August 15, 200915 yr well done! yiu've got a good routine to follow. i have a similar breeding cage size to your ones, and they were meant for canaries but i am now supposing they are okay size for the birds which is good :
August 16, 200915 yr great setup Nubbly good luck with your breeding :)What sort of kitty litter do you use Nubbly
August 16, 200915 yr Author Thanks Guys. Fingers crossed for a reasonable season this year. The short ring year and breeding stacks of clearwings and blackeyes but not many normals left me feeling unfulfilled!!!! Splat the kitty litter I use is just a natural attapulgite - the brand is Fussy Cat but whatever attapulgite would work I assume. Some of the birds do chew on it initially but none have had problems ever (been using it for 4-5 years) and they stop eating it within a day or so (maybe the novelty wears off). Some people I have spoken too also use attapulgite under nest bedding but I don't like to dry the nest out when there are eggs present as they need a reasonable humidity to hatch properly. If the nest gets sweaty with chick in, then I use attapulgite under the pine shavings and this keeps things nice and dry.
August 16, 200915 yr Great set up, hope you do well this year... looking forward to a drink at Rocky.
August 16, 200915 yr Author You'll have to have a drink for me Daz coz I won't be making it to Rocky next year unfortunately........ will actually be sailing around canals in France & Germany at that time so you'll have to hold up the bar without me ..........
August 16, 200915 yr You'll have to have a drink for me Daz coz I won't be making it to Rocky next year unfortunately........ will actually be sailing around canals in France & Germany at that time so you'll have to hold up the bar without me .......... Dave and I will be driving all that way with the team so we will be definately proping up the bar when we get there... .... France and Germany... very nice and warm that time of year. :hap:
August 18, 200915 yr Author You'll have to have a drink for me Daz coz I won't be making it to Rocky next year unfortunately........ will actually be sailing around canals in France & Germany at that time so you'll have to hold up the bar without me .......... Dave and I will be driving all that way with the team so we will be definately proping up the bar when we get there... .... France and Germany... very nice and warm that time of year. Make sure you prop up the bar AFTER you get the team there though Hopefully Dave won't have a terrible illness again next year coz he managed to spread it around very well in a big open community centre - I imagine a few hours in the car would be no obtacle whatsoever!!!!!! I'll be thinking of you guys when the time comes.......... hehehe not!
August 21, 200915 yr Author OMG we have our first egg already...... All my pairs were down by the end of the day last Saturday and this morning we already have our first egg and many other hens looking extremely eggy and very keen to be in the nest - maybe some more tomorrow??? This first egg is from my beautiful '05 Skyblue boy whom initially was a bit gay and would not pair up with a hen so lived in the hen flight for the next 12 months so he was a bit of a late starter anyway. Still since 2007 when he successfully bred for the first time, he has produced a large number of super babies from different hens, a couple of which were selected for the Nats and one lovely grey boy who won Best in Show. The hen I have admired since breeding her. She has a lovely full rounded outline of head and good depth of mask plus she blows when relaxed - something I've been aiming for in all my birds for sometime now with results really starting to show.
August 21, 200915 yr :emoticon112: A good sign of things to come.............hoping for lots more in your nestboxes.
August 21, 200915 yr Isn't it just wonderful when this happens! It leaves you with a warm satisfied feeling inside. Edited August 21, 200915 yr by renee
August 22, 200915 yr Author Woo hoo 5 now. We have lift off. Now to wait an see if fertility matches keen-ness.
September 15, 200915 yr Author Well at the end of last week our babies started to hatch. After an initial quik start of egg laying it was evident that my big blue x grey green hen's entire nest of eggs were infertile so they got swapped out with a clutch of fertile eggs from an old white lacewing cock and his mate who surprisingly produced a whole nest of fertile eggs. Another unexpected nest from 2x '08 birds both of which bred for me late last season were also infertile so their eggs also got swapped out for the same pairing that produced my 2009 3rd Place Nats Lacewing boy. So here are some of the babies. Yellow Lacewing x Yellow Lacewing - this pairing is the one that produced the 3rd Place nats boy, they are being raised by a pair of normals who were SUPPOSED to be breeding more of my normal/normal line. Note the red eye of a lacewing looks the same as an ino (in effect they are a cinnamon ino after all). This is the older white lacewing boy that I mentioned above. He did not produce anything for me last year and it was this year or bust. Surprisingly he & his girlfriend produced a whole nest of fertile eggs (except the first). His eggs are now under another pair and they will hopefully start another round of eggs soon. Again note the red eyes of the baby. I had picked out 3 blackeyed self pairings but in the end only put down one pair as I can decide if I will continue with this variety or not. They have one chickie. Note the plum eye of the cinnamon as blackeyes are cinnamon dilutes. Also have clearwings starting to hatch out. Again note the difference between the red, plum & black eyes. Edited September 15, 200915 yr by nubbly5
September 15, 200915 yr I am so glad for you about the lacewing cock.he is beautiful Great results...you'd have to be happy thus far.
September 15, 200915 yr Author I am so glad for you about the lacewing cock.he is beautiful Great results...you'd have to be happy thus far. Happy about the lacewings but a bit disappointed that my normal/normal breeding takes a step backwards....... I am hoping that raising a clutch will stir them into action for the second round. But overall yes, happy!
September 15, 200915 yr looking good Nubbly, I just love your Lacewings I myself have had a bad year for breeding clear egg after clea r egg
September 15, 200915 yr Author Thanks Splat. Sorry to hear about your breeding season - it's a bugger when the best laid plans don't turn out (no pun intended there).
September 15, 200915 yr you have had a mixed bag so far - some pleasing features, some disappointments. Hopefully things will be on the up and up from here.
