There hasn't been a whole lot to report over the last few weeks. The winter has basically been a resting period for the birds and for myself.
But I've gotten busy lately and set up several of my birds for breeding. We should start to see some progress now.
There is one pair of Yellow Face Star Finches that have been laying a lot of eggs already. Unfortunately, they have been laying them on the floor of their cage! I've fostered some of those to some society finches, and I'm waiting to see if they will hatch.
But I've gotten busy lately and set up several of my birds for breeding. We should start to see some progress now.
There is one pair of Yellow Face Star Finches that have been laying a lot of eggs already. Unfortunately, they have been laying them on the floor of their cage! I've fostered some of those to some society finches, and I'm waiting to see if they will hatch.
Other pairs that we have set up are some of our self colored society finches, our Bourke's parakeets, and the three pairs of budgies featured on our Planned Breeding page.
The Bourke's and budgie hens have been showing signs that they are serious about doing some nesting, so I finally gave them their nest boxes yesterday. One Bourke's hen had already started to lay eggs on the floor of her cage, and as soon as I gave her the box yesterday, she went right into it. I expect her next egg to be in there today.
The Bourke's and budgie hens have been showing signs that they are serious about doing some nesting, so I finally gave them their nest boxes yesterday. One Bourke's hen had already started to lay eggs on the floor of her cage, and as soon as I gave her the box yesterday, she went right into it. I expect her next egg to be in there today.
The budgies can always be counted on to get down to business right away. The three pairs were introduced to each other a week ago. Now that they have their boxes, I expect them to start laying very soon.
It takes roughly three months from start to finish, so my estimate is that we will have parent raised baby budgies available by early June. I don't expect to hand feed any babies this time around unless I run into problems and a mother needs me to step in. But with three pairs going, it's often possible to foster chicks from one mother to another.
Here are some photos of my new English budgies.
It takes roughly three months from start to finish, so my estimate is that we will have parent raised baby budgies available by early June. I don't expect to hand feed any babies this time around unless I run into problems and a mother needs me to step in. But with three pairs going, it's often possible to foster chicks from one mother to another.
Here are some photos of my new English budgies.
The one on the left is a female Texas Clearbody. She's molting right now, so she looks a little scruffy, but you can see how the body color on her front is yellow instead of green. That's because the TCB gene reduces her pigment. You can also see that the gene reduces her wing markings as well, and gives them a sort of grizzled appearance. Below, the tips of her new flight feathers are just showing, and they are mostly grey instead of black.
The other English budgie is a cinnamon greygreen cock. I'll be using him to get cinnamon hen chicks for my lacewing plans. I'll pair them with my males who are double split to cinnamon and ino. The photo below shows the new bird's brown markings a little better than the photo above.
Since he is greygreen, it will be the first time that I am able to get grey factored chicks. Those are very attractive, especially if they are yellow faced, so I am looking forward to working with that.