jetrick57

Hi all, This is a picture of my last chick to leave its parents after round one. Round two is underway and I have 11 new chicks in the nest. I would like it to be over asap as Spring will be here before we know it! Cheers Patrick

Hi all, Pleased to say my nest no. 7 which produced 7 chicks last round have hatched their first chick of the second round this morning. This pair are a White Lacewing Hen x Normal Grey Cock bird. There are only 5 eggs this time round so I would be happy for it to be a small clutch to take the preassure off them both. Cheers Patrick

Hi Just wondering - it is better for the birds to see each other with the wire cages? Some advice I've had suggests not to do this - but after reading your journal I wonder. Also, where can I find 'Daz's nesting box design'? I really enjoyed reading through your journal. Thanks for that. Cheers, Joanne Link to Daz' breeding cabinet and nest box design Thanks so much jetrick! I'm on it!!! Gotta get that 'flock' feeling happening in the breeding shed! More boys! Bigger nesting boxes...great! Cheers, joanne Hi Joanne That's great, happy to share. Good luck with it making it happen! Cheers Patrick

Hi GB I thought I had some info courtesy of Ken Yorke on mating Darkwings. Cheers Patrick Typical mating is Cinnamon Blackeyed yellow cock x Darkwing(sf) Yellow Hen (NB remember that almost all black eyed yellows are also cinnamon in Australia) =25% Cinnamon Black-eyed yellow hens (the exhibition black eyed yellow) 25% Cinnamon Darkwing(sf) yellow hens (yellow bird with brown markings) 25% Blackeyed yellow / Cinnamon cocks (the older style black eyed yellow without the cinnamon, now exhibited as Suffused Yellows) 25% Darkwing(sf) Yellow/ Cinnamon cocks (suffused Yellow bird with dark grey-black markings) or Cinnamon Blackeyed yellow cock x Darkwing(df) Yellow Hen = 50% Cinnamon Darkwing(sf) yellow hens (yellow bird with brown markings) 50% Darkwing(sf) Yellow/ Cinnamon cocks (suffused Yellow bird with dark grey-black markings) Once you have some darkwing cocks you can mate darkwing to darkwing to increase numbers and also breed some double factored darkwings:- Darkwing(sf) Yellow cock x Darkwing Yellow hen =25% Black eyed Yellow (the old suffused yellow) 50% Darkwing(sf) Yellow (dark grey-black markings) 25% Darkwing(df) yellow (near black markings) The reason we tend to breed darkwing yellow to Blackeyed yellow is to keep the body colour as yellow as possible. Sometimes if you continually breed darkwing yellow to darkwing yellow the body colour gets a bit suffused (more greenish)

what out come do you get with that excuse my genetic arrogance :ohmygod: Hi GB, To be honest I am following Ken Yorke's suggestion for this pairing to achieve Darkwings. I will need to check my notes as to what the breakdown should be,or otherwise someone else might oblige? Cheers Patrick

Hello all, My nest no. 19 has surprised me by hatching all 6 off their 6 eggs! They are a Ken Yorke Darkwing Hen x K. Kakoshke Black Eyed Yellow Cock bird. I hope they are up to the feeding demands. So far so good! Cheers Patrick

Hi Just wondering - it is better for the birds to see each other with the wire cages? Some advice I've had suggests not to do this - but after reading your journal I wonder. Also, where can I find 'Daz's nesting box design'? I really enjoyed reading through your journal. Thanks for that. Cheers, Joanne Link to Daz' breeding cabinet and nest box design Hi Finnie, Thanks for that! Cheers Patrick

Hi there, Crazy as it seems the extra boys vocalising will help. My boxes are 250x250x280 The extra depth and size makes such a difference. The nest boxes they sell in shops are rediculous and are not suitable at all. No wonder the birds think a clutch of two is appropriate for the box size. Give me some room for god sake! Cheers Pat

Good stuff indeed!

Hi Houman, Yes chicks are fine and thanks for asking. Thanks for the tech advice! Cheers Patrick

Thats no good but I guess breeding is all about the ups and downs, isn't strange for a cock bird to kill a hen? usually it's the hen doing the damage. Hi Taboo Normally I would agree with you but in this instance the hen concerned was quite passive and the cock bird was more aggressive and can certainly bite,which is quite the opposite for nearly all my birds. She was just a bit unlucky. Cheers Patrick

Very sad to hear Patrick definitely the cock that did it ? Hi Kaz Yes unfortunately he more or less scalped her. I haven't had a problem with vermin and a cat attack seems unlikely also. Whether she's resisited mating with him or similar I'll never know. They're not exhibition quality,but sad all the same! Cheers Patrick

Hi all, I had an unfortunate death last night of one of my hens that has just reared 4 chicks. The final chick from the pair went into the weaning cage yesterday and some time the cock bird has attacked her at the back of the head and killed her. Not a pretty sight! On the plus side I managed to get 4 Dom Pied chicks from her. Cheers Patrick

Forgot to add, I have also found the wire cages easy to keep clean!

Congrats Olivia on todays results, and to anyone else who is on the forum who competed today! I bought my first good birds of of Mr Logan (Logan Shield) in 1969. How old do I feel hey! Cheers Patrick

Hi Just wondering - it is better for the birds to see each other with the wire cages? Some advice I've had suggests not to do this - but after reading your journal I wonder. Also, where can I find 'Daz's nesting box design'? I really enjoyed reading through your journal. Thanks for that. Cheers, Joanne Hi Joanne Thank you for reading my journal it seems like a lot has happened in a little over two months. On the wire cages I haven't found the birds seeing each other to be a problem. I suspect if a pair don't click they are probably more likely to want to talk to the neighbours. Generally speaking it seems to provide a feeling of openess while being confined if you see what I mean? As for Daz's Nest box design Kaz may be able to point you in the right direction as his web site or at least the one I used doesn't appear to be operational. Not sure if he ever placed them on the forum but I suspect he has so maybe also try that in the mean time. Let me know if I can be of any more help! Cheers Patrick

Hi all, Pleased to say all but two of my first round chicks are in weaning cages as of this morning. I finally had 63 make it right through, and now have 9 chicks in the nest from the second round with a number of eggs to hatch in the coming weeks. 7 of those new chicks are bred from Ken Yorke's Darkwings pairs,though one Cock is a Kelwyn Kakoshke bred bird. I didn't plan on having a second round but while everyone was happy I thought I'd let them go for it, and will rest them in the spring, by which time I am hoping to use my outcross birds and best bred birds from last year. Cheers Patrick

WHY do cinnamons improve the breeding within flocks, do they have some special enhancing gene????????please please tell me, i am very curious now! :bliss: PS: how do only quote small portions of peoples comments?? i still havent got my head around thatand how do you quote small portions from numerous peoples comments? thanks Hi AB There's bound to be someone on the forum who can answer this for you,I can only say my own experience that their feather quality can be better than other varieties.As for the quotes, I'm know I.T. whiz myself, so I won't be able to help you there either. Some Cinnamon info.....Cinnamons I have read are useful in breeding with Opalines to remove the marking faults that can occur in the variety.These markings are diluted by the Cinnamon factor and are therefore less noticable.The Cinnamon of today which can be big and broad feathered and as good as a normal. The Cinnamon has emerged from the past of being a long slim bird. This info courtesy of Harry Bryan's book "The Budgerigar Man" Good to know! Cheers Patrick

That's great GB, what a fantastic gift ,and what a fantastic club! For what it's worth I have been using Rob Marshalls supplements on my birds over the past six months and the results have been fantastic! I also went with a March/April round with my birds after reading his opinions on the breeding cycle. Enjoy! Patrick

Forgot to mention I now have two of the Ken Yorke Darkwings hens with two chicks each. I had an earlier problem with the first hen loosing a chick that was resolved by removing the cock. She's now coping fine on her own. Also my Lutino hen who had a similar problem has reared two chicks on her own and they should be leaving her by the end of the week. The hen is having a kind of phantom pregnancy laying eggs and sitting on them. I didn't want to introduce another cock until the chicks have gone. Cheers Patrick

Thanks Kaz I do like the texture of their feathers! Cheers Patrick

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your views. I really did feel as If I was doing the wrong thing in purchasing Cinnamons. So how would you go about learning to manage the variety and use it to improve your birds? Is it just a case of reading lots, asking questions on the forum and other breeders and experience? What if any then is the fatal flaw to watch out for with the variety in your breeding? Cheers Patrick

Hi all, Just to bring you up to date with my flock I have 3/4 of my first round chicks from March/April in weaning cages.I would hope to have them all out of the breeding cages by early next week. I had hoped to only have one round but many of the parents beat me to it! I may end up fostering chicks to prevent those pairs that raised big clutches last round have a much needed rest. All in all it has been a good season thus far and hopefully a number of chicks will develop into something special! I bought in some new hens last night courtesy the BBSA Auction to help even out the sex ratio in the flock. Though it's my intention only use the best ones for future breeding. Can I ask what you think about Cinnamons?They seem to be a variety people tend to say negative things about and show up in abundance at Auctions and sales. Cheers Patrick

Hi all, This is a Dominant Pied Cinnamonwing Grey Green bred by Wally Capper, who has just joined my flock courtesy of the NEBS Auction in Adelaide the other night. I look forward to using him in the future! Cheers Patrick

What a gorgeous chick Thanks Kaz, I am really happy with this one and hope he develops into someting special! He is very placid also which is good! Cheers Patrick