FINCHforum

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.

What is other peoples opinions about this? is it safe, let alone effective. could a male even keep up with 2 ore more hens?

I have been told by others that a hen is capable of taking care of her own once inseminated. This method seems like it could either be very easy, or more complex.

I'm curious to see others opinions. I'm personally against colony breeding but thats because of a bad experience with budgies last year with 4-5 pairs fighting etc. Not to mention losing track of family lines. I was glad when it was over to be honest.

What you've said there with 2 hens and 1 male is a lot easier. Hens can raise their own chicks if required so yes it is possible to be greedy and get the biggest outcome from the fewest parents hehe

I'd be dubious about more males in the same flight while breeding and I think the word cage needs to change to aviary at this point and size increases dramatically to 'walk in' otherwise they'll fight I recon.

I think of colony breeding as an open flight situation where a number of birds can choose whatever mate they want.

What you're suggesting is probably still called "selective breeding" where the goal is to select certain birds with exceptional genes in an effort to improve the hybrid even more. Some commercial breeders might do a double breeding cage to raise their production numbers when they have extra females but in my case it's a matter of trying to develop certain traits in my new arrivals IE: better color, size and form.
The tricky part for me is matching intensive with non-intensive birds since there always seems to be an imbalance of the two feather types.

Paul