Hi all hope every one is enjoying the silly season.

To start this journal a little background.

 

2013 season for me was a test run and a very steep learning curve. Produced lots of very nice pet birds that were snapped up within 2 days of advertising.

 

I made some predictions regarding what I was expecting to see from various pairs of birds. Am quite pleased to say that, from the visual aspect, I was pretty accurate. Some pleasant surprises came form the multitude of splits and mixes in my original breeding stock of pet birds that came from various pet shops and colony breeders.

 

I have also procured some very nice beginner to intermediate show type breeding stock and am hoping to participate in BCV comps over the coming year.

 

As of last week I have moved house, was planning to leave 4 brooding pairs at the previous location until chicks had fledged. As we have a forecast of up 40 deg C and the breeders were in an outside aviary I was running the risk of cooking the chicks and damaging parents if left. I made the decision to move all nests to my new location. In doing so I ran the calculate risk of stressing brooding hens and have them turn on the chicks so move them I did. The risk was worth it as all chicks and parents survived the move with little distress and no injury's.

 

The new breeding room for the summer is indoors and climate controlled and will be using this setup during the hotter months Dec, Jan, Feb and March

 

Currently there are 7 nests in operation

1. DF Spangle hen yellow x Olive violet spangle cock4 Eggs with 6 pinkies

2. Dark green grey Normal Show type cock x YF grey Cin spangle show type hen6 eggs 1 pinkie to date

3. Grey Normal cock Pet x Cobalt normal hen Pet 5 eggs 2 pinkies

4. Grey Dom pied cock Pet x Grey Dom pied hen Pet. chicks almost ready to fledge

5. Light Green spangle cock pet x Albino hen Pet no eggs yet

6. Olive spangle cock Show x Yf grey cin spangle hen Show. No eggs yet.

7. Cobalt Normal cock Show x Cobalt opaline hen Show. No eggs yet

 

So whats in the nest now

 

 

 

The breeding room will soon be re configured and will accommodate a total of 12 large breeding cages for show type and 12 smaller Breeding cages for pet type. In the cooler months I will expand the operation with a further 10 large and 20 small breeding cages to be housed in the garden shed come breeding house.

 

 

 

So the 2014 season in going to be a lot of work but hey this is what I do with my days.

Good luck with it Paulie.

As we have decided to move house ourselves I will have to give my little mates away for the time being.

As we don't know what the new home will have, it takes time to prepare an aviary etc, I shall have to bide my time before I can get back into budgies. Hopefully by the winter months we should know more.

some pics of breeding progress

 

First shoe type chicks

 

Wow what cuties they are Paulie. Looks like they are doing well.

Congratulations on the successful move! I hope your breeding season continues to go well.

Hi all Been a while since my last post. Been an interesting month, contending with 40+ degC and the lice that sprung up in the dry conditions, coming from the horse stables next door. Cannot use insecticides as a barrier outside due to the Chickens and Geese I have free ranging, so to control this pest I am watering along the boundary 3 times a day to reduce the lice breeding conditions. This seems to be working well.

All birds are now inside in the aircon after coming very close to BBQing some of my best birds, fortunately all have survived and thriving.

 

Very overcrowded at the moment with some 90+ breeders crammed into breeding, nappy cages and anything I could beg borrow or steal (well not really steal) to house them in.

 

On top of all this drama and heat I have pairs still breeding and some 30 pets, and 4 show type fledged over the last month with another 40 eggs and 18 pinkies on the go.

 

Just a couple of show type pics