Maddy

Okay so, just to let everyone know I havn't disappeared off the face of the earth.... The expansion to the aviary is up and the cabinets are in. Just need to clean up and get a door lol. The shed door, when closed, cut off all the light. And though I'm going to get a solar light, I want some natural light too. So the door is being modified to be all wire instead of tin. Then there is just the tiniest gap abve the door to the aviary to cover with wire and its bird worthy. Will get pictures soon.

I've tried GB but every single one (except for two) seemed to have died of something different. I know for sure two dies of internal laying, which was stupid because they had calcium in their water, This recent one, apparently my dad tried to rescue it because it was on the floor of the cage acting like it couldn't lift its head. It must of just happened because it was fine that morning. Another hen started with a pooey bum and I tried to save her but apparently I couldn't. And the first one that died, must of been the bad luck starter, died all of a sudden, just after I'd saved a cock from conjunctivitis. Its crazy and its bringing me down And that was my plan, to breed mediocre hens with good cocks until I get good hens....but the only hens I got left are worse than mediocre, or can't seem to lay a fertile egg, or can't leave the eggs alone without eating them.

Well I gave up and put all my birds back into the aviary. It was like a big family reunion. And surprise surprise, I lost another hen :/ Came to me the same time as the last hen that died. Both were purple ringers and this one wasn't even a year old. They were my two best. So now, I have nothing to work with. My hens weren't great before, but I've lost all my reasonable ones. And being the terrible time that it is, no one has hens to give t this time soo.....bum

Well, my breeding season is over. I have 2 hens laying infertile. Two have gone out of condition, and the other is totally uninterested in the box. And those 5 hens are all I have left sooooo.....I'm out lol I've decided to remove all birds, put them back in the flight, and wait for my breeding room to be built before trying again. Hopefully it will be up by the time summer cools down and I can start fresh. Also, hopefully by then I will have found some better quality birds, as well as more hens. There goes my chance of entering the YBS :/

The hen died today. So it seems I will not be breeding anything more this season as I have literally run out of usable hens. Thats 4 in 2 months. yipee

Well, my luck hasn't gotten any better, but it hasn't gotten much worse either. After the death of the useless chick, nothing much has happened. I have a nest with 5 eggs, though they all look fertile. This is this hens third clutch. The first two were with a different male and I figured it was him. But seeing as they are still fertile...I'm not sure whats going on. Any suggestions? Also, I have a sick hen at the moment. First step was to completely block off the nest of course (she didn't like it but too bad) I was going to remove her from the cock, when I realised that she is quite weak, and I think the only reason she is still alive is because he is feeding and grooming her. I've also put sulphur in their water to help rid the nasties from her system. I feel there is not much to do now but wait. The cock is taking beautiful care of her, he is always with her either grooming or feeding. And when he's not doing any of those things she's snuggled up against him. Though its never a good time for a hen to get sick during the breeding season...I think that the fact that she has a personal carer is going her way. But other than that, still a terrible season lol

Curses. Another death This time though it was a chick that would of been completely useless to me breeding wise. She had no feathers down her spine or at the back of her head. She actually did not look the healthiest and I kind of expected this to happen. I was waiting until she could eat by herself, then she was coming inside as a pet for my mum. But it never happened. Boy, my mum is going to be upset when she gets home lol I intend on getting pictures of my new pairs soon. I can also clean out another breeding cage and out in another. At the moment the only real update on my breeding is that I have a hen with 3 eggs (can't tell fertility yet) And the hen from pair #6 is being suspiciously fantastic. As her only chick hops around on the perches and floor all day, then goes back inside the nest when she's bored.

Yea, me and you are not having the best luck this year splat lol But, I have still have other pairs down, so hopefully I'll get something out of them to replace this one.

The thing is, she has already laid eggs, this would of been her second round. But its not like they were consecutive either. She incubated the last round and one hatched (they all died; yellow belly, DIS and addled)

ARRRRGH why is this happening?!?! I had my biggest hen (body wise) die on me today. Egg bound. I don't understand though. They have a finger tray of vitamins and calcivet in their water. *Goes off into the corner and cries*

Update. Some of you may know that I've had a french moult scare recently and it put a bit of a pause on this journal till I figured it out properly. Well, I may be coming to a conclusion about it. Heres the story so far: The nest I've having trouble with is the DF spangle and grey cinnamon spangle nest. Their first chick ( a grey green cinnamon spangle hen) dropped all her tail and flight feathers the day she fledged. It was extremely sudden and there was blood in places around the cage so I suspected the parents. It took ages for her feathers to grow back and they would grow back weak or crooked and she would just pull them out again. The next chick from this pair turned out to be another hen, and quite suddenly, it too lost most of its feathers. But it wasn't just its flights and tail, it was body, head, tail wing tips...just patches of skin everywhere on this little one. So naturally, I've panicked thinking "Oh gawd french moult" and posted a topic on here to confirm. Everyone thought the same as me and that put me in a bit of a slump because I'd just put new pairs in. Anyway, everyday I would check on this chick, it didn't seem to be getting any better, but it wasn't getting worse either. Fretting FM, I removed the hen a few days ago (because I don't want to breed more FM chicks if it is coming from the parents) and put her in a separate cage and left dad to feed the chick. On the same day I rubbed a mixture of baby oil and Detol onto the bare skin of the chick to rule out plucking (the birds don't like the taste of the Detol and the baby oil soothes them) Well today I went out and the chick seems fluffier. Down is growing back. So either I've found a solution to FM (lol doubt it) or it was indeed plucking and the mixture has stopped it, giving the feathers a chance to grow back. There was blood on the baby's tail, but I didn't rub any of the oil on the tail area so that could be why. So now that I'm getting some hope back about my breeding plans, I've decided to post back in here Anyway, I put 3 new pairs together in 2 of the empty breeding cages and replaced the cock in another. Pair #1 is now a YF sky blue cinnamon hen and a Grey opaline cock. Last time I tried this hen she had no interest in the nest. The same seems to be happening again despite catching her in 'the act' just before putting her in. Pair #5 is a Light green cinnamon hen and a Grey green normal cock. Already bonded. The hen paced the front of the cage for a while but seems to have stopped. I put the cock in after a day of her being by herself. The cock went straight to her and started to sing in her face, but she was still pacing so was not interested lol Pair #7 I replaced the sky greywing cock with a cobalt normal cock with spectacular width and mediocre everything else lol The day prior the hen had chucked out all four of her eggs (all infertile) and when I introduced the cock she was singing to him straight away lol She has laid 2 rounds of duds so far, so I blamed the cocks inability to fill. Status of the pairs I have: Pair #2 chucked her eggs out (infertile), and I'm going to let her try one more time before seperating her. She has technically only raised 2 chicks, then laid a round and a half of clear (she laid one egg, chucked it, then laid 3) Pair #3 is the one with the plucked chick. Hopefully all is well. Pair #4 had one chick die of yellow belly (hatched pre-mature) 2 DIS and one addled, But I blame the fact that the hen kicked them around a bit. Waiting for more Pair #6 the chick is doing well and close to fledging. I catch it halfway out the nest hole before it sees me and darts back in. I've called her angle because of how clear her flights are, and her light grey colour. And thats what I have so far. I will take photos of the new pairs when I have time.

Update. The young hen happily went to her new home. I'm sure she will be loved Her sister however, is sooooo naked lol She's really cute though. I keep changing my mind however between plucking and FM because she has blood on her tail feathers and no where else, just bald spots. And I can't see many (if any) of those little deformed pins that are usually in place of fluffy down. So to eliminate plucking, I mixed up a bit of baby oil and detol (I can't remember who's recipe this is, its not mine though) and rubbed it on her bare skin. I figured it couldn't hurt, and in fact the chick seemed to really enjoy it. She fell asleep in my hand while I was doing it which made it really easy. I've also split up the hen from her and the cock so that he can finish the job. The hen was right for breeding again, but if it is FM I don't want to breed more naked chicks. I bought a little bit of F10 as well so next on my agenda is to ivomec everyone and spray the cages. Once the F10 is dry I will be spray them with a avian insecticide. The other chick which is a bit younger than this one seems totally unaffected and is close to fledging

I'm not sure how old this unaffected chick is, but I'm positive its over 2 weeks I would love for that pair to go again, so being able to keep breeding and go on with my plans would be awesome

Haha I've been meaning to do that Matt. I know it is prime season that's why its such a downer to get it now. WHY NOW!?! At the moment it IS isolated to one nest, I'm trying to keep it that way. The other nest with a solo chick is growing all her feathers at a remarkable rate which gives me a bit of confidence. But the nest this hen came from, her sister, has a case of FM. A little more noticeable :/ Especially when compared to the other chick. However, it makes me feel heaps better knowing they make good pets as thats exactly where this one is going. Her sister has plans to replace the one I'm giving away (because my mother has bonded with this one lol)

I have ones like those, not as nice looking though

Well, at the moment my other nest doesn't have it. But it means I'm not letting them go another round I'll have to remove all pairs, clean everything and wait a while before pairing up again. With all this bad luck I'm getting, it is seriously on the brink of not being fun anymore.

Well **** I guess this is going to put a serious dent in my breeding plans then Luckily, I have a bottle of pump hand sanitizer in the aviary, so hopefully I didn't pass it to the other chick.

Well the feathers don't bleed when they come in, they only started to bleed when she tried to fly. I have a suspicion that it may be damaged at the base from when the parents pulled them out. Because she is extremely active (she's jumping around the cage like a lunatic right now) and everything else about her seems normal. There is a disease on the opposite page of PBFD that is Psittacine Pruritic Polyfolliculosis aka Budgerigar Short Tail Disease. Pairing with what happened when she fledged, I'm thinking that this is closer to what she might have, where the follicle is damaged and it growing deformed feathers. It also says it can be confused with PBFD (may i just say that this book is awesome lol)

I suspected the parents because one day she had them, the next she didn't and there was blood everywhere. The hen had also started to lay again. So is her fate sealed? She cannot be a pet?

I have a bird under 3 months (hasn't quite reached her moult yet) that I've been hand taming for a birthday present for my grandmother. Well, I took her out of the cage today and she attempted to fly, but she cannot because she is just growing back her flight and tail feathers (I suspected the parents of pulling them off at fledging time) So she fell a few feet to the floor and I picked her up. She tried again and as she flapped she sprayed blood on my arm. I looked her over and her flights were bleeding. She had not injured herself on the first fall as it wasn't far enough. But I'm thinking maybe there is something wrong with her feather growth or shafts. It might be the cause of her initial loss of primaries in the first place. However I looked though my 'Basic Health & Disease in birds' book and can't find anything that has symptoms of bloody wings. The only thing I found that was close was PBFD (or french moult) but she doesn't show all of the signs, just the flights and tails. Its my grandmothers birthday in 2 days and I don't want to give her an unwell bird that bleeds everywhere. It doesn't seem to be causing the bird any discomfort as I can see, she is still eating and perching fine and her poops are normal. If anyone has any ideas of what this could be, please let me know. I'm worried for her.

Awesome splat. I have my fingers crossed for you that it is problem solved

I use a Mac and I don't know any. But I don't think you need software personally. And anyone I talk to doesn't substitute hard copies for electronic in case something goes wrong and you lose it all

I'm so mad today. I went out to check on my birds today and found the YF chick dead in the seed dish. Wait, did I mention it had been attacked? Yeah. Not only that but I think it was dad. Is it a coincidence that the last nest the cock had had one chick attacked and killed too? Probably not. Why can't my birds keep their chicks alive? I cracked open the last of the fertile looking eggs in Pair #7's nest. The contents were a half developed chick (DIS) and green liquids. Grrrrrrr And one chick might not seem like much, but seeing as I only had 3, thats a third of my chicks dead.

Sounds like a good table you got going. Maybe add variety too so that you can see what birds you get mostly out of each pairs And if you have club rings, don't forget the ring number.

Okay so I'm not holding out much hope for Pair #4's remaining eggs. I cracked open one today that didn't look right under the torch and there was nothing in there but a dried membrane and a bad smell. Another of the eggs which I thought was fertile is now a dark yellow so thats no good. And I have a feeling that the other egg is going the way of the one I cracked open. However, I'm not going to let it get me down. I'm assuming this has happened due to the lack of experience of the pair (first timers). It probably wouldn't of happened had the hen not kicked out all the nesting as the eggs would of had cushioning when she would scurry out of the nest and kick the eggs....but what can you do. If I'm right about this last egg than I'll remove it, put more shavings in and let them go again. They are both in excellent health and weight so...fingers crossed. On the bright side, the Grey normal hen that is coming out of Pair #6 is a YF. That makes me happy, it should be a real good looking baby. I've also been deciding on pairs for when I get my shed up. In the next day or two I will remove the hens I think are ready and put them in a breeding cabinet for 5 days. Why? Because it seems that all the birds know that spring is approaching and the hens have been making 'visits' to all of the males. This is just so that I don't get a nest from 2 or more different males. Especially since some of my pet cocks have been getting pretty rowdy.