FINCHforum

I gave a friend of mine who had just lost his female canary one of my canary chicks from this season. She is approximately 4 months old. She is now residing with a male 1 year old approx, from one of my clutches from last year. I saw my friend yesterday and asked how the little female was doing with her new friend and he proceeded to tell me that she laid 2 eggs! I looked at him in disbelief as I do not think this is possible but he said it is just the two of them in the cage and the nest apparently was never removed from the female that died. He says she laid 2 eggs and I am still trying to understand how this is possible........

Does anyone have any experience with a mishap like this?? Is it physically possible??

On a different note, I have an extremely large flight cage that I put all the chicks in that I am contemplating keeping and I at times will house the hens that are finished for the season in with them until the "hen" cage becomes available again. I was sitting at the table watching all the activity in the large flight cage the other day and could not believe my eyes as my 4 month old male chick proceeded to mate with his mother who I had put in the flight cage as she was now finished and supposed to be resting. If I had not seen this I also would not have believed it, I was horrified and immediately removed the hen and put her in a different cage outside by herself temporarily. I would never have thought that was possible either. I must have a really potent bunch of chicks this season!

Linda

My dad's first canary was 4 months old when she laid and raised three chicks. No one thought they would be fertile, but obviously they were.

yes i have had a situation like yours. female born in august and laid eggs in january next year. so around 4months old. usually if young females sees interaction between a pair and especially if there is males around singing to her they will develop sexual behavior early. i've males trying to mate very young too. singing on the wires since they were 3months and even their song was not complete but in my opinion is not a very good idea mating them. as you know is best if they are older then a year but that's up to you.

Thank you for the replies. I just never gave it a thought as I did not think it possible that early. Certainly it is not something I would ever purposely do. As I said in my original post, when I saw the hen and her son mate, I quickly got her out of that cage and put her in Siberia for the time being~

My friend contacted me and said the two eggs hatched and he has 2 little chicks. I advised him to separate the hen and male and keep them apart until next breeding season. She can raise the chicks on her own. Hopefully he listened.

Again, thanks.