They were very slow to pair up. ran batch upon batch of clear eggs and there were many pairs that just plainly refused to breed outright
The season as usual started in January and by about august I had bred roughly 30 young.......and that was from roughly 30 pairs
So I got roughly one young from each pair 
Well not really one colony of 8 pair bred nothing!Right near the end of the season one colony had a go and got into it and produced 20 quick young and bounce my total up to 50 young for the season. Overall 50 young to some probably sounds better than nothing.
But I live in a rather cold climate and to breed outdoors during that time and all my aviaries are outdoors in natures cold and wintery elements and heated too and I ran up a $3400 power bill to boot...So 2017 went down as a total breeding season disaster
What a difference a year makes.
2018
Early January I swing into gear and again line up roughly 30 pair of assorted stock in say 5 different aviaries. Mostly first year young birds in a variety of mutation. Risky first year birds at any time as is an outright leaning kerb for them and places a lot of pressure on the breeder too. Nothing happens for the first couple of weeks then it started raining on and off. Not sure if this actually triggered them off but I often saw them out on the wire hanging upside down in 20C plus and enjoying the rain.
Meanwhile I had inspected various nest boxes and notice the cock birds were active and some were doing a great bit of weaving and closing in the tops of the nest boxes. Not many days later eggs start appearing in the boxes but a little pre-mature as the hens were still not that dark in their beaks and most of the eggs were clear. As a rule I usually give them say 6 days from when the hen lays the last egg. I mark the date on the box and check and if no sign of life after candling -toss the lot.
Round two was much better and the results are in now. Rough count I have say a bit over 90 hatched or out flying about and its only heading towards the end of March. Out of the 90 young hatched i'd say a good 30 plus would be out of the boxes flying now and their parents back on eggs so its appears to be a pretty big breeding year.
I see no reason why these birds couldn't produce 200 young for the season as they are housed and fed under the very best of conditions. time will tell there I guess.
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