renee

I'd give her a couple of weeks on Calcivet and then give her a go.

I bought some Roni-Vet S the other week end. Have yet to use it but am ready to do so. My birds are done for now. They are jumping out of their skins with vigor and vitality. For now new birds will be quarentined and treated for Mega, Worms and Lice and given a course of Doxy.

No time like the Present! Good Luck with your progress!

Aauugh! The dreaded Canker! Touch wood I haven't had that. How do you think they got it?

Yes, that's right. As of next Monday I'll start incrementing the iodine and calcivet. To my delight, the hen at the nest box entrance is a Greygreen Clearflighted Pied, sister to Magic, who if I do say so myself, is the best looking bird in my aviary (I am biased!).

24hrs later and the hens are showing interest in the nest box! No bloodshed so far ...

Monitor closely. If she injures him, have your white pepper ready!

Finally the garage is looking like breeding room and the aviary is as it should be always :bluebudgie: Yesterday attaching the wheels to a bank of holding cages Fresh branches, new sand, tucker out and happy budgies: A hollowed out nest box has been put in there .... and been studiously ignored!

Very good post! Thank you very much Dave. It'd be lovely to read the original article

I always get carried away at auctions .... BUT I do know what you're supposed to do, even if I don't always manage to do it myself! 1. Pick you favourites from the catalogue 2. Call the breeders if you can and find out their history and background 3. Walk around slowly and critically assess your choices 4. Walk around again and look at all the birds, maybe there's something there you hadn't considered 5. List your favourites from 1 (most wanted) to ...... x 6. Decide how much you're prepared to pay BEFORE the auction begins 7. STICK to your decision! Have a good time!

My grasp of genetics can best be described as basic So I have bought a Genetic Calculator program from RIPbudgies to help me out.

Hey Kaz, Have any of your budgies come back?What's the total tally of losses? So true maesie but in those trees are voracious carnivores that won't think twice about snapping up Kaz's budgies.

Yes I agree, in principal, that is once you've got a healthy flock. The problem was that this time last year I brought in birds and put them straight into the breeding cabinets without doing the 1 month quarentine. These birds had megabacteria, so in effect I've been trying to eradicate that and deal with the pooey bums, which touch wood is now behind me. Over the next month I am bringing in 5 Clearwings and 4 Normals from different aviaries. They will get a 7 day Fungilin treatment followed by probiotics and doxy. I'm just not taking any more risks.

I find probiotics really good.

I suppose it depends on the size of you aviary. Our largest is very big so a delivered trailer was a bonus, we also did 2 other aviaries at the same time. For a smaller patio styled aviary getting a bag from Bunnings is the go.

Well precisely, that's why I find the term bloodline so contentious.

I think I paid about $40 for a trailer load, can't be more specific I'm afraid.

Congratulations! What about that other one in the last race, how did he do?

Never a good thing to see! If he starts fluffing up take him straight to the vet.

HI Renee. When you add the nest box in the aviary, are the hens that show interest in the box removed to breeding cages?Have you ever had any females fight while doing this?Well that's how I've done it in the past. But I don't want any bloodshed .... not that that happened before, but I have more birds in there than previous years.... You see that's how I've done it too. A nifty tip picked up from Hans Sibum.

You may very well be right Macka, I'm having second thoughts.

I prefer the sand because my hubby doesn't have to scrub the floor every week, in fact we rake and sweep once a month now. The sand is also a natural form of grit. I used white washed sand, the type used for kiddie's sand pits. Every 3-4 months we top up. We laid it 4-5cm thick. I also put down 1 inch of garden lime first onto the pavers, though that's optional.

I feel sick in the pit of my stomach. But Omelette and Stud are in the breeding room in holding cages, as is Studs brother and some others. Both Garys white DF spangles are still there...I have lost some youngsters. Until it cools this evening and I catch up all of Omelettes last two batches of babies I wont know exactly what I have lost. Have lost greywings though. We are currently putting up the safety door ( after the budgies have bolted ) Fingers crossed the total tally of losses is less than you think.

Oh My GOD! What an absolutely b****y DISASTER. My WORST nightmare. I am so very sorry Kaz. Please , please tell me that Omelette, Stud and your magnificent DF White GA birds are still with you? I don't Know how you're feeling mate, but I'd be ROPEABLE.

Most of today has been spent doing routine maintenance. I removed a holding cabinet from the main aviary and we scrubbed it out and then when dry applied liberal doses of AIL. Recently I've become a convert to a line of non-chemical cleaning products. Unlike some supermarket brands these products are based upon melaleuca oil and they really do work. For anyone interested, the website is melaleuca.com and the product line is EcoSense Cleaning products. At the end of last breeding season I spent absolutely ages cleaning, then rinsing. With the product I used today: Melapower, the grime just lifted off with hardly any scrubbing and then all I had to do was wipe down. All done in no time! Also today my hubby secured all wire fronts firmly and we set about repairing any holes and fixing all perches securely. All we have to do now is put the last bank of breeding cabinets on castor rollers! Tomorrow I am putting a nest box into the large aviary to see who's interested. I haven't noticed any chewing going on despite the brown ceres .... hopefully they won't start fighting over it too much.