I have one pair who had a clutch of 5 chicks,3 of their babies have come out of the nest (#3 just today!)I have been placing the first 2 chicks back into the nestbox at night,is this safe to do?They are in the aviary with 5 other pairs that are nesting/sitting.The first baby is learning to fly & can now get upto where 1 of the other nestboxes are which is Storm's who is sitting on 6 eggs,I'm a little worried that baby is going to try & get in her box.Dad Elijah watches his babies very well & I keep half hourly checks over the aviary.The eldest baby is 33 days old baby 2 31 & baby 3 is 27 days old,4 & 5 are 25 & 23 days old still in the nestbox.The babies on the floor through the day & have been fine so far the other budgies come down to check them out but Elijah quickly attends them,he is a good daddy!At how old do you actually remove the babies to a nursery cage?I have seen baby 1 peck at food from the floor,but I can't tell if it is actually eating or not?Dad stills feeds them though.This is my first clutch I have ever had so I just want to make sure I do the right thing,& I don't want them to accidently fly into another nest & be attacked by another hen.Thanks for any help.

Apart from watchign them 24/7, there is litte you can do. I would think if a baby tried to get into another nestbox, there woudl be major objections from another pair. I think this would scare teh youngster off.

I used to colony breed ( never again ) and once one of my babies did go into another nestbox. Result ? The mother in that box and her chicks were killed by the fledged baby believe it or not

You ask about when to put them in a nursery cage .......this is kind of more a thing you do with babies that fledge from breeder cages and its where they go until such times as they can go out inot an aviary. Any budgies under 12 months of age should never be where breeding is going on and nestboxes are or you have trouble right from the start.

Maybe removing your fledged babies to a cage would be a good move assuming they are eating some on their own and are old enough to really be fledged fully feathered.

Thankyou,I will definately NOT be colony breeding next year,I have learnt the hard way why this method is so unpreffered sadly.I had to remove one of my badly injured hens after a fight for a vacant nestbox it was so sad watching my beloved hens trying to kill each other.I am removing the pairs as their clutches finish and removing parents after all babies fledge.I did everything recommended even pairs and 3x as many nestboxes but I still ran into problems.

Unfortunately that's one major problem with colony breeding, good idea to remove the parents after the chicks have fledged, just until all the chicks have fledged... once all the chicks have fledged take out all the nest box's and you can reintroduce all the parents again

 

I wouldn't just remove the nest boxes because you may find the parents who's chicks have fledged might try gaining access to another nest box that is already taken... so I think removing parents like you are doing is the best way

 

are you going to stop breeding all together or just stop colony breeding?

Edited November 13, 200915 yr by JimmyBanks