First Breeding Journal

[splat 0]

I use a cotton bud to apply mine to the back birds head, dunk it in and dab it on.

[alpaca-boy 0]

hey maddy,

 

sorry to hear about gloria!

she was a real cutie, but what happens happens, and she will be dearly missed

 

your other 3 are looking marvellous, how are things travelling for them since they were removed from the mother?

 

good luck, cant wait to see more picture updates

 

Grant

[amanda 0]

Is there going to be some more picture updates soon? i love seeing all the little birdies

[Maddy 0]

One of the last picture updates for this clutch

I will most likely post more once they moult and get their adult feathers in.

 

Lets look back at the pink little lumps they started off as.

 

Leela is the one under Gloria's head (rip), Ace is on the far right and Potato is the little baby on the left.

Its such a journey and an experience to watch them go from this to what they are today.

 

Leela

 

Ace (next to dad who did a wonderful job looking after them)

 

Potato, my little blue ball of personality

 

 

This was supposed to be the four of them, but potato waits at the door and doesn't hesitate to leave.

Leela follows potato, but is cautious and doesn't stray far of my hand.

Ace tends to stay back in the cage with dad, nibbling on my fingers.

 

They're so full of life and have their own unique personality.

I still get Ace and Leela mixed up though.

 

Hopefully I can repeat this wondrous journey with my new pairs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have come to the decision to sit back a little and watch the magic. I won't ask for as much advice (unless of course its an emergency)

I want to make my own mistakes and my own solutions, as I've learnt that other people's don't always work for me.

So I've gone ahead, looked at my birds, picked out potential partners and this is whats I came up with.

 

I've decided to go against advice some of you gave me, and I paired up my recessive pied hen with the naked spots.

She is living and has lived a perfectly happy life without some feathers. If she has chicks like herself then they can live out their lives in my aviary.

However, if she has chicks that are perfectly fine, then hooray! I got both of these birds for free so I have nothing to lose but some seed.

She is a wonderfully beefy hen, so i hope for happy, healthy, beefy, feathered babies

[amanda 0]

great photos i like the fathers colours

[stace 0]

They're gorgeous. Dad looks like he's wearing one of Nanna's homemade jumpers.

[corka 0]

Hi Maddy i like the forth pairing , and the next pair the young grey cock looks nice how old is he ?

Corie.

[Maddy 0]

Thats Gandalf (the one in my sig)

 

Found him in a pet shop last year, October I think.

No leg ring, but I was told he was about 18 months when I picked him...the owner tried to convince me not to get him, thinking I wanted a pet so I think i got the truth out of them lol

 

So I guess he would be close to 2 years old now

I'm really hoping that pair will be successful.

 

Also, did everyone spot the cock in the first pair?

I thought he was being depressed (moving from a flight to a cage)

But I sat on the floor and waited until all the birds forgot I was there so they would act normal (so I could see which pairs were starting to bond),

and he went to the corner anyway, sang to the wall, and tried to feed it lol He is quite strange. But that pair seems to be the most bonded regardless of his fruitless wall feeding.

[Maddy 0]

I have one egg from Pair #1, which is the grey normal cock and cinnamon grey hen.

I didn't get to check the nests yesterday though because I was running late for work, so it could of been laid yesterday.

But I'll wait for the next one and date the first one being laid 2 days prior.

 

Now all i need to do is find another candling torch, as mine broke AGAIN

[alpaca-boy 0]

well done on your first ever budgie clutch maddie!

you did a great job, and as a reward have 3 beautiful little chicks

they all look amazing and i wish you the best in your future budgie breeding endeavours,

 

Grant x

[Finnie 0]

I have one egg from Pair #1, which is the grey normal cock and cinnamon grey hen.

I didn't get to check the nests yesterday though because I was running late for work, so it could of been laid yesterday.

But I'll wait for the next one and date the first one being laid 2 days prior.

 

Now all i need to do is find another candling torch, as mine broke AGAIN

 

 

Well, at least you have it narrowed down to either the one day or the other. I have found with most of my (very few so far) clutches, that the first 2-3 eggs hatch one on top of the other! Sometimes 2 on one day and the 3rd on the second day, other times 3 chicks on three days in a row. I think it has to do with when the hen decides to start incubating them.

 

 

You know, you can use any type of small flashlight to candle, as long as it fits in the box and you can point it from behind the eggs towards you. Mine is a little one that clips on your shirt or on a book for reading in the dark, but I have repurposed it.

[Maddy 0]

I never thought of a book light.

 

But I got a little $3 LED from the variety store near my house.

The first candling torch i got was a normal torch with a long piece of plastic attached, so that the light came out the end.

I've put that plastic bit on the torch and it seems to work

 

There was no egg this morning so I dated it for yesterday.

I found the same thing happened with my eggs, the first 2 hatched at the same time, so I figured it doesn't matter if I'm a day off

[Finnie 0]

In one of my current clutches, two hatched on the same day, and I figured, whichever one fits a leg ring first without it falling off can be called the older. Well I rung them both at the same time, so I just put the rings on random. The next day, the "older" chick had lost it's ring, so I guess I picked wrong!

 

 

It's funny, but sometimes even when they're hatched on the same day, later when they feather up, there is one who will seem to be further advanced than the other.

[*Nerwen* 0]

the hen doesn't start brooding correctly until she has a few eggs - this is why the first few hatch together.

 

glad you get getting some eggs.

[Maddy 0]

I got a second egg yesterday

They both look quite large too, compared to the last clutch i saw, but that could be because this hen has bred before.

 

I have to take this particular nest down to look in it because its a top open nest and the aviary is a little short.

I almost dropped the whole thing though when a baby huntsman crawled out from underneath it and scared the **** out of me

 

It also started pouring today, and when i went out to the aviary i found it flooded

Well, exaggerated, there was water everywhere.

 

It seems that every time I fix a problem a new one comes up, or i just notice it because I ruled out some causes by fixing them.

So I had to get the caulk out and seal up the tiny little gap between the sheets of corrugated iron that makes up the roof.

 

I'd like to see any rain get through that roof now.

Edited April 16, 2011 by **KAZ**
fixed emoticon

[Maddy 0]

Was expecting egg #4 today, but no luck So sitting on 3 at the moment.

Candled them, none appear to show signs of fertility.

 

 

Pair #4 (cinnamon spangle hen and df spangle cock) laid their first egg today though.

I didn't expect them to do anything after the little aviary flooding problem i had.

Only because they are on the bottom of the cabinet, and the cabinet kind of absorbed some of the water which in turn got into their cage

But I've fixed the biggest leak and just patch up small ones that come along, so that shouldn't be a problem anymore.

 

I also found rodent droppings on the top of the cabinets, so I set a trap up there and will have to keep an eye out for anymore.

 

[**KAZ** 0]

With both the rodent droppings and the water getting in pay real close attention in case any start looking sick.

[corka 0]

You set a trap on top of your breeding cabinets want that scare the **** out of the birds especially the top one.

Your best off finding out were their getting in and fix your traps there away from birds.

[splat 0]

Maddy I would the mice are, or were nesting on the floor and climbed to the top to get away from the wet floor.

Work out where they are coming in and put traps or bait there.

I was catching and killing over a hundred a week for a while but they have gone quite for the moment but I am still holding my breath because I am sure it is not over yet.

But I had to put mouse proof wire all around the bottom of my aviaries and then tin 3 feet high to stop the little so and so's. I had to block every hole in the roof by putting wire and even Kaz's Idea of poly stuffing and glue and cement to block off holes, BUT it seems to have worked, NO more MICE in aviaries. BUT the old bird room is a bigger problem an i haven't had time to do that yet anyway because I have been flat trying to finish new birdroom.

I have had mice in the traps caught by their feet run around and right through the normal bird wire. They say if their head fits then they can get in and believe or not it is true.

Anyway good luck with trying to stop them. It is a hard job.

 

I have set traps next to breeding cages and the birds don't seem to panic when they go off, maybe they are use to it.

[GenericBlue 0]

all i say is they invented mouse wire for a reason people

double wire your aviary (as in mouse wire half inch off normal wire } and concrete your floors end of story

[splat 0]

Gb my mice were coming through the roof, My aviaries are all cemented probably now, Greg did them ages ago. and I love it so much better. But after putting mouse proof wire all over the bottom of aviaries and the 3 foot tin, they were still getting in, in droves and I couldn't work it out until I got the ladder and had a look on the roof at the opposite end that I normally look, the end where the slope is, well any way I was dumb foundered, couldn't believe what I saw. Lots of little mice scurring everywhere. and free range for them into my aviaries, Greg left hollows everywhere from where the tin met, because out aviaries were made one at a time and Greg would extend onto them and and one the last aviary has different tin on the roof so that meant the the first 2 had corrigated iron and the last had the garage type flat tin with little ridges and the mice were jumping through the corrigated holes, unbelievable, I never new it was like that at all.

But you see we can't get on the roof to fix anything because there are these huge red gum sleepers with cement sheeting attached and then the shade cloth a few feet above, trying to keep it cooler in the summer months. But what we have done was make a breeding haven for mice. ANY why do the get on the roof, AGAIN GREGS FAULT, he has grape vines behind the aviary and he made an in closure to keep the birds out and Jake but it has enables the mice to run up onto my roof. BUT seems this is his place and not mine the in closure stays.

[Maddy 0]

This is the first sign of mice i have ever witnessed in my aviary, and its been up for a while.

Also, I couldn't tell whether or not they were fresh as the top of the cabinets had water on them (the way I found the droppings in the first place.

 

The trap that I have set on top is a humane one, so no it will not scare the birds.

 

When I have a free day I will go through and find any gaps. Now that the roof is all fixed I can focus on the mice, as I had made that a priority.

 

I have a roll of aluminium mesh sitting in the shed waiting for this day.

It wasn't that I was putting off using it, I just don't know how to apply it to the aviary.

But now that this has become a potential problem I will have to find a way.

 

The problem is the bottom of the aviary is pavers, and while the gaps in the pavers are okay, the bottom of the aviary doesn't sit entirely flat against it.

It also doesn't line up with the edges, so it makes it very difficult.

 

However, like i said these could be old.

I have had a clutch grow without any problems, no evidence of mice whatsoever.

So hopefully I have some time to figure it out.

[splat 0]

We are all having mice problems now Maddy, everyone have talked too is that they are everywhere.

Before all this rain I had never had a mouse in my aviaries in 5 years, never.

But in the old birdroom I would catch a couple a year but now I would catch a hundred a week not counting what I catch in the buckets or what get poisoned.

But like I said they have slowed down, have caught one in few days now.

[Maddy 0]

Well, putting the trap on top of the cabinets seems to be the way to go as I have caught 2.

 

They were both dead.

One just, the other seemed to have been eaten by the fresher one

But I've had this trap for months now and haven't caught a thing till i moved it up there. Sneaky little things.

 

Also, egg #4. WooHoo

[barny 0]

nice work maddy