renee

Fantastic news! Who's looking after your budgies? :hmm:

I run the lights on a timer - lights on at 7am, lights off at 8pm. I also run a 24hr bug zapper that emits black light when the lights go off and it provides enough light for the hens to feed at night.

Since June last year I have used Arcadia fluoro tubes. Apart from some under-performing top pairs I had a brilliant breeding season last year! The budgies are far more active and chirpier - ie. happier.

okay, I want to make it quite clear that I don't believe that just because the nest boxes were white on the inside that this was the definitive cause .... just a contributing factor. Here's a picture of how high up the cabinets are: Here's a picture of how the cabinets are now: See how white and reflective it is? Alright, now have a look at the smaller cabinet above it- I bred 10 Recessive Pieds out of it last year: So we can see that just the proximity to the lighting is not a factor. Now here's the old nest box (on top of the cabinet): So you can see now that size of the cabinets is not a factor nor the size of the nest box as the top cabinet is significantly smaller in all regards. Finally I have opened up the top nest box so you can compare: The other significnt difference between breeding cabinets other than size is that the top breeding cabinet is natural wood colour- which does not reflect the light. So, in conclusion I believe the problem arose from a confluence of factors: the proximity to the light became a factor when combined with the white, shiny surfaces of the breeding cabinet which acted like a light box effect and because the nest box was placed on the side of the cabinet the light entered more easily.

Thank you for your informative post!

Beautiful birds and a lovely picture of you too!

How about PMing him?

Where would we be without you? Thank You!

They are gorgeous Pearce! You must be so happy!

Well, Renee is the standout .... but more importantly I lost 2 years of good breeding with my top birds.

Here's a tale of caution for all you fellow Novice breeders! I started breeding budgies 3 years ago and like all beginner breeders I was keen to the right thing so I followed the advice of a fellow breeder and got a couple of double breeding cabinets made especially. They are made of marine ply and laminex, are nice and deep and roomy- the Ritz acommdation for breeding budgies! Here's a picture of just a single: At the beginning of my first season I started out by putting the breeding cabinets in an aviary and I had reasonable results, not outstanding but I put that down to my own inexperience and the fact that they were outside and not in a proper breeding room. Of the 8 cabinets 5 pairs bred successfully but the clutches were not too big, averaging 3 chicks. By the following season I was firmly established in my garage, having moved there half way through that previous season. I put in fluorescent tubes for lighting. Here's a photo of what my breeding room looked like: I don't know if you can see it, but I had placed the 2 double breeding cabinets on top of other banks of cabinets so that they were the highest up and closest to the lights. By this time I had been to Nationals and replaced the tubes with lighting from Arcadia which is recommended specifically for breeding birds. To my great disappointment my best pairs just wouldn't breed last year and most significantly, I had put them down in these cabinets. You may recall I put a post about it, Kaz came round and had a specific look to see if we could figure out what was going on, we concluded it may have been the perches which I dutifully replaced. I heard about Vitamon B12 and started giving it to my pairs .... Still no joy, I had my top cock bird examined, I contacted the breeder of some of the hens to see if there were any underlying issues - zilch! Of the 8 pairs 3 produced a round of chicks but the average was very low: 2-3 chicks and they took forever to go down. Interestingly all around me the "lesser" breeders were pumping out chicks like no tomorrow. And of course at that point the penny should have dropped- but in my case I just couldn't see what was staring me in the face. Right at the end of last year's season I moved both of my top hens and put them into other cabinets with other cock birds and to my delight they dutifully produced a round with no issues whatsoever. Still at this stage I thought that it was 'proof' that the cock bird I had so obstinately insisted with was a dud...... In fact it was not until earlier this year that Liv posted that 'Renee', the underperforming hen I had given her was sitting on a round of no less than 7 eggs that I began to examine the nest boxes of these cabinets in more detail. You see Renee, or that bloody lazy hen (as I occassionally referred to her in frustration) would lay only a few eggs for me and raise no more than one, maybe 2 chicks at a time .... and she was one of the success stories! Finally I realised what the problem could be! :doh: Budgies in the wild seek out dark tree hollows, in fact the darker and more private the nest box the better for the hen as she feels secure and protected while she incubates and raises her chickies. The nest boxes I was using are white and shiney on the inside, not particularly big and were plaed on the side of the cabinet. My theory is that being so close to the lighting the nest boxes were just too bright inside as the light came in the entrance hole and bounced around inside. About a month ago I replaced those nestboxes with ones made by Daz and to my delight I now have happy hens sitting on fertile eggs. Tomorrow I will post picture of the 'suspect' breeding boxes and the new set up.

Yes! Budgies are very social birds so they like to be able to socialise (albeit from inside a breeding cabinet) and the sounds of mating and chirping chicks also stimulates them. I've also heard that if you break up a pairing and the new partner is not being welcomed, by positioning the old mate opposite you can encourage its acceptance.

I hoped you've turned the corner and she comes good for you.

Oh Good Job! You did so well especially considering it was your first auction!

I always love seeing you chickies! Hope your breeding season settles down and your difficulties go away!

I think that's generally the case however, not always! I currently have a hen who is laying eggs on the bottom of the holding cabinet and incubating them- I keep on removing them and fostering them out but it hasn't stopped her!

Oh what a fantastic album!!!! Congratulations!

Buying birds ..... you may say that you're almost done - but that is until the NEXT time!

Ooooooh Lovely! I see we are equally skilled with the camera

What fun ~ chickies on the way!!!! Now it's all stations GO!

It depends how heavy it is but basically it's a fault on the show bench and if you can minimize or eradicate it is better.

Over the past week the local hawk has been paying particular attention to our budgies No casualties but he is certainly persistent. Yesterday I took a broom and shewed him off @#%#@! Today my hubby proudly told me he had "taken care of the hawk". My mind raced with possibilities ... "Did you kill him?" I asked with bated breath. "No, I gave him a piece of meat. He was hungry! Now he won't come back." he replied. Yeah, right. So now we can add HAWK to our ever expanding menagerie.

Welcome to the forum :rofl: - it's informative and lots of fun!

Oh she's just too lovely for words! :rofl: And congratulations on becoming a Gramma again!! :rofl:

yep, that's the one. The cock bird is ancient and the 2 hens are disabled but I separated them out last year BEFORE doing the extensive treatment on my flock to get rid of the pasty bums syndrome. They never exhibited any ill effects but clearly they were carriers. :rofl: What were they CARRYING ? Pasty bums is a symptom, what was the disease ? I never got to the bottom of it (sorry pun not intended). Gerald Binks talks about it and describes it as pasting of the vent but he doesn't elaborate too much and certainly doesn't offer any meds treatment. So basically since last Spring I started covering all bases and did an extensive range of treatments. After the second course of Fungilin I felt I'd turned a corner but basically I treated the flock as if they were in quarentine and by the time I finished my troubles were over.