FINCHforum

I hung nest boxes for the three pairs of Chestnut Breasted Mannikins, one pair claimed one within 5 minutes of my hanging the box. The hen hopped right into it. I stood back for a while and watched, one of the other hens checked out the wooden open faced box, she entered it....the hens seem to be very interested in the boxes first.

I love the pictures! The second pictures...they look like they're looking at each other...getting ideas. They're such beautiful birds!

Great pictures Cindy! Good luck!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! I hope to have a pair of these some day too, Cindy

Ginene, we really need to breed these....few have good numbers of them. I will be working with 5 different bloodlines by Fall to try to build their numbers up in the states.

That's fantastic, cindy! Are they difficult to breed? Maybe some day in the future I can purchase an unrelated pair (or 2) from you and try to help out with the numbers. Is there anyone in the North East working with them? Martie would be great!!!

Not sure who else on the East coast has them. There are some members in NFSS that raise them also.

That would be great if you can get the numbers up! Great birds!

Several people in my area are working with them, but some of their birds also came from Scott. Everyone will have to keep careful records so when you start swapping bloodlines, you will know for sure that they aren't related.

Scot has several bloodlines, I plan on picking up 2 unrelated lines from him soon. That will give me 5 separate bloodlines to work with.

All 3 pairs have been in their boxes....lots of singing going on!!

They look great Cindy! Good Luck with breeding and getting good diversity in that gene pool!

You are very lucky to have them take to the boxes so readily,
My chestnut-breasted mannikins are extremely fussy about nesting sites, and only build in natural branches.

Good luck!

I gave my pairs every type of nesting cavity to choose from. They all chose the bird bath that hangs outside the cage. I had lined the bath with coconut grass so the clear part of the bath was mostly obscured.

I meant to add that mine are very light sitters, like the Parrot Finches.
When I enter the room they are off the nest, so minimal activity works best.

The nests are lined with timothy hay and long coco fiber cut into manageable sections.

So far when entering the room, they stay inside the nests. They are also in a flight away from main traffic...I have raised sensitive species before...one pair is a proven pair.