Breeding Society finches in flight cage

[kostas]

Hello to all. New owner of society finches, and new to the forum. I have a large-ish outdoor cage (5'H, 5'L and 2.5' depth) where i now have my 2 yr old male canary and have added 8 young society finches. it seems normal that they all cram inside one of the nests at nights, but im wondering what happens if a pair decide to breed and lay eggs? will the pair make the nest their own, should i add more nests? dont want to use a separate breeding cage, was hoping to have a community cage and remove birds if they get croweded with births.. but i would appreciate some input on this. Thanks

[Babs _Owner]

kostas

Oh boy will they breed! And breed....and breed.... You have quite a big flight cage. I would add another nest (Since you have 8 societies )so you dont have all 8 adults crammed on the eggs and chicks at night.

If you want babies, then allow eggs in one nest and replace the eggs in the other nest with plastic fake eggs. So you can regulate how many chicks you have.

Or soon you will be up to your eyeballs in babies!

The entire group will community feed the babies.

[wilkifam]

I never colony breed any finches because then you don't know who the parents truly are. You'll have to consider all those babies related to each other, and won't want to let them breed with each other.

If you want to breed, you should separate them out by pairs.

[kostas]

Goodmorning (in Cyprus) and thank you both. Both replies are clear. I will definately add another nest. Not really looking to purposely breed but i see that isnt an option with societies. Most are very young so hopefully wont start breeding just yet. It also means Im having a hard time sexing at the moment, apart from 1-2 singers Egg replacement is a good option, but doesnt this freak out the parents? Wilkifam i do agree 100% I guess i need to consider this better. Thakn you both

[lovezebs]

kostas

Hello and welcome to the Forum from Canada.

Yes, your Societies will breed

I always like to tell people, that Society and Zebra Finches are the rabbits of the Finch world. They are firm believers in ...." Be fruitful and multiply", chuckle.

Because they all love to be clumped together, and because all of them will incubate any eggs, and feed whatever chicks make an appearance, you will have no way of knowing who the parents are, and which chicks belong to which parents.
Which will present you with a problem in the future.

Personally, if you are not really interested in breedng, I would trade whichever females you have for males.

By the way, you won't be able to sex them by looking at them, even when they're older seeing as males and females look alike.

Your singers, are your males, as only males sing. Females make sounds like chirping crickets.

Good luck.

[wilkifam]

I would replace the eggs with plastic, because if you remove, they just keep laying, which can be VERY HARD on the hens. If they do breed, then breed again, you can end up with deformed babies if they are inbreeding. If you don't want to breed, Don't provide nest boxes or nests. They don't need nest boxes to sleep in. They can sleep just fine on perches.