New Nest Idea

[wilkifam]

What do you fill them with?

[cindy]

I was wondering the same thing, do you start it for them or do they build it up themselves?

[ranchnanny]

Well I had some burlap and sisal etc. that I got from Lady Gouldians I have tried putting the material in the cage do they could build there own but it just gets wasted. I filled each ball with burlap, sisal etc and hung them in the flight. Didn't take them long to check them out. I did buy a roll of burlap at Micheals and cut it in strips about 2" wide and hung it in the flight in case they wanted to add to the nest. They do like pulling on the burlap strips....

My CB's have 2 eggs in the nest already ...

[cindy]

I use Timothy hay, orchard grass and long cocofiber... have to get some of the frames and try this out!!

[ranchnanny]

Cocofiber is awful to pickup off the floor it gets caught in my vacuum around the brushes. Don't use it much.

[FinchFan]

I saw these hollow stick globes in Hobby Lobby and bought one for my new aviary. The first day after introducing my RCCB pair to their new aviary, they went to it straight away and ignored the other 3 nests along the wall (one plastic and 2 twigs). It's a big hit with them! They are now busy stocking it with lots of coconut fiber.

[kyubi]

Nice topic

[Alex07]

Very interested, I might give that a try instead of a Plastic Finch Nestbox from birdsupplynh

[Colt]

I love the idea of these grapevine nests. Very neat.

I wanted to share something I use that is quite similar and also easily cleaned/disinfected between clutches. I use the plastic hamster balls for my finches to nest in. It took some experimentation to get them mounted in the cages so they wouldn't slip or shift causing the hole to point down and nestlings tumble out. Here is a pic of a pair of societies using one. It's the only pic on my phone of the nests and you can see the twine I suspended them with. I now use zip ties which are less noticeable. I'll get some more pictures later. I do use both sizes designed for dwarf and also regular hamsters. The smallest ones are hard for me to get my hand in to clean, but a bottle brush after a good soaking does the trick. These nests are easy to fill and so far have not presented any dangers to the nestlings with feet/toes. Has anyone else ever used these?

[debbie276]

Clever idea

[cindy]

I was going to recycle my daughter's hamster ball and see if javas would build it out!!! I ordered 3 more for owls to!!!! Glad to see yours is making good use of it!!

[Colt]

I've had several pairs of Societies and Zebras use that style nest. And a pair of Spices I had for a while built a nest and slept in the ball, but never bred. Currently I have two pairs of zebras and the society pair on eggs and chicks. I'll see if I cant get some pictures of them when I get home from work.

But I do have to say I love the more natural look of the grapevine balls. I've hidden mine back in artificial foliage so they don't stand out as much, but the grapevine ones look spectacular.

[Colt]

Well here are the promised pics of the nests being used currently. You can see baby societies in one and a zebra hen peeking out of another. The male and female zebra if the third pair were out of the best eating. This is a first clutch for both the zebra pairs so we'll see how they do.

[Colt]

Just realized the society nest didn't make the last message. It was too big.

Also apologies for the pictures rotating to the side. They aren't like that on the computer so I don't know why they are doing that on here.

[debbie276]

Wonderful pictures
thanks for sharing