One of my hens has finally hatched an egg. I have one baby so far with still 6 eggs in the nesting box. Is there anything that I should be doing now, or do I just leave them be for the time being? If you could PM me with hints and tips I would greatly appreciate it.

 

I will get some photos later of my birds. I am just so happy!!!

An article was written for this very reason and is now in our FAQ section. Here it is. I hope it helps.

 

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en

THIS IS A RECORDING.

An article was written for this very reason and is now in our FAQ section. Here it is. I hope it helps.

 

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en

 

Thanks Kaz, I am heading over there now for a read. I am very excited about my first one!

An article was written for this very reason and is now in our FAQ section. Here it is. I hope it helps.

 

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en

 

Thanks Kaz, I am heading over there now for a read. I am very excited about my first one!

 

Its very exciting ....new babies...first time around and quite a few times after that too

An article was written for this very reason and is now in our FAQ section. Here it is. I hope it helps.

 

http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/faqs/i...&artlang=en

 

Thanks Kaz, I am heading over there now for a read. I am very excited about my first one!

 

Its very exciting ....new babies...first time around and quite a few times after that too

 

I cant wait for more to hatch. It will be iteresting to see what teh babies look like, as I know 2 hens were in the box at one stage and now I have noticed just the one, and she is very pretty in colour. Like a high ligher green on her chest and a yellow/white-ish colour on her head and wings. I will need to get a photo of her.

Another one hatched earlier today. I have 2 little jellybeans at the moment, I will wait and see if some more hatch either tomorrow or the next day.

Hi Julie,

 

congratulations. It is so exciting when they start to hatch and you see them grow.

 

 

Feathers.

THis morning my mother called me to tell me that all the babies were dead :rip: . It turns out the albino hen had attacked the babies and the mother attacked the albino. I have removed the ino hen into a cage and the mother has gone back to her remaining 2 eggs. There was a third egg in there but I removed it as it was cracked and the baby had died inside the shell.

 

When I caught the offending hen, and placed her into the cage, a few of the other budgies jumped onto the cage even though I was holding it in my hand. When I had first arrived at the aviary, there was a lot of chatting, squawking and so forth and they were waiting for me to come into the cage. Once I removed the ino everyone settled down and acted calm. Could my ino hen be a problem in the future? WHat should I do with her? I wanted to breed her later on but now I am not sure, I am thinking that it could also be a juvenile thing with her as well. Any suggestions?

Sadly Julie, this is the problem with breeding under the colony system, which it sounds like you are doing. Probably you have read other posts on here about the pros & cons of cabinet versus colony breeding. This is the danger with this type of system & some hens are more aggressive than others & in the colony system will always be a problem, but if bred in a cage of their own it wont be a problem & most probably she will be a good breeder. It’s probably not a juvenile situation, with maturity she would probably become more aggressive while breeding. The danger of these type problems is always present when birds are bred in colonies in an aviary, tomorrow it could be another bird, it’s not rare. I’m sorry to hear of your losses

but if bred in a cage of their own it wont be a problem & most probably she will be a good breeder. It’s probably not a juvenile situation, with maturity she would probably become more aggressive while breeding.

 

Norm, what should I do with her, as I am not sure that I would want to return her to the aviary. I am in the process of organising my own aviary and breeding room at my new house, as I will probably be breeding in the cabinets in the future.

If I were to breed with the ino in the future, will the offspring be aggressive or normal, as I dont think I want to be breeding an aggressive???

 

It is so disheartening, as I was so looking forward to them and to handtaming.

Yes Julie I know it's very sad, all you can do is look on it as learning, it's like the saying about spilt milk, once something has happened there's nothing else but to go on wiser. You can't turn back the clock. Don't hate your Albion it's only her nature, maybe like most things agressiveness can be carried on genetically. I certainly wouldn't return her to the same aviary just now, can't you just keep her separate till you organise your bird room? With that type of agressiveness in Budgie, it's probably a sign of a good breeding hen. If you persist you will get to your hand taming Budgies...just be patient...good luck.

Unfortunately it was the colony breeding that brought out this behaviour. You will most likely find that in the future under different conditions this hen would be an ideal mother to her own chicks. There's something "feral" about their instincts to survive and breed under colony situations, and we put them in spaces where they cannot escape another bird wanting to take a nest already occupied by hen and chicks. I would not expect this albino hen to be aggressive in the future nor her chicks inheriting it.....assuming you do not colony breed again. It was just this situation at this particular time

WHY ,WHY WHY,is it that people who know nothing about breeding,come on here & told what to do.

Then come back a week or so later & say the chicks or hen or what ever,has died or been killed.The amount of information

thats on this site,we should`nt be reading about these disaster.Iam not have a shot at any one in

particalar.Why breed if you are not set up to handle the situation.If you don`t put breeding boxes in the

aviary,they wont breed.I have hens & cocks flying together,12 months of the year & in that time if there

was 2eggs on the floor I would be surprised.

I do have to agree with Macka. It is very unfortunate that these deaths occur, especially to those starting out.

When you decide to start to breed any animal, you must remember that you are playing with life and Life is not fair.

 

Any type of breeding whether it is colony or selective has it's problems. But selective is better as you can control it to some point. You will still have deaths. You can't get around it. But you can reduce it by having good management.

 

You can read the management I go through with my birds either in my Blog or on my web site.. It is not perfect and I still lose chicks but not as many as I would have with Colony breeding.

 

Since 2005 I have lost 5 Adult Birds. One to an unknown disease after an avian vet look at it. 1 Hen prolapsed, two to Mega, one to heat stress. The other losses in the aviary have been Mops or 1 day old chicks. I have lost 2 chicks that were 11 days and 18 days old. Healthy in the morning and dead that afternoon.

 

This year I have banded 70 chicks Last year I have banded 34 chicks. So for those maths people that is a 95% chance of survival from the time they come out of the nest. I have started a new program that will at the end of the season give me a result of Eggs Laid, % fertile, % hatched, % weaned.

 

We have a large amount of infrmation and experenced breeders on this forum. Please use the information and ask questions. At the end it is up to you if you use the information or not. We can only try to help.