High Thought I would start a thread rather than hijack others. So at this time I have 7 birds in an outdoor aviary. 4Hens & 3 cocks. All hens are interested in breeding boxes including "Mary", grey spangle hen who is being quite disruptive and just wants all of the boxes for herself. Today I completed my first breading cage and plan to put the longest standing pair into it tomorrow. This pair will be Zilla, a cinnamon Cock and Bell a nice cobalt blue hen , these two have been dirty dancing for quite some time now. I think Mary will have to come out of the aviary and spend some time living with people. This will leave 2 pairs in the aviary Snuggles Yellow spangle? cock and Tink a pale yellow hen, and Jaws Yellow spangle? cock and Bell, a Blue pied hen. This is my first serious attempt to let my birds breed so here goes.

This is my first effort of designing and building a breeding cage

 

Zilla & Mary were introduced to the breeding cage this morning. Within an hour they had settled into their new home, Mary super interested in nest box Hopping in scratching around a bit like she is cleaning up. Witnessed this pair doing the Fandango so hopefully will be a success. Caught in the act, Zilla & Mary

Edited May 27, 201311 yr by **KAZ**

This is Tweety, telling Tink of for being to close to her nest box

 

If anyone can help with Id of bird types, your input will be appreciated as this is not my strong point and have much to learn and time on my hands.

Edited May 24, 201311 yr by paulie

beautiful birds, good luck with the breeding!

Hey nice building skills you have.

 

But the perches are wrong. you should have the perches running into the depth of the cage.

 

2 perches at least that way the pair have room to jump from perch to perch

Yes I strongly agree with L__J, when the male is trying to mate with the female, part of his 'ritual' to get her mating is to dance, and they do this by jumping from perch to perch, also it will give them more places relax.

Hi Paulie, your cage looks great but I agree that perch's need to be spaced front to back to allow birds to fly/ jump from one to the other. We have a peg outside hole in nest box so male can chat while hen is on eggs etc also access to box. If Mary is in breeding condition (over 12 mths of age) she will throw out wood shavings etc from the box, it's a good way to check if things are heading in the right direction for eggs etc. I use wood shavings and when they toss it out you know they are getting ready to lay. I add more shavings after eggs are laid or chicks hatch, they usually leave it in box then.

 

For someone to give you mutations of your birds can you add individual pics of each? e.g. does tweety have red eyes? could be lutino if so.

hi robin and L__J. The perch idea makes sense will make mods to cage. Tweety has black eyes. will get some better pics of birds soon. Both tweety and tink have been sexually active with their respective partners so fingers crossed for what happens next.

Zilla

 

Bell

 

Tink is the blue bird on left Tweety is on r/h side in the background is either Jaws or Snuggles cant tell which.

They are nice birds hope all goes well for you

Had a setback this morning. While replacing food in breeding cage Zilla decided he wanted to visit the wild and snuck past my arm. Have set a trap cage on top of breeding cage in the vain hope that he may return to his mate. Not holding my breath though. Mach 2 breeding cage will have a much smaller access door and I will have to be a lot more careful. May move breeding cage into aviary to prevent further escapes. If by chance any one does come across Zilla in the Albury Wodonga area he is banded Orange band and originally came from a breeder in Melbourne. Oh well live and learn. Am now down a cock bird may have to take one from the aviary and hope for the best, any suggestions are welcome.

 

I am now in the market for 2 breeding age cock birds. At this point Im not to particular about mutation.

I will have to post pictures of my breeding cabinets they are similar design to yours.

 

 

 

See the access door in the middle perfect below perch level. But I will be caging my shelter as I do not want any mistakes like a bird flying away

 

Oh and excuse the mess just protecting them from the weather until I complete that shelter. the shelter as its stands is temporary

A costly mistake it was,that wont happen again. Have moved breeding cage into aviary and will remove breeding boxes and make room for a second breeding cage and keep the rest of the available space as a flight for the other birds. This will have to do until I get a new flight built.

 

Visited a breeder a couple of hours drive from here this arvo with the view of purchasing 1 or possibly 2 birds. Wasn't happy with the mature birds he had available, nothing wrong with them just not what I was looking for but I did get a selection (5) promising young birds that are to young for me to sex with any certainty.

 

Still have 2 pair of breeding birds so all is not lost.

 

some pics of new birds

cock?

 

hen? Tentatively named Andy Warhol, because of the white head

 

Cock hen cock?

 

Any suggestions as to the sex of these young birds and if you have an idea of the mutations I'm all ears

 

Added another breeding cage today for Tweety and Snuggles

modified commercially made cage.

 

 

Found quite a lot of blood on perches this morning, yes it is distressing to see this and and can be seen quite plainly in the picture, it took a fair bit of watching to work out what was happening. It seems Bell had taken to running up and down the front of her cage and her continual gripping of the timber frame with her left foot had done some damage to the bottom of one of her rear facing toes. I caught her treated her wound which was surprisingly small, and when satisfied returned her to her cage. She soon went back to her somewhat neurotic behaviour and started bleeding again. So to counter this I have placed a piece of dowel across the offending section of cage and seems that has eased the pleasure on her foot and bleeding has stopped even though she still likes to run up and down.(this behaviour only began after her old mate Zilla Flew the coop yesterday) She is now spending a lot of time in nest box with her new partner Jaws who has taken nicely to feeding her at the doorway and spending time in nest box with her.

 

It will be interesting to see over time which version of breeding cage is most usable and accommodating to the birds. Slowly ironing out the rough edges, hopefully there wont be any dramas to report tomorrow.

 

Edited May 27, 201311 yr by paulie

some pics of new birds

cock? Cock - Sky Blue Normal

 

hen? Tentatively named Andy Warhol, because of the white head - need a clear picture of him or her

 

Cock hen cock? Cock - Green Opaline, Hen - Dominate Pied Spangle, Cock - Not sure on his mutation, could this be a yellow cinnamon someone more expert than me?

 

Any suggestions as to the sex of these young birds and if you have an idea of the mutations I'm all ears

 

Most likely cinnamon, yellow. Doesn't look lutino, or is that just me, as it doesn't have any whiter areas, I think that's right, correct if I'm wrong

Edited May 28, 201311 yr by Budgie_Mad

This bird is predominantly Yellow with cinnamon on back and wings Flight feathers are pale yellow and tail is yellow and cinnamon.

 

Every one seems to be settling in quite well.

Some minor adjustments to modified breeding cage, Just added a piece of light ply to the open end of cage and a blind over nest box to deter others from playing with it and close light gap at top on nest box.

looks like this has done the trick and Tweety is settling down in her new home and taking interest in nest box again.

Hi it is hard to be definite from the pictures to me you only seem to have the one male the opaline green.

The last bird on the right looks to be a greygreen cinnamon recessive pied and may also be opaline.

We could be more accurate with better quality photos.

Cheers Jenny

Will get some better pics and post

Very lively bird that does not like having its photo taken

 

 

 

Edited May 31, 201311 yr by paulie

Andy Warhol

 

 

 

Breeding activity is promising today, yesterday cam to the conclusion that Bella was not interested in a new mate and was exhibiting some quite neurotic behaviour, totally ignoring the net box completely and continually chewing on the front wire of the cage, and creating some very abnormal wear on her lower beak. While at the same time Tink was insistent that she and she was the right mate being almost glued to the front of breeding cage and being fed by Jaws. I initially thought all was well but my view has changed after watching them. So I released Bella back into the flight and introduced Tink to the breeding cage with Jaws and the couple seem to be quite happy with each other. Both Tink/Jaws and Tweety/Snuggles are all spending quite a lot of time in their respective nest boxes today. A good sign I hope.

no eggs yet, tweety/snuggles and tink/jaws are spending a concidderable amounts of time in the nest boxes. none have slept in there as yet.

hang in there

Lots of frantic disco perch dancing in both breeding cages today.

 

Built Version 3 of breeding cage today.Is based on my original idea but some changes such as door in middle and smaller (might help prevent escapes) I have mounted an existing nest box inside at top left and made the access at the rear of the box as it doesnt fill the space front ro rear. My thinking is that it may be a bit more private fot the birds but will make it a little difficult to see if the hen is being fed by mate.Also routed a rounded edge on bottom rail to prevent cut feet(learned from last one of similar design)

Any how here are some pics.

.

 

 

 

any comments welcome

 

from inside looking out (ooooo this what the birds see, Scary)

 

From door looking left

 

And finally front with door closed. Im not happy with the door a bit of a rushed job

Edited June 6, 201311 yr by paulie

Hey that is good

 

My doors hinge from the top of the door frame and lock at the bottom.

 

i could post a close up and give you some measurements

 

breeding cabinets you gotta start some where. I got mine for 150 already made. they use same material as you are using.

next breeding cabinets will be made by me with proper fronts