There are many good nestling foods on the market including Ce De, Quicko, and Abba which many of our club members have used, and some still use these fine products. However, cornbread has become the most popular nestling food of our club members in recent years. There are many recipes to make cornbread from scratch in regular recipes books, and various muffin and corn bread mixes in the grocery stores. Any good mix or recipe is a good base to start with, but canary babies need extra protein to grow on. This extra protein can be provided with extra eggs and either Soyalac or soy flour. Hens are most likely to feed well the mixture which they were raised on themselves or one for which they have gradually acquired a taste. Following are some of those nestling foods:
3 Oz. Soyalac Concentrate Infant Formula (any grocery store).
1 Teaspoon honey.
Directions:
Mix anyway you want as long as everything is mixed thoroughly.
Microwave at once for 11 - 12 minutes. test by inserting a wooden toothpick into cake. If toothpick is dry, it is cooked sufficiently.
A regular oven works fine.
Use food processor to grind the corn bread and store it in the refrigerator.
Serve by taking whatever amount needed - crumbling it and adding enough water to moisten - but not wet. The serve the dish to birds.
You may, if you wish, add Vionate - Mineral-Vitamin Supplement - to crumbs before you moisten (get it from Feed store).
Also, you may add a small amount of Brewers Yeast Powder. (Get this at Health Food Stores).
Add approximately 1 teaspoon to the total above.
Feed along with sprouted seed. Use separate dishes.
Nestling Food By Jim Ritcher:
Ingredients:
Boiled eggs.
ABBA Green Nestling Food.
Quicko Nestling Food.
Directions:
Add 1 boiled sieved egg to 10 tablespoons of the 50/50 mixture of ABBA Green and Quicko.
Use q squirt bottle to moisten it with water to fluff it up.
Can add ground broccoli and carrot.
Ground Seed Nestling Food By Dan Agrella:
Ingredients:
1 Cup Safflower Seed.
1 Cup Oat Groats.
1/2 Cup Rape Seed.
1/2 Cup Hemp Seed.
2 tablespoons of Poppy Seed.
6 Cups of bread crumbs.
Directions:
Mix and grind the Safflower seeds, Oat Groats, Rape Seed, and Hemp Seed.
Add Poppy Seed and bread crumbs to the above mix seeds.
Store in container in cool place.
Mix 4 heaping tablespoons of this mixture with 1 boiled egg. Moisten this mixture for babies in the nest.
Feed dry for weaned babies.
Corn Bead By Chalice O. Thomason:
Ingredients:
1 cup of flour.
1 cup of corn meal.
1 cup of sugar.
1 tablespoon of baking powder.
1/4 teaspoon of salt.
3 eggs.
1 cup of milk.
1 stick melted butter or 1/2 cup melted bacon grease which they enjoy very much.
Directions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, if you have a deep container like a double boiler that has a lid on it, the corn bread will come out with less crust. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean from the cornbread.
Put enough grease in the container or pan and melt it before pouring the stirred up mixture into it: the cooked bread will come out better without sticking. Just stir it long enough to get it well mixed and cook it for about 25 or 30 minutes, no longer than you have to or it will be hard and dry.
After removing the corn bread from the cooker, place it in a container with a good lid and place it in the refrigerator after it has cooled off.
When feeding it place about a one inch cube or equivalent in your feeder and dampen it with water to be sure it is soft.
The hen will clean up every crumb and it will stay fresh all day.
Any time it dries out just soak it with water (NOT MILK) drain off the excess water and feed it.
You can feed the corn bread to the older birds through their molting season, and to all the young through the same period.
Egg Food By Linda S. Hogan:
Ingredients:
1 large slice corn bread or 2 slices of 100% whole wheat bread, process a few seconds to make into crumbs.
1 teaspoon Super Preen Vitamins.
1 teaspoon calcium powder with D3.
1 tablespoon vegetable protein powder.
1/2 cup Lafeber's Pellets.
1/2 cup Hill's Nestling Food.
1/2 cup Abba Green Nestling Food.
1/2 cup Ce De Nestling Food.
9 hard-boiled (cooled) eggs with shell (eggs are boiled 12 minutes).
Directions:
Process a few seconds in a food processor.
Freeze a one days supply in individual plastic bags.
Defrost overnight in the refrigerator immediately prior to use.
Feed the egg food in an open plastic container. This encourages it to dry rather than spoil.
Put fresh egg food in the cage twice a day.
Young should be taken off egg food gradually when they can eat seeds or pellets. This will be at approximately 6 weeks of age.
Egg Biscuits By Linda S. Hogan:
Ingredients:
6 eggs.
3/4 C. Sugar.
4 Tbsp. Real Lemon Concentrate.
1 C. Whole Wheat Flour.
1/2 C. Raw Wheat Germ.
3 Tbsp. Yellow Corm Meal.
1 Tbsp. Powdered Vitamin/Mineral supplement (Superpreen or Vionate).
1 Tbsp. Vegetable Protein Powder.
1 Tbsp. Brewers Yeast.
1/2 tsp. Baking Powder.
1/2 tsp. Iodized Salt.
Optional for coloring red birds: 1/2 tsp. dry canthaxantin.
Directions:
Separate egg whites from yolks and place whites and yolks in different bowls.
Beat egg whites stiff and set aside.
Beat yolks and gradually add sugar.
Add lemon juice.
Fold 1/2 of the beaten whites into the yolk mixture.
Fold in dry ingredients.
Add remaining beaten egg whites.
Mix lightly.
Spray pan (15 1/2" x 10 1/2" x 1" heavy aluminum baking sheet) with Pam.
Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for approximately 35 minutes.
Turn out of the pan to cool.
When cool, cut into small pieces.
Freeze bags of these and thaw as needed.
You can dry them completely and store. if biscuits are not completely dry, they can mold during storage. Dry biscuits can be moistened before feeding.
Egg Food By Garnet Weaver:
Ingredients:
1 Box
Pabulum Protein.
1 Box Pabulum Mixed.
1/2 Box Red River Cereal.
1 Box Bread Crumbs.
3 1/2 lb. C.L.O.
1 Box Graham Crackers.
1 Box Sunwheat.
1 pkg. Cornmeal.
1 pkg. Wheat Germ.
1/2 Box Milk Powder.
1/2 Cup Berry Sugar.
1/2 Cup Poppy Seed.
1/4 Cup Brewer's Yeast.
1/2 Cup of Bone meal.
Directions:
Mix all the above ingredients together in a large can; package, and store in freezer.
When feeding, mix 5 tsps. of the above with one hard-boiled egg.
In addition to this, regular seed and a treat cup of groats or Petamine is also fed. Greens are fed after the fourth day.
Nestling Food By Mrs. Clark of Detroit:
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh bread crumbs.
4 shredded wheat biscuits.
1/2 cup wheat germ oil.
1/2 teaspoon iodized salt.
1/4 cup unflavored gelatin (buy in bulk).
1/4 cup poppy seed (buy in bulk).
1/4 cup Brewer's yeast (buy in bulk).
1/2 cup corn meal.
Directions:
Multiply the above amounts several dozen or hundred times, depending upon your numbers, and store the mixture in a cool dry place, or freeze it if you whish.
Mix 1/2 cup of the dry (can still be frozen) to one or two twenty-minute hard-boiled eggs (with the egg shell you want to) in a food processor. Do not over
mix in the processor, just blend until "crumbly-moist", about five seconds. This can be frozen in freezer bags up to two months ahead.
A two-cup batch thaws in half an hour at room temperature or in the microwave for one minute, though some hardy birds will even consume if frozen.
Nesting Food By Del Lipelt:
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh bread crumbs or corn bread crumbs.
2 cups Arrowroot cookies.
1 cup oat meal.
1 cup roman meal.
1 cup wheat hearts
1 cup high protein baby cereal.
3/4 cups dry milk.
4 tablespoons unflavored gelatin.
2 tablespoons dry vitamins.
Directions:
Mix all of above with hard boiled eggs; enough to make the mixture crumbly moist.
Keep refrigerated until used.
Another Nesting Food By Del Lipelt:
Ingredients:
Equal parts of Roman meal and Wheat hearts (both can be found at the cereal counter of the grocery store).
1/4 parts oat meal.
A pan of corn meal cake.
Hard boiled eggs.
A little salt.
Antibiotic, such as
teramyacin.
Vitamin-mineral supplement, such as Vionate.
Directions:
Cook Roman meal, Wheat Hearts and oat meal with water according to directions on the box, this may be all cooked together in one pot. Allow to cool.
In the mean time, baked a pan of corn meal cake, either from scratch or from a box mix.
Grate or grind hard boiled eggs, as many as you deem necessary.
Mix the cooked cereal, hard boiled eggs, a little salt and enough corn meal cake to make a stiff dough. Place the amount you would expect to use up in three days in a plastic bag and freeze solid.
When you are ready to use it, remove the bag from the freezer ad thaw in a strainer. Some of the moisture will drain as it thaws. Squeeze excess water from it when it is thawed out.
If you have mixed your proportions correctly, it should now be a crumbly moist mixture, the freezing changes the consistency from sticky to crumbly.
Dissolve a very small amount of egg formula teramyacin in a small amount of water.
Add this along with a little vitamin, such as Vionate, a vitamin-mineral supplement, and mix thoroughly, it is then ready to feed. Keep refrigerated until used.
Use one ounce squat souffl� cups for feeding this mixture. Be sure to use the squat ones as the regular ones tip easily. There are little cups normally used in restaurants for whipped butter, etc. They can be purchased at most cash and carry wholesale grocers.
Give fresh nesting food daily, throwing away the old food as well as the souffl� cup. They are quite inexpensive. If you consider the time spent washing the nesting food dish each day, the time saved is well worth the fraction of a penny that they cost.
On the use of teramyacin; its is an antibiotic, so all that is needed is a trace of it in the nesting food. This small amount makes the babies grow faster and stronger, other antibiotics may have the same effect for this purpose. Do not use too much. To much may do more harm than good. Just a trace is sufficient.
