2016 Gouldian Breeding Season - Australia

[Sally]

Beautiful! Is that the baby that was peeking out of the nest box in your recent video?

[MariusStegmann]

wildbill You must remember to update us on that possible new mutation (the gray bird). I would like to see what it will look like as an adult.

[wildbill]

hi all

@Sally

that's right. it's one of the young which was poking its head out the nest box. I rang all the young from this nest early including the greenbacks so they don't get mixed up with other young.

@lovezebs

to give them a better chance to survive I blocked the breeder nest entrance hole so hopefully the cock bird doesn't drive the hen back to nest too early. in another aviary I have young blues flying about from the same mutation stock. you can easily pick the difference in the colour.

@MariusStegmann

well I think I am at the end of the road with the blue to lime cross. these purple coloured young -see photo -are the same coloured young I lost last year-about 30 from memory. my gut feeling now is proving I can keep them alive till the molt I have the new blue mutation or it doesn't exist!

[lovezebs]

wildbill

I would really push the fresh egg food, and the extra heat on these babies, and don't you dare talk about giving up

[wildbill]

Today I think I cracked the magic 100 young. Not sure exactly how many but enough in some aviaries to know i'd be pretty silly to enter and walk about with 12 plus flying wildly about. In avery one I almost squashed a blue which was squatted like a rabbit just inside the door
That was one lucky bird. In my reject aviary and that the one that has produced 2 limes and a blue in total. That was from 2 pair which produced one lime each and the other pair a blue. the other pair all greenbacks.
The pair which produced the blue has 3 more young -a blue and 2 greens

[wildbill]

Lately I have not been nest checking in one particular aviary with the possible splits for a few days. Apart from just the crosses I am also running half a dozen blues which were bred last year. Any of those birds could also be split to the Lime factor too.
I've been watch one young blue hen since the beginning of the breeding season. So far she has had 3 nests including today's checked nest. The previous 2 nests had 6 eggs per nest and both nests resulted in all eggs clear.
Today her luck had changed for the better and mine too and she had just hatched 5 young say 24 hours back - 3 blues -pink colour and 2 maybe normal. So that's good news. Looking back at my 36 pair of possible Lime and Blues there would be a lot of genuine split blue amongst these birds as the blues were amongst them in their parents and grandparents.
After that I decided to got and check out all the nest boxes. It appears apart from near a 100 young flying about I have between 38 and 45 young in various nest boxes from a day old to the flighty stage and almost ready to go. Plus with now empty nest boxes from young on the wing their parents are pretty close to laying again.
By the end of this month I'd be equal to last years best breeding effort and the most I'd ever bred in a season so the numbers do look promising.

[wildbill]

inspiration!

[lovezebs]

wildbill

[wildbill]

lovezebs

this may sound hard to swallow but at the moment I am going through 42 hard boiled eggs per week to feed all the young...lol

[lovezebs]

wildbill

Swallowing 42 hard boiled eggs would be hard on anyone, lol

I usually go through a dozen or so per week, but I don't have anywhere near the numbers. I go through more when my kids are breeding, or raising babies.

Have you considered investing in some chickens? Or would the neighborhood rise up at arms if you brought chickens in?

[wildbill]

lovezebs

unfortunately I have no room for them. eggs are pretty cheap here so I can get them for $3 a dozen

[lovezebs]

wildbill

Ok, no chickens then.... even though the porch would be perfect, lol.....

[wildbill]

lovezebs

I took these couple of photos today. They guy I originally bought the Limes from told me once I crossed them with a normal purple breasted or white breasted black headed Blue if a new mutation was there -it would be a variant of the standard colour Blue....more of a powdery blue
Well I crossed both purple and the white breasted blues with the Limes but I don't know if this young is from the purple or white breasted cross. As of today I can see a different shade of blue coming through from the grey feathers.
I thought I'd get this shot as I don't know how long I will get the chance to do so. I think they appeared fitter just out of the nest...or the one in the photo did. You can see the normal blue in the bunch of young. Plus as a comparison you can see the lighter blue breaking through the grey birds feathers.
I am confident it's the new colour blue - but not too confident they will go the distance. That's why the photo...lol

[lovezebs]

wildbill

I know that there are different shades of blue that I've seen among different lines. Some are darker, some lighter, and some almost a grayish shade.

Not entirely certain where on the scale these babies will end up once molted, and I do hope they'll get there .

The baby in the bottom picture, appears somewhat thinner than he should be... , or maybe it's just the photo.

What do you think of this shade of blue ? lol !!!

[Nerine]

lovezebs

That shade of 'baby blue' is adorable! Congrats on your new baby!