hi its toffeefluffy here,

I keep about 14 budgies in an aviary (7 males/7 females). Just put up 7 nest boxes recently 3 of my budgies(females)have beon two levels. But 3 of the females are behaving aggresively and viciously to each other.

About 2 days ago one of the females, had her claw ripped off by another budgie

the other 2 have also been injured.I have seen them once attacking each other,they all go in one nest box at once and fight!!

 

 

please help and if you can give some advice. :devil: :yelling: :ygbudgie: :fear

Colony breeding can cause this, not having enough nesting boxes for each hen, having them too close to each other, not having enough males for each hen and vs versa and I am sure there is something I am missing.

 

I am not a breeder but being on these boards for almost 2 years I have learned a lot about closed and colony breeding.

 

Kaz is one that used to do colony breeding and she does closed breeding now because of these issues that do arise.

 

I am sure the other breeders will jump on here to help you more but I suggest that you do close breeding or if you don't you may have to separate the ones causing trouble and do alternation to your breeding program because it won't get better. These birds can kill each other over nesting issues and the babies and eggs can be destroyed.

 

How long have you breeding?

Like Elly says, this can be the problem with colony breeding. If you colony breed, you have to be very careful, with things like nest placement. The nests need to be very similar & placed at the same height if possible, there needs to be more nest than pairs, so that they have some choice, if one nest is more desirable than the others they all may fight over it, like it seems in your case & Like Elly said, anything can happen up to deaths & mutilations. Breeding in separate cages [cabinets] is the safest, but of course more expensive. If you want to breed in a colony, I would suggest less pairs in the aviary & like I said more choice of nests. It certainly sound like your system in that situation wont work, as shown by the trouble you are already having, I would suggest you remove the nests again, until you can arrange something more suitable other wise you may loose birds.

Welcome toffee!

You have already been given some great advice but I just thought I would share my experience with colony breeding. I started trying to colony breed, and it ended in diasaster. I only had two females, five males and two nesting boxes, one female laid her very first eggs and the other female forced her way into the nest and broke all the eggs. It was heart breaking! I ended up removing the aggresive hen to another cage. So breeding in an avairy can be fraught with danger, I have found separating your bonded pairs into a separate breeding cage much more successful.

If you are new to breeding, I would suggest you remove those nesting boxes and then read and learn all you can about budgie breeding.

I am sure you don't want any more of your birds getting hurt.

Some very good advice here from people who know. I used to colony breed but that was with a HUGE aviary ( 30 feet by 10 by 12 ) and with total and complete all day supervision of birds to circumvent any disputes and problems. You need twice the amount of boxes as you have pairs and with a fair amount of distance between them. You need a very large space. The amount of birds that works in an aviary changes dramatically once you start to breed. You will have damage to hens and chicks, you may find dead birds due to hens entering anothers nesting box and killing the chicks. Hens often throw out another hens eggs as she wants the same nestbox. All of these things bring stress conditions and stress equals illness in an aviary of birds. Any latent illnesses the birds can live with now will come out and you will get sick birds.

I dont colony breed anymore. I value my birds and chicks more than the need for an avairy full of breeding birds. I breed in breeding cages now and it is all peaceful, you know for sure who the father of the chicks is, and there is no slaughter from territorial disputes.

Edited April 1, 200718 yr by Kaz

Thanks everyone - we've put the two main offenders and their mates into breeding cages - so hopefully that will stop the fighting - will keep on the others but they seem more laid back. Just spotted a new budgie which we recently bought has got scaley face - think it is (looks like pinky, scaly, crusty growth around the cere and beak) - we've isolated her - any good tips for sprays/creams? :budgiedance: :feedbirds:

After introducting a hen, my two males can't be in the same room together let alone the same cage. The aggressive male will peck, claw, even jump on the male until he falls off whatever he is on. All the other passive male wants to do is have some company. Sad, really, before the hen was introduced those two wouldn't spend seconds away from each other.

Thanks everyone - we've put the two main offenders and their mates into breeding cages - so hopefully that will stop the fighting - will keep on the others but they seem more laid back. Just spotted a new budgie which we recently bought has got scaley face - think it is (looks like pinky, scaly, crusty growth around the cere and beak) - we've isolated her - any good tips for sprays/creams? :budgiedance: :feedbirds:

 

You can call the avian vet for treatment because if she doesn't get treatment it will get worse and watch your other birds because it spread easily.

we have isolated her in a cage(the bird with scaly face) and there is one male with one female(breeding pairs) in one cage(2 pairs in 2 cages),they ae settling in well but one of the females is bullying the male-this happend last year aslwell but with a different bird.they had eggs but none hatched.the bullying stopped after a while and she settled down.

:bluebudgie: :budgiedance: :nest: :oliveb: :redalbino: :ygbudgie: :ausb:

if the hen continues to do this it is suggested that you retire her from breeding because she is not a good breeder. She can become more agressive and even kill the cock bird.

when we got the hen she already had an egg(with the previous owner,who took her off the nest).When we put her in our cage with the cock she hadn't really seen him before although he was trying to pair up with her .I think that she was trying to show some dominance over him,recantly she hasn't been too aggressive,they seem to be getting on quite well.

The other pair have already paired up and are sitting in the nest box together and tweeting gently to each other!!

 

we have taken all the nest boxes away from the aviary and the fighting has stopped.The 2 pairs I have talked about are now the only breeding pairs,it

 

:hap:

 

 

we are hoping to hear the pitter patter of little budgie feet!!! :dbb1:

dear elly , I have been breeding for 1 year only and have had only 1 budgie.

This year we have 2 breeding pairs of our choice.We did this method last year.

sorry for the time I took to answer I didn' see the question :hap: