Steve and I booked a table for todays Stafford sale, Steve had some budgies to shift, I sorted out some Zebs to go. I put pics of them on one of the Facebook finch sites and sold all but one pair before today! I found another pair of Zebs and decided to shift 3 of my Timor pairs - as my other 2 pairs now have eggs. I also had some spare Bengalese to go. I had also pre-sold 2 hecks grassfinches but the buyer didn't show - isn't that annoying?

We travelled up yesterday afternoon and stayed in the Holiday Inn just off the M6. We set up this morning - the table wasn't really big enough for all our cages but we made do! We sold most of what we brought and managed - in a very restrained manner - NOT to buy any new birds!!

My Zebra breeding season has been a bit slow, but over the past few days I have had a nest of 7 penguins hatch, also nests of 4 and 5. Previously most of my clutches had only successfully reared 1 or 2!

I had one pair of normals who, when the chicks were very young Mum plucked all the feathers off Dad's face! Poor thing looks very odd!. I removed Mum (I thought that if I removed Dad there was a risk of Mum plucking the chicks). Dad has done a fantastic job and this afternoon, when we got back from Stafford I found all his chicks out of the nest looking very good.

Here's hoping all goes well - I need Timor chicks, I bought 20 Timor sized rings!