Hi,

 

I've been raising budgies for a while now since my parents enjoy looking after them as pets but I've never seen any of them mate before... Just recently my neighbour decided to give me one of his old aviaries and I was wondering what is needed in the aviaries so that my budgies can live in it and hopefully breed.

Few more specific needed:

 

How many budgies (male/female)?

Size of aviary?

What will you do with the babies?

Are you prepared to spend quite a bit of money on supplements etc to try and avoid problems?

Are you prepared top potentially spend hundreds at the vet if there is problems?

Breeding is stressful, are you prepared for the reality that some of your budgies might die in the process?

Aviary breeding or what is called COLONY breeding is the hardest thing to do with a lot of heartaches, fights and deaths. As MB says size of aviary and set up is super important.

 

here is a link to an article that will help.... colony vs closed breeding

Welcome to the forum Fayt hope you find it very enjoyable! Now about your birds... You will find quite a few people on here that strongly discourage breeding in an avairy because of the problems it can create.... ie. fighting and killing... Here are a couple of safe guards that you can put in place to MINIMISE arguements between birds:-

 

Have double the nest boxes required. (if you have 6 pairs you will need 12 nest boxes)

Have all the nestboxes at the same height. (budgies like to be up as high as possible)

 

I have to stress that these will only MINIMISE the problems... the other and much more safer option is to cabinet breed.

 

You can do this by having your pairs in cabinets (cages) while they are breeding... This way you know who the parents are, they arn't fighting over nest boxes, you only need 6 nest boxes (for 6 pairs) and you won't get hens going into the wrong nest box and throwing out the babies... Breeding is not an easy thing. Its your choice which way you go but in the long run most people either cabinet breed or give up on breeding all together. Good Luck and let us know how it all goes!

thanks for the info... never kept my budgies in an aviary before so i didn't know...

 

but for closed breeding... is it mainly selecting a pair of budgies that you want to breed and placing them together in one of the breeding cabinet?

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by Fayt

thanks for the info... never kept my budgies in an aviary before so i didn't know...

 

but for closed breeding... is it mainly selecting a pair of budgies that you want to breed and placing them together in one of the breeding cabinet?

Yes. In this way you have more control over what happens, can check eggs and babies better and no interference from other budgie with nest or chicks.

Well personally for me it would be more about the safety of the birds them selves.

 

I'm the experimentaly type so when the time comes I'll just get a hen and a cock and put them in. I'm not planning on doing the whole show side of things, I just want to see what different colours I can get.

 

Its up to the individual breeder though, if you want blues you can pick a pair that will give you blues the possibilities are endless.

 

The other option is to see who pairs up in the avairy and then put them into the cabinets together. Good luck and keep us posted.

If breeding is suppose to be done separately... then is the aviary only supposed to be used for as budgie living space? (as in, after breeding placing the budgies back into the aviary, only taking them out when breeding, etc.)

 

And are you suppose to put nest boxes into an aviary if it is just for them to live in?

Nestboxes in an aviary IS colony breeding. Nestboxes can force budgies who arent old enough to breed. To have nestboxes in an aviary you must be sure every budgie in there is either over 12 months of age or under 4 years, especially hens. If the aviary is seen as their play area and you just remove pairs for breeding into cabinets, it might be the better way to go.

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by KAZ

Thanks... i think i'm getting the right idea of how to do it

 

By the way, is it advisable to place budgies that have been living in a cage in the house into an aviary?

Thanks... i think i'm getting the right idea of how to do it

 

By the way, is it advisable to place budgies that have been living in a cage in the house into an aviary?

Thats fine...they will love the freedom. But if tame they wont stay tame for long in an aviary...they will have freedom and independance

you don't need a nest box in the avairy if you are going to cabinet breed. The birds only use the nest box if they are going to breed and by having one in there they will think they should be breeding... The main things you need for an avairy are different sized perches native branches are best. A seed feeder, something to feed them vegetables and a water dispenser. There are other things that you can put in to if you look in the FAQ sections...

Hi & Welcome .....

 

 

 

I have and sometimes still colony breed - yes don't all be shocked -

I do it with 2 hens at a time and so far haven't had a problem ... Touch wood

When it comes to my show stock they will be cage bred .

 

The trick with colony breeding is KNOWING your HENS!

 

I had 3 hens that no matter what would fight for the death even if they were with other hens in a breeding facility ....

 

So these were bred separately .. Aviary breeding is just as hard as cage breeding when you do it right

anyone can have an aviary add nest boxes and birds and hope they breed-

9 time out of ten there will be problems

 

Best way i found to do it is as follows

If you have got 1 pair i see no problem in that if you have 2 pairs would be a good idea to watch the hens

This is the most important part if they fight over a nest box separate them.

 

Have 2 - 3 time more nest boxes then hens - have the nest boxes spaced out evenly no less then 45cm apart - have them ALL PLACE AT EQUAL HEIGHTS - HAVE THEM ALL THE SAME STYLE AND MAKE .....

 

Now I am not telling you to do it or not to do it ... I didn't have the facilities to cage breed my birds and the ones that i attempted stressed them selves out . I did what worked best for me ....

 

Good luck

 

Essentials for an aviary is a CEMENT FLOOR! it's the best to keep clean - alternatively you can have a paver flooring but should have mesh under or over the pavers to stop mice and etc coming through them -

 

Perches should be like that of a cage set up different shapes and sizes - Toys are great for them to ... as the aviary is bigger means more toys

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by Neat

Hi Fayt :hi: ,

 

Being you are only just about to put your birds in the avairy, you will have some time before you need to make up your mind about breeding as we in Australia are coming into the warmer months of the year and it isn't advisable to breed during the warmer months. This will also give your birds some time to adjust to their new surroundings. Take this opportunaty to research, research and research. The more you know about breeding before you start the better and more than anything remember breeding is meant to be enjoyable, yes there are always problems but I find with the help of members on this forum they can generally be resolved and on the most part breeding is a wonderful but time consuming process.

Totally agree with Budgie Lover ..... couldn't have said *** better

I guess I should learn a bit more before I start... and maybe get some more budgies as right now I only have 2, where both are females...

I agree with BL also. To put it into perspective for you. I had five pairs down to breed at the start of my breeding season. I lost one hen to Canker and two cocks to accidents in the cage In the end I had four clutches layed, one was abandoned by the hen and went cold. Out of approximately twenty eggs I had 12 hatch and out of those twelve despite the best of care I only have four chicks still alive. I am about to splint one of the chicks due to a minor development abnormality(due to the poor care recieved by mum after the death of the dad). I am topping up all chicks once a day direct to the crop with a tube as they are being fostered to another pair after all the drama. Now that is just about worst case scenario, this season has been the worst ever as I have never lost a chick before this, but it is the sort of thing you must be prepared for.

Probably a silly question, but why shouldnt you breed in summer? Just too hot?

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by KAZ
only one T in the word hot

Yep too hot. If your breeding cages are in a temp controlled environement such as indoors or in a cooled breeding room then no worries

how hot is too hot? Like under a verandah is quite cool on hot days?

Edited November 5, 200816 yr by KAZ
typo....hot

The main things to realise is that even on a cool day the nest box will be very warm. My house is fairly cold due to poor insulation and even when I get up in the morning and the house is about 14 degrees I put my hand in the nest box on the cage in my family room and it's warm as toast in there. The amount of heat generated by just a few chicks is quite amazing. On a hot day it is very hard for this heat to dissipate. The best bet is to have a second nest box prepared with ventilation holes so that on a hot day you can swap the chicks into a more airy box.

After going around the forums, I've seen quite a few people having their breeding cabinets in a shed with the rest of their budgies... do these breeding cabinets have to be close to the aviary or can they be somewhere else (eg. under shelter, etc.)?

Cheers MB

they don't have to be near the avairy. Its just easier to transport the budgies a shorter distance in the cage. Its whatever is easier for you. Some people say budgies breed better if they can hear other budgies too...

Some people say budgies breed better if they can hear other budgies too...

Budgies DO breed better if they can hear the rest of them in an aviary. They do not breed well if in cage inside an aviary with free budgies crawling all over their breeding cages however