Societies in 3's

[bugoyking]

does any one of you tried a trio society? 2 hens and a cock.

will it be more effective in 3's?

I have a cock and 2 crested hens. when i tried to mix the cock it immediately mated both hens. i am just wondering if there some of you guys who tried it. i have seen some societies bringing up owl or LG chicks having combination of 2 males or 2females and even 1 single male fostering 5 to 6 owl finches!

give me your thoughts....

thanks!

[L in Ontario]

I've had one hen and two cock Societies successfully hatch and raise chicks. I've also had 3 cocks and currently 2 cocks hatch and raise chicks. I don't see any problem with one cock and two hens or any other comibination. The hens would most likely end up laying a LOT of their own eggs but if you don't want that - simply mark the foster eggs as they are added to the nest and remove any unmarked eggs (Society eggs).

Off Topic - I sure wish I was in the Phillipines right about now!

[dfcauley]

I have two hens and one cock. They are all crested. They have fostered loads of babies for me including some of their own.
No problems except with the nest getting a little crowded sometimes. I think if I had 10 society finches in my aviary they would all get in the same nest....

[Sally]

If you are talking about using Societies as fosters, three males is the easiest combo--no eggs to watch out for and toss. However, sometimes three males don't get broody when you need them. If you have one hen in the group, and she starts laying eggs, that seems to stimulate all of the group to get very broody.

[FinchDegg]

all individual bird dependant IMO

[isabird]

When you do fostering with societies (lets say 2 or 3 males in a cage). Do you add one egg a day?

[L in Ontario]

When you do fostering with societies (lets say 2 or 3 males in a cage). Do you add one egg a day?

Once they have made the nest, yes - the best way to get them to brood is to add the eggs one every day til the clutch is done.

[ac12]

I have 3 males as my fosters.

Yes it sometimes take a while to get them to sit.
Mine seem to be able to tell the difference between fake and real eggs. With fake eggs, they may or may not sit. But when I have real eggs, their behavior changes.

What I've tried to do is as the hen lays eggs, I will put a fake egg in the societies nest, so the societies nest mimics the egg count that the source nest has. At about 4 or 5 eggs, the societies start to sit. But this does not always work. Some times they will ignore the fake eggs, and won't sit until I swap in the real eggs.

Example, right now they are ignoring the fake eggs, and have burried the fake eggs as they rip newspaper from the cage floor to add to the nest.

[crumpet912]

I have one cock who currently has 4 hens, all lay eggs and raised 5 healthy chicks together. They have since laid 4 more eggs in three different nests. It works just fine, he's just a little tired