FINCHforum

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping the canary owners can give some advice please. I have 1 pair yellow Roller's and 1 pair of Fife canaries in my aviary (3mx2mx2m) along with my finch collection. I have open canary nests spread around the aviary, as well as soft nesting material for them (which they are having great fun messing all over the place...)

Now the 2 males are in prime condition, singing their hearts out for the girls and having mid-air arguments (nothing serious, just lots of feather flapping - they have loads of space). Their respective hens come flying straight up to them when they are singing their song. All this I understand. But the hens are confusing me...

Both hens are allowing their preferred mate to feed them, take pieces of nesting material from them and the hens themselves are even playing and carrying around the nesting material. But the hens go from all lovey-dovey with the males, to chasing the males around and away and then back to lovey-dovey again. I have even seen the male roller try to mount the hen, all with her consent. But I have not seen any official nest building yet.

Is this just the pairing up routine or are the hens just not ready? They are all young birds and I believe this is their first breeding season. Why they are choosing winter, I don't know...

Thanks as always for all your help!

Roxanne

My Fife hen has now started frantically building a nest and her mate is dutifully carrying bits of nesting and is just dumping it near the nest site for her (he isn't much help, lol)

Canary breeding is foreign to me and they are so different in their habits to the finches.

Any advice or opinions welcome please

Hi Roxanne, canaries can be stimulated to breed anytime of the year, I personally like to breed them in the cooler time of the year.From my point of view, on your first post it sounded like your hens aren't 100% in condition. How old are the birds? Most always there will be some bickering with 2 pairs in a single cage.
lou

I noticed you are in South Africa. It's almost winter there. How many hours of daylight do you have in your avairy?

lou

Lou, thank you so much! They are all under 2 years old but I have no idea if they have nested before. The hens seem to be getting more and more interested in the males daily and looking at nesting area's etc. My Fife hen has already started building. The hens are also flying laps around the aviary. I'm guessing they are allowing themselves to get into condition before mating/brooding? I read online that the hen won't mate until she has built her nest. Is this correct?

@jonvill
Winter seemed to arrive with a bang this last week. Cold temps and loads of rain. We generally have approx. 9 hours daylight in winter (degree of light depends on cloud cover), which is why I am surprised they decided to come into breeding season now (I've had them outside since December). The aviary is well sheltered though from drafts, rain etc plus I have heat lamps inside. One of the heat lamps is a 150watt infra-red which is kept on all day. They say they light shouldn't affect sleep patterns etc but do you think this could be playing a role?

Thanks again guys!

I really couldn't say that the heat lamp is causing off-season breeding behaviour. I have canaries outdoors but do not have heat on them.

Canaries come into breeding condition when the length of daylight reaches 12.5 to 13 hrs. It also helps to provide lots of egg food, green leafy veggies and soaked or sprouted seeds. You should also provide extra vitamin E, either in the form of hemp seed or vitamin E oil formulated for birds. Vitamin E is the fertility vitamin for canaries.
It is normal for things to be a little awkward at first - especially if these are first time parents. They will often build and destroy the nest several times before settling down to lay eggs in it. I liked to breed my canaries in separate breeder cages that had the removable divider. It was easier to keep a close eye on things that way. There was litttle doubt when the hen acted like she would be receptive to the male and the divider be pulled out. I can't really offer advice on aviary style breeding, but I imagine it shouldn't be all that different. Good luck! Bob

Canaries will continue to respond to the light, each spring, and get "motivated" to perform. My male canary is 11 and he still gets excited every year in Spring. I don't think my finches appreciate his attentions however....

Canaries will continue to respond to the light, each spring, and get "motivated" to perform. My male canary is 11 and he still gets excited every year in Spring. I don't think my finches appreciate his attentions however....

Canaries come into breeding condition when the length of daylight reaches 12.5 to 13 hrs. It also helps to provide lots of egg food, green leafy veggies and soaked or sprouted seeds. You should also provide extra vitamin E, either in the form of hemp seed or vitamin E oil formulated for birds. Vitamin E is the fertility vitamin for canaries.

Thank you Bob!! I currently feed all of the above to my finches and canaries, including 2% shelled hemp in their seed mix. Why the canaries are deciding to breed now with less daylight, I honestly don't know... Do you think I should increase their vitamin E intake for now? I can get a vitamin E oil for birds or increase the hemp seed.

My Fife hen is making a complete disaster of her first nesting attempts, just like you mentioned. Completely ignoring the nest baskets but I will let them be and see if they sort themselves out.

This is the pair that were sold to be by the pet shop as Fife canaries. I honestly don't know if that's correct or not but here they are. Crystal is the white hen and Peter is her mate




Thanks so much for everyone's advise and support!!

Fife canaries are considerably smaller than most other canary varieties and have a rounder, "cuter" shape to the body. Honestly, I've only seen them one time in person, as they're more popular in the U.K and Australia than they are around here. Also, I'll admit that I'm really not that familiar with their husbandry, and their social/breeding habits appear to be a bit different than the typical song canary. I imagine that conditioning would be pretty similar, as the basics of conditioning hold true for many species of birds.
I would search out other internet articles specifically pertaining the fife canary, or maybe someone else on this forum has experience with them. A quick search of mine revealed that they are extremely hardy, disease resistant birds and are the EASIEST to breed of all canaries. Good luck and keep us posted! Bob

30 Seconds to Bob

I have been googling like crazy about the canaries and besides the fact that they are nesting "out of season" in terms of daylight, they seem to be doing everything that they should do be doing. Well, according to the websites anyways, lol!

They are awesome little birds, super friendly and extremely curious. Always the first to greet you when you come into the aviary and they love it when you talk to them, literally face to face up on the branches! I have to be careful when I'm in there now, as they sneak up on me to peck at my shoes! I think it's the laces they are after, haha

Thanks again for all the advise. I will definitely let you know how it progresses

It's official. Crystal (white Fife hen) laid her first egg yesterday - Whoohooo!!!!

Will post some photo's on the weekend. She has chosen the most bizarre place to build her nest, crazy bird

Congratulations!
best of luck