When to check or remove eggs

[Animalzoo]

Quick post, will reply properly later on.....

Jack and Jill have 4 babies now! Very cute fluffy things, 2 with red eyes like their dad

Sonny and Cher's chick has fledged. Sits on the side of the nest and hops around the cage. 17 days old today

[Animalzoo]

Jamm972

I use artificial light. I do have the canary cages near a window and one cage has direct sunlight throughout the afternoon. I have actually placed shelter in front of the nest from direct sunlight. The other 3 cages receive partial natural light and the artificial light prolongs the day for them.

Re. your egg candling. Technically blood vessels appear from day 4 of incubation so if Blanca's 8 day old eggs have remained clear then I doubt they will be fertile. Leave them to 14 days just in case though.

You asked about attempts and egg binding. Clutch 1 was unsuccessful so no additional energy was spent raising chicks. Clutch 2 looks promising and Whitey will do her duty I am sure and if she does then she has proven herself with her male and so I would allow them to go for clutch 3 so long as you provide the usual foods for calcium and protein. This is what I will do. 2 rounds of chicks in a row, rest, repeat.

Orangie and Toopay will get there. You've only just introduced them and look, Toopay is already singing away.

If blanca's egg are dud, yeah, take the lot out. Nest + eggs + male and let her be herself for a short while to recycle and reset her system. Then do it all over again. Perhaps try her with one of the yellow boys you have.

I was so chuffed to check in on my Jack and Jill couple to see their 4 eggs had hatched. Jack has red eyes, he's not albino. I have looked and believe he is a Satinette Agate Red Mosaic or something to that description. Red eye chicks have pink or clear eyes. 2 of his chicks are like this so I have a mixed bag of colours. I can't wait to see how they come. All 4 of their skin is fair so they will be white/red mosaics. So pretty!

And my little lone baby fledged. He's so small and his feathers are so thin and whispy its cute. He's exploring a little but very nervous. I added the 2nd nest but Cher has completely ignored it. I've read its at this stage you add the divide again keeping dad with the baby to feed and leave mum to nest build. Then the babies are weaned so you remove them and give dad a 48 hour rest before letting him loose back with the female for insemination ready for egg laying again.

I've got Romeo and Juliets eggs due anytime now too. Just need your guys n gals to catchup now!!!

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo I'm getting there. I'm hoping the eggs for Whitey will start hatching any day. the last egg is Due Easter Sunday.
Yeah I think Blanca needs a rest and maybe pair her up later on with another male.
I only have 1 yellow bird the other ones who look yellow are actually red factors but I haven't been feeding them the expensive substitute to keep their color. I just now started feeding them the red factor egg mix when I paired them up. They wont get their red color back until then end of the next molting.
I haven't hurd Toopay sing today yet, but his hen is already building another nest.

At what age should you stop pairing up the canaries. or do they do their thing up to their last year?
no update on Orangie and yellow. they are still exploring

Stud, and the other 2 haven't haven't really done much of anything. I think I may just out them all in their own cages. and try at a later time.
My local breeder promised me some breeding hens but he wont be back in town until end of this month

[Jamm972]

Some one told me I should try Colony Breeding I believe this is when you have 2 or more hens in the same cage with their own nests and they are paired up with just 1 male? Have you ever hurd such a thing. They of course went on to say it was their best breeding male.
They say doing this is usually easier and more successful when you have multiple canary hens. I think it may be a little confusing, not to mention greedy.
Right now I'm breeding for hobby, not for profit.
I think I'm going to make a new topic about this to see how people feel.

[Animalzoo]

Jamm972

I read through this and thought you might be interested
http://www.yccuk.com/briankeenan/canbreedterms.html

http://www.yccuk.com/briankeenan/knockout.html

It's a thorough website.
http://www.yccuk.com/briankeenan/breedi ... ement.html

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo WOW that's a kicker and a lot of information to read up on.
So I have some bad news. I noticed blanca not sitting on the nest, I picked up the egg and it was wet and what looked to be cracked:( the sad part is it was a fertile egg:( there was blood vessels and you could see the chick starting to form. I am thinking about separating the hen for 10 days giving her time to rest up and not get egg bound and try again. The male is already trying to mount her and chasing her around the cage.
Ms Whitey is still doing her thing. keeping fingers crossed for the end of this week.

I fed Toopay some romaine lettuce today to entice the hen as well as to see if Toopay attempts to feed her. So far he is just telling her to get away, but he is singing a lot more.
I'm still trying to figure out the other 3 canaries. Somehow I feel I still have 1 possibly 2 in the mix of the 3. I see 2 of them fighting, So I'm thinking those are the males even though they are separated. I may remove the one I call brownie and see how the redfactor and the one I believe to be a hen make out. But so far that hen has just been lazy. No nest or nothing.
I am however going to start a log at my attempts. and pairings. Next year or later in the spring I think it may be more successful. As far as molting. I at least know 2 canaries that are about to hit 1 year old.
I think another 2 are at about 1 year old if the breeder was honest with me. I only know for sure that 3 birds are older than 1 year. 1 because I had him 4 years, and the other 2 because of their bands. 1 says 2014, and other says 2015.

As far as colony breeding, I didn't really want to practice it, but wanted to give the hens I know that are ready a chance at getting in some practice. from what I was reading this makes the hen do most the work and the male just inseminates the hens.

So much to take in all at once. Next year I'm going to have a better set up for them, when I clean the cages and or take out the bottoms I think the canaries get distracted so I'm going to build a better breeder cage holder that has solid walls and bottoms. The problem with this is it will become hevy and hard to move/transport in and out of the breeding room. When canaries see other canaries they tend to get distracted if some are in condition and some aren't or if they are at the pairing stage. Breeding canaries is just like the medical field a constant learning experience.

[Animalzoo]

Jamm972

Sloooooooow down!

You've only just put the other couple together and they need time to get to know each other! Don't fret about cleaning them out. I have those cheap flimsy breders stacked so by the time I remove the bottom tray they get to catch a climpse of each other through the gap. Those few minutes make no difference. I've done this throughout and didn't distract the hens from their duties.

Sorry about Blanca. Perhaps she's just so new to breeding she isn't so sure. Again, don't panic too much about egg binding. You're feeding them the best diet, just make sure she has access to calcium like a cuttle bone or a grit supplement. Feed her hard boiled eggs mashed up with the shell and you should be ok. She's doing ok with her boy, who is she with again, is it Toopay? Let her try again. Does she have any eggs left?

So Whitey is still on good eggs yes?

My first pair, Sonny and Cher with the older chick has started building the new 2nd nest.

Jack and Jill's last 5th egg hatched. I was stunned but pleased. They'll be busy now!

Romeo and Juliet's eggs have started to hatch 2 so far out of 4.

The last 4th pair Mulder and Scully haven't put down any eggs yet. What I find unusual is Mulder sits in the empty nest similar to Scully. He doesn't sing. I would have been suspicious of him being a her however he has fed her. I'm just sitting tight with them.

Sit back and relax and enjoy your birdies and give them another week or so.

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo Blanca is with Zorro. Too pay is still separated with his new hen. if your sure about not worrying about eggbinding, then I won't seperate Blanca and Zorro. I will let them go for a 3rd round. But I was going to let her rest for about 10 days. The egg I found was her last one. First clutch she laid 4 duds, 2nd clutch she only laid 2 eggs. I removed the cracked egg that was leaking. I think Blanca knew because she wasn't on the nest all day. When I get back home I will take the divider back out and put the nest back in she built, or might just have her start new.

If skully and Mulder already had a clutch I'm sure they will go for a second. Just takes a wile. Males will sit in nest to help incubate eggs wile the female bathes and eats to her hearts content. This is a common practice from pairs. Atleast I've observed and been told. I have questioned the feeding thing as well with Brownie and his hen. Feeding is a good thing. All we can do it wait.

Ms Whitey still has her 3 eggs. They are due any days now. She is getting off the nest more with intent that they will hatch. She never stays off to long usually no more than 5 minutes.

I'm not moving fast just thinking ahead...... don't want you thinking I'm in a hurry. Just wanted to clarify. That website you gave was very helpful. But as you already know what works for some is different than for ithers. That was the best Web page I have came across so far. ;)

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo did the last tag go through? It originally came through as Animaloop I edited it to your username though.

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo Just a few more days to go before the 3 eggs start to hatch. Donald seems to be doing good and is feeding Whitey. The 1st egg was due to hatch today. but I'm sure its a matter of incubation time. Sunday all 3 should be hatched.

I've been feeding Toopay Romaine lettuce to entice the hen to want to pair up with him. Toopay is singing every so often but hasn't started to feed the hen yet.

Orangie and yellow I cant really figure out. I have also started feeding Orangie romaine lettuce to entice the hen to want to pair up.

Blanca and Zorro, well lets just say there getting along fine. Zorro is still feeding her. Blanca isn't sitting on the nest but she is doing random inspections and improvements to it. I think there gonna try to go for a 3rd attempt, but I will be monitoring them closely just to make sure everything is ok.

So Brownie, Stud and the other bird that hasn't been named yet. Stud and No Name are in one part of the divider and Stud is in the other part. Brownie is continuing to feed No name I'm considering trying to put them back in their own cage. But no name who I believe to be a hen has made no attempts at building a nest.

Have you hurd of 2 females feeding each other ? Stud However I think might be Foxy because no singing. I only think he might be male because he fights with brownie who I think is believed to be a male. Either way I am putting Stud or Foxy lol in their own cage in a separate room for this breeding season.

Whitey gets off the nest to drink and get some extra food in her and Donald goes and checks the nest . I think he checks to see if any has hatched yet to feed them.

Well off to clean out a medium size cage for Stud/Foxy.

[Jamm972]

Animalzoo So I put Orangie and Noname back in their own breeding cage and re separated them in hopes that it will entice Noname to start a nest. When I Pulled them out of the other cage that needed serious cleaning I Looked at Nonames HooHoo and it appeared to be a female. but I could be wrong this is still all new to me. I am going to buy a 2nd nest and putting it on Brownies side just in case I'm getting the HooHoos mixed up. I looked at pictures and so far Nonames is the first I could see clearly. There is no feathers around the Hoohoo area but what confuses me is there is an area that looks like its the spot where the eggs pass through but I could be mistaken and this could be the male's organ. I am believeing this to be a female cause my other males haven't really lost any feathers around their hoohoo's to even see it clearly.

I put Stud is his/her own cage. When I caught em. Its still unclear to tell the sex. the area looks disoriented. Im going to go back to other posts that have links and pics wile the image is still in my head to compare.
Will give you an uopdate when I get home tomorrow from work. Today I'm going to clean out the 1 cage and go buy a 2nd nest for Brownie. Boil some eggs and make up a mix for them. Because If Whiteys eggs hatch she will need it to help feed the young.

How are yours doing haven't herd from you today.

[Babs _Owner]

Jamm972

I've had an egg hatch 18 days after incubation. Slight temperature drops can slow down incubation. So be patient.

If you see a membrane form over the line where the airhole is, and you see a beak bobbing up an down in the air hole, then the chick is at that moment in the process of pipping and hatching.

Its actually quite fascinating when it happens. Chick usually hatches within 24 hours of that event.

[Jamm972]

Babs Thanks, I know the 3 eggs that Whitey is sitting on are all due to hatch. The last egg is due on Easter. When I candled them there were veins running through the egg so I know all 3 are fertile. I'm leaving it in their hands. I am hoping though because there is only 3 eggs that the 1st one will hatch tomorrow and the other 2 subsequent after that. Keeping fingers crossed.

[Animalzoo]

Jamm972
I'm waiting with excitement for Whitey and Donald! Fingers crossed!

Why dont you feed both the hens as well as Toopay and Orangie lettuce? If they wait for the boys they wont be getting the food?

Blanca and Zorro, definitely leave them be. They remind me a little of Mulder and Scully because no eggs have appeared in their nest for the 2nd clutch but both male and female are sitting in the nest as if there is something there.

Good move with Brownie and noname. I dont blame you adding a nest to Brownie. It'll be interesting to see what they do. As for Stud/foxy fighting with brownie, if Stud is female perhaps she just has a real dislike to him. Hens fight too so I wouldnt go by definately by male just for this. However he/she is seperate now and in another room, see if he/she sings

Mine are all doing really well. I had a mega super busy day yesterday and as out a lot so the birds were neglected a little. They always have basic egg food but nothing fresh yesterday. I'm home bound today and about to go see them and make fresh juicy special foods. I'll take my phone to try grab some photos of the babies. Mr Fledgling is looking gooooood so I'll show you how he looks now. He must be coming on 3 weeks now so should be trying to eat a little more. What I saw yesterday too his parents had really got on with building the new 2nd nest so this morning it could be nearly there!! yayy.

[Animalzoo]

The fledgling......



The parents have made a really good second nest and thankfully I can't see signs of any feather plucking and they are still feeding the little thing and not fighting. I'm going to remove the old nest this afternoon to make some more space because I need to monitor closely for any aggression towards the baby now. With clutch 2 on the go this is where it could get messy.

The 5 babies with Jack and Jill are doing great!



Both mum and dad are feeding them.

Romeo and Juliet haven't moved off the nest but should now have 4 chicks.

Mulder and Scully have 1 egg as of this morning!! Yayy.

Do you have any up to date pictures?