**Liv**

Hi Everyone... I have been pretty quiet of late, mostly because the kids and i have been sick nearly all winter and I haven't had the get-up-and-go to think straight. We have been catching one thing after another! Our most recent cold is just clearing off now and if we catch anything else I will SCREAM!!! Anyway, after some serious thinking about what I want out of life, I made the choice to go back to "school". I have started University full time, so this is keeping me really busy. I am doing a BA of Internet Studies (specialising in online communities ) . I am really happy to be studying again as I was starting to feel lost with my direction. Cooking, cleaning and changing poopy nappies gets very mundane and I didn't feel like I was achieving anything on a regular basis. I was starting to feel stagnant so i made the decision to start the degree. I am stoked as now I am able to achieve tangible goals on a weekly basis which makes me VERY ----> I am so busy now that i am actually fitting more into my time and being more productive Anyway, I am still breeding at full steam. I have 16 cabinets, all of which are full and pumping out the eggs and chicks I put my first baby on the show bench last week. I was so nervous as I had never shown one of my bred babies before. This is an old photo as he's almost finished his first moult now. My baby boy placed first spangle young bird. WOOP! and yes, he had competition - but only 5 other birds in his category I also have some cockatiels breeding now, and I am hand rearing some baby pigeons that were almost a cats dinner. Alex is starting school in a few weeks, which is really exciting for him but there is a lot of running around between kindy and school visits. I am still around on BBC every day, but I am finding time slim to do much posting. I am still learning to juggle my time to make sure i get to everything. I will have better time management when I have found my feet Anyway, i will stop prattling. I really just wanted to say :hi:

The SA rings are the ones purchases from the BSSA budgie club here in Adelaide. I use NE rings which i get from the NEBS budgie club also in Adelaide. I go to both lots of club meetings so be sure to say hi

She is beautiful! I love seeing your progress photos. Its great to try and pick the features in the young chicks, and see how they grow

They have both reached 12 weeks old this week

Time for a photo update of the FD boys. Here is poor little Shaggy, looking more scruffy than shaggy now. He is doing so much better now that i clipped him short. he has started preening again and is gaining weight And here is Cirrus is all his glory back view

That would be nice. This bird wont be and good for showing because of her splayed leg or hip displacement issue. But we are going to assess her quality as a stock bird, and consider getting the vet to surgically remove her leg for breeding. If she is not good for a stock hen then she will live in the aviary or be re-homed as her quality of life should be fine as only one leg is affected.

Good news! this chick Is not a FD I checked the feather tonight and the quills have stopped growing, the feather sheaths have gone - in a feather duster there is always a few millimeters of feather still unclosed in the sheath.

Thanks Catherine and Robin. I am pleased that it looks like its not an infection or a vitamin deficiency. I have been stressing about this, but it looks to be okay now. The next thing is to hope that the foster hen has a similar incubation routine and temperature to the mother, as changes in brooding can kill the eggs.

The second chick from the clutch hatched under the foster hen yesterday, it was fed instantly by the reliable foster and is doing great - I think the biological mother was pushing the chicks aside as if they were nesting material and letting them go cold which is why they died so quickly.

I am doing what i can with him. He is still unable to lift his head out of the feeding position, but is brighter in the eyes and happier with his feathers cut short, so for now he is good Thanks Daz, I had a feeling she was #4 too. i don't have beautiful feather like that in any of my birds yet so that was the give away.

Thanks for the link Kaz I will have to determine which one she is lacking if the deaths continue. She has the same diet as all the other breeders, and the others are fine.... Will be a case of trial and error until its discovered.

You did the right thing to keep her quiet and warm. i would leave her quiet and warm for another day or so, or until she gains her strength to act normally again. Birds are good at regulating their blood pressure after blood-loss. I hope she pulls through.

It is tough dave, and really annoying too. I am really hoping some eggs hatch and survive under the foster If the same issue continues with the foster then there must be something wrong with the eggs and i will have to assess what the hen is possibly missing in her diet.

I like the idea of giving her a slightly older chick to feed I have taken her eggs for now so she will start laying again hopefully. Good mothers will feed their chicks quickly after the chick hatches, but chicks will last up to 48 hours before their first feed. These chicks should not be stone cold dead in such a short time if it was just the hen not feeding. I did supplement feed some of her chicks last time and it made no difference, they still died. Will see what happens under the foster hen i guess. its the same pair with clear eggs that raised her last chick, so they are trusted parents.

Last round a hen of mine had a clutch of 9 eggs, 8 were fertile and all hatched. But every time one hatched the baby would be dead before the sun went down... At first i put it down to her being a maiden hen, but then once the 3rd and 4th chicks died in exactly the same way, it really seemed more than her not having crop milk yet. I fostered a chick out that had just hatched and it died as well. Then i put the remaining eggs under a foster and i managed to save only one chick in the end! So this round, with a new cock bird as well, she has laid another 9 eggs, 8 are fertile (yippie!), and the first chick hatched today, and was found dead under the nesting material...ARRRRH!! In a huff I carefully moved all her eggs to a foster pair and hopefully a few have a chance at surviving now. What is she doing??? Has she a virus that infects the chicks when they hatch. is she squishing them or smothering them some how. she has never fed them, but chicks should last 24 hours before their first feed. these ones die within hours of hatching. The only one that survived before was a chick that never came into contact with the hen.

A mouse?

Cirrus is doing well. He is fit, fat and active. He is beautiful Shaggy on the other hand, is failing. he is loosing weight, is not able to walk properly and his neck is fused in a downward position and is no longer able to preen. I believe the fused neck is from muscle cramps from his head always being in the eating position - it fits perfectly into the feeder when he is eating. Yesterday Shaggy gave me "the eye". I took him into the bathroom and cut all his feathers short. He is half the size now. I cut off as much as i could ensuring to keep enough for normal coverage for warmth. He is feeling better today, but it hasn't helped his neck.. his quality of life has dwindled On another note... i think we have FD number 4 This is the last chick from Robbie and Renee. This was one of 4 eggs from her 3rd round. it was the only one showing fertile so was fostered out and i addled the others deliberately. This chick has has a badly splayed leg and a normal leg. probably from Renee being exhausted and laying weak eggs. Here she is.... possible FD number 4, She is 3 weeks old.

Its great to hear from you! sounds like your having a blast!! thanks for the update :hug:

Yep :yes: .. I normally let it grow up until seeding age, but i will pick it at any stage and give it to the birds. They love it!

Here you can see the yolkless egg glowing pure white. You can clearly see the aircell to the right of the egg, but no yellow yolk at all. Here is the control egg i have used to compare with... its a bit of an old clear egg so the yolk isn't as defined as viable eggs, but you can still see the yolk in there and the yellow glow it gives off. P.s DO NOT candle your eggs this way when testing for fertility. these two eggs were only handled and candled like this because i know they are non viable.

If you want to matt. I forgot to add that the stuff i sweep off the bird room floor, or seed that comes from a cabinet that may not be 100% healthy, either goes in the bin or goes on the garden in my "vegi patch" where what isn't eaten by the wild birds, then grows into green food for the birds to eat :yes:

I use 13gk+ of seed a week. I don't blow husks or empty seed dishes, as I just top up the dish each day with fresh seed in the breeding cabinets. The flights have self feeders that i fill when empty. When i do a large cleanout, and provided the birds in the cabinets are all healthy, i will take the second hand seed from the cabinet floor and the dishes and give it to the birds in the flight to pick through.

Yes, this was her first egg. she has 4 others, all of which are fertile :yes: I will try and get a photo of it candled so you can see it with no yolk

Yes i believe they can fly okay. But they do not have the same control as the legs create drag and throw off the balance of the bird in flight.

I have seen quite a few double yolkers come out of my maiden hens, but today during a routine nest check, i found a yolk-less egg. This egg is completely clear when candled and significantly smaller than normal eggs. The yolk-less egg is on the left and a normal egg is on the right. The yolk-less egg is only 9mm long.