Hi all,

 

I am worried!!

 

I have 4 pairs down.

 

1st pair

 

 

 

 

Which are in the process of laying their 2nd clutch

 

1st clutch first chick died (New Mum) but raised the best beautifully

 

 

2nd pair

 

 

Laid five inferitle eggs which I left with the hen for over a month before finally removing them about a week ago and no sight of laying a 2nd clutch, no huge poos etc.

 

3rd pair

 

 

This pair produced 6 eggs 1 being infertile

 

4th pair

 

 

This hen is a Henry George albino hen who is 4 years old, but was advised during auction that she had been bred from so thought I'd give it a go. Well, I had instant success, with her laying 6 eggs, 5 being fertile.

 

Now you have some background knowlegde this is my problem, the 3rd pair hatch first chick and let it die (very upsetting but I know this is common with first time pairs, taking note from my first pair who lost their first chick but went on to raise other nicely) so the 2nd and 3rd chicks hatch and hen begins to feed but not great, but I feel I need to let her learn so hope for the best, 4th chick hatches and other 2 still O.K. (but just), 5th and last chick hatches but is late in doing so and I find it flattened under hen, then the 4th dies and I start to really worry only 2 chick left. I go and buy some hand rearing formual and try to supplement the hens feeds not easy and I'm not very successful, this was on Thursday, then on Friday morning discover that 2nd chick and eldest of the 2 has also died. So with me at a loss to what is the best for the chick I forster it out to the 4th pair the Henry George hen who is 4 years old, (couldn't put it under the 1st pair because she has only just started laying again, and the 2nd isn't an experienced hen so although she sat beautifully I don't know whether she would have excepted a chick by itself) but my worry is this morning the albino hatched her 5th chick so with the foster she is raising 6 chicks, dad is great and has obviously been helping with feeding and also he is often in the box, I peeked in on them without warning yesterday afternoon to try and check if they were pushing the fostered chick aside and found both of them sitting on all the chicks together :hap: it was a beautiful sight and the foster was in the middle of the huddle.

 

Here is the foster chick in with the clutch it is the one with pinn feathers notice how its back bone is more evident because of loss of condition this is much more noticable in the photo without flash. Now I'd better mention foster chick who was the third in the clutch to hatch, hatched 11/9/08 and the first chick in the foster pairs clutch hatched on the 13/9/08.

 

 

 

Anyway is six chicks to many chicks for a 4 year old hen, although she seems to be a wonderful, very experienced mum. :hap: I hope this is not too confusing and I also tried to rotate the photos and it didn't seem to want to work.

 

Anyway any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If both parents are feeding and feeding well, they will be fine. Maybe you can move a chick or two into another nest in a few days ?

I don't meant to sound rude or mean, but do you clean out our nest boxes? and do you clean and disinfected them between rounds? I am asking this only due to the high amount of deaths from the one clutch

Hi Neat,

 

Not being rude at all, some beginners may not realise these things, yes I do, I have cleaned out the nest box this afternoon, after the last chick hatched. I don't really like cleaning them out during the hatching period, I clean them before they start hatching and after all eggs have hatched. I don't like to interupt them anymore than I need to during this stressful period. I also think this breeding box is worse because both hen and cock are spending alot of time in the breeding box.

Edited September 20, 200816 yr by Budgielover13

I was just thinking as missylu has been having alot of deaths in the nest box as well - I do the same as you wait till all eggs are hatched then clean

Well I feel dreadful, the foster chick is being fed beautifully and hen and cock are both caring for chicks, so are coping nicely with the 6, but I rung the foster chick 3 days ago and I'm not sure but I think I may have damaged its foot . I have rung 8 or so chicks now, 3 being after this chick and have never had a problem, but this chick I'm sorry to say it seems doomed, it never really sat up properly in the next box, but I never noticed if it had a bung foot and I picked this foot to put the ring on, because it wasn't throwing it around as much so who knows, there may have already been a problem, this is a lesson taught :book: , to observe the chicks more closely, so I have now decided that this will be the bird to bring inside and have as a pet. I'm sure I read somewhere that they don't go so well with a bung leg/foot but I will do my best to give this bird the best chance it has. I have already named it "Hobble" and will post a picture as soon as I down load them off my camera, but I have a budgie meeting to get to now and there's an avian vet coming which I don't know whether this makes me feel better or worse.

The orginal parents of the foster chick are birds which I got off one of the club members, so I am going to check with him tonight whether maybe they're too closly related, which is causing all the problems. Promise will post picture soon.

Well, there's good news and bad news, the bad news is almost all the show breeders said to put it out of its misery, more hassle than its worth but the good news is the vet said you can put a (flipper) as he called it on his foot, I would tend to say split, but thinking about it now, he probably says that because its for his foot not leg. So I'm thinking its worth a try! Do they have para-olympics for budgies .

Well here's the photo I promised of Hobble

 

 

As you can see his foot is very bad!! I so hope I didn't do anything when I was popping his ring on to contribute to his problem.

 

 

Anyway I have another problem now!!!

I think one or both of the parent/s may be feather plucking , here's a photo could someone give me there opinion please.

 

 

But they are doing a wonderful job at feeding because here is the baby of the clutch of 6 and even it's crop is that full it's ready to burst.

 

 

If you do agree with me about the feather plucking what do I do ?

Oh yeah, you've got a feather plucker :S

 

Do you have anyone you can foster to?

 

Good luck with that chicks foot, poor little thing... So he had a normal foot before rung?

I agree with the Feather Plucker .....

 

Are you able to put millet into the nest box or foster out some chicks -

 

There is a few things that can be done But i have been taking notes on Parents that pluck their babies

and there is a little pattern - I could suggest that you remove the nest box and put all the babies into

a igloo ..

 

But that is my opinion

Sorry Carolyn I can't help with a foster, only eggs at the moment

Sorry Libby,

I somehow missed your question, in relation to whether Hobbles foot was like that before rung, all I can say is I did choose this foot because the chick didn't seem to be flinging it around as much but I really can't say for sure. The only good to come from this situation is that, I now realize how important it is to take the chick out of the nest box and have a really good inspection each day, I think I was still a little worried about interupting Mum too much but really as long as you only have the one big interuption, and then maybe a quick peek at the end of the day, then they seem to handle it okay.

Once chicks arrive TWICE daily inspection are a must or we miss things. Regardless of how the Mum is she will settle down with routine checks. Its up to you to show her its going to be a regular thing and up to you to not fear her noise or biting behaviour when you check

I have had some really angry Mum's who squawk a lot and look to bite. I have had to chase them out of the nestbox, then use a plastic container lid to ensure they do not come back in the nest box whilst I check their young. It seems distressing at times, but there is little else I can do. You have to check the young, no matter what.