R&t's Breeding Journal

[splat 0]

You know I have been having a rotten time this year, lost of 70 chicks, fix that problem then a new one arises, I had a some of dead in shell last round.

@ birds I really wanted chicks out filled their eggs but chicks died. Have only one chick from my white boy and then I can't be a hundred percent about that either. One chick hatched yesterday but died but the other egg hatched today and s far all good.

 

I had a young hen that laid soft eggs. another hen that laid a round and were clear put her in the aviary went to put her down again and pluck her below to find she had a yellow tummy , like an egg broke inside her, so she is out , she is not sick anything, if I hadn't of plucked her I would never of noticed it.

Then another hen that laid a round that I got 2 chicks alive from and now laying again she laid 2 normal eggs and 2 tiny little ones, so I guess she is ruined now.

Then I have another young hen that laid 4 normal eggs then a tiny egg too.

I have 3 egg bound hen, 2 ruptured hens.

Oh and I have 2 hens that laid pointy eggs but they have hatched and some lived.

I have a cock that does to the perch instead of the hen, that is sooooo annoying

Oh and to top that of I have a nice dom pied violet cock 5 weeks old sick, smelly large

dark brownish droppings, really stinks.

I hate this season,.

Oh Renee I do think the seed does not have the protein or goodness it and I have

been saying that all year.

We have a pair of cockatiels that didn't breed and why, well they won't breed if there

is no food or water. They known the seed is no good and that is why.

Since I put my birds down late June I have been complaining teh whole time that

there is something wrong with the seed, I have birds emptying out jars after jars...

WHY they are looking for something, Rob Marshall said they. are looking for clean seed but

since then I have new seed and they still do it.

Anyway that is what I think anyway.

 

Oh and by the way I tried to sprout my budgie mix to see what was good and less than

half sprouted, I think that says something.

[GenericBlue 0]

You know I have been having a rotten time this year, lost of 70 chicks, fix that problem then a new one arises, I had a some of dead in shell last round.

@ birds I really wanted chicks out filled their eggs but chicks died. Have only one chick from my white boy and then I can't be a hundred percent about that either. One chick hatched yesterday but died but the other egg hatched today and s far all good.

 

I had a young hen that laid soft eggs. another hen that laid a round and were clear put her in the aviary went to put her down again and pluck her below to find she had a yellow tummy , like an egg broke inside her, so she is out , she is not sick anything, if I hadn't of plucked her I would never of noticed it.

Then another hen that laid a round that I got 2 chicks alive from and now laying again she laid 2 normal eggs and 2 tiny little ones, so I guess she is ruined now.

Then I have another young hen that laid 4 normal eggs then a tiny egg too.

I have 3 egg bound hen, 2 ruptured hens.

Oh and I have 2 hens that laid pointy eggs but they have hatched and some lived.

I have a cock that does to the perch instead of the hen, that is sooooo annoying

Oh and to top that of I have a nice dom pied violet cock 5 weeks old sick, smelly large

dark brownish droppings, really stinks.

I hate this season,.

Oh Renee I do think the seed does not have the protein or goodness it and I have

been saying that all year.

We have a pair of cockatiels that didn't breed and why, well they won't breed if there

is no food or water. They known the seed is no good and that is why.

Since I put my birds down late June I have been complaining teh whole time that

there is something wrong with the seed, I have birds emptying out jars after jars...

WHY they are looking for something, Rob Marshall said they. are looking for clean seed but

since then I have new seed and they still do it.

Anyway that is what I think anyway.

 

Oh and by the way I tried to sprout my budgie mix to see what was good and less than

half sprouted, I think that says something.

 

i noticed a change in my seed and to be honest me or the birds were not happy with it it didnt sprout even after a week

 

then i got green vale seed and again not happy jan only quarter sprouted and the hulled oates were brown in shriveled so i have been feeding the rabbits this seed

i got another bag of seed budgie blue from avi grain and the quality was sooooooooooo way much better

i then decided that i didnt like the percentage of mixed seeds so i got on canary avi grain and one budgie blue

and i have been mixing them

then i realized that the canary has everything that the budgie has but more canary seed plus few extras linseed and Niger and the hulled oats are beautiful n white it was less with white millet and red panican so i brought a bag of french white and a bag of red panican and i now buy the avi grain canary the birds are again putting on weight and looking great

i just place in separate jars these three seeds

they eat what they need and ive had no kicking of seeds out and im very pleased with the quality

its costing me more but its worth seeing the differents in the birds

Edited September 30, 2011 by GenericBlue

[splat 0]

Greg bought me a bag but it has more jap millet and hulled oats in it, so I mix it with the other seed.

Edited October 2, 2011 by **KAZ**

[renee 0]

Thank Splat and GB for sharing that.

 

I noticed over the summer that the hulled oats I was getting for the soft food was not the best but I was having such a hard time getting any at all I grinned and bore it. Then last week end I ran out of millet sprays so I asked hubby to pop down to City Farmers and get me a bag. They were so dark brown I went straight back earlier in the week and complained. "Look", I said, "you're charging me a fortune for this millet sprays and they should be in the rubbish bin". And I was told that was the best they could do .... Fortunately I was able to stock up a few days later with a much better quality.

 

But it fricken pisses me off.

 

I was so looking forward to this breeding season. All my best birds are in the prime of their lives and I was looking forward to really improving my stud and taking the next step forwards. I put so much time and effort and planning into it it is just not funny.

Edited January 19, 2012 by **KAZ**

[splat 0]

Millet is hard to get because of the floods

Edited October 1, 2011 by splat

[splat 0]

Where I buy my millet spray in bulk can not get it at the moment so I forced to buy it from the supermarket Trill brand, anyway I bought a few packets and they dark as also so I rang the consumer number and complained and they told me even though it looks bad and may also look mouldy they assured my it was fine, ha I said fine it looks mouldy that means it is mouldy, get real. Anyway they sent me a voucher for the packets I bought for replacement.

[renee 0]

Millet is hard to get because of the floods

 

Yes, that's what the bloke at City Farmers said.

 

Where I buy my millet spray in bulk can not get it at the moment so I forced to buy it from the supermarket Trill brand, anyway I bought a few packets and they dark as also so I rang the consumer number and complained and they told me even though it looks bad and may also look mouldy they assured my it was fine, ha I said fine it looks mouldy that means it is mouldy, get real. Anyway they sent me a voucher for the packets I bought for replacement.

 

Well I was ******** myself for a couple of days last week over the millet sprays. They didn't look mouldy but they were obviously very stale.

 

And more and more I am coming to the conclusion that this is a real factor as to why my little ones are not growing the way they should.

 

 

Just today I have brought in another little one that is being rejected by all and sundry no matter which nest I try to foster her to.

 

And the 4 chicks in the Violet split Opaline nest, they are obviously not being fed enough as their little crops are hardly developed, so I am topping up those as well.

 

Just out of curiosity, Exactly how important is the first 30 days in the nest with regards to overall growth?

 

With only a few exceptions I feel I am breeding Pet Shop birds this season. I know the genetics is there but the evidently the nutrition ain't.

 

Will they catch up once they've fledged?

 

 

[renee 0]

Time for today's update

 

I've just finished topping up my formerly hand reared chick, the Dommie Pied split Lute possibly split Cinnamon chick. He is the eldest of all and he is doing okay but hasn't put on much weight since I fostered him into the LightGreen nest. Also topped up the Violet split Opaline nest of 4. Fortunately everyone else is fine.

 

The little Green split Blue chickie that had almost been flattened by its mother hen has made a 90% recovery. Yay! It is now walking around as normal (no more splayed legs) but it is still a bit underweight. I am pretty confident it will come good over the next few weeks.

 

 

However, I have had a bit of drama with the little chick I brought in today to hand rear. I have it in the Hospital Cage in a nest box but the little one managed to get out of it and when I caught it it was severely dehydrated and too hot. Any way I gave it some water and opened the Hospital cage up to help with the air circulation. Well I hadn't turned my back for long when I heard this squawking and there it was out of the nest box again, out of the Hospital Cage and strutting about on the floor! Just as well my cat wasn't indoors at that moment otherwise it would have been Bye Bye chickie babe!

 

 

In other news I have been having a look at all my chickies and I am happy to say there seems to be far more hens than cocks (again!) I'm convinced it has something to do with breeding at this time of year - or maybe it is my set up - any way I have always bred more cocks than hens in Autumn and more hens than cocks in Spring. But I'm no expert! So when they feather up some more I'll begin to post photos.

[renee 0]

Another chickie arrived today to the Cobalt DP & Green hen, the 4th so far.

 

All good with everyone else but I continue to do morning and night crop feeds for those chicks that I feel need it.

 

Not so good news for the little one I brought indoors yesterday. I am starting to see why it had been kicked out of the nest a few times before - I don't think it is very well. It seems to do a lot of gasping and its little squawks are a bit honky. I got up at 5am to feed it and I'm waiting for its little crop to empty more before I give it a smidgen of Moxi T - I'm thinking it has pnuemonia.

[renee 0]

Well today is Sunday so it's time for End of Week 7 Chick Report -

In alphabetical order:

 

Albino

Sat Grey split Albino - Amazing long feather. Fostered to Sky hen nest. Probably dead.

 

 

Blues - Cobalt / Sky

Wed Good feather. Fostered to Lute hen nest. Probably dead.

Thurs Good feather. Fostered to Lute hen nest. Probably dead.

Fri Good feather. Fostered to Lute hen nest. Probably dead.

Sat Good feather.

Tue Assisted hatching - too early : Died

Sat Good feather.

 

 

Dommie Pied/Normal Green split Blue

Thur Fostered to Lute nest. Probably dead.

Green/Blue

thur

Dommie Pied Cobalt & Sky

Fri rejected by hen : died

 

Dommie Pied Cobalt & Green

Tue

Wed

Thur

Sat

Sun

Dommie Pied Greys split Blue

Sat Very pink.

Sun Very pink.

Mon Very pink

Thurs Very pink.Fostered to Medusa's nest

 

 

Lutes

Mon Dommie Pied Green split Lute

Tue Assisted hatching (not quite sure where this one is)

Fri DF Lute rejected by hen : died

Tue DF Lute

Wed DF Lute

 

Recessive Pieds

Sat Green split RP. Fostered to Cobalt & Sky's nest

Mon Green split RP. Fostered to Violet split Opaline's nest

Thurs DF RP

 

Sun DF RP

Sky Violets split Opaline?

Thur Good Feather.

Fri DIS

Sat Good Feather.

Sun DIS

Fri Fostered to Medusa's nest

 

 

Spangles / DF? Blue series

Mon. Fostered to Violet split Opaline's nest

Wed

Fri

 

Mon

Wed

Spangles / DF? Green series

Fri Very pink. Fostered to Medusa's nest

Sat Very pink.

Mon Very pink

Tue Very pink

Fri

Mon fostered to DP Cobalt - attacked

Mon

Thur

So just 5 chicks hatched this week to the Cobalt Dommie Pied and Green hen.

I really should get a bit more organised with sorting out who is who, I know .... some day soon I will.

 

 

Also today I did an Egg Check, details of the new nest of fertile eggs as follows -

 

09 Green Normal cock to 08 Green Normal hen: 5 Eggs / 2 Fertile

I am so hoping for chicks from these two. My other 2 pairs of Normal Greens are doing nothing but producing infertile eggs and I really, really want some DF Greens from this line. I will check again on or around Tuesday 18th October.

[Dave_McMinn 0]

help me out here -when you say probably dead, are you unsure if they are dead or not?

[**KAZ** 0]

Please explain the probably dead comments

lol i know im like ...... huh .what the

 

 

Well this was for some little unrung chicks. I am assuming that all the "pale deaths" came from the chicks fostered on from the Lute nest, from memory there were 4 of those but then there were a number of fatalities that I really don't know which chicks died and which survived. I think it is between the third Green split RP chick, the Green split Cinnamon and Lute, the Grey split Albino chick, or maybe the Cobalt DP & Green. For some reason I was confident that the 4th and 5th Cobalt and Sky's chicks did not die but I am now wondering ...

 

 

Any way technically speaking I am counting them all as dead until they feather up and I can see what they are.

 

 

Covered here Dave

 

help me out here -when you say probably dead, are you unsure if they are dead or not?

[renee 0]

Sad news today in that the little Grey Normal Hen I was hand rearing passed away late last night. She was originally from the Cobalt & Sky nest and based on her development (feather wise not body weight wise) I am pretty confident that she was the daughter to the Grey Normal cock and Albino hen born Saturday 10/09, ring no SWBC 039. She was kicked out of 3 nests, once I witnessed by other chicks, before I brought her in and going by her stunted growth I would say she was ill with something or another.

 

But in good news all parents lifted their game last night and top ups were minimal, alas I cannot say the same for this morning. And I am headed out to the Breeding Room again now with crop needle and formula to fill up their little crops.

[splat 0]

Sorry about your little one passing away, it is always sad when one dies. You did your best , that's all we can do.

[renee 0]

Sorry about your little one passing away, it is always sad when one dies. You did your best , that's all we can do.

 

Yes it is.

 

But I do agree with GB that sometimes it is better for them to go sooner rather than later. Inherently weak chicks usually go on to be inherently weak adults- always the first to go down with something, always being propped up by heat treatment and antibiotics. You don't really want them in your stud and it is unwise to breed with them as they will inevitably pass on this weakness to their own chicks.

[renee 0]

Well another chickie arrived today to the Cobalt Dommie Pied and Green hen today - that is the 6th!

 

Actually 2 arrived on Sunday, one was there in the morning and another hatched in the afternoon but I have recorded them as arriving on Saturday and then Sunday. I'm doing this to save myself a future headache as I know that sometime in the future I will decide that I have made a mistake and made the entry twice

 

I have fostered the 4th and 5th chicks to Magic and his Normal Grey hen. She is the one that passed the dodgy calcified egg and then recovered and went on to lay another .... just one more - and infertile. She is still in condition and Magic has been doing his utmost but I do think her laying days are over. But maybe she will be an excellent foster mum - we will see.

[renee 0]

Well in my case no news is good news!

 

Both little foster chicks are being fed and I waited for the little one that was born today to be fed before putting it in with its siblings. That makes the 3 youngest in Magic's nest and the Green mother hen taking care of the 3 eldest.

 

Actually it was quite sweet to watch and listen to Magic and his partner discover the 2 little ones this morning. I hung around to intervene if needed but thankfully that wasn't necessary. Magic was the first to hear the peeping coming from inside the nest box and he was in like a flash clucking away and before long he emerged to escort his bewildered hen inside! It was so cute

 

I could have chosen from quite a few pairs (unfortunately!) but the reason I chose these 2 as fosters is that they are underneath another nest of chicks, it really doesn't look like she will lay again and Magic is such a hands on cock bird I feel confident with him in charge.

 

 

In other musings, I have come to the conclusion that I am just not that keen on chicks between the age of 10-25 days. I think they are so cute when they are born but I rather go off them until they are almost completely feathered up. Dunno why. They just look so scrawny and I fret over their development and stress that they won't amount to anything. Well funnily enough now that more and more chicks are getting to that stage I am falling in love with them.

 

Today I tried to take some photos but it didn't work .... maybe when they have fledged and are a bit older.

[renee 0]

Well today I'm a bit late with my update...

 

Every second day I am weighing my chicks to check on their development and this afternoon was weighing time. I started off as normal with Medusa's nest of fosters and I was very worried to see that they had all lost weight, quite a bit actually. So I moved on to the Light Green Spangle nest and to my mounting concern, they too were underweight.

 

At this point I took a break and then finally it dawned on me - my electronic scales were out! What a relief

 

A couple of hours later and new scales and I am happy to say all is good in budgieland

 

 

Here are some photos I took today-

 

First of all my little Green Dommie Pied split Lute possibly split Cinnamon chick that I hand reared for about a week. Today is his 1 month birthday and he is weighing 70g.

I am quite happy with him, he looks like he will have a nice long mask and I think he will be a long bird, big even - maybe.

When he's out of the nest box and can perch I'll take another photo of him for comparison.

 

 

Next is a photo of Medusa's nest of fosters. Remember how they were all scalped? They have recovered quite well.

The DF Yellow Spangle cock is the youngest from the LGSpangle nest, his sisters are huge so he has obviously missed out on the big gene. Then there is Medusa's chick, a Recessive Pied, a cock I think. The little Opaline Sky carrying Violet hen is from the Violet split Opaline nest. And then there is a Green Dommie Pied Cinnamon chick from the Grey Dommie Pied nest which is obviously a foster that has been fostered and I need to do some detective work to work out where it's originally from.

 

 

And here is the little Green split Blue chick that was almost completely flattened when I noticed and quickly fostered him into the RP/RP nest.

The first day all he did was lie on his back but day by day he has recovered and now he doesn't have any splayed legs any more.

[Dave_McMinn 0]

Coming along well Renee

[Taylor 0]

I think your green Dom pied is a cutey! And wow, 70g, my big English grey inside cock doesn't way that much!

 

Will you be breeding from him? He looks like a long bird and good mask.

[renee 0]

Coming along well Renee

 

Yes indeed Dave! I am very happy I have to say that just lately everything is going well and I'm out of the woods for now.

 

I think your green Dom pied is a cutey! And wow, 70g, my big English grey inside cock doesn't way that much!

 

Will you be breeding from him? He looks like a long bird and good mask.

 

Thank you Taylor Yes he is showing promise but there is a long way to go yet - he needs to fledge and then get along well in the outside aviary so there is a few months to go yet ....

 

As for breeding, that is a decision I will make next year based on his development. I have had a bird peak at 4 months and not grow any more after that, though I am hoping that will not happen with this little one. Fingers Crossed!

Edited October 6, 2011 by renee

[renee 0]

Isn't it funny how you can get such different chicks in one nest.

 

In my DF Lute nest I have a Lute and an Albino chick. I knew the Dad was split Blue but I didn't know the hen was too. But that's not what I am talking about. They are at the 2 weeks mark and there is only a day between them.

 

Take a look

You can see where the hen was starting to get stuck in before I removed her

 

 

Hard to believe but the Lute chick at 15 days weighs 41grams and the Albino chick at 14 days weighs just 29grams!

 

It is way too early to speculate whether the Lute chick will amount to anything but the signs are good.

[renee 0]

Well yet another chickie arrived to the Cobalt Dommie Pied and Green hen this afternoon - that is the 7th!

I had fostered the little number 6 to Magic's nest but while the Grey hen was doing a super job of feeding chickies 4 & 5 I didn't feel she was really feeding the smallest one so I popped him back with Mum. Now that there is 5 in that nest I will have to look around for another foster pair for these littlest ones - but not immediately, maybe in 3-4 days time.

I have done another Egg Check and happily there are another 2 pairs with fertile eggs -

08 Green cock (JK) to Light Green Spangle hen (GDA): 6 eggs / 1 Fertile

I am really surprised there is only one fertile egg in this nest, hopefully by the time I check again in 14 days time there will be some more showing. Even so I am excited about this pair. I especially like the hen that I got from Gary Armstrong earlier this year.

10 Sky Dommie Pied to 11 Cobalt hen: 7 eggs / 1 Fertile

Again this another nest that confounds me. This cock is definitely fertile and has filled eggs for me already so I am assuming she started incubating very late and that more eggs will show fertile soon.

Edited October 6, 2011 by renee

[renee 0]

Well finally the Avi-Cal I ordered on August 22nd has arrived. I won't go into details but needless to say I am happy it is here.

 

So Finnie here are the details for you -

 

Liquid Calcium & D3 supplement.

Active constituents: Calcium Borogluconate 200g/L; Cholecalciferol (Vit C3) 12,500 IU/L; Magnesium Sulfate 5 g/L.

Dose rate: 40 ml/L in water OR 10ml/cup of seed

[renee 0]

Have you ever heard the expression 'You look but do not see'? Well I'm a bit like that.

 

Faced with the overwhelming evidence that my little Recessive Pied boys are Cinnamon I wondered how that happened. I mean it is not a surprise insofar the Great Grandmother and foundation hen for the Manno line was cinnamon but I hadn't noticed it in the generations that had followed. Well that was until I had a good look at their mother hen (she was the one that was such a ferocious feather plucker) and Low and Behold she is cinnamon!

 

 

I just caught her up from the aviary for this photo:

Now in my defence I will say she is more of a dark chocolate shade of cinnamon

 

 

And here are some photos of her little cock chicks:

 

 

See how there is still down where his little wing feathers were ripped out?

 

I thought maybe I'd never be able to show them but here are some feathers re-growing

Edited October 7, 2011 by renee