nubbly5

You most likely wont find it amongst show breeders as it is a composite bird not a bird show breeders in a club would be trying to breed. You need to find a pet breeder who dabbles in this or you need to create it yourself by buying in some breeding birds to create a rainbow in stages. It may take some time Kaz is right there! I would cringe at sticking different varieties into my clearwings. It's hard enough to keep them to show standard as it is! But if you can buy a couple of clearwings I suppose you are at least some of the way there. Ask John Mulley if he has any he might sell you.

Well the picture will only happen if RIP gets her finger out at some stage! The even more interesting thing was playing around with my bird program and seeing just how many birds MIGHT have carried along that dilute gene. I already know it's travelled along this far and I know all the relatives. Maybe one day we will get that dilute pop out here too! I COULD get into test mating everything but considering my first priority is not to breed a ripper dilute (although one would be welcome), I'm still hopeful that something from that very first hen all those years ago might just show up. Kinda neat.

Speaking with RIP today who has a cinnamon grey green hen of mine. She has apparently bred a dilute so she must (the hen not RIP) be split for dilute. Now RIP rang to tell me to update my records and I pointed out to her that some 10 years ago my very first lacewing hen was bred from a clearbody (bred by RIP coincidentally) and a dilute hen from Len Vinci (purchased at a petshop). Tracking back along the cinnamon's pedigree indeed showed that 10 years ago the dilute appeared. I've been waiting to see if one day a really nice dilute might pop out of the woodwork considering that hen all those years ago. Bugger of it is that it pops out at RIP's place!!!!!!! Amazing how long those recessive genes can hang around without showing themselves.

Very pretty girl!

I leave them when I can and very very rarely do I leave a hen to raise a nest on her own. It's not normally a problem but some cocks are horrible and some are just plain idiots but then I've had hens kill every chick they have ever fledged too so it's horses for courses. I do prefer the boys that know what their job is and do it without issue. Nature intended the hen to be aided by the cock in feeding the chicks and the majority do it just fine, just the annoying buggers that keep getting into the nest. You might think it's cute that the cock is sitting in the nest with the hen and "helping" her brood! Look carefully at how they exit the nest though and unless the cock sits closer to the exit, you'll generally see the hen get off the eggs/babies and go out without disturbing them too much, with the idiot cock, stomping over the top of them. It's NOT cute! It's a pain in the ****! And that's just the annoying ones, not the destructive ones!

Not that I know of.

I find that generally cocks going into nests is nothing more than a nuisance. Mostly they have no idea and often cause a bit of issue kicking the eggs around unless they are securely tucked under the hen. If you have a very dominant cock like this lacewing, he can force an inexperienced hen off the nest to mate with him. Mostly though they are just a bit of a pain. My preference is that they stay OUT.

The second one hatched in the other nest but the attacked chick looks very pale. Fingers crossed he didn't lose too much blood.

Bloody cock birds that insist on going into the nest - THIS is why I don't like it........ 3rd place lacewing cock I just noticed has been going into the nest a bit and had what looked like a bit of blood on is mask. When I checked the new baby it had been chewed on one foot and now looks very anemic as I closed the nest to decide what to do the cock went back in a towed the baby out of the nest by it's foot!!!! B*astard! He got grabbed and shoved unceremoniously into a show cage whilst I took the baby and all the rest of the fertile eggs (6 of them) and placed them under an experienced hen with a young cock that has a clear nest. I'll let the **** start again and then farm those eggs out somewhere else too....... gee they can be frustrating!

Well, they have a finger draw with oyster shell powder, and one with bird charcoal. It's hard to tell if they take any, but if so, it's not enough for me to have to replace it. I add liquid calcium plus vitamin and mineral powder to their soft food, but honestly, I can't say that they ever touch the soft food. I thought they would start eating that a lot once they were feeding babies, but they don't. They also have cuttle bones, and lately the bored cocks have been chewing those to bits. They get no daylight, so I've tried to compensate for that by using fluorescent light bulbs and also full spectrum light bulbs, both kinds shining on each cage, and their water has vitamins which contain D3. She seems like she is always eating. That pair goes through a lot of seed, and they gnaw down their carrots and whatever vegetables I give them, but they don't touch the soft food. Donovan feeds her a lot, and up till yesterday, the chicks always had stuffed crops. I've never added salt to their diet. I'm not sure how much or in what form. GB, I was hoping you would see my answers to your questions and have some advice for me, say, on what I could be doing better. This has got me to thinking about my feeding regimen, since the soft food is basically wasted. I was going over what I put in the soft food, and what is different about it this year than last year, because they ate last year's version. I figured out, that I have not been giving them the egg-biscuit mix in the food. Instead, I've been using the powder mixture that I read about in a chick feeding topic, a while back. But I realized, that I do not have whole egg powder in my mix, so they have been deprived of the nutrients found in eggs. Also, there must be something in the powder mix (or it could be the liquid calcium) that is putting them off the soft food. I don't know what it could be, but in the interest of getting them to at least eat the pureed vegetable part, I have stopped putting the powder and the calcium in. And I baked up some egg-biscuit, and am giving that separately. (They have been tearing into it. ) Now I am thinking that I need to be adding the liquid calcium to their water, since it's not in the vegetables, anymore. Does anyone know if I can put the liquid calcium and the vitamins in the water together, or should I give them on alternating days? Personally I would give on alternative days or 3 days calcium, 3 days vitamin pulse medicating. Vetafarm does have a schedule of products that can be combined. Just going o check what they say about their calcium supplement combined with their vitamin supplements......Just had a squiz - Vetafarm info shows that THEIR calcivet can be combined with any of their vitamin range.

Yay! First red eye baby lacewing from my 3rd place boy and his girlfriend! Also a cinnamon (hopefully cock so it's a split) from pair number 2. One pair of BES got off their nest with one baby just pipping so I chipped into the pip to see if the baby is still alive - it was so I've transferred it and one other good egg to to pair of dark green spangle cock and dark green hen who now have 2 babies of their own and the dark green mum being an experienced and effective mother. BES babies will stand out in this nest! Very exciting is a hatchee from my 10th place nats green x jean horrobin cobalt opaline spangle 1/2 sister to opaline nats winner. Others here and there too....... yay! I love baby time.

Sanford Sharpie - extra fine point permanent marker. Gave up on the "safe" water soluble marker as the numbers smudged too badly to read. Been using this marker most of last year with no apparent issues.

Male Male Female Left to right - Female Male Left to right - Female Female Male Male Not 100% sure on this one due to flash but I would pitch at female

Yep I'm with you there! I'll leave this one until it's certain it's not going to hatch, well past it's due date.

Goes a much darker colour than healthy eggs. Almost has a black undertone to it.

First hatchees arrived today. From this pair - actually it was interesting that this egg actually hatched. When it was laid I noticed that there were a couple of porous patches on the egg so I painted them with nail polish and hoped for the best. Ordinarily this sort of porous-ness would have caused the egg to addle but with the nail polish obviously it sealed those areas enough to allow the egg to develop unhindered. Yay! And this pair. This hen laid 8 eggs all fertile. The first has hatched okay but it looks like the second is DIS. And after the death of the violet fallow hen I replaced her with the Pisano fallow that I recently acquired and they have 2 eggs so far with the first showing fertility! This is soooo great as last year this cock didn't fill any eggs. So the year of maturity certainly helped his cause!

Finnie - get a crop needle and learn how to crop feed, pronto! It's simple and if you are going to breed budgies, one of the most effective ways to help save budgies in many different situations. Good luck with them and I hope Finnie (the budgie) is okay too. So long as you use the right size crop needle and great care you can crop feed any size baby.

GN2 coded rings 2001 & 2002 (maybe 2003) All others G&G. No uncoded rings used. WA of course

Grey doesn't really seem to affect the fallow at all, in fact Ian Hanington commented to me long ago that not one of his grey green bred fallows ever show as grey greens in colour and that the fallow gene somehow negates the activity of the grey gene.

Pics of my purchases. Lot 21 - Grey Green Opaline Cock - 2010 rung - $160 I think this guy is the bargain of the year. He is a big cock bird with a good bit of style and the feather direction I'm looking for but he is noticeably short in the mask BUT mask is not too much of an issue for me so I think he'll add to what I have. Lot 37 - Sky Violet Opaline Cock - 2009 rung - $150 Small but probably bred from some quality stock and I do want some violet to play around with that is on something other than my tiny clearwings. Lot 47 Cinnamon Skyblue Hen - 2010 rung - $550 - I would have paid more for this hen. She was being sold by the widow of one of our members who recently passed away so in my mind not likely to be one of those super birds that doesn't breed. I know that sounds kinda awful but...... And she is a nice young hen, good size, lovely feather. Fingers crossed that she breeds.....

Every now and then is fine just not all the time or if so then preferably cooked which breaks down the enzyme.

Sh*t! I Missed your birthday!!!! I'm gonna blame that nasty little ISP error Hope you had a good one. Sorry to hear that no budgie was forthcoming..... did you forget to put in your specific order for that Nationals winner :thumbs_up:

Too pale for me to say boy and going that whitish tone..... that's why I say girl. But happy for other opinions - time will tell in the end anyway.

Was I eligible????????

Raw eggs contain an enzyme called avidin, which decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). This can lead to skin and hair coat problems. Salmonella is rarely an issue for dogs.