paulie

Hi thanks for the info. I now have 4 eggs in both tithc and tinks boxes and tweety laid her first today or last night. candled titches first 2 eggs today and both seem to have an air bubble in them and are mostly clear so am thinking they are infertile. tinks first 2 seem to have what looks like a vain membrane showing through the shell so am hopeful for those. Thitch was a give away bird with claims of being a proven layer, but am wondering if she was a give away because of infertile eggs. Just guessing/surmising here.

quick update. titch now has 4 eggs and tink has 3. Hoping it not to cold here for them to hatch and survive.

Hi Im in wodonga and have eggs in breeding boxes. It does get pretty cold here over night 0-2-3C. Cages are in outdoor aviary separated from other birds. I do pull blinds down to help insulate from the cold. Am yet to find out if chicks will hatch and survive.

sad to hear that.

Bretto been following with interest. great looking aviary. Just wondering if your birds can fit between the corrugated iron gaps and the quad used as trim. Wouldn't want them to get stuck in the roof/ceiling space. All i all looks really great.

Titch has now laid 3 eggs and had laid every 2 days and is due again tomorrow and at long last Tink has started and is laying, she now has 2 eggs the last laid today at abt mid day. its all very exciting and the perseverance is beginning to pay off. also looks like tweety is just abt ready to lay as well. also have a new addition to the flock. Brutus he is a beautiful green and is massive. will try to pair him with mary a large grey. here is a picture of Brutus

Thanks Nadene. Tink laid her first egg about half an hour ago.

Good to hear its going well L__J. Titch has laid her second egg on the 16th or late on the 15th, she is looking ready to lay her third. a question i have that i hope someone can answer is every time that titch comes out or the nest box Donald will try to mate with her. is this the usual activity i should expect during the laying process? or do i need to separate the pair?

Great looking cages well done.

First egg today. Titch and Donald will hopefully be proud parents soon. Titch is sitting and Donald is dutifully busily feeding her.

hi all its been a while. Still no eggs to date. Have built a new flight to house my non breeding birds. was having a lot of interest and disturbance in breeding boxes with other bird hanging in the fronts with females constantly defending and little time for breeding. Have moved non breeding birds into new flight and the result looks promising in breeding cages., much calmer and far more interest inside breeding cages almost to the point of obsession. Some pics of modified setup

I am using one of these cages as a breeding cage also with little mod(3mm ply cable tied to sides and roof and cut out for access to external mounted nest box) they work well for this perpose. I also used this cage as bird home for some time and they seemed quite happy with the space provided. Bought mine from a pet shop for abt $50.00 retail Flip-trainer do more research I dont claim to be an expert but common sense must prevail well said gb

I bought a roll of cage wire at bunnings and simply lay sheet over the front of the box and simply cut with a pair of side cutters to the specs I want for that particular cage. 10 meter X 1 meter was abt $30.00. I dont think that I would go to the trouble of soldering my own mesh simply due to the time involved. If you really want to go this rout a roll of mig wire might be the go.

UPDATE after writing last post here My baby ghost spoke his first words,loud and clear he said "Hello Budgie"

Lots of frantic disco perch dancing in both breeding cages today. Built Version 3 of breeding cage today.Is based on my original idea but some changes such as door in middle and smaller (might help prevent escapes) I have mounted an existing nest box inside at top left and made the access at the rear of the box as it doesnt fill the space front ro rear. My thinking is that it may be a bit more private fot the birds but will make it a little difficult to see if the hen is being fed by mate.Also routed a rounded edge on bottom rail to prevent cut feet(learned from last one of similar design) Any how here are some pics. . any comments welcome from inside looking out (ooooo this what the birds see, Scary) From door looking left And finally front with door closed. Im not happy with the door a bit of a rushed job

Phoebes Ghost lives inside the house, so I am really the only one he sees. All of my other birds are in the aviary outside. Ghosts sex is still a matter of conjecture. Today his cere is a pail egg blue with lighter circles around the nostrils, other days it is quite pink so really a bit more time will tell I'm not to fussed either way. Ghost is a real little character, he has his cage where his food and bed are, the door is always open so he can come and go as he likes most of the time. I have set up a perch near where my computer is and he will come and sit there and make a *** of a racket until i pay him some attention. He will also hop into his cage when he wants to go to sleep and chatters quite angrily directly at me until i turn off the light. He is a funny little dot.

no eggs yet, tweety/snuggles and tink/jaws are spending a concidderable amounts of time in the nest boxes. none have slept in there as yet.

Andy Warhol Breeding activity is promising today, yesterday cam to the conclusion that Bella was not interested in a new mate and was exhibiting some quite neurotic behaviour, totally ignoring the net box completely and continually chewing on the front wire of the cage, and creating some very abnormal wear on her lower beak. While at the same time Tink was insistent that she and she was the right mate being almost glued to the front of breeding cage and being fed by Jaws. I initially thought all was well but my view has changed after watching them. So I released Bella back into the flight and introduced Tink to the breeding cage with Jaws and the couple seem to be quite happy with each other. Both Tink/Jaws and Tweety/Snuggles are all spending quite a lot of time in their respective nest boxes today. A good sign I hope.

Very lively bird that does not like having its photo taken

Will get some better pics and post

This bird is predominantly Yellow with cinnamon on back and wings Flight feathers are pale yellow and tail is yellow and cinnamon. Every one seems to be settling in quite well. Some minor adjustments to modified breeding cage, Just added a piece of light ply to the open end of cage and a blind over nest box to deter others from playing with it and close light gap at top on nest box. looks like this has done the trick and Tweety is settling down in her new home and taking interest in nest box again.

some pics of new birds cock? hen? Tentatively named Andy Warhol, because of the white head Cock hen cock? Any suggestions as to the sex of these young birds and if you have an idea of the mutations I'm all ears Added another breeding cage today for Tweety and Snuggles modified commercially made cage. Found quite a lot of blood on perches this morning, yes it is distressing to see this and and can be seen quite plainly in the picture, it took a fair bit of watching to work out what was happening. It seems Bell had taken to running up and down the front of her cage and her continual gripping of the timber frame with her left foot had done some damage to the bottom of one of her rear facing toes. I caught her treated her wound which was surprisingly small, and when satisfied returned her to her cage. She soon went back to her somewhat neurotic behaviour and started bleeding again. So to counter this I have placed a piece of dowel across the offending section of cage and seems that has eased the pleasure on her foot and bleeding has stopped even though she still likes to run up and down.(this behaviour only began after her old mate Zilla Flew the coop yesterday) She is now spending a lot of time in nest box with her new partner Jaws who has taken nicely to feeding her at the doorway and spending time in nest box with her. It will be interesting to see over time which version of breeding cage is most usable and accommodating to the birds. Slowly ironing out the rough edges, hopefully there wont be any dramas to report tomorrow.

A costly mistake it was,that wont happen again. Have moved breeding cage into aviary and will remove breeding boxes and make room for a second breeding cage and keep the rest of the available space as a flight for the other birds. This will have to do until I get a new flight built. Visited a breeder a couple of hours drive from here this arvo with the view of purchasing 1 or possibly 2 birds. Wasn't happy with the mature birds he had available, nothing wrong with them just not what I was looking for but I did get a selection (5) promising young birds that are to young for me to sex with any certainty. Still have 2 pair of breeding birds so all is not lost.

Had a setback this morning. While replacing food in breeding cage Zilla decided he wanted to visit the wild and snuck past my arm. Have set a trap cage on top of breeding cage in the vain hope that he may return to his mate. Not holding my breath though. Mach 2 breeding cage will have a much smaller access door and I will have to be a lot more careful. May move breeding cage into aviary to prevent further escapes. If by chance any one does come across Zilla in the Albury Wodonga area he is banded Orange band and originally came from a breeder in Melbourne. Oh well live and learn. Am now down a cock bird may have to take one from the aviary and hope for the best, any suggestions are welcome. I am now in the market for 2 breeding age cock birds. At this point Im not to particular about mutation.

Zilla Bell Tink is the blue bird on left Tweety is on r/h side in the background is either Jaws or Snuggles cant tell which.