Norm

If you could take a clearer picture of it Zebra would be good, as hard to tell what wing pattern it has from that.

Did the vet suspect some disease or just abnormal growth? Sorry to hear it’s growing already.

I agree with Ravengypsy, that your Lacewing is also Opaline…if she is Opaline & you have an Opaline chick, the cock bird must be split for Opaline. If you have a hen that is not Opaline & you get an Opaline chick, it means your cock must be split for Opaline & the chick can only be a female. If you have an Opaline hen & the cock is not split for Opaline, you will not get visual Opalines, but all cocks will be split for it. If you have an Opaline hen & the cock is Opaline or split for it, you then have the chance of getting Opaline chicks of both sexes. Kate I could have told you your Lacewing was an Opaline Lacewing, but as I am on dial up it takes too long for me to download your pictures, so I hadn't looked at your photos. If you could reduce them down to the required 450 x 450 in future it would help & select "insert image" when posting.

Not this Sunday but the next 28th I’m going to a show in the Hunter Valley with a friend, I will keep some money just in case I see one or two exceptional birds for sale, but I must slow down, for awhile until my young ones have moulted & I can cull some, as they are going through plenty of seed these days.

Yes Kaz, I noticed that you mentioned that before.

Thanks Norm, yes I know, I'm planing to wait - I'm not in hurry to breed Also if I’m right about the colours of those birds, both Grey wing & Clearwing would be Recessive to your Normal Opaline cock, unless he was split to the same mutation, if he isn’t split for them any chicks would carry the Normal black wing pattern of the father.

Yes Kate you are right the male is the only one that can carry Ino in split form.

Yes that's right Kaz...but Mum is also Cinnamon isn't she so there is the chance that they can be of both sexes.

Going well Kaz, both look well & active.

The first one looks like an YF2 Opaline Sky Blue…probably Grey wing. The second one may be a Clear wing with strong wing markings, both look like hens to me. And you would have to wait quite a while for them to breed as both are quite young.

I have seen the cutters advertised, but have never seen or used one, without the cutters it's very difficult to cut them off without hurting the bird.

Yes Kaz of late many of mine are up to 9 eggs too…the problem is if they all hatch, where do you put all the babies? Then if some nasty birds feather pluck like I had of late…there just ain’t no vacancies!!!… Who needs colony breeding for excitement?...(Laughing out loud).

Yes I tried that Pie, but it looks like their infertile...sob...sob...sob. Oh well at least I got one.

I cabinet breed, even doing that there are enough hassles. I have colony bred & I thought breeding with as few as three pairs might work & sometimes it will, but the day when something goes wrong still could only be one day away. They might be little birds, but they sure can be violent…too much can go wrong.

Putting food on the floor is a good idea, as mostly that is where they start looking for it & then later they realise the dish has better supplies. If she has food in her crop that she has eaten herself, I would just leave it, as sometimes artificial feeding can cause more trouble than good. I definatily wouldn't use a crop needle without training, as the food can be put into the lungs, which is fatal. I have never tried those things myself even though I have kept birds most of my life. Only a few don't make it & if they don't have natural abilities, even though it's sad to loose any, I think in the long run you are better off without them.

I will have to think about that Elly. She & her mate are nice looking birds, but I mated a similar pair at the same time that didn’t look as good as them, but so far their chicks look better. Birds that do that definitely wouldn’t survive in nature, as their young would not survive. Some say it’s genetic other say it isn’t & it’s caused by deficiencies or boredom, she is on her first batch, usually I don’t see it on their first round but occurs later on.

I wasn’t ringing my chicks because I had had some horrible accidents where rings got stuck & crippled the birds. But I have gone back to it again, as I’m getting too many birds to remember & also maybe I will start showing again. The problem is reading the ring numbers…even with my glasses it’s getting hard. First off I just rang the birds & then recorded them as I took them from the breeding cabinets to the aviary, but the problem is that the rings are then caked with cement like droppings. So then I thought I better ring them & record the number straight away, while the rings are nice & clean, before returning the chick to the nests. The only problem is that some rings come off again. I think some hens must remove them as I tried some rings & they didn’t seem easy to come off again, but the next day they were gone. Then I realised that when the bird’s feather up & I need to record their mutation on my records, again I’m stuck with the cement type droppings. I could carefully soak their legs in water I guess but that’s very time consuming. After the birds are flying, the rings soon clean of their own accord, the only problem that means catching them at a later time to record them. Their leg rings haven’t cleaned enough mostly before I catch them to let them go in the aviaries. Maybe the easiest would be to catch them later & record the mutations…have any of you guys got any better ideas thanks.

I had one batch of 5 chicks, which were getting close to leaving the nest. When I looked at them yesterday I got a real surprise, the mother is from a batch where the father attacked the young at about the same stage of growth. In just one day she had plucked them all but one that was out of the nest & it was the worst case I have had, from being nicely feathered chicks they were almost bald on their bodies, only the tail & flight feathers remain, I have removed them from the nest to the floor of the cabinet. I guess she wants to lay again.

Yes I will Elly, when it gets a bit bigger, it actually doesn't look that big as babies go, but it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Hopefully it will make it. I have actually moved it, at first it was the largest chick in it's fosters nest, but I thought they weren't growing as good as I hoped, so now I moved it to another nest, where it's the smallest, but those chick look better than the previous nest.

Thanks for sharing your pictures...good luck with your breeding.

Sadly I would think that once a beak has grown large like that it would continue to grow again & will probably need regular treatment. Like you say it’s probably not a young bird.

It’s hard to tell just from your description, but if the eggs have gone too unusual in colour it has probably gone bad. If some are already due & haven’t hatched that may be the cause, but don’t be too hasty, leave them until they are well overdue, as if you do something too early you may destroy some good ones.

They are always a bit slow at first & sit around sleeping lots, in my experience.

Yes that Murphy’s law…always rearing it’s head…must be one of the most common laws…(Laughing out loud). PS. Thanks for all that info Daz....sorry I should have said protein not starch.

At any time I think they need a few days to get settled, I know she was laying eggs before she was put in the cabinet, but mine always are unsettled for two or three days, trying to get back to the aviary birds. Your winters probably aren’t that cold there are they? So if you want to let her breed, I would suggest just let her settle you may loose the first few eggs, but once she settles she will start a new round & then probably look after them okay.