renee

When I first put this post up I was highly sceptical and believed my darling hubby to be rather naive .... However, the Hawk in question no longer frequents our aviaries! He hung about for a few more days and then vanished. I don't think hawks fly south for the winter .... He might have decided that he wasn't going to be able to eat our fat budgies and given up .... OR Tony's plan may have actually worked! Amazing.

Yes, Yes, Yes!

risk of infection would be a very good reason NOT to transfer eggs to another nest. Yes, it's tricky isn't it Kaz. If she's fine then she can cope BUT if she's infected and then dies more likely you will loose the eggs ... and we don't know the chances of a possible infection being carried by transferred eggs .... .... Also as the egg shell is porous if she is infected then will she pass it on to the future chicks?

Oh Splat I DO like your selections! All the Very Best at the Show!

Hi David, First of all I would want to know what your cock bird has died of as if it is contagious he may well have infected the hen. And if that is the case she may soon die and the eggs would go cold. So with that in mind I would pop him into a sealed plastic bag and put him in the fridge and then I would ring around to see if you can find an avian vet who will do an autopsy on him. Because of the risk of infection to the hen I would mark those 2 eggs and transfer them to another nest where the hen has just started laying if you can. It's hard to really gauge the health of the hen when she is incubating but do try to keep an eye on her and check she doesn't get a pooey bum or fluff up and look sick. As she goes laying eggs try to foster them as well. When you get the autopsy results you will have a better idea of how to proceed. Best of Luck!

Not so nasty now! Now are those bulls eye spots I see .... very nice! :yes:

Just finished the last perch rack ..... And we are Done! Looking down to the new extension: In time we will add grilles to go under the main perches.

Of course, I had forgotten about you points system. Over here we get bumped up to Intermediate after 3 years .... not automatically but at the Club's discretion.

I aim to be able to do that ..... but up until this year I haven't had across the board consistency with the progeny. My 1st year I bred 75 chicks but only kept 5 and last year I bred over a hundred and there were about 40 I thought were okay. As I meld the bloodlines I hope to be able to breed exactly what I want and thus cut down on numbers. Also I do 'dummy runs' with my best maiden hens so that the second round is a garenteed ripper.

Well Done Daz! Definitely time for you to move up to Intermediate Grade methinks?

Not at all! This forum would die a sudden death if we all agreed on everything!

Yes, I totally endorse what maesie has said. We all start off Colony breeding, I had a patio cage with 2 double nest boxes and a cock bird who was most comfortable with 2 hens but I transitioned almost immediately into Show budgies and for that end it's vital to cage breed so you can keep records and breed what you intend to, not just what pops put of the nest! I think you'll find that this wonderful forum provides us with the opportunity to speak our minds and engage in open discussion, you don't have to agree with everyone and you certainly do not have to do what any one suggests. However, on the subject of colony breeding you may not find that everyone encourages you to do it because of the "horror" experiences many members have had. But of course it's entirely your choice and as you said you spend a lot more time than many are able to observing your birds and the likelihood of a disaster is greatly reduced. Welcome to the forum jlee!

Thanks RIP, well I've put in a couple of square ones just for variety really. Too late to change the perch rack we built yesterday but I'll take your point and use only round ones for the final perch rack we build next.

Aviary reconstruction Libs????? Your aviary is wonderful, what do you plan on changing?

What I love about the sand is that I just rake it lightly once a week and that's it! Also it's a good source of grit.

Very wise decision my friend. I'm so sorry you had to find out the hard way.

Well she is absolutely gorgeous! Best of luck with your breeding plans for her!

Yes Liv, that's exactly what was happening with a couple of my maiden hens earlier in the season .... basically they were clueless But the good news is that you can train them with slightly older chickies. I had absolutely no issues with the second round (though I did keep an especially watchful eye on them )

Thank you Dave! We feel like we have just run a marathon on this one .... ... one last push and we'll be finally finished!

I had no idea that building the perch rack would be so time consuming ..... but then Tony did say we were doing it the complicated way So here it is to date: a perch rack for the original aviary, we chose to do 6 perches (20cm apart) and used dowel rods (2 round and 1 square) and then natural branches along the sides All left to do is a perch rack for the new extension .....

After careful consideration and in great part due to this post I have withdrawn the Jeff Lloyd Cobalt Normal cock bird I was going to submit for the SWBC auction. He is split Dilute and is the father to the 2 clearwings I put into last month's SWBC show .... and the hen got Best Clearwing. :happy-dancing:

Oh I am not going to as we wired the it up before putting the roof on. :happy-dancing: If you look closely at the Inside photos you can just see the wire.

VERY impressive chicks Dave. I especially like the long masks and it looks like you have got some directional feather happening as well. CONGRATULATIONS! :happy-dancing:

And we are done! :happy-dancing: .... almost. My wonderful hubby putting the roof on: Inside ~ Looking down the new extension: Inside ~ Looking back from the extension into the original aviary: You can see we have put sand down, quite a few inches thick, first we put Garden Lime down on the pavers to reduce the risk of bacterial growth. Now all we have to do is give the original aviary a bit of a scrub down and put the perches in: fun, fun, fun! :glare: