Hi. I have 3 questions.

 

1) One of my hens (Fairi) is really messy. Her whole front is covered in a brown mess. Which I believe to be the food stuck to her after feeding her chicks. I have never seen a bird this messy before. She is a great mother and is feeding the shicks well. But I just wanted to know if this was something I should be worried about.

 

2) This may sound strange but I have a really beautiful male Blue Boy. He does not go near any of the females... I am 100% sure he is a male. He kisses and feeds the other males. I have 2 hens that I have tried to pair him with, but he just isn't interested. I am breeding in a Aviary. He just kisses up to the boys... Should I take him out, as he seems to be distracting one of my other males who shares his time between Blue boy and Cinderella (hen who has not bred yet).

 

3) If I wanted to introduce another male to take blue boy's place should I wait for the current chicks to fledge.. Is it safe to introduce a male with other pairs sitting on eggs or raising chicks.

 

Thankyou in advance for any info you have!! I spend alot of time looking up all the possibilities for my birds... So anything you have to say would really be appreciated...

• It’s not common that birds get too messy, but I have seen it more in show type Budgies that have a lot of feather. If it were fairly minor I wouldn’t worry, but just keep a watch on her & if it seems to be getting too bad, maybe you will have to resort to removing some, by washing her.
  
• Re the cock bird, I have had birds like that that only seem interested in other males & have tried breeding with them, in cabinets, but usually they don’t produce fertile eggs. If it isn’t causing any great problems you could just leave it in the aviary, but if you think it’s causing too much interruption to other birds it might be best removed.
  
• I would think it’s safe to introduce another male, just watch what goes on at first…I would never just introduce another female in such a situation, but males are different. When colony breeding in an aviary, as I’m sure you must have read else where on this site, it’s always a risk, so close supervision is always needed.
  

RE: Your messy hen - Are the chicks messy too?? Is the mess a dark brown when wet??? Is it stuck to their beaks and feet etc?? It could be wet nest (tummy bug). If so, give basic seed and 20ml per L of water of (20% or more, pure ) Raspberry cordial, daily for a week. This should clear up any tummy bugs, and if its not a tummy bug, it wont do them any harm

The babies are all fine. It's just on the mother under her beak on her chest.

I have a messy hen also. She has put down her 2nd clutch and she is already being very messy with her babies. When she doesnt have babies, she keeps herself very clean, but just seems to keep a messy nest box. I have resigned myself to just having to check her babies often and cleaning them myself and cleaning out her box regularly. I have tried putting in things like woodshavings, oats and bran to absorb the mess, but she just cleans that all out and last time I did this repeatedly and she ended up abandoning her babies and setting up a new box. Fortunately, I managed to foster most of the babies and dad looked after the oldest two. None of my other hens are like this and in between clutches, she is perfectly "normal", but has always been a dirty housekeeper :mellow:

Point 2. I had a male that was not interested in any Hens until I left him a the breeding cage with a hen that chased him around for about 30 mins. After a day I noticed them bonding and have 3 chicks from him. Sadly he passed away. The chicks are all fine and I have fostered them to another pair who only had 1 chick of their own.