Ravengypsy

actually it's very cold here, below freezing temps and we just had 11 inches of snow on the ground this week. The avairy is in the basement so it's not icey cold, but it is definatly winter temps even downstairs. And when the photo was taken he was fluffing to settle down for the night. The photo taken before that he'd been stretching his wings. He was settling for sleep time :hap: But I'll still keep an eye on him just in case. He's his usual happy self though so far but I know they can hide things easily.

took a new photo of him tonight to send to him and thought I'd post it here as well http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...1/IMG_3709a.jpg

the second photo I can see the double yolk, but it took me a while.. had to look in the middle and found the lines of the bottom of both yolks. how very cool to see the photo of the candled egg. good luck!!

adorable photo!!!! I love that pose

yes I sent the email late last night, I'll let you all know the response I get. I was thinking of breeding him with a sky hen, unfortunatly I don't have any white faced sky hens at the moment. The only hens I have available for him would be the violet mauve (too young right now anyways) or a dilute rec pied sky hen (may be too old, she's unbanded). All my other hens are already breeding right now or paired up for show breeding. I may need to go buy a sky hen for him and test breed.

those chicks are looking so big and healthy will be fun seeing them feather more

He's not a violet cobalt... I specialty breed sky violets and violet cobalts and he's definatly not either. There is alot of variation on the breast feathers, some look grey and others look bright blue.. it's really "odd" looking. I wish I knew the pedigree on this bird as it would make things easier but alas I don't as it wasn't banded by the breeder. I have a young hen that is a violet mauve (parents were both cobalt violets) which is almost similar in color to this guy but still not quite the same either. Her color is very uniform instead of the odd grey & blue variance this guys has.

Lady & Zeus now have 4 eggs in the nest... Tenjin & Yoshe had their first chick (egg 1) hatch early this morning, they ended up with 8 eggs total. Roka & Bambi have 2 eggs in the nest... Brownie & Daisy are constantly in nestbox but no eggs yet. Spazz & Hera haven't bonded yet and may be seperated in a week if no progress is made. Dusk & Precious are doing well and in nestbox occasionally, awaiting some eggs as well. Duke & Duchess nest - I've banded all three chicks now, they are doing well.. I'll get photos soon.

thanks, Kaz I'll try that route

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra.../Picture029.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...s3/000_2256.jpg I've seen mauves and it's something besides regular mauve... hrm... this one really stumps me what would a violet slate show?

He is 3 years old... I was debating between violet mauve, dusk or slate... but not sure as I don't know any of his pedigree. here are some other photos of him... http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...0_2684edit1.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra.../Picture028.jpg

Lady & Zeus have 2 eggs in nest so far. the other three new pairs are in the nestboxes, no eggs yet. And of my pet types Tenjin & Yoshe (green greywing cock & violet opaline hen) have 8 eggs due to start hatching tomorrow; Roka & Bambi (df dom pied cobalt cock and yf2 sky hen) have 1 egg so far. things are looking up and hopefully will have new chick pics to show you soon. Here is Tenjin, a greywing light green cock: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...0_2703edit1.jpg Here is Yoshe, an opaline violet hen: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...es/000_1995.jpg And here are their 8 eggs: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/IMG_3662.jpg

He's not a mauve, too much bright blue and not a cobalt either (too much grey)... so what is he? a dusk maybe? the color in the photo is true to the naked eye, it's like blue with a layer of grey. Doesn't look like the normal mauves though..

yeah it's one of Barrie's Birds, he does good photoshop work.. (Laughing out loud)... here is my photoshop pink budgies: http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra.../Art/Pink_2.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra.../Art/Pink_4.jpg

congrats on the eggs so far... any of them fertile yet, Kaz? I am looking forward to these chicks.

I'm so sorry you lost your TCB, Norm :yellowhead: I am however looking forward to your blue series dusks though ...I can't wait to see photos.

Libby your new birds are ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!!!

I have to agree, my favorite is Phat Tony... what a beautiful budgie and great head size!

Daz, I've had similiar happen to me lately. I regularly sell my smaller pet quality budgies which are tame from regular handling which helps fund my show birds. However I do get inquiries on my show birds (there are only a couple of show breeders within about 500 miles of me) often and have to reply with they aren't for sale yet. They don't seem to understand why we breed them for show and don't usually sell them until after their first molt for the very reason you said above. Especially when you are still beginning building your show stock like I am, I can't afford to sell off my future breeders or show winners until I reach a point of needing to sell off the ones that aren't good quality for show or breeding the next generation. It seems to take a few years to really get the right stock built for your showing team and from what I've heard of other show breeders that the worst thing you can do is sell off your future winners too early. And some of us love our budgies so much we would keep them all if space permitted.

in theory the closest we'll ever get is possibly a white budgie of some type with violet suffusion.

As Daz stated a cobalt to cobalt pairing will work well for you. It takes 2 dark factors (one from each parent) to produce a mauve (double dark factor), however the sky has no dark factors, cobalts have 1 dark factor and mauve has 2 dark factors. Your only options would be a cobalt/cobalt (25% mauves), cobalt/mauve (50% mauve) or mauve/mauve (100% mauve) pairings. No sky pairings can produce mauves. Hope that helps.

that "big boy opaline green" is an excellent bird.. I'd be proud to have him in my avairy. Good luck!

that one is a photoshop'd budgie from a breeder in the UK.

well here's the update... and links to some photos. Duke & Duchess ended up with 3 chicks for round 2. Chick #1 is looking like a normal sky from what I can tell at this stage. First two are banded and 3rd will get banded this week. http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/IMG_3521.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/IMG_3506.jpg http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...08/IMG_3524.jpg and a video.. http://s180.photobucket.com/albums/x271/ra...nt=ae7a51a0.flv

As already stated, it depends on the environmental conditions of your breeding area. In general you can breed all year round with the right artificial conditions. My suggestion is aprox 12 hours of daylight/lighting, humidity levels should be considered, plenty of food & veggies, a nestbox (of course), and temperatures that aren't too hot or too cold.