**KAZ**

We have found through some posts that pieds can vary so much in how they look, so its hard to know sometimes and anyway your hen is behind the cock bird too :emoticon112: But that chick is to die for !!! You would have to be real happy with that.

Based on these photos I would say female. BUT the photos arent up to scratch so keep trying

Does look kinda hen-like Your photos thus far arent clear enough or natural light to be able to say for certain. What are you seeing ? Is there any white on the cere with the blue ?

It seems you have chicks that died from not being fed but then you said had full crops. This is sometimes called " covering your a$$ " as you would not want to appear inadequate in any way. BUT I am going to say what I will and come what may................. I have said many times regarding colony breeding and how I feel about it. I dont think you should have put any pairs down to colony breeding unless you were at home 24/7. You say you check morning and night, but you have already said the opposite of that and and Now................in colony breeding sometimes other birds will stop a mother or father from going to their own nest to feed their chicks. This results in dead chicks, whether its not being fed or being cold because the parents are stopped from returning to the nest and keeping their chicks warm at night. I suggest if you want to colony breed you must be home all day to watch and care for them and circumvent any things that go wrong. You go to school and maybe just maybe check morning and night ( although you have admitted to not doing that due to weather ? or busy ? ) You defend colony breeding but you have not gone the extra steps to protect the heirarchy in there and to check more often once you had chicks.

You are probably right Kaz,i know d/f dom pieds have a lot more pied marking's than usual.The percentage is 25%, i had to look that up By The Way.If i get some more chicks looking like the one above i will be happy.It will be interesting to see if the next round are all pied ,i will keep you updated cheers Phill////////////////// Dominant pied (sf) x Normal 50% Dominant pied (sf) + 50% Normals Dominant pied (df) x Normal 100% Dominant pied (sf) Dominant pied (sf) x Dominant pied (sf) 50% Dominant pied (sf) + 25% Dominant pied (df) + 25% Normals Dominant pied (sf) x Dominant pied (df) 50% Dominant pied (sf) + 50% Dominant pied (df) Dominant pied (df) x Dominant pied (df) 100% Dominant pied (df) Yeah We do have these expectations tables in our mutations section

Rain or not Squeak...........you should be checking nestboxes morning and night when chicks are due. If this was cabinet breeding you would be checking more often and rain would not have entered into the picture Updates ??

The hen doesnt look to be DF dom pied to me. Even if all her chicks were pied to date, the expectations of breeding is taken over many clutches not just two. You may have just been lucky to get all pieds first two clutches with her.

wouldnt the spangle also influence the markings ?

Its fine. I have fed it to mine many times the same way

any siblings ?

Good to see :nest:

Very nice :nest: Great top end and long mask. Good job

Females can talk too :nest: Ditto. Females talk.

A few random photos A Mum waiting for me to finish taking photos :nest:

SC why do you keep seeing Recessive Pied? Are you sure you understand the difference between the varying pieds? Given the statement above it would seem you have a long way to go to understand them. Pied visual appearance cannot be easily 'pigeon holed', even though it is a trait of human being to do so. The show standards 'pigeon hole' the various mutations. they have too in order to have a frame of reference in which to class birds. Pieds have long since caused much confusion to most and no doubt will continue to do so. I have to agree. In reading what you wrote Squeak I was scratching my head trying to work out where you figured out that information because it isnt right :nest:

Sorry.......starting to look like a thread hijack here... :nest: ....but here's my hen today right side was the affected side. Still not brilliant, but it is getting better.

Welcome to our forum :nest:

I will check her shortly. Its 7:30 am and I havent gone done to the birdroom yet.

To sex a budgie the cere is the most important photo you can provide. Your photo show a cage bar right across the cere. Another point to make is you dont use a flash on your camera when you take a clear cere photo. Natural daylight conditions please :nest:

Weird how we both had hens at the same time with the same issue and they are both getting better :nest:

Rain or not Squeak...........you should be checking nestboxes morning and night when chicks are due. If this was cabinet breeding you would be checking more often and rain would not have entered into the picture

If this is so, Squeak you need to get some coccivet into their water or your bird will get sick real fast. i agree cocci is not something you want in your flock birds go down fast They aren't fluffed up or sick or anything. I have been giving sunflowers and honey in water for some extra energy, it seemed to have helped. When I mean they aren't as active and chirpy like when it is sunny and nice. The aviary is quite enclosed so it is reasonbly warm and draft free. They were only treated for coccidiosis (sp?) about a month ago, is it safe to do it again? If water gets in the aviary always dose them with coccivet as a matter of course.

My best hen I bred last year was found in the aviary also suffering what appeared to be a dislocated leg or broken leg at the hip...not fixable. Since she was looking reasonable I deferred euthenasia. I then began to think she may have had that partial paralysis that hens can get with low calcium and egglaying. I had found some stray eggs in the aviary too. So I was crop feeding her once a day with additional calcivet, warmth in a hospital cage etc and conferring with my avian vet by phone as he was unavailable for an appointment. This was days ago. She has just now found her way onto the perch and her foot is trying to grip. So, seems the same affliction as yours. Here she is standing on her right leg...the one that was paralysed. ( she has been perching as well )

Like Splat I use a broad spectrum antibiotic in the water in nests like this just in case. I use Triple C.

Might have been an early hatching Squeak. Some hens open the eggs and a chick arrives too soon that way with a yellow belly. Can also get a yellow belly a day or so after hatching due to an infection. Yours looks like possibly an early hatching and especially based on what you said about a maiden hen. Plum eyes too.........cinnamon or recessive ? Heres a yellow belly photo of mine also an early hatch