Hi all.

 

I have recently moved house and now have a lot more room to dedicate to my little bird colony. Now having more room I've put in a bit of effort into setting up an aviary and have started breeding again. I'm not an experienced budgie breeder by any means. I've only ever successfully bred 1 little budgie several years ago, and that was more by luck than by skill. I am a bit wiser and more experienced now (most of which is due to what I've learnt from this forum). I still don't know how to tell the difference between the color varieties (other than this is a blue one and that's a yellow one Feel free to tell me what you think they are).

 

I thought I'd start a journal to share with everyone my flock and setup and share my breeding experiences becuase I enjoy talking with people about my birds and picking up whatever tips I can to improve my breeding. I am happy to share my experiences with everyone but I am only very junior in terms of budgie breeding experience so please dont take my setup or the way I do things as advice, I'm more than happy for any advice or tips people might like to give me.

 

I've got 9 budgies, 4 female and 5 male. All are at least 12 months old with some of the oldest ones being around 5 years old. I also have 3 king quails which run around the bottom of my aviary (1 male and 2 females), they are fun to watch and are prolific egg layers (unlike my budgies).

 

Right now I have an aviary with 7 of my budgies in it and the 3 quails. I have 1 pair of budgies together in a breeding cage next to the aviary.

 

Here are some photos of my aviary and my budgies.

 

Aviary

 

All my budgies in the moving cage just prior to going into the aviary (The budgies that I have paired up to breed are the light blue male budgie on the far right on the back perch and the yellow female budgie on the far left on the front perch)

 

Quails and the setup on the bottom of the aviary

 

Breeding cage setup

 

Shortly I will post up some more pictures and details about the pair I have put down to breed. I will also put up some more detailed pics of my budgies for people to see and comment on the color types.

I would put your perches in the aviary the other way round so they can fly the length.

Thanks for the tip. I considered doing this however if you look at the picture of the aviary you'll notice that one whole half of the front of the cage is the door. This makes it hard to attach perchs to it running from the front to the back of the aviary. When I eventually replace the aviary I will put up the perchs so they can fly the length of the flight.

Yeah i just noticed that, gee it's a big door.

Yeah i just noticed that, gee it's a big door.

 

Yeah, its not really suitable for an aviary, its a pain in the backside trying not to let the birds escape when I go in to clean, have to use a net to cover the gap.

A bit hard to explain but you could still do it if you wanted, you simply need 2 small pieces of doweel and drill a hole at each end of a larger (both round and length) peice of Dowel, then attach the small dowel to the ends of the aviary.

 

I'm not great at varieties either, been a while since I sat down and went over them but, in your moving cage picture you've got:

 

front row: the grey bird is a Spangle. can really see the wing markings for the other two.

 

Back row: looks like a Normal green (can't see wings though), grey (can't see wings but the top of it doesn't look normal so maybe Opaline), pied (I always get recesive and Dominant Pied mixed up), Green Normal, Skyblue Normal.

 

If you really want to find out and get expert comments join this group:

 

https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/BudgerigarcolourMutationsAndGenetics/

Edited February 7, 201312 yr by JimmyBanks

So I am ready to attempt to put down a pair and hopefully get some new little baby budgies. I did put a pair together in early December and had them together in the breeding cage for nearly 4 weeks without any sign of breeding activity.

 

I wasn't very happy with the breeding cabinet I have and I thought this might have contributed to the pair not showing interest in breeding. The nest box is in the cage and there only 1 perch up high so it was very cramped and there was almost no opportunity for the birds to do their courting dance. I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on a new breeding cage and as I have 2 of the same wooden cabinets I thought I might try to retrofit something with what I already had at home.

 

I am very pleased with what I came up with. I used the nest box that came inside the wooden cabinet and attached it to the outside of the cage. I made a new removable lid for the nest box and I added the extra perch in line with the other one. The birds now have almost double the room and 2 perch's The only part I wasn't very impressed with was the hole that I had to cut in the side of the cage to get to the nest box. I didn't have the appropriate tools to cut a smooth hole so I used what I had. Its okay but slightly smaller than the nest box hole so I hope this is okay. I'll see how it goes for now.

 

The breeding cage before retrofitting

 

Breeding cage after retrofitting

 

Nest box with removable lid

 

The not so great nest box hole

 

Thanks Jimmy. I have decided to leave the perch's in the aviary as they are. I plan on upgrading the aviary in the future and I will adjust them then. Thanks also for the link to the facebook site. Ive got a lot of clearer pics of the birds so I'll post them up there and see what people think.

 

Ive now got the new breeding cabinet set up and Ive chosen 2 birds and paired them up. Ive tried to choose a pair that showed some interest in each other and are in breeding condition. Its the first time Ive looked at breeding condition when selecting a pair so I hope Ive got it right.

 

Hen

 

Cock

Hi, your new cage looks great, even the old one would be okay I think, when they are breeding they don't do a lot of flying Mum sits and Dad usually stands guard etc.

my breeding cages are very similar to your new one but hubby built me a bank of 2. one over the other. I think yours are great. only thing is, mine are inside one end of my aviary, so I can't lose any birds but I think you could have trouble if they aren't enclosed so you can re-catch and escapee's.

 

P.s I'm not sure about your hen, she may be going out of breeding cond. see what others think or the birds behaviour will tell you if they are ready. Good luck with it and keep posting.

I like your new breeding box. I was thinking the same as you when I saw your first one, that there wasn't two perches for them to fly back and forth for their courtship dance.

 

I think the entrance hole you've made will be fine. I would take care, though, when you do nest checks, to just lift one corner of the lid until you know the hen has left the box and gone back into the cage, because with the whole ceiling off, it would be very easy for her to fly out. That kind of lid can be very tricky. You'll also want to make sure you don't drop it in on top of eggs and chicks.

 

By the way Jimmy, technically we have a rule on our forum that we are not supposed to post links to or advertise competing websites. HOWEVER... seeing as how all the other mods and admins who used to police that kind of thing have left us to go over to said competing forum, I am not going to remove your link. I think it's a moot point. Besides, if Facebook is going to kill BBC, it's going to happen with or without us acknowledging its existence.

LOL!!! So true. I forgot about the rules. This place is great, it's sad that in the old days you'd come home from work and check it and there'd be a long list of posts that you needed to catch up on and now things have slowed down so much. Still lots of great info though...

Yeah, but I miss the old friends. Like you. Hey, your profile doesn't say "resident comedian" anymore!

Yeah, Not sure why and can't remember where to go to change it. Yeah the people were great, really helpful and friendly. Not that I'm sure the new people aren't just not the same

If it wasn't for Finnie and Robyn lately not many questions would be answered. The forum seems to have lost some of its fun.

 

Getting back to topic for a sec, I recently bought a double version of the breeding cabnet and I don't think that one of my hens can figure out how to get in it so I'm glad to see I can fix that. Thanks for showing what you did wessiri

Yeah, but I miss the old friends. Like you. Hey, your profile doesn't say "resident comedian" anymore!

Yeah, Not sure why and can't remember where to go to change it. Yeah the people were great, really helpful and friendly. Not that I'm sure the new people aren't just not the same

 

Hey- it's back! Someone must have fixed it. (Sorry for the off-topic, wessiri )

Getting back to topic for a sec, I recently bought a double version of the breeding cabnet and I don't think that one of my hens can figure out how to get in it so I'm glad to see I can fix that. Thanks for showing what you did wessiri

 

Glad you were able to get something out of the pics. Happy to say hen found the way into the box pretty quickly and the hole hasn't seemed to be an issue

 

 

(Sorry for the off-topic, wessiri )

 

No worries

I decided to look for the option.

 

On Topic - I believe both ***KAZ*** and RIPBudgies are saying that it's a Spangle Opaline Cinnamon Grey Green hen. I never would have figured that out... They know their stuff.

 

Back off topic - I wish there was a way to tag people so that they got a notification in their email every time you mentioned them...

 

 

On Topic - I believe both ***KAZ*** and RIPBudgies are saying that it's a Spangle Opaline Cinnamon Grey Green hen. I never would have figured that out... They know their stuff.

 

 

? So this means that they are discussing this over in that Other Place?

That's what it looks like lol. I didn't realize the question had been asked.

Cheers Jenny

Hey wessiri I will be having my setup outside as well.

I know this man around the corner does his breeding cabinets outside, he customized them with a roof and closing front doors.

I have built shelfs similar I have a thread about it on here. I got 6 cage fronts for 5 dollars now I am in the proccess of waiting for a good weekend to start. so I will be building a bank of 4, they are going under kitchen window then a bank of 2 going at the front of my aviary. I am in units so space is pretty limited. But I manage to have this and veggie garden and clothes line, 3 cars + parts need to wreck one car some where not going to do it on my property.

 

Ahh fakebook why use that site its about humans not budgies.
Sorry about my rant but why should fakebook take over the Internet,
the US Government even admits its used as a weapon, its only ploy to
cause social isolation.
You only have to read wikipedia.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook

Edited February 12, 201312 yr by L__J

Well we sort of highjacked Wessari's post. Sorry Wessari. Thanks for the kind words Nadene, it was a case of seeing people ask questions and getting no answers. I have to admit everything I know about budgies, I have learnt on here. Plus a bit of hands on learning as you go. I have to admit defeat with genetics. I cannot get my head around it as I'm only breeding pet types for my own pleasure I don't stress over it but that is where Hilly, Finnie, Jenny, Nerwan & others are filling the void on here.

So for any "newbies" whatever you need to know can be found on here, on pinned topics or f.a.q. plus posting. So don't desert bbc in favour of other forums. I haven't found any with the wealth of info found on here.

Edited February 12, 201312 yr by robyn

I can neither confirm or deny a discussion that may or may not have taken place on another website.

Hi L_J, do you have any pics of the setups you are talking about? I like to see what other people have done. So far Im happy with the breeding cage but I would like to put together a few cages and Im thinking of doing something different.

 

As for my breeding pair they have been together for about 6 weeks in tbe breeding cage. There was no activity for nearly 4 weeks and I'd just about given up that they would breed until one day, about 2 weeks, I found an egg on the bottom of the cage, obviously laid off the perch. It was cracked but I picked it up and put it in the nest box to try and give mum the hint. When I further inspected the cage I found the remains of another egg laid a few days earlier. Mum ate the egg in the box the next day and didnt lay any more. I wasnt to worried because it was the first eggs she laid and she has no experience being a mum.

 

I left them together in the cage. 2 days ago, to my surprise, I found a new egg in the nest box. Today she has laid the second egg in the box. Hopefully this is the start of my first succesful cluth in a very long time. The first egg is a large one and the shell is quite transparent, but the seconf appears more normal. Will see how things go and I'll post pics up soon.

Maybe she needs some calcium, do you have cuttle fish/shellgrit or calcium bells for her? Even calcium in the drinking water while breeding may help also the chicks will benefit when hatched. Although she may have just eaten egg as she's a new mum and didn't know what to do with it, it happens. Just keep an eye on new eggs to make sure you haven't got an egg eater either the Mum or Dad could be guilty.

here is a thread on my setup http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/index.php?showtopic=32360

2nd shelf has sides on it now I have put another cage in the second shelf now.

I am thinking of getting some plastic you use on coffee tables.

Hi Robyn. I do have cuttlebone and a calcium bell in the cage. I think it was just first time mum stuff as the new eggs have been laid okay in the nest box and they have been undisturbed for a few days now. When I checked this afternoon mum was sitting on them fine.

 

I like what you have done L_J with your recycled bits and pieces. I need to do something similar (not only so I have something more permanent but I also need my saw stools back ). I was thinking of using those cages that you have in your photo as my next breeding cages and making up a rack of 4 shelves like yours, that would hold 6 cages, with sides and a roof. Will put some pics up if I ever get around to it.

 

Heres a few pics of the eggs in the nest box.