nubbly5

Pied markings can actually also occur on the cere and beak. "pied out" beaks will be bright orange. Ceres on cocks might be pink as in ino's lacewings and recs or a combination of pink and blue in pied patches.

Nope - no tray just attapulgite (natural kitty litter). But I use a deep litter system scooping the clumps of hen pooh out and replacing a bit at a time. Think there might be a picture of it in my last years breeding journal where i was prepping my cabinets.

Budgies! Sorry couldn't help it Looks like a cobalt and a yf mauve dominant pied but the pictures are pretty terrible.They definitely have at least one dark factor between them but I totally agree with no grey factor.

FREE LUNCH!!!! Now you are talking ......

No grate and kitty litter.

Yep, tried to post the same but gave up after multiple timeouts and much work to do. 100% with GB!

So Sorry to hear your sad news! He was such a cutie!

What Clearwing said!

Interesting! The pick is a bit hard to determine but the spots at least indicate that there is spangle in there. Wing markings would indicate opaline and obviously grey from body colour and cheek patch but can't say without a better picture if there is anything else there.

Stop colony breeding. OR put in many more nest boxes than hens and still expect that you will occasionally get squabbles over nest boxes.

AIL is a pyrethroid based product. Most insecticides are pyrethroid or synthetic pyrethroid based. Others may not be so best to check what active is in the product you are thinking about. If it says "anticholinesterase" ANYWHERE on the packaging DO NOT use it. These are organophosphate based products and are VERY toxic to birds (us, dogs, cats, insects etc etc). I use a 3 month outdoor synthetic pyrethroid surface spray in my birdroom and in the breeding cabinets and boxes. Spray first, let dry before introducing birds. Have been doing this now for several years after struggling to get control of a red mite outbreak. Works just fine with no ill effects on the birds.

okay some more information for those with better deductive reasoning than mine. The nest occupants are: 049 Normal Grey 050 Normal Grey Green (feather duster) 051 Cinnamon Grey Green Spangle 052 Opaline Dark Green 055 Normal Grey There were 3 fertile eggs from nest #22 Normal Grey (Holy Cr*p) x Opaline Grey Green Spangle All 3 hatched 16/11, 18/11 & 19/11 I added one baby from nest #11 Dark Green x YF M2 hatched 19/11 (one baby died) - it was either the last baby from #22 or the recently added one from #11 I then added one baby from nest #11 Dark Green x YF M2 hatched 22/11 I then added one baby from nest #20 Dark Green x Normal Grey hatched 21/11 I then added one baby from nest #24 Normal Light Green x DF Grey DF YF Spangle hatched 19/11 THEN one older chick ring 056 died but too early to know what it was so NO idea who it was from. So I know 050 is from #24 as they are the only pair that I have EVER had breed feather dusters. Therefore by deduction 051 is from nest #22 (the only other spangle parent). I would be happy guessing that 049 is also from #22 given that it's grey AND hatched first AND was most likely rung first. So the only 2 left are 052 and 055. Considering 055 is grey and could not have come from #11 it's either the 3rd chick from nest #22 OR it's more likely considering it was rung last to be from nest #20 which hatched 2 days after the last chick from #22, so I'm going with that (BUT it really could have been from either nest). That still leaves the chance that 052 is from either #11 or #22 but considering that Holy Cr*p comes from grey/grey green parents that never bred anything other than greys and grey greens, odds are on that he is probably a DF grey AND he is also paired with a grey green so it's unlikely (although still possible) that the Opaline Dark Green is his chick. So like GB, I'll pitch at her parents being Dark Green x YF M2 Skyblue. So the 2 chicks that were lost were 1 from #22 and 1 from #11. Anyone see anything that I missed here? Or have a different take on this?

Yeah blue not grey is quite interesting. Obviously some little genetic "glitch" there.

He COULD be a pied clearwing but i'd say not based on his head markings. We'd need more pics particularly of his back to tell for sure. I'd go with dean on the double factor spangle as the female.

Oooooooh! I've been waiting to see more updates from your season. Gorgeous! Just plain stunning baby! It's quite obvious that the show stock you have got to breed, breed very true to their type. What a wonderful start to your stud!

Are you asking about leg ring colours or the colour of the legs themselves? Colour of budgie legs are more to do with the variety of the bird rather than the sex. And as Shannon says leg ring colours are dependant on year (unless they are non ANBC rings of course, then they could mean anything).

You can always remove the cock close to the chicks hatching and see if it is the cock or the hen killing the chicks. Odds on that it's the cock but there is a chance that the hen is the culprit too. Often the hen passes that on in her children too so might be best not to use her if you do find out that it is she that is the problem! Fostering IS the best option for the chicks to survive though and if you do want to use her, then you can foster as soon as she lays or leave it until they are ready to hatch (but as Kaz says, choose a nest with eggs of a similar development stage).

The short answer is ummmm NO Sometimes it's easy to pick which parents a chick comes from just from the features of the bird but unfortunately the 2 dark greens in question are full brothers. I have to delve a bit further and do some deductive reasoning me thinks.

Both chicks are definitely hens. Those tricky ones that only show white around the very edges of their nostrils. Thanks Dean and Nerwen for giving it a bash!!! So for the benefit of others I'll explain what the possibilities are and why. Baby 1 (Opaline Dark Green Hen) has 1 dark factor so MUST have a dark factor parent. Therefore pairs one and two are the OBVIOUS choice, however pairs 1, 2 or 3 could all be the parents of this baby, although it is less likely with 2 grey parents that the baby will be a non grey. The issue being that dark factor in grey is impossible to tell for sure. Pair 4 could not be the parent of this chick as a double factor grey will ALWAYS produce grey chicks. If the baby were indeed a cock then it would HAVE to be pair 3 due to the opaline just as Nerwen suggested. Alas he is a she! More detectoring by me is required. Chick 2 however is a bit easier. Being a spangle she MUST have at least one parent who is a spangle so either parent 3 or 4 as Dean and Nerwen say, could be the parents. Happily for me, I transferred only 1 baby from pair 4 into this nest and this pair 4 is my feather duster breeding pair and low and behold there is one grey green feather duster in this nest so that takes care of the chick from pair 4 so the only option here IS pair 3 (well apart from some risk that pair 3 could also produce feather dusters (but have not once so far)).

okay Boys and Girls. I have a little bit of a puzzle for everyone which might be a bit of fun! I did a mad egg and chick swap around at the start of this round for various reasons. I noted all the nests that the chicks came from and think I've got it well figured (or as well as possible) but I thought it was a kinda neat way to have a little puzzle session on BBC. So to start with we have all the possible parents and their genetics as well as I know them........ Pair One: Normal Dark Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Yellowfaced (M2) Skyblue Hen Pair Two: Normal Dark Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Normal Grey Hen Pair Three: Normal Grey Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x Opaline Spangle Grey Green Hen Pair Four: Normal Light Green Cock (poss split cinnamon, poss split opaline) x DF grey DF M1 Yellowface Spangle Hen So the two babies in question are: Opaline Dark Green Cinnamon Spangle Grey Green Tell me which pairs MIGHT be the parents of either chick and why!

A short photo update! I've got some nice babies coming out of a few different nests but after doing some serious egg and chick swapping about I'm struggling to actually pin point who the parents are for some of them. It's going to take some careful double checking of genetics to make sure I have the right ones! Still we have this very nice dark green opaline who I THINK is half sister to Holy Cr*p. Also have another lovely dark green opaline spangle from the Horrobin hen that Daryl found at the Brasea auction for me! And one sky blue opaline spangle still in the nest of another hen makes for 6 chicks so far, all of them carrying lovely feather, mask length and size but a bit of flecking too. And a very lovely cinnamon spangle who I think I've worked out is Holy Cr*p's daughter. I'm very happy about 5 more visual fallows that have hatched out with a couple more eggs spread around so a couple more potentially too. I'll be giving the cock bird a different hen for his last round - a Horrobin split with really nice feather who is a good compliment to my cock bird. Fingers crossed for the Chookbreeder hen that Kaz purchased for me recently to a Pisano cock. But I have to say how disappointed I am in the majority of the fallows I've purchased at auction this year. Both the Pisano cocks struggled to get into any condition at all (both came over like a bag of feathers) and then I lost one (it'll be interesting if the one remaining fills eggs - I'd take a punt at not!). A Horrobin split cock has never filled one egg although is in reasonable condition and intermitantly has a sperm sample. The small Horrobin violet hen came into condition but promptly became egg bound and died when she went to nest (too small a frame for egg laying). So really so far the ONLY results I've had are from my own visual cock to a Pisano hen - sh*tful I'd call it. Pretty disappointing after buying 6 fallows/splits and being gifted two (one which had a twisted tongue and overshot (but trimmed) beak, which I would never use anyway!). I'm also not happy about 2 more feather dusters but was expecting them as I repeated the pairing that bred my first one in my first round but also got 3 more siblings too. So pleasure and pain as per usual for our budgie breeding season!

I'm with Squeak & Dean.

Ummm male recessive pied ceres never really go that even deep blue but stay the pinky purple colour that Chirples cere is now. Recessive pied hens ceres go brown as they mature. Cute bird and cute name too!

Yep thought I'd said that before...... I just deleted something that I wrote coz I'd written it before :| Doh!!!!

Indiana to Tasmania is a bit of a hike no doubt. Finne as JB says its all to do with in-breeding - you know, six fingers, two heads, that kind of thing. The joke here is that any inbred country hick town produces people that have a scar on their neck where the second head was cut off! Must be a bit of an Aussie-ism I guess . How goes the big move planning Kaz? Edit.... why is it that I never seem to make it to the very END of the thread before posting in reply to something written ages ago - sheesh!!!! Sorry all, my reply was to Finnies question about two heads etc.