, Mutations, Genetics and Bird-specific Breeding Requirements / Procedures and Challenges, Mate Aggression; Unsuccessful Breeding (Infertility, dead-in-shells, etc.)

Aviary Management:

Breeding Loan Agreements … Record Keeping … Bird Identification … Closed Aviary Concept … Pharmaceutical Supplies