Attempting a breeding journal / Habits/behaviour updates

[Matthias]

Good news. So happy. Since these couples of days it's due date for the finches to hatch since they all the 4 pairs.stars, parrot finches, cubans, and cherry heads.i gave in to checking them after ni went a long way without inspection.well the cherries I can't check due to wear they built their nest.the parrots haven't hatched yet.the stars neither but these laid last about 3 days apart.and finally the cubans.they HATCHED.i spotted one chick as big is my small finger nail.hes probably the first one.hopefully not the last.soo soo happy and excited

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias Things are looking good for my friend. Parrotfinch eggs are easy to identify. They are very big. If you need to reduce the number of birds, why don't you sell your bengalese? They are cheap and readily available. I like to keep scarce birds, birds that you can sell for a good price. That is why I got rid of my bengalese and zebras.

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann

Yes Marcus.. that in fact was my intent and i have fullfilled it. However i wanted 3 pairs of begalese as i know they are very placid birds which would have caused no trouble to my aviary and could eventually foster eggs/chicks under them if there would have been the need to .. Since my last post regarding them they have settled down nicely, built nests and laid eggs, the three pairs of them. So i dont think ill be ridding myself of them . they also seem to have calmed down.

On another note i released the owls and cutthroats. The birds seemed startled by the cutthroats as they have a very bold disposition but they seem to have gotten used to them already .

Regarding eggs. The stars,parrots and cherry heads should hatch this week. I will try not to peek in their nests and give it a week or 10 days before i check the stars and parrots.

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias I am totally against the concept of fostering. Evidence has proved to me that fostered birds do not make good parents. I won't buy birds from someone that has bengalese. Friends of mine has been caught by breeders that assured them that the birds that they are buying are parent-reared, but they found it impossible to get those birds to rear their chicks. Later on we heard that the breeder has 30 pairs of bengaleses. If a certain species is threatened by extinction, then by all means use fostering to brings the totals up. I feel that if someone buys a birds from me, it must be a parent-reared, genetically strong bird. The strong shall survive.

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann

i dont want to foster intentionally . But if a chick is tossed i guess its good to give it a second chance rather than just leaving it to die no ? as i reckon 80% of the times if you put a tossed chick in its parents nest they will re toss it or kill it or abandon the nest completely .. so like this i have a fosters on stand by if the situation calls for them

[Matthias]

General Update :

As regards to compatibility im still seeing no real problems . The only aggression shown is from the breeding pairs which protect their nests. But it merely stops at chasing away the nosy bird.

The breeding :
As stated before I gave in to a nest check after 13 days as i could not resist any further not knowing whats going on in the nests. The checks were very brief whilst i fed the birds. Did not have to shoo any birds out of their nests so hopefully no one got offended.

The cubans : Hatched. I managed to get a peek at one tiny bald pink chick.Number of eggs left is unknown
The stars: No chicks yet. ( they laid last from the parrots,cubans and cherry heads)Number of eggs unknown
The parrots: No chicks yet . should be this week. Number of eggs unknown
The cherry heads: Number of eggs unknown and also chicks as their nest cant be checked due to location of were they built it

The rest: The 3 mystery nests are no more a mystery . They are the nests of the 3 society pairs i have. All have eggs however only pair seem to be seriously sitting on the eggs.. The other two pairs are in and out of their nests frequently

The CB'S: No sign of breeding yet. The males also seem to have stopped doing their court dance. Maybe the females are not ready to breed yet so the males have kind of given up

The lavenders : No sings also

The pair of hecks left : they sit in a nest which i built myself as i saw them struggle to carry nesting material in this particular nest.. however no eggs yet. Should be removing this pair anyway

Owls and cutthroats : Just added them to the aviary . The owls are the sweetest thing ever. The cutthroat male has not stopped his mating call directed to his female. looks encouraging

The canaries : Sitting on 4 eggs. Should hatch end of the week, beginning of the next. Easy to control these as they are in a separate breeding cage in my kitchen .

The birds are going through meal worms like never before.. I buy the dried ones. They go through a fist full in a day and a half.. for some reasons they seem to have calmed down from he egg/biscuit food and seed and still have the usual routine with the dried mixed insect food.

I really need to clean the floor of the aviary . Just scared to bother the breeding pairs as ill have to spend a good 15 minutes on my knees on the floor of the aviary hand sweeping .

With reagrds to the stars,cherry heads and parrots and cubans im not going to check again for the next 10 days..This will give them ample time to hatch(if they will) and the potential chicks will be a week old by then so maybe less troublesome for a nest check

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias Me and my friends believe that a chick with such a genetic trait should not survive. If that birds has chicks it will also toss it chicks. If you allow your bengalese to breed it won't foster chicks. I think people put false eggs in their nests or use a threesome of males to foster chicks. If they have chicks will will most likely it ignore the aliens chicks or their own.

[Matthias]

Update :

Today was an utter disaster, possibly my worst day ever in keeping birds.
I would wish to know what happened last night.

I had the canary hatching a chick a day and would find the newly hatched dead by the evening squashed at the bottom of the nest pan.

Today i found out in a disgraceful way that the parrot finches had 2 chicks and the cubans had one.. how ? because i found the parrot finch babies dead on the floor under their nest and the cubans decided to carry their chick out of the nest all the way to the live food dish and leave him there. Thankfully my wife spotted him and i put him in the bengalese nest and we will see what happens

Whilst i was at it i checked their nests and found the star finches hadnt hatched which means they wont as they are around the 18th day
The parrot finches had one other egg and was empty
The cubans had one other egg which was a DIS

Whats left now is the cherry heads which i still have no way of finding out if they had chicks or not or even if they had eggs but i presume so with the complex nest they built.

Oh well, this day will definitely go down in history for me. Very sad and disappointed and discouraged to say the least. Planning on removing several finches from the aviary and minimize the numbers drastically.

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias I feel with you. I have had days like that. I know that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach. Are you sure that the chicks parents did the dumping of the chicks? Could it be one or 2 birds that went into other bird-nests and tossed the chicks? I assume that you never saw who tossed the chicks. It was only the cubans that your wife saw toss their chick. I agree, the only cause of action for you is to drastically reduce the population of your aviary.

[Matthias]

MariusStegmann I never caught nosey birds trying to enter others nests.it could be it was the case however as im not by the aviary 24/7.oh well.to start all over again then

[MariusStegmann]

Matthias The chances that all parent birds would decide to dump their chicks on one day are pretty slim. It is more than likely one pair that were looking for a better nesting site and emptied out the occupied ones.

[Matthias]

Update:

After the recent disaster I still haven't gotten down to getting some of the birds out.
In the meantime for some reason the birds which previously laid eggs and hatched are constructing new nests elsewhere.ive never witnessed this behaviour before as in my previous aviaries pairs always used the same nest over and over and over again regardless of the clutch being successful or not.
However the cubans laid again already. The parrot finches took to building a new nest which seems finished by now .
The star finches have a bit of a dispute between them as now they are two pairs. The red faced male is building g s new nest with his Red faced mate but is mating with the new female yellow face also which is causing the male yellow face to chase the red face male regularly.they don't want to seem to settle together and im tempted to remove the yellow face male and just leave the red faced male get his thing on with the two females. (Never had this scenario happen before )
The silver bills I added recently are trying to build a nest but can't seem.to make up their mind where to do so as they are carrying material to various nests.
The cutthroats are proving to be quite passive till now and not disrupting the birds in the aviary
Cherry heads started carrying more material to their original nesting site however still can't check what's going g on there.
Cordon bleus, lavenders, series, hecks show no sign of breeding behaviour still.
One pair of the bengalese just hatched today.other 2 pairs still on eggs.
I'm. Tempted to fetch the eggs of the cubans and of the parrot finches and put the under the bengalese to try my luck.but I think I'll let them have a second go at raising a clutch .However if I experience the same disaster I did I.wont let them sit out a 3rd clutch and will take.their eggs and put them under the bengalese

[Matthias]

Been a while since I gave an update. Not a happy update anyway.after the first disaster the birds settled down to lay again and basically I've had a repeat of the 1st time.chicks thrown out after a couple of days from hatching .same day this time for the cubans.unexplainable and absolutely frustrating

[Matthias]

Been a while since I gave an update. Not a happy update anyway.after the first disaster the birds settled down to lay again and basically I've had a repeat of the 1st time.chicks thrown out after a couple of days from hatching .same day this time for the cubans.unexplainable and absolutely frustrating

[finchmix22]

Matthias
I'm sorry to hear they are tossing chicks. Have you been able to save any? Are you handfeeding? I eventually gave up on my tossing pairs and started taking their eggs after they sat about one week. I put the eggs under Society fosters so I wouldn't lose them again.