Traditional practice here is to start feeding egg-food once a week in January, maybe twice a week in February, three times a week in March and close to daily by pairing up time - just a teaspoon per pair. The theory being that, in the wild, there is very little protein available to birds during the winter, but as the insect population increases and protein levels rise, along with sunlight and day length - breeding is triggered. Vitamin E supplement definitely has a dramatic impact on fertility in my experience; there are various sources of this vitamin, but the most common ones are Hemp Seed and Wheatgerm Oil.
Robert Stroud writes in 'Strouds Digest of Bird Diseases':
" The POSSIBLE existence of this new vitamin and its presence in fresh hemp seed came to my attention as a result of my own experiments in 1926-27. Of two groups of canaries treated alike in all other respects, one group was given crushed hemp seed while the hens were making eggs. I found that the eggs of the hens which received the hemp seed had thicker shells and a MUCH HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF HATCHABILITY. The results of these experiments were published in the "Roller Canary Journal and Bird World" , Kansas City , 1930 and republished in my book "Diseases of Canaries", Kansas City 1933." He goes on:
"It has been demonstrated that Vitamin E is present in germinating grain and it is now provided as Wheatgerm Oil - which is extremely potent; two ounces of this oil is equivalent to 35-50 pounds of fresh hemp seed. Used in the proportion of two ounces per hundred pounds of egg-food it will bring canaries into full song and breeding condition very rapidly. It causes young males to show pronounced sex-development at the time they leave the nest [from the shape of their protruding vents]. The feeding of wheatgerm oil MUST BE DISCONTINUED IN MAY however, or it will be impossible to get the birds into moult in August - they will try to breed right through the summer and some of the females will not fully moult."
My own management regime is to add about half a teaspoon of 50-50 mixed wheatgerm oil & cod-liver-oil to a batch of eggfood, containomg about 4 large boiled eggs and 4-6 thick slices of wholemeal bread. I also add a sprinkle of vitamin-mineral supplement. Last season was the first time I used wheatgerm oil in this way and the result was my best breeding season - over 80 chicks raised from nine pairs - and from most of which I only took two rounds - took three rounds with a couple of my best pairs. The fertility level was well over 90% with very few clear eggs and very few dead-in-shell.
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