chrissy0705

I don't know if it matters Renee but my keets are pet style keets so they are a bit small to begin with. I just noticed that the one albino chick is smaller than a chick born on the same day that is not albino or lutino so I thought maybe inos and luts are a bit smaller.

I will keep that in mind KAZ. Thankfully I am a stay at home mom and my keets are right in my living room with me so the first sound or sight of trouble I will be there. I will move a set and their chicks if need be at the first sign of trouble. I know no one way is fool proof when breeding. Even cage breeding a single pair can still turn out bad if mum or dad is a head case. I will hope for the best and see what happens.

Well I did it... I "traded" babies. And sure enough over night another chick hatched. So what I did was give the one hen the 5 largest chicks and the other hen has the 4 smallest right now (and still 3 eggs to go). When the last chick hatches from the 3 eggs left I will take the largest chick from her clutch and give it to the other hen. So thank you KAZ for all the help on this one. I have a question about Ino/Lut - I have two of them between the two clutches. One was born on the 3d and the other was born on the 5th, but I have other babies that were born on the 3rd and the 4th and the Ino baby born on the 3rd is so much smaller than the others... are ino smaller than other mutations? I read that 2 ino bred together will produce small inos but are inos born to a split parent smaller too???

I agree too... Cobalt Recessive Pied... I'm not sure about Violet, but he's beautiful either way. Pictures are hard to tell with violet. Do you see a hugh of violet in his color at all in person?

Aviary breeding is hard and very heartbreaking at times. I've been there, believe me. I too have an aggressive hen who took control of 4 of the 6 nest boxes I had up. As soon as she would see another hen even attempt to settle in she would go into attack mode. She even smashed two eggs one of the other hens laid. I then went to cage breeding and had little luck (out of ten eggs I only got one surviving chick). So this time round I compromised. I put 2 pair in one flight with 4 nesting boxes. I watched for a while and all, including the females, got along well. I opened the nest boxes and each hen chose a box and stayed in it. They now have a total of 9 babies and neither hen has bothered with the other, their box, or their babies. I lucked out and compromised the aviary and cage breeding. This is the best luck I've had yet. Thirteen eggs total, only one non-fertile egg, 9 healthy babies hatched so far and 3 eggs to go. GOOD LUCK. Let us know how things go. Just keep in mind there are some hens that are all about themselves and others that have to be up in everyone elses business!!! LOL (us women can be like that sometimes)

I was once told on here to try adding an "extra" cock into the mix for a few days and see what happens. Sometimes the male instinct of "competition" kicks in and the male will jump into high gear so the other male doesn't get the chance... the "make him jealous" thing might work too. The only disadvantage to that is you take the chance of the hen being mated by both of them I (they are sneaky like that). Good luck.

okay so in the morning. Will it be okay for the one hen to have all 6 or her chicks and the other hen have 2 chicks and wait on other 4 eggs to hatch? The next chick is due to hatch overnight tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. Most of the chicks in her nest have been there first thing in the mornings when I come down to check on them.

I got it now Pie.. .thanks. THe bubs don't have feathers yet they are all only a few days old with the a few "downy" puffs here and there. I know I'll be waiting to see what she is though. I'm learing so much about all 4 of the parents parents just by them having these two clutches.

So I can do it now as I cover over for night fall? I don't have to do it in the morning? (it's almost 9 pm here)

Oh... duhhhh I should have known that. Lut = Lutino Ino = Albino... I got ya. So if the bub in the green series nest is white the parents are BOTH split blue, but if not the bub will be pure yellow with red eyes and the parents are just green. I think I got it. Thanks Neat.

Oh, that's right KAZ... I forgot, thank you... my hen with 5 eggs had one bad egg I just discarded this afternoon so that will work out even 6 chick in each nest. She had 4 bubs and the other has 4 bubs hatched with 3 eggs to go and they are all fertile. So can I ask... would it be good to take the three oldest chick from the hen with 8 eggs and give them to the other hen and take her one youngest chick and give it to the other hen so that the one hen has the the 6 oldest bubs and the other hen has the 6 youngest chicks? Would that be best to avoid the newest hatchling from being crushed? Can I do that, "trade babies" instead of fostering? Yes...sounds like a good plan Great KAZ, thanks. Just one more question... should I do this in steps or should I just do it all at once? Like right now, should I take the youngest from the one and trade the olderst from the other and continue to take another chick each time a new one hatches or should I just do all at once... take the three oldest now and trade out the one youngest and just let the last three eggs hatch? So the one hen would have 6 babies and the other would have 3 babies and 3 eggs??? What's better to do?

I'm sorry Pie I don't understand what you're saying here? If the chick is pure white with red eyes it would be albino wouldn't it? Forgive me but I don't know what "lute" means? My one pair are both green series birds and the other pair are both blue series birds... so if the chick from the greens turns out to be albino then both those parents are split for blue? But what is lute?

Oh, that's right KAZ... I forgot, thank you... my hen with 5 eggs had one bad egg I just discarded this afternoon so that will work out even 6 chick in each nest. She had 4 bubs and the other has 4 bubs hatched with 3 eggs to go and they are all fertile. So can I ask... would it be good to take the three oldest chick from the hen with 8 eggs and give them to the other hen and take her one youngest chick and give it to the other hen so that the one hen has the the 6 oldest bubs and the other hen has the 6 youngest chicks? Would that be best to avoid the newest hatchling from being crushed? Can I do that, "trade babies" instead of fostering?

I had three pair down. This hen laid 8, the other hen laid 5 and the third hen laid 1 egg and never laid another and never sat on the egg either. I didn't want to start anymore sets at the time because I didn't want an "overstock" of babies coming in and not enough room to house them all. So I lucked out having at least two pair down that can help each other out, but being there's a total of 13 eggs between them... they are both "overwhelmed" I guess even with help. I thought three paid down would be enough and never expected the other hen to just say "I quit"?

Is there anyone who can answer my last inquiry?

Can I ask is there a way in the future to get a hen to "stop laying"? What made her lay 5 the first time and 8 this time? Do they have an instinct that she only got one baby out of the deal last time so she made sure she'd have more by laying more? I know this sounds really stupid, but I myself was surprised when she just kept going after the 5th one, because actually she dropped two eggs from the perch before I gave in and put in the nest box... so she really laid 10 eggs this time. I have an odd number of eggs... 13... so if all eggs hatch one of the hens will have 7 and the other will have 6... I hope they can keep up. The dads are both really good with feeding and sitting in the nest box with the mums so hopefully they will have it covered. Fingers crossed.

Thanks MB... :yes: Transfer the eldest from her clutch to the other hen, IF need be. Gotcha. FYI.. they hatched all at the same time... it's just that the one hen only had 5 eggs and the other had 8 so the first hen is all done and the other hen has more to go... :yes: Thank you again.

I have two clutches... one hen has sucessfully hatched out 4 of her 5 eggs (the 5th egg was no good), the other hen has sucessfully hatched out 4 eggs out of her 8 eggs. I think 8 babies are going to be too much for her and was wondering what you suggest with fostering? Do you suggest moving one of her eggs to the other hen or one of her bubs... or not doing anything at all? I'm worried because this hen had 5 eggs last clutch and only 3 hatched and of those 3 only one chick survived. I think 1 chick vs. 8 chicks is going to be too much for her... or am I just being overly worried.... HELP?

Just wondering if Ino is common and easy to obtain? As it was pointed out to me before that my one new chick in my one clutch was an ino... well I checked on the chicks today and in my second clutch shure enough.. .there's an ino in there too. Are they that common to get them so easily? The one pair that produced an ino chick is a Mauve Opaline Hen and a Sky blue Yellowface 2 Greywing split to ino and split to recessive pied cock and the other pair is a Green Dominant pied hen and a Green Opaline split to Ino cock... the question about the chicks themselves then is... since the Ino chicks must be hens in both these cases what are they called... Just ALBINOS or are they ALBINOS split to ???? Well either way I'm at least learning more about the parents. Now I know that both my breeding cocks are split to ino and at least two of my 8 new babies are hens.

okay so I've now learned that the father is split ino.... am I correct in my understanding that this chick must be a hen then??

Now I was told that my bird Wilma (below), that looks just like these (above), is a green clearwing hen... but she looks like this one if not lighter.... how are these dilutes and mine is clearwing? The first picture above actually looks like a greywing to me?... so can someone help me and point out what is different?

I can't pick just one... I loved the pieds... just the contrast for the crisp white or yellow on the wings against the wing patterns really draws my eye... and I love the little beanie they get to wear on their heads... :hap: I only own one but I also love spangles... I love the wing markings that look like an artist very carefully scalloped all the edges and did light brush strokes over the wings. :bliss: And I must say I love dilutes too... no matter how old the bird is they always seem to have a "young look" about them... soft, pastel colors.... it's like EASTER every day and I love it!! And of course YF2... it amazes me how pretty the mixture of two primary colors can make a bird... YELLOW and BLUE make GREEN.... the shades of green that you can get on YF2's are just out of this world.

I have a Mauve Opaline Hen and a Sky blue YF2 greywing split to recessive pied cock that have 4 chicks so far. One of those chicks is ino (red eye buds). I was wondering what this tells me about the parents? I'm really trying to learn this so... does this mean that this chick is a hen and she got it from the father which means he's split for ino or did she need a gene from both parents to be ino and both parents are spilt for ino???

No JB I didn't try it, but the chick is back to full color and the fourth chick has hatched out. All four are doing wonderful so far and mum is feeding them well. I made sure there was a steady supply of veggie/egg mix along with seed and clean water and cuttle and minteral block. Maybe the full diet help or maybe it just had a tough start, but it seems well right now. I'm glad I read about the oil though because I have a second clutch with three bubs so far, but there's still 5 more eggs to go...

I made a egg/veggie mix for my keets today and I made way too much. I was just wondering how long (how many days) can I keep it in the frig before I should toss it. I plan to give more tomorrow?? In case you need to know it has egg, shell, seed, carrots, and dark greens in it.