R&t's Breeding Journal

[Dave_McMinn 0]

I am not commenting on your massive leap in quality of image capturing, but your photos are better than ever!!!!

[renee 0]

I am not commenting on your massive leap in quality of image capturing, but your photos are better than ever!!!!

 

Why thank you Dave Soon I'll be making the most ordinary birds look like champions

[**KAZ** 0]

Your photos are getting better Renee.

 

 

Now try playing with your macro setting

[renee 0]

Now try playing with your macro setting

 

 

 

Macro setting?! What are you talking about! I have it ion Macro. You explained that to me last time!

 

..... erm, how do you adjust the macro setting once it is on macro? FORGET it! Toooooo complicated.

[renee 0]

It is well and truly time for an update on the Breeding Room but no photos today, I'm afraid I can't be assed.

 

 

Unfortunately not all is going smoothly and on Friday I heard my Sky hen wheezing and on closer inspection she was tail bobbing quite vigorously, though no poopy vent, and her crop was swollen and squishy. So I popped her into a hospital cage overnight and monitored her and she seemed no worse for wear so the next afternoon I popped her in back with her 2 chicks, who I had crop fed in the meantime. I do believe I have seen this before with one of the Cobalt John Kobilanski hens a couple of years ago and if memory serves me correctly I managed to eliminate it with a treatment of Turbosole for low level Canker BUT I only finished giving everybody that 10 days ago!

 

So I am weighing up my options.

 

The fact of the matter is prior to 2010 I did annual preventative treatments for basically everything, but then last year I got ill and all my birds got was little more than water and seed for 18 months.

 

I am also tempted to do a treatment for Mega .... but it is going to be very hot this week with temperatures peaking on Wednesday in the high 30Cs, so I am contemplating next week (it is a 7 day treatment) however, now that the warmer weather is definitely with us it is going to be hot no matter when I decide to do it....

[renee 0]

I don't know if you've noticed that I am completely obsessed with the temperature Forecast.

 

I think this may be because the very first summer I kept show budgies I lost a number of them due to heat stress, ironic 'cause on the day in question I was visiting a breeder who blithely reassured me that budgies were "desert birds" and therefor quite happy in 40C days ... I was only away a couple of hours but still lost about 5 on that day.

 

Now as soon as the temperature hits 35C I pop on the automatic sprinkler on the Baby aviary till it drops down again and I have gone so far as to obtain a dispensation from the Water Corporation to run the sprinkler.

 

This week is shaping up to be very challenging. Today was 29.5C, tomorrow will be 30C, Wednesday 34C, Thursday 37C and Friday 30C.

 

In itself it doesn't look too bad but because it is the first hot week this summer I have pulled out all the stops in preparation: I have tested the sprinkler system, replaced the timer's battery, sorted out fans for the Breeder Cabinets and fledged all chicks into the bottom tiered Kindie Cage.

 

Here's how I have set up for the Kindie Cage

 

 

 

And here's some little one's that have fledged recently

 

Yes, another Normal Cobalt

 

And little Beanbag's sibling

 

 

In other news I have decided to go ahead and treat the Sky hen for Canker for 5 days. I have put it in the drinker daily and also put it in her crop every evening, about 2 mls.

Edited November 21, 2011 by **KAZ**

[Taylor 0]

Very cute I especially like your cobalt and beanbags sibling(female?)

[renee 0]

Very cute I especially like your cobalt and beanbags sibling(female?)

 

Female, you think? Well Taylor your guess is as good as mine ... after many botched attempts at sexing young ones I have decided to wait for conclusive evidence before venturing a guess!

[corzstunt 0]

Very cute I especially like your cobalt and beanbags sibling(female?)

 

Female, you think? Well Taylor your guess is as good as mine ... after many botched attempts at sexing young ones I have decided to wait for conclusive evidence before venturing a guess!

 

I think both may be female as the cocks tend to have a pinker cere

Edited November 21, 2011 by **KAZ**

[Taylor 0]

It may be the lighting too.

[renee 0]

Well it was a little bit warmer than I was expecting today and the mercury rose to 34C which actually wasn't too bad. All the Breeder Cabinets with birds in them are close to the floor and therefor cooler than if they were higher up. I set t he fans to go at 11am and turned them off at 4pm.

 

Tomorrow is now going to be 36C and Thursday 37C so I will be putting the sprinklers on but exactly when depends on my temperature readings from a thermometer I have under the back verandah.

 

No real news. The Sky hen I am treating seems to be improving and her crop is not so squidgy as a couple of days ago. But the Normal Cobalt chick that had taken a peck to the outer eye appears to have something else going on so I am treating it with an ointment for now and monitoring.

[*Nerwen* 0]

glad all is going well.

 

 

i sate the two above are female as well

[renee 0]

Well Fingers Crossed all is going well but tomorrow is the real test.

 

Only news today was that somehow someone has figured out how to lift the cage door to the Kindie Cage and when I walked in on them for the evening check up almost all inhabitants were out! Now if I had had the presence of mind I should have taken photos of the naughty ones but I was too busy catching them all up again Actually it was quite cute that one of my pairs had escaped, the Normal Grey and Recessive Pied hen and they were perching on their old Breeder Cabinet! I think they want to go back in

[splat 0]

When it comes to the heat Renee I try and make sure I have no breeding cages going that are high up, I try and use all the low ones and then no problem with the birds stressing or dieing. They are desert birds and they can take the heat.

I also put in a bath on extreme hot days. I don't use fans well I guess I would be shot if I did lol.

Edited November 23, 2011 by splat

[renee 0]

When it comes to the heat Renee I try and make sure I have no breeding cages going that are high up, I try and use all the low ones and then no problem with the birds stressing or dieing. They are desert birds and they can take the heat.

I also put in a bath on extreme hot days. I don't use fans well I guess I would be shot if I did lol.

 

I just have 2 more nests to fledge over the next 10 days.

 

Why don't you use fans Splat? I was assured that so long as I had air flow all would be well ...

[splat 0]

LOL mainly because Greg would shoot me, more added to the power bill. Plus it would stir up the dust that I have probably missed, that dust is a job and a half trying to keep it at bay.

My bird room is fairly cool on a hot day and once the veranda goes up (one day) it will be heaps better.

[renee 0]

LOL mainly because Greg would shoot me, more added to the power bill. Plus it would stir up the dust that I have probably missed, that dust is a job and a half trying to keep it at bay.

My bird room is fairly cool on a hot day and once the veranda goes up (one day) it will be heaps better.

 

Mmmmm. I'm hoping for a marked improvement once we insulate, hopefully next March.

 

It did reach 37C today and I am happy to say that all birds have survived and look none the worse for wear. Really it wasn't too bad at all and started to cool off after 4pm. Interestingly I didn't turn the sprinklers on, the babies just weren't heat stressed and were all happily on the perches ... next time if they start flopping about on the floor I will.

 

It looks like I will be fledging the next nest soon, maybe by Sunday as the 2 youngest chicks to the Cobalt Dommie Pied and Sky hen keep on jumping out of the nest box. I can't say they are anything to write home about, the little Sky Dommie looks especially Petshoppish ... but then I am hyper-critical of my birds

 

 

On a more positive note the last nest of 3 siblings to Sooky Blue (who by the way must be out of the woods by now as she hasn't been stalking the cage fronts lately demanding to be fed with those "If you don't, I'll drop off the perch by morning" eyes) are looking okay. There are 2 Sky Normals and a Green split Blue Normal. The eldest of the Skys I already like a lot, not the best photos but maybe you will see its potential the way I do

 

 

 

Can anyone tell me why both of the Sky Normals have Dommie Pied Spot markings on the back of their heads?

 

 

 

Oh yes and this guy can't perch to save itself!

[splat 0]

are they out of pieds Renee, I have actually heard something about it being recessive, coming from recessive pieds, now I mostly wrong so don't take my word fro it but I do know it is a fault when it comes to being a normal bird.

[fordmob 0]

Could they be split Recessive, they often have a clear dot on the back of thier heads.

[renee 0]

are they out of pieds Renee, I have actually heard something about it being recessive, coming from recessive pieds, now I mostly wrong so don't take my word fro it but I do know it is a fault when it comes to being a normal bird.

 

Could they be split Recessive, they often have a clear dot on the back of thier heads.

 

Thanks guys but no. This is the first year I have bred Splits from my Recessive Pied line so there is no chance that either parent is a split and more to the point you tend to get what is called a "tick", ie. small patch of a few feathers on the back of the head. These 2 definitely have a patch of white feathers like that of a Dommie Pied.

 

Oh and I should add that both parents are Normals.

Edited November 25, 2011 by renee

[splat 0]

Did you breed the parents yourself Renee because if you didn't they could be carrying the recessive gene.

[renee 0]

Did you breed the parents yourself Renee because if you didn't they could be carrying the recessive gene.

 

Yes I bred the parents and grandparents and in fact they come out of Dominant Pieds.

 

I understand the Recessive gene and more to the point this is the first year I have bred splits in the Recessive Pied line so there is absolutely NO CHANCE that either parents are carrying the Recessive Pied gene.

 

However, I did consult with a friend of mine who does breed a lot of Dommie Pieds and she has seen this before, ie. the Dommie Pied mark on the back of the head (approximating a 20 cent coin) on a Normal bird. She says it disappears with the first moult so WE SHALL SEE!!!

[splat 0]

That's what I was thinking because I have had it before from dom pieds

[renee 0]

Well I haven't really checked on the Breeding Room birds yet today 'cause I have been busy taking more "better" photos of the Young Ones.

 

This is what they get every day -

 

 

A dish of Budgie Breeder seed, a dish of Hulled Oats, Soft Food and Greens and fresh gum leaves on the week end

 

 

The broccoli is popular

 

 

so too the Soft Food

 

 

 

they don't really go for the Hulled Oats much ...

 

 

and I think they just walk around in the Budgie seed

 

 

but far and away the most sort after item on the menu are MY SHOES

 

 

Edited November 25, 2011 by renee

[renee 0]

Well no photos today I'm afraid and more to the point no real news at all ...

 

Everyone except the Sky hen has had a 2 week break since the last round of meds and we are set to have relatively mild conditions for the next bit so I have decided to give everyone a treatment of Fungilin to combat Megabacteria. This is prompted 'cause I am specifically concerned about a number of Adult birds who are underweight and still hanging around the seeder dish.... which are signs for Mega, at least as I see it.

 

I am skeptical about being able to completely eradicate Mega but I do think you can significantly reduce it with a well timed course of Fungilin and then manage it with apple cider or Megamix/KD Powder in the water. Any way I can't even remember when I last treated my flock for it so now is as good a time as ever.