splat

That chick that hatched yesterday, dead the this morning, this is driving me nuts. I have another chick hatch in a new nest and I am just leaving things alone, see what happens. This nest has 6 or 7 fertile eggs. the hen is a violet daughter to my shield winning violet and a sky hen (outcross) and she is with a grey, brother to the violet, so uncle niece. Hoping for some violets actually.

I am guessing they will go for a fortune.

Keep them in the cabinets Julie just take the nest boxes away.It won't hurt leaving them in the cabinets for another month or so until it warms up a bit.All my hens are in cabinets, i won't put the cocks in for a while yet. okay Phill, Have hens in together and cocks in together waiting to go into breeding cabinets, I have put a couple back in the aviary because I am sick of them. Bad news again today, lost 3 chicks from 3 different nest, all one day old. Hens aren't feeding them, but one looked like it had yellow belly. I had another chick hatch this morning and I put an older chick in to in courage her to feed the new chick as the hen is a maiden hen but a late 09 hen. Well she fed the older chick but not the new one, so I topped it up tonight and put under another hen, probably will be dead in the morning. Annoying because it is my spangle line chick, the father is from my white boys brother that Kaz has and my white boys daughter, so cousin to cousin, they only had 3 fertile eggs, she only laid 4 eggs all up. My light spangle, brother to the white boy and he is better than the white boy well he filled 6 eggs, the first one was huge and the chick tried to hatch but died, the other hatched but there are 2 with stiff backs for some reason. The youngest died and there was a dead one this morning from hatching and it looked yellow belly. So I only have 3 left and one is the stiff weird one. I was really counting on that nest and what's worse the hen isn't feeding them enough either. But I have NO where to put them.

Cabinets is a lot better than colony by far, just it is really the wrong time of the year to cold, I am emptying breeding cabinets and putting them back in middle to late July. I had another disaster today a mature hen didn't feed a chick when it hatched yesterday and it was dead this morning, so annoyed, so now I only have 3 nest going with heaps of chicks. Sounds like your going okay Robyn. Oh I have good new though I have 2 chicks from earlier rounds, one from my yellow Df spangle cock and the other one form my violet cock. The one from the spangle is a grey green cinnamon spangle, I thought cock but not really sure as I can see white around the nostrils. and the other chick an opaline cobalt hen from the violet are looking really good..

Yes that price for 2 birds is very reasonable for an Dr like him, the one i go to is about the same price. good luck with your birds, at least they have a fighting chance.

I don't know what it is Robyn but it is so annoying. But things have proved a bit, I now have 3 babies alive in my clearbody nest, one died at hatching and it looked like yellow belly. I have 4 chicks in my light green spangles nest still has one egg to hatch, but that little stiff one is still alive also. There 2 chicks from another nest being fostered. I have I have 3 chicks in my Df spangle nest and 3 to hatch. and today one of the violet hens eggs hatch but I don't think the others will because I handled them to much trying to find somewhere to put them. My white df sp had fertile eggs and because the hen played up I fostered them but the foster hen played up worse so I was force to put them back and they never progressed and yesterday I broke them open and the were just little weeny part chicks dead in shell. Anyway all in all so far I have 13 chicks but i should have 22. I have 2 more nest with eggs about to hatch but they weren't in my count. so i still have something to be excited about. but I do have some fertile rounds coming through now also. I am slowing pulling them out for a rest and putting them down late July for babies for the uncapped shield.

Good luck Gb, I hope you have a better result than me, most of my spare has have past there peak now, ceres going chocolate brown, so will have to wait a bit before more go down.

Well Gb it is really annoying!! driving me nuts.

That is a surprise but family and work comes first. He has stunning birds.

Yes they have Gb, it really sucks because I had it all planned out as usual and then it all gets stuffed up.

I have a similar problem and it is only with my best birds with feather, Like my violet that won the shield, he had 2 tail feathers but at eighteen months he dropped his tail feathers both of them and the never grew back , one grows back but it is like weak, it if very thin and just hangs. I have a few like it, if I get time tomorrow I will take a photo of a bird with a tail I am talking about. Anyway I was told to pull all affected feathers out and then dunk their tail in pinetasol, spelt wrong sorry, and some one told me yesterday to try dettol, so I think they are suggesting infection. I would like to see a photo of yours Dave and I would be interested to see what the avian vet says also.

It's a little bit better, The funny stiff little one is still alive but not growing much, it's sibling hatched yesterday and is bigger already. The nest that has the 2 foster ones has hatched 2 of her own and are all going good but she has 4 more to hatch yet so I will have to foster some in a couple of days but just need to find another that will feed them. Last night and early this morning my clearbody nest hatched 2 and feeding them well and she is a maiden hen, so happy with that. But my problem is the nest where the funny one is has 3 more eggs to hatch which will make 5 chicks if all hatch. The df spangle nest has 2 foster and 2 of hers and 4 eggs still to hatch, The clearbody nest heas 2 and 2 eggs to hatch, there is another nest that had cleared eggs and I put 5 eggs under her from the nest the hen started destroying and if they hatch she will have 5 and she is on her own, so I will need to take a couple off her and there are 2 more nest with fertile eggs, one has 7 fertile so she will have her hands full and the other nest has 3 fertile both hens are maiden. So I am really struggling to where to put all these chicks if they hatch. But at least I have some older chicks to put under the maiden hens to make them feed now.

Looks like you are having more luck than me RIP. Cool you got a Gf.

A quick update and sorry still no Photos still It all started out good, plenty of fertile eggs which I was really happy about. But now it is all going sour. It all started with one nest. Light green x opaline hen, her first egg she or he smashed it, so I put a false egg in and she went on to lay 7 more eggs and all fertile. The day before the were due to hatch, she or he destroyed the last 2 she layed so I quickly took the others out and fostered them but the next morning I found 1 on the floor which she had thrown out that I had missed the night before. The cow. These 2 birds were used last year with no problems. Anyway the parents for these eggs a first time parents so when the 1st egg hatched she let it die so then I had to foster them again, which is today to another nest. Then I have another with problems a light green cock x grey hen (1st time parents) she laid 5 eggs 2 fertile. their first egg hatch a couple of days ago with problems, I saw a hole in it and picked it up and the chick was chirping loud so I put it back. I went to Mooroopna and when I came back rushed out and checked and the empty shell was their but NO chick. Couldn't find it anyway, after searching a while I found it on the floor dead cold, so I put it in the palm of my hand and breathed on it, I brought back to life and put it back under the hen, But the hen didn't feed it so I fed it and put it under another hen and then thee next day the her next egg hatched and she still wouldn't feed her so it went under another too. Boy this is all driving me crazy. And there is the light green spangle ( my best bird, brother to the white boy) well he is with a light green hen and they had 6 fertile eggs, their 1st egg was huge and it was fertile and it did try and hatch but didn't make it out of the egg. The second one hatched and it is wierd lays stiff all the time. My problem is most of the hens are maiden and because these eggs are hatching at the same time I have NO larger chicks to put under them to in courage them to feed. I did put down older hens but they wouldn't lay, they just mucked around.

Hi Wayno, do you cabinet breed, so you know the parentage of your birds. I don't think it matters whether you have rings on your birds or not. But having rings enables you to tell where they came from and what family etc plus if you were in club you can show your birds, but they have to have rings on. I have seen some stunning birds from back yards. I go to the Melton auction and compare because I believe you will see a huge difference in the quality of the birds. it is a blue ribbon auction, one of the best around. As what your birds are worth, it all depends on what people want to pay and the breeders that get big money have worked hard for it and have won on the bench time after time, they are mostly open and Champion breeders. My point is you have to do the hard yard before people want to spend good money on birds, They are looking for birds from a breeder that wins a lot and has a name. But saying all that continue with your breeding and I would love to see some photos. Always after a decent clearbody. Oh forgot to mention there is a lot more to a bird also. Do your birds have the directional feather,width of face, big frame, feather, good chest and shoulder because that is what it is all about. post some pics and we will try and judge them for you. Cheers

I don't think they need apple everyday, i would only give them a piece a couple times a week, alternate it with veges. But most important part of their diet is seed. Just take the apple away and give them seed only and maybe a bit of silver beet for a few days and see if their poop improves.

That's great Vicki, that is the cage I was talking about. When I had mine inside, I made a seed catcher because they make a real mess, I just got some material and sewed some tucks in each corner to make the corner and sewed a casing around the top and then out elastic in it. I made it that it went over the whole bottom and up the around the sides up to where the doors are so the seed to fly out to much, plus it looked pretty because I used kids pattern material. You budgie is beautiful, really nice and I also think he is a boy so far.

I have tried the bread soaked with milk but they really didn't go for it. The last 2 years I did put soy bean milk powder in my soft food and I had NO ill affect at all. But this year and from now on I am just using soaked seed, soy bean meal and vegies for my soft food plus added calcium and seaweed meal.

As far as i know you can only get F-Vite from Dr Rob Marshell in Sydney. I did use this product but now use True Grit from veta farm, birds love it.

Hello Vicki and welcome to the Forum. Is your cage 27 in wide or is that the height, Budgies need more length in their cage than height. If it is 27inch wide it will be fine but if not it should be fine for a time But i would advice a cage that is more rectangle, like the wire flights you can now buy, they are about 60cm wide and about 40 cm deep and about 40 cm high. But sounds like you have thought of everything from perches to toys and worm meds. I think your new budgie will be very happy. I like to give my birds shell grit, something for you to think about. Anyway good luck with your new venture.

Yep 100% boy

Only 1% boy and 99% other

He looks like a boy to me, and a nice little fella at that.

Hi Could you please post a photo of your bird, can't really help unless we see or get more info.

Sound good Gb, I hope all goes to plan. I have a hen that I bred last year with no hassles and the cock was a father last year too and they were great parents but the little so and so s this year. The hen which is a violet opaline daughter of my best violet and the cock a light green son of my big green green cock, They laid the first egg and she or he destroyed it so I put a false egg in to deter her, well it worked she went on and laid another 7 eggs all fertile and due to hatch at the weekend BUT I did my rounds before and the little so and so s, 2 eggs broken open, the last 2 she laid by the looks of it, the other 5 were still there so I grabbed them out and fostered them. aggrrh