The Black Doctor

Well, the last egg got smashed as well. I think it was the young male, but I'm not sure. Both birds are now in the aviary and I'll wait for a month or so before trying to breed again. Hopefully some of my females will be ready by then, the memories of recent unsavioury events will have faded and my interest in breeding again will be renewed.

Thanks for the comments guys. It's certainly been a testing week or so. I haven't got many females left and most are too young to breed with, so this year might be a very frugal one as far as breeding goes.

Well I've had the most disastrous week! After the first 'accident' with one of the eggs, 5 more were laid, however, another 4 ended up broken. I noticed some rat droppings on top of the breeding cabinet, so I'm guessing the rats may have spooked the birds and caused this. I've now put some more talon in the area where the breeding cabinets are and had intended to seal up some of the very small holes in my aviary and breeding area this weekend. Then I went to check on the birds yesterday afternoon and discovered a carpet python curled up on the shelf in the aviary. I did a qucik check of my birds and noticed one of my best cocks, a gret spangle was missing! I caught the snake and when I was putting it a bag, I noticed two lumps in the snake not one. I did another check of the birds and much to my dismay the snake had also got my cobalt violet opaline hen. My kids were in tears! F*&($* snakes!

GB - I think it was an accident. She doesn't seem stressed or anything, just a bit jumpy intitially when we were first checking the eggs. We're not checking as frequently now either, just every 2 days, and taking care when we do so. I also took the violet opaline hen and the dminant pied skyblue cock out of the breeding cabinet a week or so ago, as I realised she's not 12 months old (try again in April/May, as she was born in March last year). I got her mixed up with another hen that was born in November 2009!

Kaz - yes I always gently tap on the nestbox before opening it - the hen is now getting used to this. My daughter is doing most of the feeding and cleaning now and may have startled them. We're both much more cautious now when we're checking the nestbox. Dave - you could be right, he quite a character and is younger than the hen. Hopefully, the rest of the eggs remain intact.

Thanks GB. Over the weekend and we found a broken egg and a new one (unless the new one broke?). The hen does get rather flusted when we go to check the nest - maybe she got a bit edgy and cracked one. I haven't candled any eggs yet - waiting for the next one. They have been continuing to mate, so hopefully there are more fertile eggs on the way.

Thanks Amy - both birds are from GenericBlue. The cobalt cock bird is a real character too. They now have 3 eggs.

Following on from the topic I started a while ago : http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=29725&st=20&p=359490&hl=rocky&fromsearch=1entry359490 , I thought I'd just start another one in the right section of the forum - so here it is! I put this pair down on 9/1/11 and they now have 2 eggs in the nest: I'll keep updating the progress of this pair and others I put down this year.

I found this thread very informative: http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=9447

Throw away the shovel.

I was told to keep the breeding cabinets outside the avairy as the breeding pair will get disrupted/distracted. I sectioned off an area of my avairy in order to have a breeding room. The avairy is now smaller, but still has plenty of room and I now have a breeding area that the aviary birds can't get into.

Thanks Kaz.

Thanks guys. How long do you normally leave the cock bird in with the babies? I put the last lot of babies in the nursery cage about a week after the last baby fledged, without the cock bird and he and the hen had started their 2nd round. The babies from the 2nd round have all now fledged and are feeding themselves. Do I leave the cock bird in with them, put him back in the flight or put him in a separate cage for a couple of weeks?

If the green normal is spilt blue then you would expect to get greens and blues - approx. 50% would be spangle and 50% normal. However, the cock could also be split for a sex-linked variety such as opaline or cinnamon, so you could end up with some of these if he is split for that variety. You would also get some YF birds as well.

okay - thanks Kaz. So should I leave the cock bird in with her or take him out?