neonchick73

I am planning on removing all nesting boxes. As of today, the first couple of birds are out of the nesting boxes. All boxes will be out by the weekend - I only had two in there. The plan wasn't necessarily to breed budgies. I simply love looking at my birds as they are outside in a lovely spot in the yard. As I work from home, I find the birds a great (and sometimes not so great!!) distraction from working from home. It also means they are watched - counting down the days to take away the nesting boxes. As a newbie to keeping birds, I simply put in the aviary what my father in law had made - including the nesting boxes. At least this forum has allowed me to be more informed. My sister in law has already had troubles with her aviary and birds being hurt. She has many nesting boxes, but they do all fight for the one box. Perhaps when either our yard changes in size (due to moving) or my interests and time make it possible to breed, I can do so later with breeding cages. We also have an 11 year old dog who is not keen on bird cages. She is fine with the aviary, but not fine with one on one. She has been dive-bombed by too many maggies or plovers. Until she moves onto another life, the aviary is the best we can do! Thanks for the advice. Vanessa

Thanks to all for the tips. I am not offended by any comments. I appreciate the answers and I know that I am a responsible bird owner looking for the best outcome for my flock. I got my aviary and birds in July, with 10 adults birds given to me by my father in law. He gave us three pairs (who had already paired up) as well as two other 'hopeful' adults pairs. The three pairs have produced babies so far. The hopefuls stayed as hopefuls for a while. Since the babies have happened, there have been some movements to my flock. I prefer the larger looking birds rather than the fine featured birds. As a result, I gave back some of my adult birds and acquired some baby birds. I am overloaded with boys at the moment - of the 12 birds I now have - 8 are boys and 4 are girls. Two of the girls are the mothers. 3 of the boys are the babies we kept from the last nest. We have not kept any other babies as we do not want or plan to interbreed. The young ones we have acquired have not paired up with any others as yet, so there is no risk of young mating occuring. I was worried about removing the nesting boxes as the adults have already mated again. The only reason the nesting boxes stayed in the aviary is after the first hatching of babies occured, both mothers mated again and laid eggs while the youngest chicks were still in the nesting box. I didn't think it was right to remove the boxes as the process had started again. Even if this happens again, I will remove the nesting boxes as soon as the youngest chick can leave the nest. I do have a 'shoebox' on floor of the aviary for those who are fully feathered, poking their heads out and ready to fly. I simply put them back in the boxes at night if they are not up on the branches with the others. Hope this clears up some more! Once again, thanks for your advice. Vanessa

Thanks for that. All my birds came from my father-in-law who has kept details of all birds - parents etc. I have done the same. The babies we got out of each nest so far have either been kept by us (all cock birds) or passed on to my father in law or sister in law. Some have been sold to contacts of my father in law. It means there is no interbreeding. Unfortunately we do not have the space or means to separate young from old, but I also do not want lots of birds. We have a big aviary, but want a limit of 14 birds. Do the adults still mate even without a nesting box? If the current pairs have successfully mated, will she lay the eggs on the ground once i remove the nesting boxes? I have kept the birthdates of all my babies, so I know the minimum time that they need to be in the nesting boxes. Thanks for the info. Vanessa

Hi all I have posted a couple of times, but am on the site almost daily ( a little addiction and time where the kids have to do something for themselves!!!). I have found some great information on this site - probably the best forum on topics I have seen - void of all the nasty comments that others seem to have! I do have a couple of questions - some fit in this category, some probably don't! Hopefully someone can help! I am not a planned breeder - just someone with an aviary in their backyard who has taken an interest in the world of budgies. I love watching them and seeing their personalities. I do have nesting boxes in there - so i guess it is called colony breeding. I do not intentionally pair my birds up - some came to me that way! Do any people with aviary birds handle them? I can't catch the buggers, nor have any interest in causing them stress - they seem happy on their own. Also, I have a couple of pairs who have bred - the only real adults in the aviary. Problem is, before babies are out of the nest, they are mating again! Both pairs are on their second back to back babies. They have started mating again, despite the oldest baby only being 4 weeks old. Should I remove the nesting boxes as soon as the babies are out - even if she has eggs on board? As most of my birds are under 12 months, should i remove nesting boxes anyway? Is there any other advice for colony birds, or should they just be left alone to play with each other? They certainly know my voice - a couple of the father birds come right up to me and appear to be giving me a mouthful for encroaching on their space!!!! Funny buggers - they also seem to swoop at me sometimes!!!! I have noticed in some pictures of nesting boxes, people have thick shavings of some form. My nesting boxes have the bottoms carved out to form a crevass sort of thing. Is there something else I should be adding? I also have a little bit of sand on the bottom of the aviary, which gets scraped and cleaned out each week. Is there something else that could go on the bottom of the aviary? Anyway, hope someone can help with my queries. Thanks in advance Vanessa

Hi all I have introduced myself once, but have only just figured out how to load photos of my lot (hopefully!). This is the mum to the second lot of babies! These are two of her babies. We have decided to keep 3 of the five - the two girls went to my father-in-law who gave me the parents! We kept the boys - they are lovely big birds! We have no idea what 'mutation' they are - too complicated for me! I only worked out gender through the amazing info provided on this site! The bird on the left is the third boy from the nest! Lovely!!! This is Dad - a big lovely bird! My aviary - built by my father in law! The aviary gets the morning sun and then is protected from the afternoon heat by the shed against it! I hope to add more soon, but this is a start. At the moment, I have 12 birds and a total of 7 birds in nesting boxes, with two sets of parents. Vanessa

Hi all New to the forum! Have an aviary with 11 birds - 1 of those is a runner bird called Stumpy. However, he fits in well with all the others! I have two mums who have babies - Blues who laid 5 eggs and has produced 5 healthy babies - the oldest is 3 weeks!. The other Greens - who are young and laid 6 eggs, with 3 hatching into healthy babies! I have another one who has laid 4 eggs, but she is also young! Look forward to reading more! Vanessa PS - cant seem to work out how to post pics - have read it and still confused!