i have 13 budgies we currently have 5 breeding boxes and got 2 new females, long story, so short version. 7 females 5males

 

We have 2 males in a small cage atm till we get the jail Aviary 6ft tall by 3ft wide because they were fighting over a very sexy yellow budgie (excuse the language) even if i was a budgie i'd go for her :budgiedance:

 

we not into the breeding game, we love it if they do and if they dont, long as they're happy but we dont resort to small cages, feel its mean cruel and not natural, i know some breeders do it for color combinations and sporting etc. but yeah

 

The main Aviary is 9ft long 6ft tall, and going to be attaching the jail Aviary part to the main eventually,

 

Was wondering how many budgies can i have in the 6x9 with the breeding boxes till its over crowded? ill be posting pictures of the Aviary when i can get the camera charged we have a huge backyard so any suggestions, would be nice and info about Aviary/breeding boxes would be great and more females than males or more males than females or equal amounts etc, thanks again you guys are great

Look at articles on the site about colony versus Cabinet breeding. Breeding in cabinets isn’t cruel, if you breed colony as your suggesting, it may work for some time, but as you say you are already having fighting over one female. If later you start getting problems you will probably see that colony breeding is the cruel way. You could easily end up with dead hens, chicks & even males. Having an uneven number of hens is a recipe for trouble. For it to work you must have quite a lot of spare nests, so that hopefully hens wont fight for nest boxes. Budgies are social birds & love living in groups & flocks, but when it comes to breeding it’s survival of the fittest, as well as deaths you can have birds minus beaks, legs & maybe more. My advice is if you haven’t time to supervise birds in cabinets, you will need more time to prevent trouble with colony breeding. If you don’t want to spend time on your birds & just want pretty birds flying in an aviary just keep a small number & don’t provide nests, otherwise eventually you will have problems.

I agree with everything Norm said. Even though your aviary is 9 feet by 6, that still isnt huge and to have a minimum space of two feet or more between nestboxes will limit how many you put in there for safety.

For you to say QUOTE long as they're happy but we dont resort to small cages, feel its mean cruel and not natural, i know some breeders do it for color combinations and sporting etc. but yeah ....for you to say that shows me you dont understand about colony breeding. Dont get me wrong, I started out that way. But unless you are going to be home and watch the birds all day everyday to prevent issues in a colony breeding aviary you are going to have deaths, illness and some heartbreak...and maybe a small few successes too. But there are many issues when you colony breed. Also...."small cages" not being natural.....even our biggest aviaries arent NATURAL as there are boundaries and we keep them in one place depending on OUR size limitations of our aviaries. As natural as you try and make it, you are still confining a budgie to a space regardless of size.

By the way...breeding cabinet breeding isnt primarily for "color combinations and sporting" as you put it. Its more about safety and less stress for the birds and also about knowing true parentage.

When you put nestboxes in an aviary you must pull out of that aviary all the birds that are too young to breed.........any under a year of age, as they will end up breeding prematurely. You cannot be sure that related pairs wont breed together as well.

Try and remember that STRESS in birds creates illnesses. Stress is brought on by breeding, fighting, and territorial behaviour around nestboxes. The more you can do to remove the stresses the better.

I HAVE had lovely nestboxes with outstanding chicks from colony breeding and I have also seen chicks slaughtered and beaks ripped off them due to another hen wanting that particular nestbox and she killed the other hens chicks to "clean out the nestbox". :budgiedance:

Try and remember that "natural" colony breeding isnt what you are doing when you put nestboxes in an aviary....natural in the bush...mean the birds can select a tree and have distance from another pair and they can fly anywhere at their free will. An aviary has walls and confines them to whatever space you provide.

In the wild, when food and water dries up and there are better places for the birds to be, they fly off and abandon their chicks to the predators in their search for better conditions too.

 

colony VS closed breeding

Edited October 14, 200717 yr by KAZ
spelling

I agree with everything Norm said. Even though your aviary is 9 feet by 6, that still isnt huge and to have a minimum space of two feet or more between nestboxes will limit how many you put in there for safety.

For you to say QUOTE long as they're happy but we dont resort to small cages, feel its mean cruel and not natural, i know some breeders do it for color combinations and sporting etc. but yeah ....for you to say that shows me you dont "get it about colony breeding. Dont get me wrong, I started out that way. But unless you are going to be home and watch the birds all day everyday to prevent issues in a colony breeding aviary you are going to have deaths, illness and some heartbreak...and maybe a small few successes too. But there are many issues when you colony breed.

By the way...breeding cabinet breeding isnt primarily for "color combinations and sporting" as you put it. Its more about safety and less stress for the birds and also about knowing true parentage.

When you put nestboxes in an aviary you must pull out of that aviary all the birds that are too young to breed.........any under a year of age, as they will end up breeding prematurely. You cannot be sure that related pairs wont breed together as well.

Try and remember that STRESS in birds creates illnesses. Stress is brought on by breeding, fighting, and territorial behaviour around nestboxes. The more you can do to remove the stresses the better.

I HAVE had lovely nestboxes with outstanding chicks from colony breeding and I have also seen chicks slaughtered and beaks ripped off them due to another hen wanting that particular nestbox and she killed the other hens chicks to "clean out the nestbox".

Try and remember that "natural" colony breeding isnt what you are doing when you put nestboxes in an aviary....natural in the bush...mean the birds can select a tree and have distance from another pair and they can fly anywhere at their free will. An aviary has walls and confines them to whatever space you provide.

In the wild, when food and water dries up and there are better places for the birds to be, they fly off and abandon their chicks to the predators in their search for better conditions too.

 

colony VS closed breeding

Yeah i agree, i was alittle too blunt about some of the things i said, but i was just kinda refering to exercise when people make small breeding boxes etc, anyways i've taken on what you and norm have said, i spoil them and clean every couple of days, always checking up on them and making sure things are okay, atm one of the females that has a 3 week baby is kinda telling the other 2 new females to back off but it's nothing too serious but im always keeping an eye on them.

 

I give them honey sticks seed, apple tree branches (they go crazy over them) and normal seed and bath water well as normal water. I keep them occupied and some small toys in there. Thanks for the feeback

 

always good to have a second opinion.

Shaunx...the commercially available breeding cabinets ARE quite small. My new ones I am making are much larger. Room for a family and for Dad NOT to get bored. Should be room to hang a swing for him too.

When I colony bred in the aviary..................an aviary of 10 meters by 3 meters by around 8 ft tall.....I was home all day as I work from home. But it still wasnt enough checking to stop some pretty nasty situations.

At least now with the breeding cabinets, there is almost no stress on the breeding pairs.

Shaunx...the commercially available breeding cabinets ARE quite small. My new ones I am making are much larger. Room for a family and for Dad NOT to get bored. Should be room to hang a swing for him too.

When I colony bred in the aviary..................an aviary of 10 meters by 3 meters by around 8 ft tall.....I was home all day as I work from home. But it still wasnt enough checking to stop some pretty nasty situations.

At least now with the breeding cabinets, there is almost no stress on the breeding pairs.

Yep, well after these guys have their first clutch will be removing the breeding boxes till next year now we've desided after reading the comments, They arn't fighting over the boxes which is good but to prevent the babies in couple months time trying to breed, so that probably be best,

 

This question has been on my mind for ages, I hope someone could help me with it,

 

What attracts one budgie to another?

What attract one to the other.The desire to breed.There is no rocket sience.

Like Macka says breeding is the main attraction, but I’m sure more comes into it than that, but I think we would have to be a Budgie to know. For certain birds like some birds better than others & if they have a choice will pick a certain partner over another, as if you pair them in a cage & they breed, once you return them back to the aviary they will often go back to their first choice.

I think that there was a study done with ultra violet light to show up colours that are not usually visible to human eyes and females chose males that had greater amounts of certain colours consistantly , but the urge to mate and reproduce was mostly overpowering and females would use any available male given no other choice . The urge to reproduce being the main factor with the female being the one decides if and when , but who knows what goes on in a females mind.(A mystery to males of most species).

Bubbles.

I had a lovely golden face type 2 normal blue boy and his chosen hen was a grey. When she unfortunately died he spiralled into a depression and I thought I would lose him. The only way to put a spark back into his eye was to find him another grey hen. He seemed only to like the grey girls.