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Preparing For My Breeding Season


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I have set my start date for this year's breeding season for the first week of April ... and I've already started preparing.

 

Because I have a mixed aviary, this year I'll be catching up my hens in mid-March and putting them into a holding cage for 2 weeks. This way I'll be 100% certain that the chicks are a product of the pairs I've chosen.

 

Because we have so much sand we've decided to trial putting sand into the breeding cabinets. You may recall from previous posts that last year I used Fussy Cat Litter and this did work well but I noticed that it did come with a lot of powder that added to feather dust made a dusty breeding room- and I was vacuuming every other day.... :( Also I have decided to put Zeolite in the nest boxes. I don't use wooden concaves, I fill the nest boxes 2inches full and let the hens fossick about and make themselves at home.

 

At the moment all birds are getting a 2 day treatment of KD Powder which does a good job of 'cleaning them out' then I'll give them S76 for lice and some worms followed by the rest of the week on probiotics (I gave them a total worming last week).

 

From next week on they get the 'breeding' water regime: 2 days apple cider and iodine and Calcivet, 2 days KD Powder, 2 days apple cider and iodine and Calcivet, 1 day probiotics. I'll start with 3 drops iodine per liter and slowly increment till I reach 6 drops. Iodine helps with budgie libido.

 

On the practical front, my hubby is busy putting castor rollers on all breeding banks; we've rearanged the breeding room to allow more space for holding cabinets; and I'll be picking up some more Arcadia lighting fluoros from the pet store ($45 for 4ft tube).

 

Between you and me I may have missed the boat 'cause most of my hens seem to have deep chocolate ceres, but I'll a bit more critical in a fortnight's time. It may be the case that I only put them down for 1 round....

 

As I said, I just can't wait!!! :D

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Very best of luck Renee, I hope it all goes well for you.

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Good Luck Renee, look forward to the journals and how everything goes :(

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Looking forward to seeing gorgeous bubs Renee :(

 

Good luck!

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Thank you guys for all your support! :(

 

When I get round to preparing the breeding cabinets in a couple of weeks, I'll post some photos. (I'm better at stills than live budgies!) :D

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Castors on the cabinet units helps a lot, with reorganising and cleaning :(

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Renee I hate it when I here people start to prepare for breeding as your doing... It sounds great....I 'm trying to be strong and not pair up till after Burnie in May.. I have a strong will... and it won't falter. ;) I just started the birds on Tetracycline and have divided the older birds, Green rings and older in to one flight.

Last year's birds that are older than 6months in to another flight and the juniors in to a third flight. This way I do another cull and see who will be going and who will stay on for the next breeding season.

 

All the best Renee, hope you do well.

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Good luck Renee

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Renee I hate it when I here people start to prepare for breeding as your doing... It sounds great....I 'm trying to be strong and not pair up till after Burnie in May.. I have a strong will... and it won't falter. ;) I just started the birds on Tetracycline and have divided the older birds, Green rings and older in to one flight.

Last year's birds that are older than 6months in to another flight and the juniors in to a third flight. This way I do another cull and see who will be going and who will stay on for the next breeding season.

 

All the best Renee, hope you do well.

 

Well Daz I sympathise with how you feel 'cause I felt exactly the same way when I read Splat's journal! :( The last 2 years I waited till Easter, but this time I just can't wait that long ....

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Good luck renee ;)

I am getting my birds ready too so there will be a few of us getting a round in before the cold winter :(

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Good luck renee ;)

I am getting my birds ready too so there will be a few of us getting a round in before the cold winter :D

 

I have a radiator that I ran last winter but with electricity prices due to increase by 40% I am considering what to do. In the end I probably will let the birds tell me what to do- and go on a bread and water regime .... :(

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So excited for you Renee Good luck can't wait to see your pairs ;)

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Most of today has been spent doing routine maintenance.

 

I removed a holding cabinet from the main aviary and we scrubbed it out and then when dry applied liberal doses of AIL.

 

Recently I've become a convert to a line of non-chemical cleaning products. Unlike some supermarket brands :( these products are based upon melaleuca oil and they really do work. For anyone interested, the website is melaleuca.com and the product line is EcoSense Cleaning products.

 

At the end of last breeding season I spent absolutely ages cleaning, then rinsing. With the product I used today: Melapower, the grime just lifted off with hardly any scrubbing and then all I had to do was wipe down. All done in no time! ;)

 

Also today my hubby secured all wire fronts firmly and we set about repairing any holes and fixing all perches securely.

 

All we have to do now is put the last bank of breeding cabinets on castor rollers!

 

Tomorrow I am putting a nest box into the large aviary to see who's interested. I haven't noticed any chewing going on despite the brown ceres .... hopefully they won't start fighting over it too much.

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Iam not sure about putting a nest box in the avery,just pick your prs,you want to breed,& put the cock

in & then a couple days later the hen,in my opinion a nest box,could cause more problems,then its worth.

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Most of today has been spent doing routine maintenance.

 

I removed a holding cabinet from the main aviary and we scrubbed it out and then when dry applied liberal doses of AIL.

 

Recently I've become a convert to a line of non-chemical cleaning products. Unlike some supermarket brands B) these products are based upon melaleuca oil and they really do work. For anyone interested, the website is melaleuca.com and the product line is EcoSense Cleaning products.

 

At the end of last breeding season I spent absolutely ages cleaning, then rinsing. With the product I used today: Melapower, the grime just lifted off with hardly any scrubbing and then all I had to do was wipe down. All done in no time! :D

 

Also today my hubby secured all wire fronts firmly and we set about repairing any holes and fixing all perches securely.

 

All we have to do now is put the last bank of breeding cabinets on castor rollers!

 

Tomorrow I am putting a nest box into the large aviary to see who's interested. I haven't noticed any chewing going on despite the brown ceres .... hopefully they won't start fighting over it too much.

 

HI Renee. When you add the nest box in the aviary, are the hens that show interest in the box removed to breeding cages?

Have you ever had any females fight while doing this?

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Iam not sure about putting a nest box in the avery,just pick your prs,you want to breed,& put the cock

in & then a couple days later the hen,in my opinion a nest box,could cause more problems,then its worth.

 

You may very well be right Macka, I'm having second thoughts.

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I was advised to use the nest boxes in the aviary too. I took the lids off and turned them sideways so it was completely open on one side. No hen can claim it for herself. some of my hens had some real punch ups over them too - they are now in cabinets :D

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Tomorrow I am putting a nest box into the large aviary to see who's interested. I haven't noticed any chewing going on despite the brown ceres .... hopefully they won't start fighting over it too much.
HI Renee. When you add the nest box in the aviary, are the hens that show interest in the box removed to breeding cages?Have you ever had any females fight while doing this?
Well that's how I've done it in the past. But I don't want any bloodshed .... not that that happened before, but I have more birds in there than previous years.... B)
I was advised to use the nest boxes in the aviary too. I took the lids off and turned them sideways so it was completely open on one side. No hen can claim it for herself. some of my hens had some real punch ups over them too - they are now in cabinets :D
You see that's how I've done it too. A nifty tip picked up from Hans Sibum.
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Rob Dunstan has hung a long piece of horizontal wood in his aviary......it has nestbox sized holes in it along the horzontal length and also perches...but it is just a piece of wood, like a row of nestboxes might be with just "front doors" :D they go in and out and through and sit on the perches....but there is nothing more than the facia. That works for him.

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Kind of like a movie set :D

 

this is what mine is, and you can see its very popular with the hens who are keen

P1010676.jpg

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Finally the garage is looking like breeding room and the aviary is as it should be always :bluebudgie:

 

Yesterday attaching the wheels to a bank of holding cages

P1010019.jpg

 

Fresh branches, new sand, tucker out and happy budgies:

P1010021.jpg

P1010020.jpg

P1010022.jpg

 

A hollowed out nest box has been put in there .... and been studiously ignored!

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Looking great :D Excellent preparation :bluebudgie:

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WOW love it!!

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24hrs later and the hens are showing interest in the nest box! No bloodshed so far ... :)

 

P1010032.jpg

 

P1010034.jpg

Edited by renee
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The nestbox is to pique interest in breeding?

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