paulie

Today's chick pics Box 1, 8 eggs woaa Box 2 All 7 hatched and look to be doing well Box 3 getting bigger

Birdlove (1) great in flight shot

Box 1. 7 eggs nice tidy brooding by this pair, both birds are sitting, taking turns and at times together Box 2, 6 chicks, youngest at the bottom of stack. Last egg should hatch today or tomorrow. Box 3, 4 chicks of 6 eggs, first chick died within 24 hours and last egg was infertile. Starting to show downy feathers.

Is this one of your's Paulie?? If so could be double yolker/twins if fertile. Not a good success rate but possible. You can candle after 5-6 days to see if it's 1 or 2 yolks. Ha Ha robyn . Have quite a menagerie here, budgies, pigeons, chickens, and even the 13yr old goose is laying. That's a budgie V goose egg. budgie chicks are going great. Looking forward to seeing the results.

Chick pics Box2 box 3 Some eyes are opening and some downy feathers growing. Box1 now has 6 eggs after a 4 day laying break. first three candle as viable. Might have to build a bigger nappy cage. Last 2 eggs in box 2 are ready to hatch 1 tapping on shell and chirping and the other is chirping. Expect these to hatch in the next 2 days.

Re June

Box 2 Box 3 6th egg in box 3 is infertile, might return fostered chick to its original nest. Returned fostered chick to original nest, will keep a close eye to make sure it is not rejected again.

Oh my, how did she manage that?

I am amazed at the growth rate of these chicks the abandoned chick is doing great guns with foster mum

try this site, Iv not purchased any thing from here but they seem to have a reasonably good range but not certain of quality. http://www.lentradir...s/en-us/d5.html prices seem okay

L_J these cabinets, another 9 to build, are all in bird room in house. After visiting a lot of breeders and checking out the various designs of their breeding cages and over all setup. I am attempting to incorporate the best features from all I have seen, I was previously using slide type door on nest box.I have opted to take on the drop down doors for 3 reasons; cost, simplicity of construction ease of maintenance of nest box. note the slide out shelf with nest cutout has a front rail to prevent chicks falling out when opened. The front frame (Except for the top rail is Jarrah) is cut from 1 piece of 12mm chip board, the main access door is the corresponding cut out so fits perfectly,the nest box is primarily made from the other waste cutouts. There is a jarrah rail at the top back of the interior box, Top and back are 3mm ply, bottom and sides are 12mm chipboard, slide out shelf is 3mm ply edged with 12mm chipboard. These boxes are abt half the weight of previous versions and abt 75% in relative cost These boxes are designed to be used for breeding the show type birds that I have been acquiring in recent times.

Think I have got my breeding cage design after several variations. Removeable nest box with slide out floor for ease access. 700mm wide X 440mm deep 600mm high

robyn, they are really fragile and helpless at this stage. Found oldest chick, box 3 abandoned and cold this morning and thought it was dead. when I removed it I could feel the slightest movement so kept it in my hands to warm it up a bit. It regained enough strength to weakly beg for food. gave it some dilute baby rice cereal and it gained a bit more strength and body heat from my hand. It has now been fostered to box 2 and seems to have recovered from its ordeal. had I have been half an hour later It would certainly be dead.

4th hatching box3 1st hatching box 2

I'm hoping that the olive is carrying violet. My main reason is to insure that he is fertile and to get a better idea of what surprises he may be hiding, you never know quite what might happen and this current pairing could work well. I have another hen in mind to pair with him but isn't old enough just yet. So an idea of what mixes come from this paring will possibly have some bearing on current & future breeding plans.

This is ghost today,telling me who is boss.

Hi robyn. Have resisted handling chicks box 3. second chick is doing great well fed and growing fast, 3rd chick hatched over night and also looks healthy and fed. this hen doesn't like the wood shavings and is still clearing the nest box, will probably put some seed in at abt 2 weeks. Box 2 has 7 eggs that will start to hatch shortly, am thinking of fostering 1 egg to box 3 to help spread the load. Any thoughts?

First chick from box 3 died over night, look like wasn't fed and yoke sack not absorbed. may have been caused by my inability to not handle. Second chick is doing well, nice full crop and far less yoke sack visible and seems to be stronger and more active.

Hi Hombschfamily Please heed the advice already given by maz7 and robyn its good advice. Quick recap; soil in nest box = disease In with chickens = disease and attack from chickens Silver Beet = budgies love it and its good for them Plants in aviary = dead plants and possibly birds

Time has now come for a new pairing. Thinking I might get some violet from these 2. Keeping in mind that this is a test pairing with the main incentive being to find out if Brutus is shooting blanks or not before his intended becomes of age, to a test run to establish what else is or possibly is in his make up and to test my ability to predict what offspring will come from this pairing. Brutus Bell From what is visual id like if some people would like to offer a perspective of possible out come

Paulie

They might get nice and fat though

This is egg 1 from box 3. had a bit of gunk on its face, Looked like spilled food, cleaned up with cotton wool bud and is secure with mum again. Egg 2 is hatching as I write this

My birds remind me of teenage children, lots of niggling a bit of pecking and harsh words, then they will make up preen and feed each other, lots o little arguments over who is into the food first, even though there is plenty of space, or 1 is taking a bath and another wants to get in. Most or the time the are really quit cheery and get along. I have also introduced a new friend for my house bird Ghost, hand tame and limited talking Albino hen, she took immediately to her new friend to the point that both now come and play with me when i enter the room. By a serious conflict i mean feathers flying, screeching, and birds rolling around the bottom of the cage locked in mortal combat. If this becomes the case you will know pretty soon after introducing a new bird. I don't think the chances are to high of this occurring but still be aware. Is your bird a hen? if so Id try to get a cock bird, more reason for them to be friends and cocks are not as aggressive. Finally I believe that being social animals the do better with others around. I'm not an expert by any stretch, so most of this is what I have observe in my aviary's, other fanciers and tips picked up here on this forum. There is a great deal of info here so do have a look. Also these are my opinions and ideas not budgie gospel, others may have differing ideas, views and info to offer. paulie can you post a picture of your bird? and cage setup?

If you are not planning to breed the simply pick a bird that you like and don't introduce a nest box. As far as stressing yr bird its hard to say. Budgies are a flock bird and generally welcome some interaction with others. You may get a bit of argument between the two when first introduced which is part of their normal behavior, some times there may be some serious fighting between hens but usually when fighting over nest space. If you get serious conflict they may need to be separated. Even though they are flock birds in the wild they can be quite the individual in their character so it is hard to say exactly what the reaction will be. Others may have some other ideas for you. Hope this helps paulie "EDIT" When I introduce a new bird to my aviary there is always great interest shown a little tyt for tat arguing until the pecking order is re established