Posted April 16, 201411 yr Hi everyone :hi: My 7 year old daughter and I have decided to keep and hopefully breed budgies as a hobby. We have bought the aviary and all the necessities this week, and just waiting for the aviary to arrive before we buy the start of our flock I have many questions about which way would be best for us to go to set up a breeding pair or two. Is it as simple as 2x Males and 2x Females. Or would we be better to get more females? I'm guessing equal male and females as they form pairings. Also, I would like a Yellow face blue type 1 or 2, I have found a young cock that I like. have also found a lacewing cinnamon base that I absolutely love (hen). If we were to pair these two can someone inform me what they would most likely produce? I tried to work it out but I'm not quite there yet. My daughter would like a aqua and white budgie and my son a colbolt blue norm. I know it depends on the mutations we choose. But can someone recommend a nice mutation pairing that would result in nice babies? Like I said I have many questions but couple at a time We are still learning (obviously) but we are loving learning together about budgies and what involved in breeding and look forward to giving it a good crack. Hope to hear from some of you. Thanks for reading
April 16, 201411 yr Hi and welcome to the forum. The sort answer to is it that easy the answer is NO, not if you want to do it with the best outcome for the birds health. All I can say it do your research on food and vitamin requirements and breeding conditions. If you are going to colony breed you wont be able to pick which birds will pair up and you will need twice as many nest boxes then pairs or other wise you may end up with birds fighting which will end up with injuries or death of adults and chicks. Breeding can be extremely rewarding and also heart breaking all at the same time. You have found the right place to do your research and ask question happy reading and don't forget to check out the F.A.Qs
April 17, 201411 yr Author thank you we having been talking to some local breeders, very lovely people about possible combinations. I think we have decided to get 1 female and 3 young boys to start off with. The hen is only 4 months old so will let them do their thing for about 10 months then, introduce 1 breeding box. But still considering at the 10 month mark, purchasing a separate breeding cage, and take out the female with her chosen male. Then perhaps add 2 more females at a later date and alternate with the pairings to the breeder cage once we have been able to sell the clutch. This way our flock won't grow too quickly. At this stage we have bought a normal skyblue hen, a yellow face 2 normal cock, and chasing a double factor violet cock, and a lutino cock. Very excited and loving learning about these little creatures
April 17, 201411 yr Hi and welcome. Don't forget to read Breeding forum on this site.for tips on egg binding possibilities etc.Make sure Budgies are over a year old. Good luck and enjoy!
April 17, 201411 yr Author Yes definitely for her sake, but will give us some time to do proper research as well We are getting really excited now.
April 21, 201411 yr Hi, Welcome to the forum! Your local breeders ought to be a good source of advice, as well. They can probably advise you about ratios of genders. I've never owned an outdoor aviary, just large indoor cages. In my cages, I would not combine three males and one female. Perhaps it's different in a larger environment. But with only one female, all of the males will probably be harassing her to mate. And they will fight each other over her. I always think it is better to have equal numbers of males and females if the group is small, and if the group is large enough, then you can have extra males. If there are not enough males to go around, the hens will fight over them. But once each hen has chosen her mate, any leftover males will buddy up with each other, so you can get away with fewer hens. That is just my feelings about it. I do have to admit that I now keep my males and females separate from each other, and that has completely cut out any fighting over mates. When I pair them up in breeding cages, they are so happy to see someone of the opposite gender, that they start courting immediately, and I often see mounting within the first five minutes! But if you will be housing them all together, then I think it is best to keep numbers even. One nice thing about having a young hen is that you have plenty of time to study up on every aspect of breeding. Then when she is old enough to breed, you will be well prepared for all the different circumstances that can occur. This forum is a great resource. Happy reading!
April 21, 201411 yr Author Oh now I'm not sure again lol. It's not a huge aviary, 1.8 x 1.1 x .9 more of a large cage really. I had concerns regarding the same thing. But the breeder I've been dealing with said males typically won't fight in that situation. Now I'm not so confident. Maybe I just stick to 2 one male one female. Or 2 female and 2 male and use a breeding box. I guess we can start off with the combination we have chosen and when it come to add the box we might reconsider the arrangement. Do you think the males will fight even without the breeding box in there?
