Heathrow

Defiantely not Grey Green - Possibly Dark Green ????

Most show breeders do not breed that close Pearce................cousins yes brother and sister...most do NOT Kaz - A lot of breeders including myself bred father to daughter and mother to son. I would say the most DO breed that close. I know a breeder that paired Brother to Sister by mistake, and the chicks turned out really good. In saying that most of the times that i have heard brother to sister pairing they have ended up being culled out. I regularly pair half brother to half sister, which is good pairing if the common parent is excellent.

Cuttelfish is just nuisance value- hens only destroy is without consuming it. For the amount of calcium that is in cuttlefish, birds would have to eat truckloads to get Calcium poisoning. There are far more effective wasy of getting calcium into birds.

Daz - I'm curious to know how you have secured the ventilation holes on the back panel, i've looked at the pictures and there doesnt seem to be one showing the back. Also how easy would it be to modify you plans to make a 2 compartment (side by side) instead of the 4 compartment cage???

JB - One of close mates is secretary of Melton, they will look after you. Great Club with a great future.

Looks good regardless of the purpose Daz

Sending a cage like Daz is making would be very expensive to send by Air Freight. Daz is the purpose more for local transport?????

I disagree Kaz - Unless you can thoroughly examine each bird for mite its very hard to know if and when they have mites. Most breeders worm there birds regularly without testing for worms. I regularly spray mine with a mite spray regardless if mites are visible or not.

Interesting subject - each breeder has there own story and reason why we get French moult. I beleive that all birds are exposed the virus to some extent, particularly when there immunity is not fully developed. Each time i have had French moult it's occurred towards the end of the breeding season, maybe the birds natural immunity is low????????? The next season no french moult, season after that maybe the odd chick with french moult, and it seems to repeat in this cycle over 5-6 years. My last bad period was late 2006, i had the best season numbers wise, but the last 20 -30 chicks were extremely badly affected and most had to be destroyed. I didnt start breeding for 7 months after this and the last 2 years have been FM free. The other point to all this is "do we breed with birds that have FM"??????????? Normally they are the best feathered birds, which i guess must place strain on there immunity system when developing. I'm not sure about Bob' theory regarding mites, mine are treated similar to Renee and i still seem to get FM.

In my experience, psiticosis doesn't cause losses so quickly. Sounds like coccidiosis, which is probably just as difficult to control.

I've had some chicks die with similar symptoms in the last couple of weeks. I sent samples for testing, turns out to be a Gram negative bacteria, treat with Spectovet, Baytril or Lincospectin. Apparently they go pale because of internal bleeding. No evidence of mites.

Merv - i wouldn't be worried about the dilute affecting the colour of the cinnamon. Have you got anything from the grey green cock?????

I would suggest it is not the hen going into the box too early that has caused the infertilty, but the air bubbles in the egg. In my experinece these sorts of egg probelms are caused by an bacterial infection that the hen is carrying. Might pay to have it check out by getting a vet (or someone else competent with a microscope) to do a Gram stain. This wont tell you exactly which bacteria she has, but will narrow it down ehough to select a course of treatment.

The hen bred well last season and the grey is from a Gary Watson cock that Cec paid $2,200 for and he is only just 2 yrs old. Why anyone sells them ? Usually because they keep the better ones or the chicks that they produced. The hen maybe because she is heavily flecked. The Grey's father is a yellow face Grey i think, Cec bought him at Brisbane BRASEA in 2007 ???? If it is from this bird, Garry Gazzard also got some of this family. Great pick up. I also like the Grey opaline cinnamon hen from Clint. I will be very interested to see the offspring from this pairing.

With out doubt Clearwings!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the strongest varieties is spangles, Crested have improved heaps recently

Welcome to the forum Merv !!! hope you enjoy the forum as much as i do. Good luck for this years beeding season. Cheers Heath And yes Splat is a blonde - anyone got some good blonde jokes???

The point i'm trying to make is feeding high protein (80% does seem a lot) is the not the only thing to consider. Diet need to be in balance.

There is a chapter in the Master Budgerigar Breeder titled "Can you give too much protein?" Research has shown that the therapeutic window for protein in budgerigars is between 17% and 27% protein. "Therapeutic window is a range within which the maximum benefit of the medication for the dosage given" There is also evidence that high % protein diets can cause kidney problems. I'm not sure if this is where daz is getting his info from, but and excellent source of scientific data relating to Budgerigars

Yeah they look like the same plant just differing maturity

Agree with Kaz top 2 are defiantely millet, looks like jap millet. Top 1 i think is White french millet, dont think its canary seed.

Pearce for my normal seed mixture i use a square takeaway food container (140mm x140mm x 40mm deep) holds about 1kg of seed. I also use jar feeders for my hulled oats/sunflower mixture.

I agree. Just need to make sure. you keep an eye on them while they are in quarantine and help them through the moult. Heath, do you use moulting aid? Pearce I started using moulting aid about 10 -12 months ago, seems to be good. I like breeders aid also. After reading some of Daz's posts re. nutrition today, i'm going sit down with all the additive i have and really work out whats necessary and what i'm doubling up on.

The yellow face is very Nice!!!!!! Both yellow and white are Hens, i'm confused to there variety. Initially i thought the white had no red eye, therefore Df Spangle, other pictures show red eye so i'm not sure. Now the yellow has cheek patches, if it is a red eye it could a poorly marked Lacewing???? if eye is black it's a DF Spangle. Are you sure the yellow face has dropped his tail and is not a french moulter (tailless wonder) nevertheless a very nice quality bird!!!!

I've had no problem buying moulting budgies before and would do again

Wouldnt it be great to be retired, and have time to do all these things. For some of us time poor people that is unrealistic. But im sure there are other ways of getting protein into the birds. A breeder i know for animal protein uses ground up dog food pellets, has been using it for 20 plus years. Working 10 hours aday I need to provide the highest quality of food for the birds.. So I need to look seriously at these types of routines and adapt them to my life style. Exactly my point Daz - We all need to develop our OWN feeding system within a few tried and tested guidelines