Dean_NZ

My vote is mauve, but regardless of what he is the best possible pairing you could do to find out would be with a normal sky blue hen. If you get greys and blues then he's grey, if you get all cobalts he's mauve. Presence of absence of violet is neither here nor there at this point - Finnie is right, paired with a violet sky hen he will produce 50% visual violet chicks, half of those being dominant pied also. I'd be happier to find he is mauve than grey Mauve you can work with as far as violets go, grey I would avoid like the plague.

Certainly possible.

What is up with the breeding this year for some of us. I rarely have trouble and now I am having it in bucket loads lol. Back to the drawing books.

Sorry to hear

They would all be males split cinnamon + opaline.

Liquid calcium supplied for muscle contractions I assume? Fingers crossed she pics up

Sorry to hear nubbly, best of luck for a speedy recovery and a long life together!

Happy Birthday~!

This sounds terrible, but hearing this made me feel better. What i mean by that is its comforting to know someone else is having worse luck than me with budgies. What happened to this guy is terrible, completely and utterly disgusting. Losing babies left right and center like me is one thing, but malicious crime, animal murder and theft is just the pits. My heart goes out to this guy.

Well. At this point I've just given up on hope. I didn't tell anyone (except Kaz as i had a question) but I recently purchased an artificial egg incubator/brooder. Had it all set up, put in the 5 chilled eggs (remember the hens were no longer broody, no foster nests). Two days later 3 embryo's were moving around, the double yolker was clearly DIS and another egg was quite young and would likely have shown fertile in a day or two. Well, tonight my dad was around so i showed him my little miracle incubator. As soon as we got there the motor packs it in and the blade stops spinning, then we smell funky electronics. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Couldnt risk trying to fix it or leaving it on overnight un-attended. So yep, all I could do is whip them into the only nest box with any warmth (4 chicks) and hope they stay warm until I can whip them over to another local breeder with brooding hens. OMG. FML. I feel like I was down, then kicked while i was down, then stomped on, now peed on or something worse lol. If anyone ever feels like they're having a bad season, please think of me, who in spite of all this will likely (for whatever reason) continue with budgies. Might just give the breeding a break for now though

Im somehow beyond the point of even laughing or crying. Sort of disbelief really. The odds of things going this bad must be astronomical. Maybe I should buy a lotto ticket? Hrm.. maybe the place I buy it from will burn down...

Wow. Just wow. So I had 2 hens go down again - one on her second round (after a failed first) and another new hen. New hen lays a double yolker and stops laying after 2 more eggs. Second round hen lays 4 eggs, 2 fertile. I move the 2 fertile eggs into the double yolkers nest as im thinking of returing the other hen back to the aviary or letting her lay another 4 eggs (3rd round of eggs, hopefully first round of chicks). Last night, birds get night fright. This morning all 5 eggs including double yolker are ice cold. New hen is sitting outside looking clueless. FML.

Just off the top of my head without checking records, around 9 chicks hatched, 4 of which hatched weak after having to battle dry membranes + the mishap = 4 live chicks at the conclusion of all possible hatches. 37 eggs, 4 chicks. Usually it would be the other way around for me -> 37 eggs, 4 DEAD (33 alive and fledge). Go the 'better' quality birds

Congrats

im glad you said that rip as i was begining to wonder about my knowledge , phew ... as i said im useing dark factor in my clearbody breeding as ive seen fantastic rezults with it and i also have seen some beautiful violet clearbodys where the rump its a spectacular violet and washing out to the needed colour dilution rip i too look forward to your imput into this thread Thats basically what i said in my post - you'll hear all sorts of contradicting info on what varieties or colours to use. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) it is best to just find out for yourself because sometimes what didnt work for someone, might just get you ahead.

I just put on my first official BSNZ DF 001 ring Surviving sister to the much missed splay leg incident chick... I have decided to use my 30 DF rings for the offspring of a single cock who I will put over about 8 different hens this season to quickly build up his bloodline (i have 60 standard purple rings not personalised that i will use for other cocks offspring). This way I can recognise this family easily by the personalised rings. I have a feeling the will also be visually the best in my aviary... fingers crossed! (Only problem is there is only one of his off spring alive currently :sadsorry:)

So is this a ( I can't think of the right word....) like history/parent gene passed through to relatives, that we are dealing with? Possibly, and it would likely mean a genetic trait that causes a bird to ovulate irregularly since that is the main reason for double yolkers. Good chance it is inheritable, or at least repeatable for a hen thats done it once. By the way, my double yolker has two little embryos visible as of today. One is appearing a tiny bit more developed than the other - uneven heat distribution related to yolk location in the egg perhaps.

I dunno about that GB. Last summer I bred 40 odd males and 6 odd females. I wanted it the other way around This winters breeding (as bad as its been for live hatches) has gotten me 3 hens and one cock so far...

Do you know how many chicks in total she bred that fledged?

Farewell, oh Omelette of legend. May your lineage live on..

Reminds me of how Kaz said she got a whole buncha female chicks last season. I on the other hand had mostly males. Hmmm... Room for dietary improvements perhaps? Care to share your feed regime secrets Kaz?

You could hang millet near where he perches, or continue to feed him outside, and hope that he eventually learns to eat inside as well. Early days yet.

Save me writing it out: Source: Avian Reproduction Additional curious info from same website:

Have no practical breeding experience with this variety, but I could try an talk to the local show clearbody breeders if you like Hear their take on the dark factor issue. In regards to chookbreeder9's post, while i dont necessarily disagree with anything said - I would just like to point out that you will hear the very opposite of most of the advice given from certain breeders - depends who you talk to. I've heard lute breeders who say dark factor ruins lutes, some who say its makes them. I've heard grey green (based) lutes are the best, some say it makes it a yucky mustard. I've heard light green (based) lutes are the best yellow, i've heard olive green (based) lutes are the best lol. I've heard it all I figure it really comes down to - try it out yourself, dont be afraid to try dark factor. You'll learn through breeding and knowing your birds and results for yourself what works. What works for you may be the very thing someone else said ruined their line of the same variety. Having said that - theres surely gotta be something worth taking away from any advice

Without even seeing Kaz's post I would have said it looks to me like early-hatch type yellow belly. Too soon. I've had that happen in cases where a chick has STARTED pecking the egg, and as soon as it makes the first hole the hen has seen it and started helping the chick out by enlarging the hole, eating the shell and releasing the chick.. Yolk wasnt absorbed - chick had just started pecking out, died soon after. This was a very very reliable hen, super feeder. She was just a bit TOO helpful that time.