Amazing Societies

[annague]

I want to hear some stories of societies and what they have done with regards to fostering other species chicks.

I am so appreciative to have societies that are very conscientious about fostering. I have re-homed all Soc's that proved to have indifferent skills and I kept one fawn self male and 2 chocolate pied females that were spectacular parents. Together they had 2 fawns and 1 chocolate self (male) that I also kept. Since then I have added 4 more Soc finches that are (as yet) unproven and have 1 crested chocolate male that is a 2nd gen offspring of my original fawn self male and the crest choc pied female. (So I have about 10 Soc's I am working with now.)

My story: I put the two young (unproven) fawn self Soc's in a community cage with 3 pairs of Stars and 1 pair of BCCB's. (All the Stars are very young).

Silly Stars wouldn't sit although they have gone from nest to nest laying eggs -- The male Soc pair hatched and is raising one nest of six youngsters and sitting on about 4 eggs from another abandoned nest at the same time.

I took the babies out today to change the nesting material and they are fat and happy. The male Soc's stood on the side of the cage and flicked their wings and 'chitted' disapprovingly the whole time.

I know about Super Wo (Misty's amazing Society foster) and others have similar stories... I would LOVE to hear them.

[ac12]

Mine rescued 10 gouldian chicks. They were either abandoned nests (eggs) or tosslings. If it wasn't for them, except for the last 2 chicks, I would not have had any gouldian chicks to raise.

But, to put it in perspective, they can be fostered out/over worked. I just tried to get them (2 males) ready to standby to foster for my firefinches, and they just would NOT settle down and sit on the fake or real eggs. So I have them in rest mode now with an empty nest.

I also have one that has tossed hatchlings, not all, but a few. So he is on my watch list and is separated waiting for me to get him a new partner. If he does not toss the hatchling, he is a GOOD foster.

[annague]

Wow, that's great Gary! Both of yours that did that are males?

Good point about resting them,too. It would be great to rotate them in and out of fostering. (That's what I'm working on with mine, too).

[CandoAviary]

I think if you have societies in the breeding mode they will foster just about anything. Since they are a human created domestic finch they really don't have a sense of a "proper young 'un" so they see any hatched chick as a mouth to feed.
When the societies are not in the breeding mode they seldom will rear with total success. I never put societies in a flight with any breeders as I have found that they will actually take over nest of the breeding pair. I prefer placing abandoned eggs in the societies roosting nest in their own flight so that the species' natural parents have a chance on getting it right without constant "nest checks" from the societies. Which most do eventually with the right conditions, privacy, and foods.
I do think societies are super birds though I purposely breed them for cleared healthy fosters for others and also for the crest and frills. Fortunately with the other species I am housing these days, I rarely have to society foster their chicks so I can concentrate on letting the societies produce their own little darlings Societies are great birds for themselves, as fosters, and as a pet companion.
In the past I have had had them rear everything form waxbills to grass finches. They are the nannies of the bird world

Sounds like you have a bounty of stars, congrats!

[ac12]

Anna
I started with a trio of males, with the idea that if I lost one, I would still have 2. In watching the video of my nestcam I caught one specific bird tossing the hatchling. My wife put the hatching back 2x but each time he tossed it again. The hatchling did not survive until I got home I caught him tossing a hatchling again, so I separated him from the other 2.

I will try to find him a partner, but that has to wait till after my 2 hens raise a gouldian chick to weaning. I only have 1 cage to use for extended quarantine.

[annague]

Candace, taking over a nest is what I was afraid of, too -- but my Stars are big and MEAN at times -- I have to keep some of my shyer, smaller birds away from them. They tend to pluck and peck smaller birds on the head in a very dominant fashion when they want a particular perch or food.

However, my CB's & Soc's seem ok with them ... oddly, what I cannot put with the Stars are Blackbelly or Senegal Fires or my Forbes PF's.

So, with the new Stars these guys have worked out o.k. -- although I will take them out after these clutches and see if the Stars can get it right by themselves.

I agree, normally I would just bring the eggs to them in their own enclosure for fostering-- these guys were in there because I was hoping to breed my new Chocolate Dilute Pied Soc hen to one of them & when it didn't work out I just left them in there.

Gary, that is a naughty Society! I never even knew they would toss a chick.

[ac12]

Societies are not all good fosters. Several people have posted varying degrees of success and failures with societies. Some will sit but not feed, so the chick dies. Some will not foster at all. Some will foster from eggs, but not a chick, whereas others will adopt a nestling. So part of my exercise it to give the new societies an egg to see if it/they will foster it from egg to weaning. Only if it does, then I will move it into my foster program. Otherwise I will take it to my local bird shop.

My 2 hens appear to be faster at sitting on new eggs than my males.

[CandoAviary]

Societies are not all good fosters

I think with societies as with any species of finch the success of rearing chicks is condition of the birds. There are many things to consider and often overlooked by the breeder when caring for foster societies.
1 - Make sure the societies are in breeding mode.. which is what you are trying to trigger with a dummy egg. Your hens may be responding better than the males because they are responding to the trigger of the egg. The males may not be in breeding mode... what triggers birds is hormones, courtship, nestbuilding..and of course for him...the act of copulation. If males are allowed to court and breed the hen they are always good fathers , I have found.
With just adding eggs or a chick just won't be enough to trigger parenting...though if the pair is in prime breeding mode, you can put just about any egg or even chick in their nest and they will foster it.
2 - Are the bird old enough. Many times breeders don't respect the need for maturity in societies because they are many time bred young and figure they just don't need age for maturity. However their best parenting skills are like most finches and perfected from 2 to 5 years of age.
3 -Proper foods to raise the fostered young. Many waxbills need much higher protein than the millets that societies prefer. So conditioning societies to eat eggfoods, chitted seed, and bugs is important if you want to rear more demanding chicks with different dietary requirements.
4 - Overbred societies. This you have already expirienced and mentioned, Gary. Just like any finch they need their rest time to recharge, molt, etc.

Most breeders that have success with foster societies are usually the ones that have allowed the societies to breed themselves...intentionally or not. How many times have we read on these post..."well , they slipped one of their own in this clutch"
That will actually make them more parental. Or many breeders allow the societies to lay their own clutch and then substitute their own eggs with a different species, discarding the societies eggs. Both of these methods are pretty sure to be foolproof. Of course you may find a society confused about a fuzzy baby if they have smooth skinned chicks in the nest. They may sense something is wrong with it. This is remedied by always removing their eggs and replacing them with fuzzy chick eggs. This way that is normal to them.
Zebra finches come in handy here as fosters since their chicks are fuzzy anyways.
There is a real art to honing good societies. Sometimes you get lucky and have a conditioned society at the ready when needed, and sometimes you do run across that amazing society that will mother anything, anytime, anywhere.. the super Wo s I have always found these to be hens.

[JohnBoy]

I have never had societies successfully raise other finches birds. They always throw the eggs out or toss the babies after they hatch. I have a pair setting 5 cutthroats eggs that were abandoned by the parents, so far so good. But I don't expect them to go all the way with them. If they do it will be a first.

[annague]

JohnBoy that is so unfortunate. It seemed like when I started I had a whole bunch of Soc's that would not sit or foster no matter what I did -- I eventually ended up find them new homes and started all over again -- I buy all my Soc's as PetSmart (so far) and I liked the look of three so I bought them and ended up with some good ones this last round.

Still, as Candace says, there seems to be an art to getting them to foster successfully -- still new at it myself -- but it helps to have Soc's that have that natural urge in the first place!

[finchmix22]

I started with four Society's (also from PetSmart) and did not plan on breeding them. I thought I had all males, but I had one hen. So, they were the first to raise a clutch of three. Now, we have nine adults and four hatchlings! The whole Society flock (all nine) take turns feeding and brooding the chicks. I catch one parent in the nest at all times and at least two other Society's "helping out" with the parent. Many of these are the juveniles, with ages ranging from 10 weeks old, 22 weeks old and the adults, who are about 1-1/2 years old. I find the Society's so entertaining and interesting to watch. The males also give me a strong chittering when I take the nest to band hatchlings. They will not stop until the nest is replaced and they ALL have gone into the nest to check on the hatchlings. Then, they look at me like, "Alright, you didn't hurt our babies. You're good to go. Now GO!" LOL.

[annague]

Deborah yours sound like they are real winners!

I enjoy my societies way more than I thought I would, too. They are smart, entertaining and so sweet to each other -- just good pets.

[okiebirds]

I have a cage of 4 societies. Dont know if they are male or female but they are all siblings. I thought about splitting them up but they work so good together as a group. They saved three Gouldian eggs that were abandoned and raised them wonderfully. Gave them 6 more eggs a few weeks ago and now raising 6 healthy chicks again. They keep these chicks stuffed to the verge of their crops busting.

I wish I had 4 more

[annague]

I hear you, Stan! Such a relief to have some sterling parenting skills from finches.

[ac12]

A problem that I had with 3 societies in the nest is that they will trample the bottom of the nest FLAT. I use an ABBA nest box. This makes it hard to keep the eggs in the middle so they can incubate all the eggs, as there is little to no depression to contain the eggs. This is less of a problem with only 2 societies in the nest, or if you use a nest that is inherently bowl shaped.

I can only imagine how FLAT the bottom of the nest would be with 4 or more societies in there