Patches

Patches starting laying her eggs on the 4th of May, and lay 8 eggs which were white but I have noticed as they age they are turning a darker colour... Is this normal? I candled some of the eggs on the 14th and they had veins, would the eggs change colour if fertile or is it just an aging thing? Its got me really curious! And although she started laying on the 4th(this egg was cracked and she tossed it from the nest) and lay an egg on the 5th and the 7th she didnt sit on the eggs fulltime until the 8th.... the eggs would be due to hatch on the 26th right?

Daz, that is beautiful, thankyou.

I did a google search for lorikeets and narrowed that down to handrearing, and found an interesting site all about lories, posted a question and within 10 minutes was directed to a page where everything I needed to know was located.... gotta love the internet!

Thanks guys, I will spend another day searching the internet, perhaps pop into our small local library if I have the time today. Its the finer details I am after, like where in the beak to place the food, consistancy of food etc. Well now I have two hens sitting! Olive was removed from the avairy with Opal as they were causing trouble for the others, and now Olive is sitting on 4 eggs of her own! Which is good in a way because I could probably use her as a foster if needed, or Patches for hers! I'm not worried for Olives eggs though, as she is inside in a cage and its nice and warm and quiet.

Wow, I have never heard anything like that before! That is totally amazing, and what beautiful babies they are too!

As some of you have read, this is my first time breeding Budgies, and I was so egg-cited that Patches had started to lay, well now she has laid 8 eggs and she is actually sitting on 7 of hers and a Lorikeet egg! My brother inlaw had picked up some suspended cages for his various birds last Sunday(the 8th) and whilst cleaning them discovered an egg in one of the nest boxes! The birds had only been removed from the cages that morning, and as he didnt have anything sitting on eggs or even looking like laying he handed the egg to me. I candled it yesterday and it has veins, so theres that possibility that it may hatch! So I have been researching Lorikeets, but its hard to find anything on handraising them, any one got any ideas? I'm getting rather nervous, as it "should" be due to hatch at the end of the month.

Thanks Karen and Bea, I will try for photos but I am having problems with the camera and connection to the computer.

Just wondering if someone could help me to put a descriptive colour-name to my hen! I dont hae a picture of her because my camera is playing up so I will describe her as best I can, if you have any questions about her please ask! Okay, she is very similar in colour to the bird in my avator <---- she looks a dirty yellow in some lights, but in direct sunlight she is a beautiful light lime colour. * She has blue/almost mauve cheek patches * She has brown markings instead of black. * She does not have a red eye. * I am almost certain she is opaline, but her body colour is soooo light it is hard to tell. She does have the v on her back like an opaline, and her head barring isnt as strong as normal. * She doesnt have distinct cheek spots like my other opalines, they are more like splotches that are the size of an entire feather. So, how would I best describe her colouring? I have said before that she is an olive dilute but I'm not sure that is right.... I am thinking grey-green dilute???? HHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!

Well, Patches laid egg number five today! She started sitting on them on Monday the 15th after she lay the third egg on Sunday(so she had two under her as she tossed the first) so would the first be due to hatch around the 26th or 18 days from when it was laid? So far the nights have been cool but not too cold so I am happy for her to stay in the aviary for at least a little while longer, although I can see myself bringing her inside before too long!

he he! I thought I read a bit into a couple of post yesterday, and then when I saw the pics it clicked, although I was wondering whether I was putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5 until I went back over the pics of custer and co, and saw the same spots on the back of one of the babies! They are adorable, and a credit to the breeder

Awwww they are adorable! They look a bit like the budgiebirds babies!

Daz I am on the downs, it gets a bit cooler than that over night here, and our daily temps in 3 weeks time will most probably be a maximum of 9deg! I remember going on holidays to the GC/Brisbane in June one year, and taking the kids swimming at the beach at 7am (Laughing out loud) only to come home a few hours later to sub zero temps! Sadly the first egg has been tossed from the box, but she has laid a second.

Thats exactly why any prospective babies will be going to family members Bluebird!!! I can keep a close eye on them that way! I aim to keep some myself though. I actually caught them (Patches is dominant pied and Rusty is sky-blue spangle) mating today! I can hardly wait to see what any babies look like!!! I am worried though that it will be very cold when the eggs are due to hatch. Should I be thinking about removing them from the aviary and putting them inside at some stage??????? Or just leave them be?

It would be lovely if we did have babies Anna, I already have homes for my first five or so chicks - and that is just with family members! At the moment demand far outweighs my supply!

As far as I know it is, this is (at least) her third home and she is an 03hen, I will ask the lady I purchased her from for more info (I would hate to be responsible for overbreeding her :S ) but I am certain that she was in a seperate enclosure to the males. Its the very first time ANY of my budgies have ever laid eggs ( I have always had either all males or all females!) hence my egg-citement! It has sparked the interest of my son, which is terrific... he wanted to know all about incubation times clutch sizes and the size of the babies so I have shown him lots of photos from here, and lots of articles too!

Whilst feeding and watering the aviary birds this afternoon, I peeked into the nesting box that Patches has been toiling over(removing all the shavings!) and discovered a beautiful lil egg! I am sooooo egg-cited!!!!! I had hoped that Opal And Olive would start to breed, they are in a breeding box now, but Rusty and Patches have fallen head over heels!

I think what I was trying to say is isnt violet a factor rather than a colour? arent the true colours sky blue, cobalt, mauve...??? I just feel that the link given above refers to violet as a colour... I'm confused, all these colour differences are starting to rattle my brain (Laughing out loud)

I always thought that a violet and a cobalt could be similar in colour but the colour was determined by the colour of the tail feathers???? What I mean is that cobalts have navy tail feathers and violets will have a turqouise tinge about the tail feathers. off to do some research....... (Laughing out loud)

I have had my budgies in the aviary for 11 days now, 3 hens and 2 males along with my 'teil Woody. Opal(male) and Harry (female) were a bonded pair when they were placed in the aviary, and the other three had been in seperate cages at different locations throughout the house. For the last week Opal has turned into a real ladies man, feeding all three hens, chasing Rusty (the other male) away from his girls... I watched the birds for ages yesterday, and Opal was concentrating his amorous advances on Olive, who has been in and out of the nest box for the last 4 days. At one stage she was "assuming the position" and he would try to step on but fly off at the last moment to chase away Rusty, who was actually at the other side of the aviary! Today he wasnt so interested in Olive, yes he fed her often but he also fed Patches and tried yesterdays stunts with her :budgiedance: So basically, Opal is feeding 3 hens, preening for them all but is too interested at this stage in the chase! I dont think he would know what to do with one of these beautiful girls if he actually caught one Is it normal for a cock to be feeding three hens at one time? Would I be better off removing Rusty from the equation at this stage?

(Laughing out loud) they sure can! My two male budgies are proving this atm at the moment, two of my hens are preparing nesting boxes, and doing that when the males come near them, but the males are too busy chasing the younger female who wants nothing to do with them! (Laughing out loud)

Thanks Daz!

Sorry budgiebird, in my original post I should have put 2003 not 03, just commenting that had thoughts that red was for 2003 Daz, how do you find out if the ring is registered? And who it belongs to(which breeder) Details on Olives ring are IBS 1385 and then across the ring(not around like the other info) is a solid triangle and the number 3.

I thought that the red stood for 2003. I did a google for budgie clubs, and I think that the club that issued the band does not have a website...not sure though I could be way off track. (The ring in question has IBS a number and a symbol, I was thinking Ipswich Budgerigar Society) I also found a budgie club that is like 80kms away from me, so I will be getting in contact with their secretrary as to membership... if/when my birds start to breed it will be very small scale - 3/4 pairs but I like the idea of keeping track of my "babies" especially since in reality I can probably only keep a majority of 3 babies a year atm:mellow:

Could someone please explain to me a little about leg rings on budgies? I have two who are ringed, both different details on the ring but both wear red rings, 03 I think???? *How do i contact a breeder/s from the details on a leg ring - I am unsure of the colour of one of my budgies, I thought she was an olive dilute, and would love to know what her parents were etc. *Do I need to be a member of a budgie club to ring my birds? How do I join a budgie club? *How do I go about getting leg rings if/when my flock start to breed? I will need them Before they breed really, so the baby can be ringed at the right time I suppose!

I always assumed that a budgie stretched its leg backwards when sleepy because I notice it more in my lot around dusk, so there ya go! And I always assumed that tail feathers and flight feathers were much the same colour! There ya go, a lesson to me...dont assume anything (as the saying goes - it makes an *** out of u and me!)