Hi all

 

I'm having problems with my budgies, which unfortunately could have been prevented, but now leave me with a difficult aviary situation.

 

The short story is, I have 5 birds (2 pairs and a single male) currently in an large aviary with 4 breeding boxes. One pair have two chicks in a nesting box, and the other pair have eggs in a different nesting box.

 

I am concerned about the pair with two chicks and whether or not they are safe with the mother still present in the aviary, along with another pair of birds and a lone male. The chicks are relatively close to leaving the nest and are being cared for by their father, who is very attentive. One of the chicks is now four weeks old. The other is three and a half weeks old.

 

I also wish to prevent the pair with eggs from breeding within the aviary, knowing now that colony breeding is less than ideal. But I'm not sure how best to go about this.

 

I'm willing to buy / make some breeding cages to house my pairs if necessary.

 

 

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The long story explains how I've ended up in this position. Recently I moved into a house with a beautiful bird aviary. My mum and dad, who have kept and bred budgies in a colony situation for years with success, kindly bought me 4 breeding pairs (8 birds) and set up 4 nesting boxes, all at the same height, although probably too close together. At this time I knew very little about breeding budgies and thought, based on my parents' experience of colony breeding, that my new set up was fine. But of course I soon ran into trouble.

 

The birds favoured two boxes in the aviary in particular. Eventually, without too much fuss, two pairs settled on two boxes (the pairs who now remain in the aviary). However, I had a dominant white hen, who was not in these two pairs, who was bothering one of the nesting hens (and displaying a strange attachment to the other nesting hen). I decided to remove the dominant white hen to prevent her from hurting my nesting hen. The dominant hen is now temporarily in a separate (small) cage of her own, near the large aviary.

 

After needing to separate the dominant white hen, I felt concerned about my birds and did some research and came across this forum. I learned that colony breeding wasn't ideal. However, naively, I thought I had addressed the problem in my cage by removing my dominant, white hen. And, for a while, things were okay again.

 

One of my breeding pairs hatched three little chicks. Without the dominant, white hen, things were harmonious in the cage and it was a delight watching my little chicks grow.

 

However, yesterday, a third breeding pair decided they really wanted the nest that the chicks were in for their own. Unfortunately the hen in this third pair attacked my chicks while I was at work yesterday and I didn't discover what had happened until the afternoon. Two of my chicks were injured, the youngest was unharmed. I immediately removed the third pair from the aviary, and they are now in a third separate (small) cage of their own.

 

This morning I took the two hurt chicks to a vet and made the decision to have one of them euthanased. The other is being given antibiotics and I have returned it to the nest, where it is being cared for by its father. It seems to be doing well, but I don't think it's out of the woods yet.

 

So, right now I am wondering what is best for my birds. I would like to take the pair with eggs out of the aviary so that they don't hatch eggs in the aviary, giving me the same problem all over again. Ideally, I would like to simply put the pair in a cage without a breeding box or eggs so that they don't breed this season. I just don't feel cut out for breeding budgies after what's happened and I don't have an ideal breeding set up. But I'm worried that taking them away from the eggs will upset them.

 

I would also like to take out the lone male, giving the pair with chicks the aviary to themselves. But I am worried that then the mother hen may soon wish to start a new clutch, and that she may present a risk to the chicks. From what I have read on this forum, I don't believe I should move the chicks, although to do so would mean that I could bring them inside and control the temperature for the injured chick. I would consider it ideal if I could move the chicks into a small breeding cage with the male only, as he is now feeding them well.

 

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So, my questions are,

 

Can I move a pair away from their eggs to prevent them from hatching chicks?

 

And can I move chicks into a breeding cage with their father only without the father abandoning them, or would it be better to leave them in the aviary where they are with both parents, or in the aviary with the father only.

 

I guess I'd like to minimise the number of small cages I'll need to use, too. But that's a secondary issue.

Hi Annabelle and welcome, your eldest baby should just about be ready to leave the nest with the other not far behind are they fully feathered?

If so you may be able to put them in a small open box or icecream container on the floor of the cage with seed in it to tempt them to try eating, and dad should continue feeding them, just keep an eye on them and check their crops, they should be full by the evening.

As for the hen left on eggs you could try to put them into a breeding cage and transfer the eggs but if you don't want to you can discard the eggs and remove the boxes just watch that the hen doesn't get egg bound if she hasn't finished laying, they can sometimes lay one or two more off the perch.

If we don't make the decision when to stop them breeding they sometimes just keep going.

Don't let this discourage you from breeding, we all have our ups and downs but if you choose to colony breed double the amount of boxes per hens and you might not have as much trouble, at least with one pair per cage you only have them to worry about and that sometimes is more than enough.

I do colony breed myself but I accept the pitfalls that come with it, I also cage breed and that is not without it's problems either.

Cheers Jenny

Thanks very much Jenny for taking the time to read my essay and for the welcome to the forum.

 

The eldest baby chick should be on the verge of leaving the nest and has begun peeping its little face out of the nesting box. However, the younger bird still looks a fair way off being ready to leave - it has little pin feathers on its wings but is still quite downy and small.

 

I feel more confident about taking eggs from the pair that are sitting on eggs at the moment and I think I will remove them to a smaller, individual cage temporarily. My heart wants to set them up in a breeding cage on their own to give them a shot at having little babies, but my head says to give up on breeding this year and revisit the idea next spring/summer.

 

I think I will then put the lone male (who is currently also in the aviary) with his little partner in a small cage while my baby birds fledge in the aviary with their parents.

 

Is it normal to place babies on the floor around the time of fledging to encourage them out of the nest?

 

I hope once my babies are independent and robust enough in the aviary that I will be able to reintroduce the three pairs that have been temporarily removed back into the aviary (having taken out all of the nesting boxes).