Too many hens..Can I....

[spook1]

Hello,
I have a extra gouldian hen and was wondering if I could put her in with a male and other female I was trying to breed. The pair I have together seemingly hate each other and I thought about putting my extra hen in with them to see if they might pair up. Would that be ok or would it be a mess?
Thank you

[ac12]

If the pair is not getting along, just swap the hens.
Swap means to remove the 1st hen, so she does not get in the way of the M and 2nd hen from bonding and mating.

Pairs do not always get along. And IMHO, it is best to keep those pairs separate, to reduce the stress level of the birds, and improve the probability of them successfully raising a clutch.

[spook1]

Ok thank you! I am almost tempted to colony breed. In the past I had great luck with that but seems the general consensus is that isn't a good idea. But it would be easier to house them as it's a huge aviary then they can pick there mates. But since I am breeding for color probably better to keep them in there own cage.
Thank you!

[ac12]

I also breed for color, so I have to breed them as a pair in a separate cage. I also have limited space, so I have to be selective in which pairs I breed, to prevent a population explosion of birds of a color that I do not want, and to prevent the situation where I am not sure of the split of the offsping.

By split of the bird, I mean, if I have a visually PB bird, it IS a PB/WB, not a PB. I do not want the situation where I could have a PB or PB/WB. Because then I don't know what the bird really is, and that makes for difficulty in planning my breeding.

Similarly I do not want to mate a GB/BB to a GB/BB, because I cannot tell the offspring GB from GB/BB. I need to know that the bird is a GB or a GB/BB. So I will mate a GB/BB to a BB, or a GB to a BB.