yay!!!! my sky blue opaline hen has hatched her first egg 1/9 and hes looking healthy so far, he's had his first feed and his mother is very caring for itself and the other eggs,

ill get some pics up later when it stops raining

Edited May 25, 200915 yr by KAZ

congratulations

Congratulations.

Thanks, im excited to see what color's their gonna be

UPDATE!

 

love is in the air in my aviary once more, still the 1 baby chick in the box (been 4 days now) and yesterday morning i looked in the box next to her's, and my albino hen has layed 2 eggs, and then i had a look at the other nestbox opposite it, and my other sky blue opaline hen which looks exactly the same as the hen who has the chick, has also got a egg in her box, and then this morning i looked in the other box next to the opaline hen and my type 2 yellowface cobalt hen has started laying again (was unsuccessful a few weeks ago, layed 2 then she let them go cold and eventually abandoned them for the other hen to take over the box)

 

so im having second thoughts on handrearing at the moment cause if i do, then ill have around 30 budgies in my handrearing cage

Congratulations on the baby and eggs... Can't wait for pictures...

 

With the handraising you can handraise a few from each nest and leave some for mum and dad, if you wanted to handraise but don't want 30 of them... And I don't blame you that is alot to look after...

 

Good luck though...

Congratulations on the baby and eggs... Can't wait for pictures...

 

With the handraising you can handraise a few from each nest and leave some for mum and dad, if you wanted to handraise but don't want 30 of them... And I don't blame you that is alot to look after...

 

Good luck though...

Well thats a definite idea, will the hen's still look after their chicks in the box even when theirs half of them missing?

cause i was thinking about doing that cause 3/4 of my hens that have layed are the normal AUS budgie's, so they will only have nests of around 4-5 eggs, so what ill do is, ill take the whole albino nest out when their ready, and half of the cobalts, and sky blue opaline's nest out...so then its halved with each nest except for the albino nest

 

any idea's on how to take the nestboxes out to prevent more hens from laying, cause its 1 week from winter and i do not want them breeding until september/october

I have never had problems when removing babies for handraising even if it's half of the nest... But others here will defiantly be more experienced in that department of handraising and I'm sure others can give you more advice and share their experiences on the subject too...

 

Removing nests... Hmmm... Can be tricky, cause you don't want to remove them all and leave one nest in there while you are waiting for babies to fledge... Other hens will want that nest and there could be fights... I would maybe leave the nests in there till all young have fledge but when a hen starts to lay new eggs, replace them with the false eggs so that will stop her laying more eggs (draining her of her calcium supply) and you don't have to wait for more babies to fledge... *The waiting game, everything around in a big circle same thing over and over again...*

 

I'm sure others can help out too... ... Good luck and can't wait for pictures...

any idea's on how to take the nestboxes out to prevent more hens from laying, cause its 1 week from winter and i do not want them breeding until september/october

 

One of the pitfalls of colony breeding....

 

I agree with Littlebudgie....

Edited May 22, 200915 yr by SJW

Thanks SJW... It was the only safe way I could think of... Hope some others have some ideas too..

i have 4 breeding cabinets, that i can keep 4 pairs of budgies in till they come out of breeding condition. problem is they have to stay in the wooden shed, and theirs a problem with mice in their, so i cannot keep them in their.

 

ill just wait till theirs no eggs in box's and take them out....its just a very big problem with colony breeding, every single pair is mating like their is no tomorrow, and they will want a nest to lay the eggs,

will they still lay the egg if its due to pass out of her? without a nestbox

Yes a hen will still lay an egg even without a nesting box if she has one inside...

 

If you have breeding cabinets and you still want to keep the budgie pairs in that, than once the young have fledge block the nesting box hole with a piece of towel/cloth, that will also help the hen stop laying eggs...

i suppose you could do that, but keep an eye on the hen to make sure she is not egg-bound. Ive heardof budgies laying eggs in corners.

good luck :rofl:

second baby has hatched! one of the eggs was a darkish color in the egg, so im assuming DIS? and the reason that the hatching of the second chick was 4 days after the first

Yeah, I think that lil guy didn't make it...

Another Update, 3rd egg hatched late last night,

also my albino hen has layed her 4th, and so has my type 2 yellow face opaline cobalt hen, and my cinnamon green clearwing has a massive egg bum, but hasnt layed her egg yet, (she has been sleeping in her box for the past 2 weeks??) and also my quail have set up a nest with 2 eggs so far

Update: 4/9 eggs hatched in total in the opaline's nest, 3 were infertile, 1 was broken, and the other hatched but the chick was terribly out sized and aged by the other chicks and was neglected from food (i tried fostering him to the other hen's with egg's but they pecked him with no consideration so i had to let the mother do her best, unfortunately he only lasted 36 hours, out of the chicks so far, 1 is pure lutino(the father is normal green until Kaz told me that is was split for lutino) and the other has somewhat dark and white pin feathers on its wing and a fuzzy body, and i'm not good with telling them from a young age so ill have to wait a bit longer

 

the albino hen has stayed at 5 eggs all are fertile , which is perfect as she is only a little pet type, her first is due to hatch in the next 4 days. my T2 yellow face Opaline cobalt violet hen has got 6 eggs, 1 looking infertile and the her first is due to hatch in 5-6 days..

my green clear wing has still got a massive bum and still has not laid an egg even though she is sleeping all night in nest box, i fear she may be egg bound, but i cant say for sure

 

other then that all is looking good in the aviary of love

Your green clearwing has "issues" and I do not think you will get an egg out of her at all. When hens do this they are what is termed an internal egg layer. She cannot produce or expel and egg. She wont produce you any eggs at all. She must be culled.

Your green clearwing has "issues" and I do not think you will get an egg out of her at all. When hens do this they are what is termed an internal egg layer. She cannot produce or expel and egg. She wont produce you any eggs at all. She must be culled.

what do you mean by "culled"

Culled means to remove. I'd say in this case Kaz means to remove her from your breeding team.

Your green clearwing has "issues" and I do not think you will get an egg out of her at all. When hens do this they are what is termed an internal egg layer. She cannot produce or expel and egg. She wont produce you any eggs at all. She must be culled.

what do you mean by "culled"

Not used again for breeding. Sold for pet perhaps ?

Alrighty, ill give her back to the pet shop, what about her huge egg bum, will it go away?

Edited June 5, 200915 yr by mattdog2

Anyone know?

UPDATE:

4 baby's looking healthy, 3 hens 1 male, the albino is the male which is no surprise cause the father is split for it, as for the other 3, 2 look like greys, but have got blue tails,(too early to confirm its proper color) and one of them has got a green/yellow color in the wing pin feathers. so most likely a normal grey green.

my type 2 yellow face violet Opaline cobalt has hatched her 2nd baby, both looking healthy and well fed, my albino hen has not hatched any of her 5 yet, 4/5 are fertile and one u can hardly see through so expecting a hatchling any day now

my lutino hen, has layed an egg also, her mate is a normal Grey green, and my dominant pied sky blue cock-bird has mated with my violet Opaline and she has layed her first egg. so far so good with the breeders,

 

(off topic news) my pied hen Cockatiel has settled with 3 eggs, first one is due to hatch in 1 week, and my pair of quail have finished their nest and have started sitting at 5 eggs, so no more left to lay.