splat

Gb I don't know if this helps but I keep my vegies simple, They get peas, corn and carrot mainly every other week I grated beetroot and chuck in some broccoli and celery stalks and leaves. They get silverbeet all the time.and some parsley when it is growing in my back yard, none at the moment. I also put a carrot on a large nail in a piece of wood and they eat that in know time, i throw in whole apples and they are gone in a night too. For water my birds get normal drinking water 2 days a week and the other days they get Vetafarm Breeders Vit D three times a week to make up for the lack of sunlight they get and two days a week they get Vit B12 and Vetafarm tracmin. In the aviary they have access to 3 different grits and seaweed meal (iodine). Their soft food is as easy as, soaked groats (feeder oats), safflower and a little sunflower and budgie mix, all soaked and when washed and cleaned, soy bean meal (from the produce store) is added which is high in protein. To this I add 1 table spoon of seaweed meal to the breeding cages as they do not have free access. I am going to add whole egg powder when I get some. But with the oats and other seeds along with the soy bean meal. the protein the birds get is about 38 I think, it's pretty good anyway. and the soft food is as easy as. And whats unbelievable is even on the first day I started giving it to them they just go crazy over it. This is the soft food that Geoff is giving his birds now, but he hasn't got the sunflower in it or the seaweed meal.

Uncooked Gb, I have seen it hanging in the aviary. Ask him what it was.

Good to here things are on track Gb, just breed how you feel, breed for you, you can still try and breed exhibition type birds and you don't have to show, I know plenty of people in clubs that are very active with the club but never show and some of them have great birds too.

I had mine the same last year Kaz and I use a cable tie to keep the big door secure, so that left the small door for use only. I put them back this year because I prefer to use the big door and have it sliding. So that meant cutting out the wire for the nest but all is good because I have lots of little doors to put on where the holes have been cut.

I did that last year Kaz, turned the main door upside down and I ended up cutting a bar off each side of the small door so I good get the jars in easier, wish I didn't do that now. But I find the door up the right way much easier. One thing I am doing this year and I have done about 5 cages so far, I am taking off the wire on the bottom and putting on the very bottom because I am sick on them emptying their jars out, I am finding that much better, you can see in the photos that i have done some. I have always hated that wire on the bottom. the birds are making less mess now too.

Thank Merv, but it still gives me a headache. But that colour guide is good, and thought it would work like that but is is saying you can work out what the young will get or not. I think we need to have a chat about this over a cuppa. LOL whens a good time. Maybe it will click verbally. Hey wait a minute you are meant to visit me, I will have a cuppa and cake waiting.

I know what you mean about having time to take pix, I am the same, never time, and when I pair the last thing I think about is photos. lol

Hi all, I got around to taking a couple photos of my wire door that i made. Out side view... Inside view... I love it... it is the best thing since sliced bread and NO gaps for mice to get through and it lets in plenty of light. I open it in the morning and it stays open all day. I can even lock it because I used one of those T handles. I also took some photos of the birds in the cages. Tomorrow Greg and I are changing the cages around a bit because I can't get the trays out of the end wire cages for cleaning so we are moving the wooden ones to the right hand side wall. Which will be better any way.

Good Luck with it RIP, I too will follow closely. got any pics of your pairs. I can't wait to put my down but they are still going through their moult. I managed to get 2 pair down before they started moulting.

I didn't think they looked as big Phill. They are about the same size as my old ones that I am using this year.Except I hate the wire fronts because I am having trouble getting the nest box on the front of the cages. driving me nuts. I am using 12 old wooden cages, 5 are double cages and 2 single. One set of the double are a lot bigger they have a large wire front on them but cut short. And I have 9 wire cages. so all up 21 cages and one very large baby cage. I am thinking about making new ones after the breeding season, or I might go all wire yet. But I like the box ones better because they are cleaner to use, the wire ones make a real mess, I have just spent the last day or so pulling the wire off the bottom so the birds can pick at the seed, plus a few of them are wasting the seed. I have most of the birds I plan to breed with in the holding cages waiting for them to come into condition and some of them are emptying their seed jars out over night.

Hi Clint. welcome to the forum, good luck with your future breeding.

Looking really good Phill.

I am the same Ino that rotten little bug catches me off guard all the time, forever trying to get rid of it, Thanks Kaz lol

Thanks Chooky. hey I bred a star gazer last year and they were out crosses. It was only a minor case, meaning she only had her head up looking now and again. I actually treated her and she is totally normal now.

Sounds like you bred a stargazer with a nervous problem and probably nothing to with them being related, or it could of being a throw back, a one off thing.

Hi Amy, welcome to the forum...

This thread is very interesting, keep it coming.

Hey Merv, is that because even though they are full brother sister, their gentic make up could get different parts of there ancestors which aren't related. mmmmmm headache, you know I am not into genetics, gives me a headache. But is that what you are talking about, like when you mate say half/ half sister and you are working on a line and you are hoping say the father genes to come through but the mothers can instead OR the mothers mother, something like that.

We are all having mice problems now Maddy, everyone have talked too is that they are everywhere. Before all this rain I had never had a mouse in my aviaries in 5 years, never. But in the old birdroom I would catch a couple a year but now I would catch a hundred a week not counting what I catch in the buckets or what get poisoned. But like I said they have slowed down, have caught one in few days now.

Thanks Finnie, It's hard being a female sometimes when it comes to building but then I think I am better than Greg now lol, more particular, no slap up job when I'm around. lol. When I can't do something I quit for the day and go inside and think about it, think about all the solutions and eventually I work it out and when I can't I get Greg to help. BUT then I have to wait for him to do it so then I get annoyed and end up doing it myself. I din't realise how clever I was until I started doing this birdroom, I have always left the hard things for the guys to do. BUT female power is HARD TO BEAT lol

Gb my mice were coming through the roof, My aviaries are all cemented probably now, Greg did them ages ago. and I love it so much better. But after putting mouse proof wire all over the bottom of aviaries and the 3 foot tin, they were still getting in, in droves and I couldn't work it out until I got the ladder and had a look on the roof at the opposite end that I normally look, the end where the slope is, well any way I was dumb foundered, couldn't believe what I saw. Lots of little mice scurring everywhere. and free range for them into my aviaries, Greg left hollows everywhere from where the tin met, because out aviaries were made one at a time and Greg would extend onto them and and one the last aviary has different tin on the roof so that meant the the first 2 had corrigated iron and the last had the garage type flat tin with little ridges and the mice were jumping through the corrigated holes, unbelievable, I never new it was like that at all. But you see we can't get on the roof to fix anything because there are these huge red gum sleepers with cement sheeting attached and then the shade cloth a few feet above, trying to keep it cooler in the summer months. But what we have done was make a breeding haven for mice. ANY why do the get on the roof, AGAIN GREGS FAULT, he has grape vines behind the aviary and he made an in closure to keep the birds out and Jake but it has enables the mice to run up onto my roof. BUT seems this is his place and not mine the in closure stays.

Update on Birdroom, photos tomorrrow hopefully. I have made the wire door, and it is up and running, birds are in the cages, not breeding just holding. I still have tools all over the floor though, so it is still a mess. The wire door, I bought the 25mm Alum square tubing and the connector joints but guess what I ran into a huge problem. I bought the connector joints from Bunnings and the alum from Hunters because It was 6.5 meters for $35.00 and Bunnings was 3 mts for $25.00 bUT what I didn't relise was that the one from Hunters was thicker inside than the one from Bunnings, so the connectors were to big to fit.. What a headache, So rather than waste $70.00 dollars I had to shave every connector joint back so it would fit in the tubing. Some of them turned out a bit thiner than others so then once I made the frame I had to put a screw in each connector and alum tubing to keep it stable. It was a huge job and I did it all by myself but it all worked out good. I am actually very happy with door. And I think the birds are delighted too because now it is much brighter in there. I still have the problem of put a handle on and a snip. I bought the snip today, actually a bolt thing and it is wider than the tubing where the screws go in so now I need to work that out tomorrow. I adventually worked out how to make the door frame of the shed square thank god and all that is now great. I will take some photos of the door and frame and set up tomorrow. At this stage I have 9 nine wire cages and 12 wooden cages to use. I am thinking of putting some holding cages on the other wall yet but I am not sure. I want some room to move about.

Done the roof yet Kochy. photos please

Maddy I would the mice are, or were nesting on the floor and climbed to the top to get away from the wet floor. Work out where they are coming in and put traps or bait there. I was catching and killing over a hundred a week for a while but they have gone quite for the moment but I am still holding my breath because I am sure it is not over yet. But I had to put mouse proof wire all around the bottom of my aviaries and then tin 3 feet high to stop the little so and so's. I had to block every hole in the roof by putting wire and even Kaz's Idea of poly stuffing and glue and cement to block off holes, BUT it seems to have worked, NO more MICE in aviaries. BUT the old bird room is a bigger problem an i haven't had time to do that yet anyway because I have been flat trying to finish new birdroom. I have had mice in the traps caught by their feet run around and right through the normal bird wire. They say if their head fits then they can get in and believe or not it is true. Anyway good luck with trying to stop them. It is a hard job. I have set traps next to breeding cages and the birds don't seem to panic when they go off, maybe they are use to it.

Working that weekend so that leaves me out. Ross was a very nice man, he will be sadly missed.