PJI

Track down the nearest sheet metal fabricator , they should supply cut & bend to the specs you supply.

Here are some pictures Nadene , I will re - join next meeting cheers Phill . http://i421.photobuc...zpse5ad5252.jpg http://i421.photobuc...zps2a8fafcc.jpg http://i421.photobuc...zps4d45cc97.jpg http://i421.photobuc...zps151f0b28.jpg http://i421.photobuc...zpsc51ab4c8.jpg

I went to Ray Welshman' today & took some videos of a few birds that will be at the Hills Auction in July. http://phillkathybudgerigars.weebly.com/index.html

Good to see some youngsters coming along Nadene, well done. I have a grey green spangle & a sky cock for you next meeting if I make it. If not I will get Terry to take them for me cheers Phill

Here is a link to the Victorian Budgerigars Society forms page, http://www.bcv.asn.au/BCVForms.htm .

I know of a breeder who always places a large marble in the nest after the first chick hatches, this does two things. Firstly it keeps the hen off the chicks & if the hen leaves the nest for a period of time the marble retains warmth for the remaining eggs. Hope it helps cheers Phill

I may be reading your post wrong, but I assume you are cage breeding ?. If that is the case & your pair is laying there third round of eggs with four one month old youngsters in the same cage ,this is not a good scenario. You have to get those one month old youngsters away from the breeding pairs as soon as they start cracking seed & let the pairs get on with it un interrupted. What is probably happening is the hen is getting aggressive towards the one month old chicks being in her breeding space, & maybe the cock is trying to protect them from the mother "who knows".

Remove the cock & allow the hen to hatch & raise the chicks on her own.

Don't be to hasty in throwing away eggs that you think are clear, it all depends on when the hen begins to incubate them.

You will have no problem doing that at all, just don't overload the next hen with to many eggs though.What you might be better off doing is allow both hens to hatch there eggs ,then transfer the chicks allowing the hen that needs the rest to raise perhaps one chick giving yourself some options.

I would put all your birds on a course of triple-c from vetafarm for about 10 days or so couldn't hurt.

Put all your birds on a course of Coccivet for a couple of weeks as a precaution , replenish the water every two days. All my birds go on a course of coccivet every eight weeks, i know a lot of breeders do the same, it's aprox $35.00 for a 250 ml bottle & i use 5ml per 3 ltres.

Hi Warped,the advise that Paulie & Flip gave is good. If you are starting out breeding exhibition type budgerigars ,join a club get out there & visit as many aviaries as possible & develop your eye for a bird. Do not be in a rush to fork out all your hard earned money buying birds. You have to research the background of the birds you will eventually be interested in buying & also the breeder. By researching the breeder you have to work out a few things > IE: Do they have a few top quality birds in there avairy & does the quality drop off dramatically after those initial few top birds,if that was the case i would exit stage left & move on. That said if you go to an avairy that has birds that you like ,"but are not perfect" ,IE: This breeder may have spent years establishing a stud of birds with fantastic feather direction and awsome faces on his birds ,but by doing this they have allowed the birds to become smaller. You could go to another breeder and they might have an established stud of birds which excell in size & shoulder ,good head roll/back skull etc. Now if you could manage to aquire a few pairs from each of these breeders and combine the qualities of each > who knows you could possibly breed better birds than both of them.Easier said than done i suppose. Buying birds from a well established stud is the most important thing you have to do.

Couple of things you could do is ,one > after she lays her first egg from the next round replace that egg with a dummy egg & simply transfer all the following eggs to other nests. The second thing you could do is leave everything the same, "but " after she lays the next round > remove the cock bird, he may be the problem.

Excellent aviary , well done.

The cock does breed he is a blue ringer "2010" & the hen is a late bred gold ringer 2012 maiden.They are not a flash pair of show budgerigars but both have very good pedigree's , i will sell the pair to you for $70.00 . If you are interested i can be contacted via our club link http://www.budgeriga...thur/index.html The picture at the bottom of the page is the cock's father.

Entry 8 came first at the state team challenge yesterday, but the judges decided to send forth place and sixth place to represent NSW. They wonder why the numbers are down at all the shows including the state selection,what a joke. A bird is good enough to come first it's good enough to go away one week later .It's like going up to a formula 1 driver and saying " listen mate we know you got poll position on Saturday but for whatever reason politics has reared it's ugly head & we don't want you to turn up for the race on Sunday". The judges have decided to place forth position and sixth position on poll instead , but hey thanks for coming and making an effort. Oh and by the way we would like you to be an alternate incase either forth place or sixth place gets sick or something like that.

Cock 100%

A good practice in my opinion while you are waiting for your birds to start laying is to leave them alone as much as you can, and let them get on with it.

The delay L_J , is because i put nine pairs down first in one bank & wait about four to six weeks then put the other nine pairs down in the second bank of nine breeding cabinets.I try to time it so the second bank of nine are in time with the first banks second round.

What i do to get my birds to breed. I spit them up a month or so prior to pairing up ,hens in one flight cocks in the other. By seperating the sexes prior to breeding you can hopefully break up any pairs that have bonded.When i think they are ready to pair up i place the hens in the breeding cabinet first, on there own for a few days with no nest box. Then i introduce the cocks, after i have placed the cocks with the hens i observe them for an hour or so and make sure they are not going to kill each other.I then put them on a course of B12 for a week > VITAMIN B12 INJECTION <, it's available at most produce outlets. It comes in a 100ml sealed bottle and costs aprox $17 au, you add about 4mls to 3 ltres using a syringe , you can add more but that seems to work, one week on one week off and one week back on with the B12 . I leave the nest box off the breeding cabinet for about a week or so until i am convinced the pair will breed.In other words, is the pair on the same perch? are they feeding each other? are they preening each other? etc. If all seems well then i place the nest box on the breeding cabinet without access for a further few days,then i trim there vents then allow access to the nest box usually within a week there will be eggs. I have 18 breeding cabinets two banks of nine,there is usually a delay between breeding with the first bank and the second bank, i find this is an advantage at times for transferring eggs and chicks ,it gives me some options.At the moment i am using only one bank of nine & have 8 cabinets that have full eggs one cabinet failed with clear eggs ,i have placed full eggs under that pair and hopefully they will foster those eggs and lay full eggs next round. I hope i haven't rattled on to much,i know other breeders do things a lot different to me,this seems to work for me and i am getting results cheers Phill

Feed these three in seperate dishes & that is a good balanced seed mix for breeding budgerigars > Avigrain Premium Budgerigar ,hulled oates, grey striped sunflower seed.

I have always given grit to my budgerigars,in the past i have given them medium chicken grit without any problems.I now give them three types of grit one is called volcamin bird grit, the two other grits are 3 ml calcium carbonate & sand grade calcium carbonate.I have said this in the past on this forum ,but i am yet to visit an aviary that doesn't give grit to there budgerigars.

It has ocurred to me that there is a slight chance that the eggs she has been laying are actually fertile, so now I would like to give her the opportunity keep laying and sit on the new ones so I can find out. I know she can do this on her own if necessary, but I'm wondering if she would have a better chance for success if I just introduce a new cock right now, mark the eggs, and hope I can tell which chicks came from which father. (Assuming she even mates with the new cock.) ///////////////////////////////// It's my opinion if you introduce another cock & she accepts him,she will probably clear the original nest and lay a fresh round.So i think you should leave her alone with the eggs that you think may be fertile,it won't be a problem she will incubate & raise them on her own.Keep this in mind Finnie, > "have you ever noticed the hens that lays three or four eggs before they start to incubate" When you notice a hen that does this, well what you should do is take all the eggs away just leave her with one egg so she keeps laying & store them somewhere in a dish with shavings etc.Those eggs that you took from her can be spread around & used to place in other infertile nests to bring other hens on or double up on one nest.The eggs can be good for up to a month using this method.A couple of things to consider > What i usually do when a pair has laid there first egg is to get the hen out of the nest box & block off the hole until i witness mating then allow her access again,finally just because a cock died does not mean that the hen won't continue to lay fertile eggs.

Make sure before the birds are introduced into a new aviary with new wire,to get a bucket and fill it with a vinegar & water solution. Then broom it onto the wire.