Well, I could hardly get a turn on the computer yesterday, cuz school was cancelled due to freezing rain.

Plus I had a probem with Photobucket called "operator error"

I accidently uploaded 30 pictures, 3 times, and into the wrong albums, so I had to spend my whole turn figuring out which 60 picture to delete!

 

so yesterday's update is:

 

Phoebe and Bailey have chick number 4:

 

 

 

(I'm pretty sure that last egg is clear, so I don't expect any more in this nest.)

 

 

 

It looks as though Finnie and Patrick have skipped hatching out egg number 7, so I think it was clear, and I expect egg number 8 to hatch today. It's time to go look, so I will update this again, later on. (And I have 30 pictures of babies to post, too! )

Loving the pink bums... whatch out for the age difference sometimes the older babies are food hogs... But great job...

Thanks. So far every new little one has been well fed, but I will definitely be keeping watch!

 

One thing I've noticed , is that all of my chicks seem to have white down! Surely that can't be. I must not be able to tell white from grey. I will be doing a search for baby pics, so I can compare other people's chicks for down color.

 

Meanwhile, here is my morning report:

 

 

Finnie and Patrick had an egg with a crack in it. It was kind of shrunken and shriveled in that spot. I noticed the crack last night, and was hoping it was about to hatch, but it didn't, so today I peeled away the shell to see what I could see.

 

My first ever dead in shell chick. I could tell it had been dead, and it wasn't me that killed it, so I'm glad I opened it. Just looked really tiny, but normal, as far as I could tell. Laid it to rest in the trash, on a bed of discarded seed.

 

I don't mind losing the ones that never hatched. I just hope all my pink hatchlings turn out okay.

 

Now for some of yesterday's bucketload of photos.

 

Finnie and Patrick's nest:

 

FP#1

 

 

This kind of looks boy-like in the cere, doesn't it? That means it must have grey down. What do you experts think?

 

 

 

 

 

FP#2 (I'm thinking hen)

 

 

 

FP#3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(No pics of phoebe and bailey's, cuz they were still too little.)

 

Colleen and Sean's nest:

 

CS#1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I had pics of CS # 2-6, but now Ii don't know where they are. Probably deleted those from Photobucket. Well, I know they are still in my home computer files, so if they are worth uploading to photobucket, I'll do that later.

 

As far as opaline and white down is concerned, The only way I will get any opaline's from Patrick and Finnie is if Patrick is /opaline. So I don't expect them to have 100% opaline hen chicks, even though stranger things have happened. so I will keep waiting and watching, and learning.

Such GORGEOUS little chicks!!! Sorry about the one who didn't make it . Our first ever chick died while trying to hatch so when the next one was hatching I sort of helped it along I was so scared of losing her too! She's happy and healthy at months now but I wouldn't do that again...toooooo risky!

 

How many chicks do you have right now in total?

Ohhhhh they are SO CUTE!!!! I love when they're at that stage Your photos are brilliant! And your babies are wonderful, congrats!

 

Sorry about the unhatched pinkie though

Thanks, guys!

 

There were a total of 21 eggs layed. 1 was clear (so far) and 1 DIS, and there are 2 left to hatch out still in Finnie's box. So that leaves...16 hatchlings at this point.

Double checking...7 for Colleen, 4 for Phoebe, 6 for Finnie. See, it's a good thing to double check. I guess I have 17 chicks! (I have it all written down on notecards, too, in case I forget.)

 

I got some more pics of Colleen's oldest this afternoon. I could swear this chick is greywing! That is a surprise, both parents must be split for it, then. Also, can anybody see whether this chick looks opaline or not?

 

 

 

 

I twisted the lamp away, to reduce glare, and I still think the cere says hen. But it depends on the opaline part.

This chick does look greywing but I think normal not opaline by the grey down...more experienced folks could probably tell you more! Gorgeous!

Well, after doing a search, and reading all the info on the baby opaline post, I think that what I'm seeing as white isn't necessarily really white. It seems that grey down babies have white "down-pins", but the down isn't really white when it comes in. I will have to watch mine as they develop. Definitely a learning experience.

 

DF, I could see CS#1 being a boy, if that is the case. Time will tell.

Congratulations Finnie! Your chickies look gorgeous!

 

Yes, the first one does look like a Greywing but I'll leave it to the mutation/variety experts as I don't usually venture a guess till Week 3.

Check out my greywing topic and see how the skyble greywings looked as chickies....it will help you ID yours.

Check out my greywing topic and see how the skyble greywings looked as chickies....it will help you ID yours.

 

 

That was a big help, Kaz. I think he's definitely greywing, and after looking at all those normal down baby pics, I think I was just assuming grey down was a lot darker grey. My guy is probably not opaline, after all.

 

Hopefully as more of the seven feather up, I will be able to get a good comparison of white vs grey down. I guess for opaline, I am going to start looking for a much brighter white.

 

At this point, all my chick's down seems the same, and I think it would be just as unusual to have 7 boys as 7 girls, so sooner or later, I'm sure I'll notice somebody in there looking different.

 

I can really appreciate all the time you spend posting pictures, Kaz. Do you know of some way to post them in bulk, because it gets time-consuming, doesn't it? But I'm glad they were there.

Thank you, Kaz!

Today I decided to focus on Finnie's clutch for a change. Here are the photos:

 

FP#1

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting how the two primary flight feathers are different colors.

 

 

FP#2

 

 

 

 

 

 

FP#3

 

 

Patrick appears to be split to blue! Yay!

 

FP#4

 

 

 

 

And one shot of Colleen's whole group:

Awww sweet. They are so cute!!

They are gorgeous Finnie!

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

Oh, and I've started seeing the difference between darker down and lighter down.

Awwww.

Aren't they sweet little jelly beans soooo cute

Today I decided to focus on Finnie's clutch for a change. Here are the photos:

 

FP#1

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting how the two primary flight feathers are different colors.

 

 

FP#2

 

 

 

 

Finnie the chicks are lovely ~ Well Done!

 

I don't know if you know it already but these ones look like Dominant Clearflighted Pieds to me.

I always figured Patrick, the father, was a regualr dom pied. Here is a good shot of his back, he's the yellow one, for anyone who didn't already know that.

 

 

So is it possible that he is actually clearflight pied?

 

The mother, Finnie, is normal, no pied at all, and I doubt if she's split to recessive pied, cuz she has no pied spot on her head. So that means the chicks can't be a combo pied, right? Only dom pied or clearflight split to normal, if I am correct.

So is it possible that he is actually clearflight pied?

Hard to say since his flights have been clipped ?

Oh yeah, I forgot about the clipped wings there. They have since grown back in, and they are a pale yellow color. Lighter than the rest of his yellow parts, but not white. I'll look around for a picture that shows them.

All your budgies are so pretty, Finnie.

Oh yeah, I forgot about the clipped wings there. They have since grown back in, and they are a pale yellow color. Lighter than the rest of his yellow parts, but not white. I'll look around for a picture that shows them.

In a yellow bird the flights would be white if a clearflighted pied wouldnt it ? Like this boy I once had Bubblegum

 

 

Oh yeah, I forgot about the clipped wings there. They have since grown back in, and they are a pale yellow color. Lighter than the rest of his yellow parts, but not white. I'll look around for a picture that shows them.

In a yellow bird the flights would be white if a clearflighted pied wouldnt it ? Like this boy I once had Bubblegum

 

 

 

 

Well, Bubblegum's markings look very much like Patrick's, so I will try to get some shots of Patrick's flights this morning after I "wake" them up. LOL

Well, I couldn't get Patrick to "hold still" this morning, so please excuse the adult nature of the photo.

 

 

 

Even though it's blurry, you can get the idea that there is yellow in his flight feathers!

 

(I wasn't really planning to let these pairs go a second round. Colleen and Sean are looking the worse for the wear, so any eggs they lay will be tossed, but maybe I will reconsider for Patrick and Finnie. :question: )

 

Here is a picture of Colleen and Sean's oldest.

 

He decided to come out of the nest box yesterday morning. I put him back in, and he hasn't come out again, but I made an ice cream carton igloo for him just in case. I don't think our American cardboard cartons work as well as your Australian plastic ones!

 

But it is okay for now. I put some oatmeal and seed mix in the bottom of it for bedding/eating practice.