Emmy

Wishing Paul Edmundson; Redbill and Gu53bee A Very Happy Birthday. Hope you all had a nice day. Emmy

Bet Wishes for your birthday, Hope you have had a nice day Emmy

Andy  was thinking ahead when I got that. When there's no more hens(not likely though) with a little adaptation it could make a nice wee aviary.(lol)   Tony It's so easy to get talked into things, especially if you are a 'soft touch' where birds and animals are concerned. I'm thinking ahead now and if the family  want some eggs they will get a shock - these eggs  will not be free!! If they want them the price will be doubled (lol) (just kidding  lol)

Welcome to the forum Jeff I notice you keep poultry dogs etc. something like myself Is it hens you have.? Emmy

I can see you coming home with some 1st prize rosettes when you exhibit those ones Emmy

Really like the top one you said its 'fawn cheek' would you say it is a fawn cheek pied? I've never seen one like that before just beautiful. Emmy

Are those ones 2015 birds Nick You have three beauties there. Emmy

Great when things work out Nick Emmy

Thanks Trevor Emmy

Hi Trevor Yes I do have another nest with eggs hatching BUT they have a LOT of eggs in their nest too must count them next time I'm in bird shed. - so far they have three chicks hatched out. They are BC finches too. So if they 2nd nest doesn't have too many chicks hatched I'll transfer some over. What extra 'things' should I give them? at the moment they have finch seed, panicum millet, egg food, millet sprays, oyster shell, oyster grit not sure if I should put any suppliments into their drinking water or give them conditioning seed (but thought giving them conditioning seed may make them want to breed again) They have been getting cress/apple etc but not sure if I should give them this when the are feeding the young. Emmy

I can't work out just how many chicks have hatched out in this nest with still two eggs to go. First time I thought it was six; 2nd count I thought it was seven or maybe eight , now unless I physically lift the chicks out from the nest (which I wont do ) I will just have to have patience but if there is eight chicks in the nest and the remaining two eggs hatch will the parents be able to rear ten chicks? Emmy

Hi Mark Wishing you a Very Happy Birthday Hope you have had a nice day. Emmy

Hi Andy I did tell the Bengalese they may be getting a few lodgers so they were forewarned. (lol) This morning when I checked the Bengalese nest the chicks were still alive and there is 'something' in their crop but it doesn't look like seed but it does look as though they are being fed because I reckon if they hadn't had some food they would have been dead by now. The Bengalese now have a 3rd egg of their own in the nest.

That's what always happens You go to buy one bird and you come home with 3/4. I've come to believe that zebra finches have the ability to brainwash us to get us to buy them. Emmy

A very nice bird you have there. Hope all goes well with the breeding Emmy

Never took a thought about that Andy. Guess I should have done that but I think its going to be OK just checked and the chicks look lively and are moving about in the nest and they are sitting on the nest. Is it better to put the egg shells in with the chicks? Not sure if the other one in the incubator is going to hatch but if it does I'll transfer the egg shell with the chick. Emmy

Andy re the daily fresh eggs! If you lived close by you would get all the eggs you wanted -no charge! (lol) At the moment I give all my quail eggs away to my son and my neighbours and I guess they'll be getting lots of the hens eggs too as I'm not too keen on eggs!

Know what it doesn't matter what colour they end up being they are just beautiful little birds Later on it will be interesting to find out what the chick's young will be like Emmy

Lovely chicks I like the colour of them too Is that the 'dad'/mum' in the background on photo no. 3? Emmy

Andy I'm still determined to find another Texan White Quail cock bird (lol) I've ordered 12 Texan White fertile Quail eggs which should arrive tomorrow/Thursday and the incubator is ready and waiting. Surely some of the eggs will hatch and I'll get at least one cock bird. but how things have been happening here lately it wouldn't surprise me in the least if all 12 hatched out and they were all HENS. (lol)

Guess I know who the culprit is now.!

Hi Andy Reason I mentioned if perhaps a cockatiel etc may have killed the chick and eaten it -at the back of my mind I seemed to recall reading something about that - but it could quite easily have been referring to something else (lol)There's definitely no rats/mice or stoats in the inside/outside flight and some finches have young in their nest in the outside flight next to the D.Dove's nest and they are OK Just cant understand this I wondered if it was because there is only one female D.Dove to 3 males the other two males have always been hovering around the nest while the bonded pair were incubating the egg. The only destructive bird I can think of at the moment that I have is Lucifer my pied zebra finch (lol) It's a mystery but I'm going to have another search tomorrow. ps Forgot to say my hens are in a separate enclosure away from the outside flight.

Thanks Andy (That's another chapter almost completed to : you know what (lol)) By the way the above is truly happening it's not made up. You'll need to look out for my next Blog it will be about my chicks , not aviary birds. (my 5 hens.) (lol) Guess you will know by now where most of my day is spent -- doing the housework ? (Ha! Ha! that's a joke!) Well -- I have two fridge magnets that say it all- 1. 'Dust testing in progress--please do not touch the samples' 2. 'You can look at the dust but please don't write in it!' (lol)

The title may give a clue to this 'blog' I have no idea why this has been happening this year but my birds have decided to share nests and some have even turned into little 'Lucifers'' The first incident took place a while ago when one of my diamond doves decided it wanted to share one of the zebra finch's nest. The zebra finches had eggs in the nest and were incubating them and whenever one of the finches left the nest to feed in hopped the diamond dove and it cuddled up to the finch that had remained in the nest. Problem was it didn't want to leave the nest when the other finch returned I even chased the dove from the nest but whenever my back was turned it was back in the nest again. Then not long ago I had a canary and another pair of finches wanting the same nest. No they didn't fight they decided to share the nest and the finches laid their eggs beside the canary's eggs. The finches didn't even move when the cock canary came to feed its mate. How things were going, it wouldn't have surprised me if the cock canary decided to feed the female finch as well 25th April 2015 zebra finch -bottom right-- sharing canary's nest The male finch still in the nest while the fawn hen waiting to move in Then I decided I'd put up a lot more nest boxes to find out if that would solve the problem-- that didn't make one bit of difference. A pair of Finches; a pair of Canaries and a pair of Begalese all wanted the same nest while the other nest pans and nest boxes sat there empty-- The first to take over that new nest was the cock pied zebra finch and the fawn hen finch that had shared the previous nest with the canaries. Then when the finches were out gathering nest material along came Mr & Mrs Canary ignoring the fact the nest was taken- but they had a bit more sense and one of them always stayed in the nest while the other did the 'shopping'. The fact their nest had been taken over by the canaries made no difference to the finches they just hopped into the nest with their nesting material and settled down. This time the canary went on to lay two eggs and the finch laid 3 eggs in the same nest! but the harmony between those two pairs didn't last when a pair of Bengalese decided it was time for them to intervene. I guess this was a bit too much for the zebra finches and they gave in and left the nest and the Bengalese snuggled up to the canary - Could the Bengalese have come to an agreement with the canary? that if she let them stay they would help her incubate her eggs - the Bengalese laid no eggs of their own! I have no idea what happened to the finches eggs they just disappeared! Looks as thought the canary has hatched out a new breed of bird (lol) I thought things had settled down but I was in for a shock. If I hadn't witnessed this myself I would have found it difficult to believe what happened when the Bengalese were out from the nest and the canary went off the nest for a few seconds - The pied zebra cock finch came back hopped into the nest and deliberately, with its beak, pierced one of the canary's eggs and was about to do the same to the 2nd egg but I managed to chase him off and I rescued the remaining egg. It shouldn't take you long to guess who has taken over the nest now! Yes, the first occupants the pied and the fawn zebra finches - The Canaries and the Bengalese have given up and the zebra finches have won the battle. Maybe I should have put up notices: "Variety of free nest homes available, materials for furnishing them also free of charge" No! that's not the end: in my outside flight I have a diamond dove incubating not only her own egg but somehow a canary has managed to lay 2 eggs in her nest too (and not to waste the other canary egg I rescued I've popped that one in there as well) Just to finish off, tonight when checking the outside flight I have found that the pair of Bengalese that were sharing the nest with the canary now have built a nest of their own (3 eggs in it) in a box I had made recently and hard to believe but right next to the Bengalese in the same box a pair of canaries have built a nest too and they have 3 eggs as well. The nest box containing the two nests Two nests in same nest box Bengalese and Fife canary ] Bengalese in shared nest box Canary in shared nest box 27th May 2015 Last night I fixed a large nest basket into a small fir tree in the outside flight -the reason I did this was because a pair of the canaries were desperately trying to build a nest there and she had laid eggs but they just fell on the ground and broke . Well surprise, Surprise Lucifer the pied zebra finch (that's his permanent name now ) and his mate have left their nest in the inside flight and YES! they have decided I have put that nest basket there for them and the canaries are not getting a chance to use it!! I wouldn't have believed birds could behave like this and I know its the same pair because I don't have many pied cock birds and only that one pied cock paired up with a fawn hen. If Lucifer doesn't change his behaviour soon I think I'll be sending him to a nice warm place beside his namesake 28th May 2015 Lucifer this morning determined to make this new nest his! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 29th May 2015 I'm now convinced it must be something in the Scottish air (or could it be something about the month of May? ) because it's not only in the aviary that odd things are happening! I have my CPQ's in a different area in a large hutch and I have discovered that two female cpqs have laid their eggs in the same area and both are sharing the 'nest' and are sitting together incubating their eggs Its not a very good photograph but I may get a better one later didn't want to disturb them too much. Maybe this is a common thing to happen but I've never come across this before. and a nice surprise tonight I have my first diamond dove chick! 2 of the canary eggs that were in the nest as well as the Diamond Dove's egg have disappeared but there's still a canary egg in the nest beside the chick but I doubt if it will hatch. My new Diamond Dove chick My cockatiels have four (?) eggs in their nest and the first one hatch out today 30th May 2015 Feel like putting the flags out this morning! My first gouldian chick has left its nest box Tonight I'm just back in from the outside flight and I'm devastated. The Diamond dove chick is not in the nest and there is no sign of it anywhere in the outside flight. Is it possible that one of the cockatiels or one of the other birds/ or another cock diamond dove could have killed /eaten it? I'm thinking the only way I'm going to rear diamond doves is to isolate them from the other birds the canary egg was still in the D. dove's nest basket- I've removed it and it's in the incubator until I check to find out if its fertile. update: canary egg from Diamond Dove's nest - after candling canary's egg seems chick had died early on in incubation. 31st May 2015 I was talking to a breeder today at the bird sale and he confirmed what I had originally suspected - it's more than likely that it has been one of the cockatiels that has taken the diamond dove's chick - he said cockatiels were bad for that. He also said it would have eaten it Yug!! That's probably where some of the fertile eggs have disappeared to as well. What makes it worse is, it's the 'pet' hand reared cockatiel that's the aggressive one towards other birds - I noticed too it has been trying to get into the other pair of cockatiel's nest box where they have eggs and chicks but they chased it off. So he, (Cheeky), has had his free flying outside and is coming back inside the house until the breeding season is over. Now it seems I've got 2 Lucifers (Little & Large) June 1st 2015 On 29th May I mentioned that 2 female CPQs were sharing incubating a nest which contains LOTS of eggs tonight they have been joined by yet another CPQ but the new foster parent? is a cock bird - just maybe he thinks he's the dad It was raining tonight so I didn't get a chance to get what would have been a lovely photograph of them. Now Cheeky (the large Lucifer) has scuppered my plans to remove him and his mate from the aviary and bring them back into the house. They've gone and taken over an empty cockatiel's nest box that was in the inside flight and guess what?? they have an egg. He (Cheeky) usually always comes out and lands on my shoulder but tonight it was a different story when I went to move the nest box - he literally Flew AT me, all guns blazing, that's when I discovered there was an egg in the box. Now here's a laugh! Two months ago I sold a cock Texan white quail to another member at the bird club I go to, it was an extra cock bird I had. Shortly after I sold that quail I lost the only two other cock quails I had, one died and the other was killed by a hawk, so at last month's sale (April) I explained to the member what had happened and asked if I could buy back the cock bird I sold him. True to his word he sold it back to me at Sunday's sale 31st May. . I thought that was great now I would be able to get some fertile eggs for the incubator. Later when I went to move him in beside the female quails I had another surprise HE had laid an egg!! to add to all the previous happenings --now the birds are even changing sex. 3rd June 2015 Things seem to be looking up! At least, so far, the cockatiels are sticking to their own nest boxes and the pair with the nest box in the outside flight have hatched out all four eggs, but this is the pair that gives up on feeding their chicks when they are a few days old -so I'm keeping my fingers crossed there will not be a repeat performance Not to be outdone, 'Cheeky' (Large Lucifer)and his mate now have two eggs in their nest box in the inside flight! --and today I've just put 11 Texan White Quail eggs into the incubator (bought 12 fertile eggs on line - one egg was cracked in transit) I've just had a thought if the cockatiels decide not to feed their young and all those quail eggs hatch out it will be bedlam here! Thinking - I really should get my head examined!

Ian your birds look fantastic I love white I've got a few but most of the are split for BC so my aim is to breed a white BC. Re the photo competition you just send an email to : andy.nethercott@outlook.com and attach the photo to the email and Andy does the rest Thanks for sharing the photos Emmy