All Entries in the "Breeding" Category
Tails You Lose! – Part 1
You can breed a super bird with all the right head qualities, depth of mask and so on, until it gets to 5-7 weeks of age and suddenly it loses its tail feathers! It can be earlier or later. The bird is what I have always thought – a borderline French Moult victim. The reasoning is that the tails are the longest feathers in the budgerigar body, and thus require a perfectly nutritious metabolism to sustain these feathers soundly to full growth and permanence, until the first normal moult.
Sawdust – and the Possible Dangers for Budgerigars
This may seem like a trifling subject to some – but it is so important. In my case, it has been a cause of concern as I have lost a few 100% fit adults – found dead on the breeding cage floor for no reason at all that I could fathom.
Thoughts on Nesting Boxes – Ancient and Modern
It was not long before I realised that breeders were, like myself, having many problems, particularly when trying to retrieve the box for inspection, unhooking it, then seeing the hen, or the pair, dashing around and trying not to drop the box with one hand. Needless to say, at best, the eggs were scattered all over the place and many times damaged.
Warning – Security Lights
When on, the security light illuminates our bedroom – such that you wake up frequently! On one occasion in the dead of night, I ventured out and looked at the back of our home. When the security light came on, not only did it illuminate the back of the house, but I seriously thought about cutting the lawn while I was out there!
Hatching Assistance Guide
As we know, opening too early can reveal the chick which still has not absorbed the yolk into its body and it is pale and weak. The outcome is death! Opening too late and the chick for various reasons also dies, unless helped a fraction earlier. Close observation and timing are therefore vital assets to your husbandry.
Ignore the Ring Issue Date if your Stud is Ready to Breed
Is the Ring Issue date more important than grabbing that moment to begin your personal season? Personally, I grab the moment these days and get a round in from perhaps a third of the stud and get results on the perch early with whatever rings I have to hand.
The Influential Effects of Artificial Lighting
After a few weeks it became obvious that breeding was poor and the question was – Why?. The old birdroom was breeding at the same time and producing good numbers of chicks as usual. In the new room, infertility abounded and what chicks there were, were not being fed properly. Dead tiny chicks appeared regularly.
An Insight into Budgerigars via Evolution and Selective Breeding
Charles Darwin devoted much of his later life to studying the Racing Pigeon and set up a breeding loft at his home in the village of Downe, Kent. However, we as budgerigar breeders are doing much the same thing by attempting to defeat Natural Selection, which incidentally as I certainly know we can never win!
Breeding Pairs – Go or Stay – Artificial Lighting
Remove any eggs that you do not want to transfer, but leave the box open for a day. After a day close off the nest box entrance. Allow the pair to adjust to the new scene for another 2 days. Then remove them to a stock cage along with others similarly affected, but make sure the pair are close together.
Worming – Purchasing – Vitamin D – Showing Hens
Vitamin D that is lost in this way should be replaced artificially via multivitamin solutions and / or cod liver oil bought from your pharmacy.
Flecking in Chicks – Ionisers – White Ceres – Cod Liver Oil
Cod liver oil is seriously valuable for its vitamin contents as these give health and great energy to the stock, as well as the iodine content for the thyroid – without which budgerigars do not reproduce easily.
Getting The Best from Your Stud
The desire to breed super exhibition budgerigars is the ambition of every fancier in every country. I am well aware of the fact that the Australian show scene and its structure and administration is different to the UK. That aside, we all have the same aim as it is the finest birds on display that we wish to breed and own for the simple reason of pride in having achieved something that money cannot buy.
Every One Counts
There is no doubt that the start to any season is the most difficult. I can tell that the birds are ready to breed by looking at the behaviour of the hens as well as their condition. All my flights have the sexes mixed year round. This is because the current year stock learn their sexual habits very early. If you keep the big hens separate they just sit in the flights and get overweight with predictable poor results. Mix them and keep them active.
Breeding Advice
One has to remember that today we strive to breed bigger and better birds. General feeding apart, you must always provide grits which possess granite like particles (insoluble) and shell particles (soluble). Not only should it be given but it must be changed every week to every pair.
Importing & Exporting Budgerigars
It is inadvisable to return to the UK without having conformed with the rules. To do so risks the birds being impounded / destroyed at the exit port or port of arrival by the authorities and future imports by you will be affected.
Attack, Attack, Attack
There are a few breeders who have woken up that they have to attack quality now or give up. That is why I have attacked that myself and built up a great depth of quality so that breeders know they have a good chance of getting something to improve what they have at home. There are few aviaries around with the quality depth – perhaps only 10 in total in the UK.
Preparing to Breed
In the last 6 weeks I have been working to get the aviary “winterised”. A very cold one by UK standards is forecast. So, having a cedarwood exterior, it needs treating every three years without fail. That has resulted in it still being as good today as it was when I purchased it in 1971. It would be massively expensive to replace as it covers 1200 square feet (110 sq metres).
Chasing “Buffalos”
The Buffalo Effect (BE ) is created when a bird possesses great width above the cere before it sweeps upward but in no way downwards! Think of the buffalo horns. They are wide but then from the horn tips the horns dip downwards to well below eye level before suddenly going up again to join the head.
The Frustrations of Losing Birds
Any new purchase from an aviary that exhibits poor management with uncovered outside flights, can be supplying birds that are, even unknowingly, “carriers” of disease.
Fertility & Feeding
I have found that in my book “The Challenge” fanciers love to read the “juicy bits” but when it comes to the two most important chapters in the whole book – the ones on feeding – they gloss over them. They are the vital chapters because without taking them step by step and understanding what is required, then a failed breeding season is very likely.
