Norm

I had a similar case to yours, but in my case the hen already was in a breeding cabinet, I have never seen her go into the nest box, even though I think it’s the same nest box she was bred in. I noticed that she was sitting in the corner on the floor [the floor is solid with a sand covering] I thought it looks like she is going to lay in the corner & sure enough she did. I took the first ones away, but she has still kept on laying. I wish I knew how to stop her & make her take to the nest, but think I will have to build a special nest to fit over the area. This is the first time I have had a bird with a nest do that. I think it’s a good idea if your bird breeds while it’s in quartine, as that should bring out any disease problem they may have & if not you will be as sure as you can that they are safe to add to your other birds.

He's really going well Zebra.

I agree with Liv, they say you should never suddenly change even food of the same type [seed] to the same type of food from a different source you should always mix it as it can upset them. Sometimes this can't be avoided as I have had lots of problems with places I buy food from, they have been very unreliable since the drought. But to change from seed to pellets suddenly [if that's what you have done] could have really bad consequences including death. There are differences of opinion as Liv said on which food is best; I'm the same as Liv I myself stick to a natural diet of seed with Green foods & other additives. If you give chooks a choice of a mixture of seed & pellets they always choose seed first. Also you say you have sparrows visiting your birds during the day, why are they visiting them, can they get access to their food source, it's very bad to have wild birds having contact with your aviary birds, as they can introduce many diseases to them, if you can I would do all that you can to remove anything that is attracting them to your birds.

I'm glad to see things are still going well for you & they will continue & all will be well with Lucas...regards Norm.

Yeah me too Neat… I was looking for my info disc so I could add a few more mutations but was too hard to find. I have a picture of a Darkwing on the forum somewhere, but has been a while, would take a while to find it, & it’s not such a good looking bird, the only one I could get. He already had three chicks with a BES [Yellow} but they all turned out BES’s no Darkwing. Have a look at Ken Yorkes web site I bought some of my rares from him, there’s a better picture of them & other rares on this.. http://users.tpg.com.au/users/kyorke/p28.htm Not sure that the Slate is that easy either, I still think it's a seperate Mutation & I don't think they are in OZ so may take some time.

Sorry to hear your news Amanda, like others have said don’t let it make you give up, that’s just part of life, just get stronger & wiser & keep on keeping on.

Yeah neat, Neat…but probably got a few more than a few where’s your BES’s, Saddlebacks, Fadeds, Darkwings, Slates, Anthracites, Blacks, Reds & Pinks…LOL…& Crests…just being nasty Neat.

Yes good news Kaz, I think some of them get caught on the Mum's legs as they are leaving the nest, Canaries often do the same thing. Your lucky if you spot them in time.

Nice Neat, do you have any other Fallows? I have a hen Fallow that looks very similar to her, mine is also Dom Pied but in the Green series [Yellow].

Aren’t those 50% [body colour do you mean?] Grey wings only overseas, aren’t our Grey wings full body colour.

Maybe if the parents are a bit small type is because they were bred from Crested stock, as I’ve heard they tend to be a bit smaller.

I am not always as strict as many suggest on here with what age I breed my birds. My main book on Budgies is “Cult of the Budgerigar by W Watmough” who used to be the recommended reading, of course this was in the 50’s or 60’s & Budgerigars have changed a lot from then. Even in his book he suggest that some believe you shouldn’t breed before about 12 months, but he says he can’t see any good reason to prevent a healthy bird from breeding when she is ready. The larger show birds may take longer to mature & definitely if bred very early may not build up enough to compete in shows. I think whether a bird is a good breeder or not is mainly genetical, they don’t “learn” like a human would, if a hen is going to be a good breeder or not it just is from it’s breeding, you can get as many bad old breeders as young. Also I think a lot has to do with your selection. If you use younger birds & cull any that don’t preform well from your breeding team, you will eventually breed a strain of birds that preform well under these conditions. If you patch up birds that don’t breed well or get sick & continue breeding with them you will continue to get problems from your birds. With a bird that is not going to be much use after about 4 years for breeding, if you wait too long to start breeding you are wasting it’s life, in my opinion. Also if you select birds that continue breeding into old age you will eventually get a strain that last longer, I have seen on here a few people that have birds that are breeding well still at 6 years, but all the old birds that have been given to me from breeders have been useless at 6 & mostly have soon died. Even some males I have bought aren’t producing fertile eggs even at 4. I have tried to improve Canaries for something like 12 year & still have problems with lots of hens that wont breed well & mostly after 3 years they are useless, I have had one male Canary that produced fertile eggs when it was 12 years old it died about a year later. Budgies & other small bird like this only have short lives especially in nature, that’s why they have the ability to breed at an early age. If you want to be a good livestock breeder in my opinion you have to select for the characters that you want & hopefully in time you will remove the characters that you don’t want from your strain.

I think She is probably a Black Eyed Self [bES White] that's a Dilute, with suffusion & certainly there could be some Violet in it too.

I think chick no1 is a Yellow Faced 2 Blue & even though it doesn’t show that much in the picture you say no6 is YF also, so I guess Dad the Lutino must be masking Yellow Face. I think no3 is a Dilute with stronger wing patterns, as I don’t think you can have a Grey wing Dilute, as it’s supposed to be on the same allele. If my memory is serving me well I think there has been three Mutations on the same allele…Grey wing, Dilute & Clear Wing & can only be one or the other not two e.g. Greywing/Dilute.

I think they are both BES’s…just variation in strength of wing pattern, as I said before, in your other post, not bad looking birds, but the lighter the wing pattern the better, most have Cinnamon bred into them to lessen this.

Nice looking chicks Rachel, I agree with Libby, but I think that 2 & 5 are Greywings, most of them seem to be Cobalt’s Except 4 probably is Violet like you say.

Nice pair I hope you & Aly get some nice chicks. Yes strange isn’t it about them all hatching the same day, Throwback had a similar occurrence of late; I have had often, the first two hatch the same day, but never more.

Not a bad type bird Kaz, maybe you should see if he will breed in a cabinet, with a hen. I’m thinking of trying one FM hen that looks quite good that hasn’t grown back her feathers. I guess it means they are not so immune to the FM, but if they did breed could produce some nice normal birds. Although it probably wouldn’t work with a male as they need their flight feathers to hang on when mating. Budgies appear nice gregarious birds & always happy in numbers, but as soon as someone is incapacitated in some way, the buggers can turn nasty, they don’t seem like humans wanting to help anyone that’s a bit off. If they are off or got something wrong they are straight into them.

I haven’t had time to read it yet…but looks like a good find Neat thanks.

They’re looking good Neat…it still is quite possible that the oldest chick, as well as being an Opaline Spangle, could also be a TCB like you say. I can’t remember if you showed us a picture of the parents in some other post? It’s hard to see the Opaline even, but certainly looks like a Spangle & the Blue is extremely light like in a TCB & those flight feathers are really pale also, but don’t seem to be Pied as I can see some marking still in them. I don’t think many or any of us have seen a Spangle TCB, I have only seen Normals & Opalines, but have thought of trying to breed one soon. If a TCB it would have to be female.

I was just thinking this morning I wonder how Libby’s Tufted Budgies are going thanks for the pix update. I suppose you will be getting some Crested stock in now? That second one seems to have long feathers too.

I wouldn’t say it’s normal, but it happens sometimes, it might be best to remove the cock as often once this happens they can badly injure the cock or even kill him. How many chicks do they have, she probably could feed 3 or 4 by herself. If they have more it would be better if you could foster them to other pairs if you have some. I just looked at you details it doesn’t look like you have any more pairs. If you have more than this number of chicks & some are well feathered & you have another cage you can try some of the older ones with the cock bird.

Any news…did you check if they are fertile?

Looks like a cock to me, but you better wait for Kaz, she’s the expert on sexing young birds.

Looks like a Yellow Face1 Dominant Pied Cobalt, could be Double Factor Pied.