renee

glossy white eggs are FERTILE EGGS Renee. Its the peachy pink ones that arent Hope you havent been throwing out the glossy white ones http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...=fertile%20eggs fertile on the left....non fertile on the right. Ha ha TYPICAL! Got it the wrong way round. Just as well you're on the ball Kaz

Just checked on your thread and it is all happening at your place! LOL! Congratulations on your first little chickie. Kaz is quite right: the peeping stimulates the mother hen into producing crop milk and feeding the little ones. I note you've had a bit of difficulty identifying the fertile eggs, though you've got the hang of it I see. As a rule of thumb I think that eggs with bubbles are infertile and any egg that looks a glossy white after a few days are also infertile. Of course candling is the best way of knowing for sure.

They are lovely Finnie, you must be so happy and excited!

Very wise decision ~ Well done! Remember that YOU are the one that ultimately decides who breeds to who, and when.

Persistent inbreeding can affect the fertility of your birds, that is if you do it regularly over a number of generations. You also see a problem with feather development: cysts and tail feathers not growing. I would recommend you stick to Uncle x Niece, Aunt x Nephew, Grandparents x Grandchildren. :rofl:

This is the difficulty with the chick being so young although I do believe crop milk is vital for the first week and important for the second. I don't know what you can do except cross your fingers. Maybe Kaz or someone else can be of more help. Best of Luck!

I'd put a couple of millet sprays in the nest box with him so he can snack whenever he gets the munchies

Now that is a really good photo ~ CONGRATULATIONS!

Oh I know you are very careful! I just thought I'd share as it was topic related

Recently I borrowed a DVD from our library featuring a talk by Henry George, here's a couple of things he said that I found interesting - He tried pairing Best to Best but found that didn't really give him the results he was hoping for. So he tried the "Coffee pot to Tea pot" pairing and was happy with that principle. Basically he believes in pairing a nice Long cock bird to a strong solid hen (that's usually the way he does it he said). He also pays a lot of attention to relationships. So he will select a hen and put her in a cage and then place all the suitably related cock birds in cages near her to compare. That way he can decide who she is best suited to. He spends a lot of time with his selection of pairs. :doh: This talk was given a few years ago so I'm not sure if he has changed his methods since then ....

Vanessa you sound like you are approaching this in the best way with forethought and consideration ~ Well done! :doh:

Omelette's story is simply amazing! I am so glad you made this post in dedication to her :doh: I don't suppose you could put together a photo Family Tree of all her descendants (or at least most of them) and highlight the differences between Stud's chicks and Gary's Spangle's?

PHEW! :doh: What a relief!!!

Ummm, I wouldn't do that pairing again if I were you. :rofl: If both Recessive Pieds you got from me have a R&T ring code and are 08 birds, which from memory I believe they were then they are Brother and Sister. This is why I sent over some Manno split Rec Pieds for you with the idea that you would breed to them and then breed the chickies back to eachother (that is when you would see the magic!). I'm really sorry, I thought I suggested those pairings to you on the phone, I should have put it in writing. Oh her name is Scruffy? Well that makes sense as her flights are curled at the ends which does give her an untidy appearance! Interestingly this is not because she was plucked in the nest but is a genetic trait, like heavy wings or shark fins and one of her chicks has it too.

8 days is very young but I think you are doing the right thing by closely monitoring it and if Dad is doing the right thing then all is good.

I LOVE the bird on the left (can't tell if it's a cock or hen from here sorry) I'm really loving the white wings with the cobalt (cobalt? ) Ahh yes, one of my newly acquired Gina House Clearwings that I got from Dave McMinn a few months ago. He is a pretty bird, isn't he? But a bugger of a variety to breed to ANBC show standards

The ANBC Show Standard requires a minimum 20% markings on wings (off the top of my head I think it can be between 20-40%) so I have concentrated over the past 2 years to breed a bird with precisely that. I saw absolutely no point in breeding splits from heavily marked birds as the hens tend to have more heavy markings anyway. No this cock is not directly related to the birds you got from me- he is longer by a couple of inches and about 1 inch wider across the shoulders and he is green series without yellow face, although he too comes from a Manno dad but paired to an Armstrong hen. Your birds mum was a yellow face cinnamon Manno hen. Glad he's doing the right thing by you.

Only the "special" ones.

Good position!

If everything goes well you still need to allow yourself 2 months for mating-brooding-hatchlings-fledglings ... it is more likely you will need 3 months just to be on the safe side. It is quite amazing how many "issues" can arise during this period, just have a browse of the Budgie Breeding Forum and there are tons of topics on what can happen. Sure you can go away on holiday when you want, but you only need to read a little further to hear about how so and so was away for just a few days and the misfortunes that they have experienced ... Early intervention and a proactive attitude are essential for looking after your budgies and you need to be with them to do that.

Well one day on and you wouldn't believe that there was a fresh branch in the Babies aviary yesterday ... Where have all the leaves gone? Oh, here they are ... and they are all on the ground picking at them Some more general non-posey shots And here are a couple I have my eye on, This boy will be a foundation stud boy for my DF Spangles - not blowing and not in show cage, but believe me he has the goods And here are another couple foundation birds for my Recessive Pied line So you see, it is only this year that I have finally identified birds I have bred that are good enough in my eyes to line breed from - and I have been at it for a few years now With the Recessives I have finally bred a bird long enough and with good enough markings, so next year I will out-cross to a dominant variety to put feather on and broaden the head features in the Splits .... ahhh budgies breeding is so long term - if I am lucky I should have a bird for National Selection in 2012 ... By contrast here is the branch in the Breeder Aviary ...

NEVER expose you budgies to Nest Boxes unless you want them to breed! It is your responsibility to ensure that you choose when and who breeds - and you choose appropriately. There is no such thing as "my budgies won't stop breeding" - they do not decide, you do - so it is more realistic to say "I have not taken the appropriate steps to stop my budgies breeding".

Yes I have pavers, concreted between all the gaps and then added a layer of garden lime and then several inches of washed sand (the type they use in kiddie sand pits). It gets raked and topped up every 4-6 weeks. I have heard that several years ago a tip top breeder had some nasties (bacteria or fungii) grow in the sand and he lost some birds - so he stopped and went back to plain cement base and scrapes the poo off regularly- like Kaz has in her aviary. The rooves on my aviaies over-hang by quite a bit so I don't get water in my aviaries on a regular basis, maybe once or twice when the rain comes in horizontally. BUT I am aware of the potential risk and monitor closely.

Oh lucky you Julie! What a lovely Chrissie present.

Dream on!