Now that I am back into breeding, I have decided to have another crack at a breeding journal.

 

My last one ran dry as the only two chicks produced for that season died.

Not only that, but after that particular season I had about half of my good birds kick the bucket, which sent me into a little 'I'm not breeding anymore' spiral.

I knew it would pass though.

 

So I'm hoping my new setup will favour me with better results.

This is what I have so far:

 

Cage #5 DF spangle cock x Blue Dominent Pied Hen

 

Cage #6 Grey Green Opaline cock x Sky Normal Hen

 

Cage #7 Grey Opaline cock x Green Cinnamon Hen

 

Cage #9 Cobalt cock x Grey Cinnamon Hen

 

Cage #10 Violet Spangle cock x Grey Cinnamon Spangle Hen

 

 

 

 

I have plans for more pairs, I am just waiting for them to come into condition a little more.

 

I also have 11 new birds ready to be put out once they are free from quarantine

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have already planned which bird is going where and I'm excited to get started.

The albino hen is going with a split Lutino cock I have which should be interesting as she is my only albino

Goodluck, everything sounds and looks really good. I love your albino hen she looks beautiful. Please continue to post pictures

Your breeding room looks really nice. I'm glad you didn't let those setbacks keep you down.

New pair put down,

 

Cage #11 Green Opaline cock x Albino hen

 

I have tried breeding this cock before and he fertilised 100% of the eggs...it was just unfortunate that the hen knocked the eggs around and killed them

So I'm hoping he has as much success this time

 

The albino hen, as well as the other birds in the second quarantine cage, came from R. Waddington.

He put them on Doccycyclene (sorry if I spelt it wrong) before I picked them up. So they are all on a probotic at the moment.

The hen just has hers in the breeding cabinet

Another New Pair down

 

Cage #2 Green Opaline cock x Normal Cobalt Hen

 

Update on Pairs

 

Cage #5 DF spangle cock x Blue Dominent Pied Hen - 1 egg

 

Cage #6 Grey Green Opaline cock x Sky Normal Hen - 1 egg

 

Cage #7 Grey Opaline cock x Green Cinnamon Hen - 2 eggs

Update on pairs.

 

Cage #2 Green Opaline cock x Normal Cobalt Hen = Hen has been inside box and kicked out a bunch of shavings, but no sign of an egg yet.

 

Cage #5 DF spangle cock x Blue Dominent Pied Hen = 2 eggs, no sign of fertility yet.

 

Cage #6 Grey Green Opaline cock x Sky Normal Hen = 3 eggs, no sign of fertility yet

Cage #7 Grey Opaline cock x Green Cinnamon Hen = 3 eggs, two fertile

Cage #9 Cobalt cock x Grey Cinnamon Hen = Hen has been sitting in the nest the last couple of days like she has eggs, yet there are none

Cage #10 Violet Spangle cock x Grey Cinnamon Spangle Hen = 2 eggs, no sign of fertility yet

Cage #11 Green Opaline cock x Albino hen = 1 egg, no sign of fertility yet.

This means that even though I only know of two fertile eggs so far, this breeding round is going about 1000 times better than the last just by having eggs lol

Hi Maddy, your breeding room and birds look great. Good luck with it this season.

Thanks Robyn

 

There are two more pairs in the cabinets now, which brings the total to 9

 

 

So the pairs are:

 

Cage #1 YF Dominent Pied cock x YF Cinnamon Hen

 

Cage #2 Green Opaline cock x Normal Cobalt Hen (0 eggs)

 

Cage #3 Normal Cobalt cock x Cinnamon Grey Green Hen

 

Cage #5 DF spangle cock x Blue Dominent Pied Hen = (2 eggs)

 

Cage #6 Grey Green Opaline cock x Sky Normal Hen = (3 eggs)

 

Cage #7 Grey Opaline cock x Green Cinnamon Hen = (3 eggs, 2 fertile)

Cage #9 Cobalt cock x Grey Cinnamon Hen = (0 eggs)

Cage #10 Violet Spangle cock x Grey Cinnamon Spangle Hen = (2 eggs)

 

Cage #11 Green Opaline cock x Albino hen = (2 eggs)

 

I haven't yet filled the bottom 3 (hence the missing numbers). There is nothing wrong with them, its just a pain to get down there lol

But I will only fill them if I need to.

 

So at the moment there are quite a few pairs with eggs, but no sign of fertility.

Its getting me a little worried as pairs 5, 6, and 7 laid there's around the same time. I will give them a little longer though.

But so far only the one nest has fertile, so I'll see what happens

Edited March 12, 201213 yr by Maddy

I don't usually check for fertility until there are at least 5 eggs. And then I only expect the three oldest to show signs of fertility, not the two newest. So don't get discouraged, it's still early yet.

Well some of the, are still laying (4 extras today spread out amongst 4 nests) so I think i might just be jumping the gun a bit.

I have a hunch that the nest with the fertile ones, the hen started sitting straight away, hence why it's the only one...just a theory

Hi Maddy, some hens will sit straight away some wait an egg or two then sit.

good luck Maddy - the cages look great! wish i could get a nice set up like that. Saddly I don't think hubby will let me take over that much of the garden shed lol. (even thought right now all it has is old cages in it)

Hey Maddy, I diidn't want to run away with this in Robyn's thread, so I'm bringing it up over here:

 

Posted 40 minutes ago

 

I have a hen that wouldn't even let her eggs go cold before eating them.

I only know this because I caught her laying, scared her out of the box when i checked, and she went straight in and ate it lol

 

Needless to say I haven't bred with her since. But that's good news about the normal looking eggs

 

I wanted to ask you, did you try giving that hen fake eggs, to teach her that they are inedible? I'm not sure if it will work with your hen, but it did with one of mine that was an egg breaker. You can buy plastic white budgie eggs, or I have heard of some people using marbles.

Actually, I did buy fake eggs only on sunday. I saw them and thought that they may work.

 

She's not the best hen, but I figured if I put her to a really nice cock I may have some success.

I have been persistently candling eggs hoping for some fertility. While pair #7 has all three full (and I like the cock so that's a plus) the others all seem clear at the moment, but it is still early.

 

However while candling the eggs in Pair #6's nest, I noticed two of the eggs have a large red vein forming around the outside of the egg.

I cannot for the life of me find any information on this so I am assuming that they will form more veins in the next few days, but I remember reading something somewhere that it means they're bad.

I dunno, I guess I'll find out.

 

Pair #5 laid a fresh egg yesterday, with an 8 day gap between the others so I am inclined to chuck those ones if she lays more (and they are infertile of course)

I have been meaning to grab a pen to mark eggs but I'm too scared I'll press to hard or get the wrong kind. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a non-toxic, water soluble pen...but I might feel better just not doing anything lol

 

So there is a lot more going on this season, so much so that I realised today that I don't have any rings lol Luckily my club's member in charge of rings live two streets away.

 

And just to jazz up this picture-less post, here's a picture I drew on my iphone last night

 

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z474/Pink-Budgie/Screenshot2012-03-15at114057PM.png

Edited March 16, 201213 yr by **KAZ**

how many days old is the egg? and when did you notice mum start to brood?

 

it could just be the very start of veins for a fertile one.

I'm hoping it is, I will be happy even if it's only 2/4 eggs.

 

The dates of the 4 eggs she is sitting on is 5/3, 7/3, 10/3, 12/3

She was on and off the eggs for a while, but it seems now she's really getting down to it, so I would say after the egg laid on the 10th

Which all adds up really, being the 16th that gives that egg 6 days to start showing.

 

Its just the one red vein that got me worried. I'm used to getting a red glow and lots of little veins

I see what you mean, there should be something starting to show. yes I remember a red glow to eggs as well. guess it is too hard to get a picture?

I had another look today. I compared the eggs with the veins with the clear eggs. They seem to be a bit darker today and especially compared to the other two.

So I'll wait until tomorrow. If they haven't changed I'll get a picture.

 

I also did an egg count today (with 3 eggs being laid today) and I'm up to 24, with 3 definite fertile and majority of others two early to tell

Good luck Maddy with your breeding, it all sounds very promising.

1st chick hatched today. It hatched in nest #7

 

I took this opportunity to put some nesting back in the box, as the chick was just laying on the hard wood.

Needless to say, the hen didn't like it and immediately began to kick some out. But she'll get over it.

 

However the chick didn't have anything in his crop as far as I could see, but I don't know how long since he hatched.

I couldn't see any egg remnants.

But I have to go out this morning, so I'll have to check when i get back.

okay so I left home at 9 and got back at 12 and the chick still hadn't been fed.

So I sprung into action, got some hand rearing formula, watered it down to a liquid and put it in a 3ml syringe.

 

There is something magical about watching the baby take its first little gulps

My efforts were in vain, as I got back tonight and the chick was dead, still not fed.

 

One of the other eggs is peeping, but I'm not sure if I should give the hen another chance or foster it out straight away

Edited March 28, 201213 yr by **KAZ**

So another chick hatched this morning. I don't have to work till lunchtime so I can keep an eye on it.

 

In the meantime, I thought it was overdue to remove all the empty eggs from my bird room

 

 

23 infertile eggs were removed. The really poopy one on the top is a DIS I removed from the nest with the one chick.

Its really disheartening to have that many clear eggs, especially because there is another 6 out there I know is clear also, I just haven't removed them.

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. 1 chick out of 30 eggs is really bad.

The other nest that had one fertile, I'm pretty sure that is a DIS as well. Shining the torch through, it looked very green.

 

Can anyone enlighten me as to why my success rate is non existent?

wow thats lot of eggs, sorry they are all infertile i dont know why ur success rate isnt very good sorry