Black Brown Society Finches

the.puppeteer · Post by **the.puppeteer** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:42 pm

Hello all,

Thanks for your input - this has been an interesting discussion.

I agree that the colouring (chocolate, fawn, pied, etc) of the bird has nothing to do with their ability to raise chicks. However, the Black Brown Society is a hybrid that was developed between the regular Society Finch and a Black Manikin from Asia. And the few sites that have information on them say that they make poor breeders and poor parents, with most of their eggs needing to be fostered out to regular Society Finches (http://www.societyfinch.com/Black_Brown.html).

dfcauley - your bird may be a BB, but it looks a bit lighter and without the heavy striping - more like a chocolate self? Good to hear that yours is a good foster though!

-Julie

Post by **Sally** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 11:49 pm

dfcauley wrote:So Sally, will you give the strawberries a chance to do it on their own before fostering?

I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Felix and Oscar are still taking care of the 4 BCCBs and 4 Strawberries, and since they are just in the process of fledging, they will still have 8 mouths to feed for a while. In another cage, I have 2 males and 1 hen, they have 4 Society babies to take care of right now (poor planning on my part!). In the third cage, I have 1 male and 1 hen, she has been laying eggs, but I remove them each day and replace with a plastic egg. The male is young, and I hate to trust them with Strawberry babies, but I may not have a choice.

I am inclined to see if the parents will take care of their babies this time. If not, I can try the Societies in the third cage, then I've run out of options, except to handfeed.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:06 am

wow Sally , good luck. Those strawberries are pretty priceless these days. I still can't find a pair.

the.puppeteer · Post by **the.puppeteer** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 4:41 pm

Good luck with the Strawberries.

Has the hen from pair 3 raised chicks before? Hopefully if she has, she will teach the male what to do (if needed).

-Julie

Post by **Sally** » Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:39 pm

the.puppeteer wrote:Has the hen from pair 3 raised chicks before? Hopefully if she has, she will teach the male what to do (if needed).

I don't know this hen's history. She's the one I rescued from a filthy cage, so I know nothing about her. She has been laying eggs. She didn't like my nest box at first, so she pulled the nesting material out and tried to build her own nest in a plastic plant. The eggs kept falling thru to the floor, so she finally gave up and used the nest box. She has been laying an egg a day, which I have replaced with plastic eggs each day, and today she is sitting tight on 5 plastic eggs. The problem is, the Strawberry eggs might be hatching in a couple of days (I'm not sure when they started sitting tight), so the timing is off. If I place the Strawberry eggs under her now, when they hatch in a few days, she may decide something is wrong and not feed them. The same thing if I wait and let them hatch under the Strawberries. The other Society hen, which is sitting on her own hatchlings, has had babies before. Maybe I will get lucky, and the Strawberries will take care of their own babies!