Norm

If you can get some spot on Ivermectin I think that's the best way to go. If you treat each bird with one drop on it's skin, it remains active for something like 21 days & not only your mite problem, but also any other mite or internal parasite that drinks their blood will be removed. As the mites eat from the birds with this product you don't need to spray, as over the 21 period even eggs will hatch & as soon as they feed be removed. After using the one spot on treatment, for scaly mite I have had no return problems. I don't like using chemicals as much as possible, but have had no problems with Ivermectin if careful to not overdo it. It should be used only when you see a problem, or at the most once a year if no further problem occurs. All birds should be treated at the one time for success, even birds that you can't see a problem on, as untreated birds will reinfect the others.

Females can't carry sex linked mutations, they are only visually sex linked colours like Ino, Cinnamon, Opalines & others. It's carried on the sex chromosome, only males can be not visual sex linked colours & still carry it in the split form.

I have only heard this with reptiles, even though birds are close relatives to repltiles I would doubt it being true.

Normally Albinos are just as tough as any other Budgie…so you don’t have to do anything different, 8 is a big batch for Mum & Dad make sure you give them plenty of variety of greens & do you mix up any softfood that would help. You will find some recipes on here if you do a search. Taking photos shouldn't worry them.

Thank you Any guesses to the outcome? The fact that there is an Albion in the picture makes it difficult to predict the outcome, as for a start we don’t know what she is masking [her genetical self] she is an Albion but she could also be a Spangle, Normal or anything else for that matter. That being said, you should have about a 50% chance of Dominant Pieds, if he is split for Blue you can have them in either the Green or Blue series. All male young will be splits for Albino or Lutino [ino]. You could get some Normals in both colours & then there is the unknown of the Albino & any Recessives they both carry & sex linked mutations the cock may carry, if he carries Red Eye you could get some Ino’s too of both sexes. Good luck you can look forward to some surprises.

Thanks for your input & ideas guys, I'm interested in getting involved with discussing more in-depth subjects of our interesting hobby, first off I'm most interested in the birds, their health, stamina & happiness. Naturally Budgerigars are a most energetic happy bird, I had really forgotten how joyful they can be, since I had them when I was young, now I think I can appreciate them a lot more than I did then. I think it's sad that they might loose that vigour, if we are not careful. Nature is still the most knowledgeable selector & I like to let it still be part of my breeding strategy. Select for your desired characteristics, but still let it have its part, as it knows more than we can ever contemplate. I agree with you, I think our society uses fear in many ways, so that we loose confidence in our own self, of course if they can scare you enough, they can encourage you to buy their products & part you with your money, which is I think what’s the basis of their plan in the first place. Not some altruistic care in your health.

My aviaries have concrete floors, with two rows or concrete block bricks around the base. They are almost a metre wide by three metres long & a little over two metres high. They are completely within a shed, so that they don’t get any rain into them.

Sorry Kaz, "let me have" I took it as a loan. As I said nice birds.

Some of my observations: I have noticed when visiting some breeders of late of British type birds, that the ones I have seen have always quite a few birds sitting on the ground. In my aviary the only time they are on the ground is when they are feeding & then they quickly return to the perches. I also have observed that some show breeders seem to place their young birds in small cages for some time before later releasing them into the aviary conditions. This may be done to quieten the birds for later shows. Also it sounds that some on this forum do the same. I have seen some of these cages also with wire bottoms, so that the droppings fall through. Myself I don’t agree with this so clean philosophy & spraying for all sorts of bugs as well. They are saying these days that part of the reason why so many people are getting allergies & immune deficiency diseases these days is because people live in such sterile environments with no exposure to anything in their younger life, when their immune systems are building their strengths from exposure to things in their environment. I know with poultry that if you keep young birds in raised cages without contact to the earth & then later they are returned to ground conditions, birds can die from contact with Coccidiosis, which if run with their parent hen from day old they seem to build resistance naturally. Even when raised in poultry farms they are fed medicated crumbles with a coccidiostat, which doesn’t kill off the single cell organism, but just reduces them so that they can build a natural immunity. I have noticed with my young Budgies, who are placed in aviaries straight away after leaving the cabinets in which they are bred, that they are soon seen eating dried droppings from other birds; maybe this is a natural vaccination against things. Many animals are known to eat dropping & even some insects like termites eat their dead relatives to become infected with beneficial bacteria that are necessary for their existence. Also I notice my “teenage” young Budgies as soon as they become accustomed to their new cage conditions, are seen flying madly around the aviary for some months, I think this is very important for the building up of their wing muscles, so that they become strong flyers & maybe also build up their entire bodies. Also to deprive them of this time seems cruel as they seem to enjoy this activity so much. In my opinion, but I’m no expert, it would seem to me, to be good to expose birds from a young age to the sorts of conditions that they will live in all their lives, as I think no matter how much sterilization you do, there is no way you are going to protect them forever from bacteria or virus & other disease producing organisms. Budgerigars have been living in the wild for thousands or millions of years without help from us & have built systems to survive natural conditions, but have only lived a short time with some of the chemicals that humans have devised, maybe they are at more risk from them than some of the old diseases. I also keep my bird under the “deep litter system” which means I don’t clean the aviaries that often, of course they must never be let get wet, this system becomes super dry & I think dropping hitting this surface are dried out rapidly. The litter becomes a living mass also, with mealworms & other things which probably eat dropping & maybe disease causing things. I also only clean my nest boxes between pairs. Often some insects [of course I don’t let mites or lice] live in the nest material, which must have been happening since Budgie began breeding in logs. My birds seem healthy & the droppings never very wet & form dry balls. Of course if you breed your birds in your house you may not require this. If your feeding is not correct & the nests become wet & messy something must be done. Mainly to correct your diets. Anyway that’s some of my thoughts, which may vary to the ideas of some.

I saw a video about a guy that was an expert at hand rearing parrots & in it he recommended making the food quite runny, he said that thick food caused lots of trouble.

“Different” in what way different Karen. He looks a nice bird, if you think he has a problem it might be worth mating him to another unrelated bird to get some splits & then mate one of these back to the Lacewing hen, that may get rid of the problem.

Boy that’s luck Kaz she looks especially beautiful. Wish I had someone to loan me some nice birds like that.

It was Ken Yorke he has a web site just put Ken Yorke in your browser. Yes I will Nerwen, but they are not that spectacular, a bit like a dirty Opaline, but I noticed some variation in some of his birds, so maybe some improvement might be made in breeding.

One of my other new birds that produced infertile eggs with cocks bought at the same time, a massive Sky Blue Opaline hen that had something happen to one of her legs. I had this happen to another hen once, maybe it’s something to do with mice at night. I transferred her eggs to another that hadn’t hatched anything, I’m not sure but it looked like two of her eggs were fertile, one was hers for sure as it was a lot larger than normal & I thought maybe it was a double yolker. As one chick hatched & the large one had a hole in it for a couple of days, so I made the mistake of having a look at it & stuffed it up…I think better to just let them go & if it doesn’t hatch something was wrong anyway, now I don’t know if I stuffed it up or not & it’s not a nice feeling. At least that’s another one that can produce at least a couple of fertile eggs, slowly I’m getting a little out of my purchases. Now they are mated to a different line, there should be more vigour in the chicks [says he hopefully]. The top hens four chicks are doing well fostered, that was 6 out of 7 fertile, so thats good, one didn't hatch haven't looked at it yet maybe it was fertile & just died like the other first two.

She still looks a bit strange, but is improving all the time & now can fly up to the perches [about two metres] it’s not so bad when they keep improving, at least there’s hope. She eats lots, always on the floor eating.

I will be watching this with interest Karen, as I love the Yellow Lacewing, I don’t have any at the moment, just two white ones & a couple of splits. I think the chances are pretty high that you will get mainly Yellow Lacewings; depending on what Recessives they both may carry. I have put my Lacewings down in an attempt to get more & some splits, but no action as yet. Good luck.

Like Lady said the surest thing is that you will have all Cinnamon hens, then the chances are high that the cock is split for Blue. So Green, Grey Green, & if he’s split Greys & Blues. Also the hen’s mother, the Albion must have been masking Grey. And her father split for Opaline if he wasn’t one. Then if the Cinnamon cock is split for Opaline, some Opalines of both sexes. And then any Recessives they both may be carrying.

To me when eggs look fertile they look a bit Greyish.

If you have had her out of the aviary for some time I wouldn't put her back till the breeding has finished, as she could start fights. If one of your birds has had scaly face you will need to treat the whole flock, as all will have it now, whether you can see it or not. I use Ivermectin on drop per bird. It lives on the birds so treated in this way it will be eradicated. PS. Scaley mite is a mite that lives on the birds, just in case you don't realise, it's nothing to do with how long they have been breeding or anything like that.

Yeah looking good Pie.

Those chicks are looking good Paul, glad you got some TCB's I'm still waiting on my first, hopefully I have a couple of split cocks.

A pleasant surprise on your return. Some action while you were away.

What do you think looks bad about the eggs, they look okay to me from that photo, the one on the left looks either infertile or either the last laid. Best of luck with them anyway.

Sorry not yet Elly, I have been too busy the last few days, we have been installing those new water tanks that I bought & now have to get to working my bees, as they have started swarming. Will take some pics as soon as possible. She is not that stunning, but I noticed some variation in looks of some at the breeders place. The new birds are eating well, I thought that I didn't notice any softfood or anything around & thought that with some better feeding they might even increase in size, but they must have been getting things like that, as they have been into the softfood & greens something that some of my new purchases haven't been into when I first obtained them. Yes when we were visiting that stud the other day, one or two birds when caught up, went into a sort of fit...some seem to get over excited when handled. When I was young you had to watch catching Canaries as they often would fit & drop dead, they seem better these days.

So far my new Saddleback hen that I bought has been a little disappointing. She is the most important part of my newly acquired Saddlebacks, as without her the two split cocks aren’t much use. When I got her home, she seemed sort of dazed; she was holding her head down in a strange way & trembling. She is slowly improving though, each day she looked better, I’m hoping he maybe just took her out of a breeding cabinet, as he said he was going to keeping her himself, but when I told him if I bought two split cocks without anything to pair them with, it wouldn’t be much use to me, he let me have her, she was my most expensive purchase on the day $50. She may have knocked herself in the show cage she was bought home in, or like I say, maybe was in a cabinet for some time, as at first she couldn’t fly to get up off the floor & just sat there on the floor, she seemed keen to eat dry droppings it seemed, maybe she is deficient in something. But after four days she has improved each day & has tried flying a little & last night climbed up the wire onto a perch for the first time.