Emmy

Best (Belated) Birthday Wishes - Hope you had a nice day. Sorry its a couple of days late. Emmy

Welcome to the forum Owain Good luck with building the new aviary and hope everything works out oK Emmy

A BIG Welcome to the forum. If you could get this book from the library Breeding and Keeping Zebra Finches by Chris Blackwell It has a section at the end of the book on genetics relating to finches. Very easy to understand so it would be good for your students. The other thing that may interest you is that St Andrews Univesity's Scotland (sure it is the biology dept) has carried out research relating to DNA with zebra finches and from the results they hope by taking dna samples from young birds and comparing this to the results of the dna project to be able to forecast which birds would be likely to live longer. I think they still have the finches. From my own past experience I agree with you that even the most disruptive children respond to 'hands on' education. Not only biology but all aspects of the curriculm can be involved, what makes that more rewarding the children dont seem to realise that they are learning not only science but also English, Maths, Art, Geography etc etc and believe me they dont forget what they learn in that way. Wishing you every success with your project - be really good if more schools would take this approach. Emmy

Janetdange Welcome to the forum. What colour are Pip and Squeak. (Last year when my last old zebra finch died age 12 yrs I bought another pair. So in November last year I had only two zebra finches. Now I have 20 plus one pair at the moment sitting on 8 eggs.) Finches are lovely little birds and once you start getting chicks its difficult to part with them I'm sure you will get lots of pleasure from Pip and Squeak (I love their names) Emmy

First I'll say welcome to the forum I know you will get lots of advice from the members here. I honestly believe its nothing you have done that the chicks have died. It has happened with some of my birds in the past and it can be upsetting, but try not to blame yourself . Perhaps it could be that its their first lot of eggs and maybe its because they are young? next time it will probably be oK. I'm sure others will give you a more detailed explanation for this. If you have any other questions dont be afraid to ask. The members here are very good at giving advice. Emmy

Hi Steve SELL?!! dont think that word is in my dictionary I get too attached to the birds BUT I'll need to change or the birds will be taking over my home. Before I will sell any I would need to be reassured they were going to be well looked after. Last year at this time I had only one peached faced lovebird and two Zebra finches. Now I still have the old lovebird and My two zebra finches have now become 20, plus 2 canaries and 18 quails and have two zebra finch nests with eggs. Emmy

Steve /Trevor Yes I have some looking exactly like those birds but I still get mixed up with them and what their proper names are. Some that have been reared are pure white with dark heads and others pure white - their tail feathers are different too. some have dark brownish markings on their tail feathers and others have very very light fawn markings on tail feathers. others have white head a very light fawn colour on the back when they are sitting on perch. One thing that I'm certain about is that those ones I've been writing about are all females. the males all turned out to be 'normal' coloured . The parents were : cock CFW/ hen Fawn. I dont have any history for the parent birds I bought them as a pair that had been kept together for a time. So I guess all their offspring will be cfw/fawn hens and the 'normals' ? well I dont know how to name the cock birds except they are bound to be split for cfw/fawn. A bit out of my depth here sorry- still at the discovering stage yet :lol: Emmy Emmy

Many Happy Returns Tam Today's the day you just sit back and relax and give out orders hope you enjoy today Emmy

Hi Allan Mark1e also has a post in this section of the forum: COLOURS AND MUTATIONS:--Go to All other colours Click on the top one that's PINNED : Which of the following do you keep? Scroll down to the post after the votes and you'll see the names of birds and if you click on the link next to the birds name you'll get lovely clear photographs of that variety. Mark1e spent a lot of time fixing this up and he did an excellent job worth having a look. Emmy

Hi Allan I'm sure you'll find it much better to take part than just 'read' :lol: You've got quite a variety of colours In the zebra finches i've a pair of orange breasted and a pair of pieds the others I have are mainly CFW, 4 normal males and 2 fawn hens. I've also got a pair of canaries and a few quails. You were originally from Motherwell ! -- not too far away from Fife Emmy.

Hi Alan Welcome to the forum What kind/colour of finches do you have? Being 'nosey' here what part of Scotland did you come from? (if you dont want to answer that I wont be offended ) Emmy

Hi Bal Welcome to the forum You'll have to go some if you want to beat me for asking silly questions -- but I can honestly say this-- they were all answered!! Hope y ou enjoy the forum Emmy

Yes I did!!! **** I think you better rename yourself Michael :lol: Emmy

Hi **** welcome to the forum. I'm sure you will enjoy chatting to the members here everyone is always willing to help and exchange ideas. I'm using the name '****' because I think that's what you were printing it seems that sometimes when 'certain letters' come together stars come up- guess the computer thought you were using rude words :lol: Maybe I'll get 'stars' on mine too Emmy

Lovely bird Clare that wee one in the bottom photo seems to be having a lovely snooze Emmy

Hi again Col If you click on the 'zff gallery' and look for the photographs by zebraman - in Gary's photographs there is one that was taken at the July show at Stafford (no.) this will give you an idea of the size of the hall would be great to go there. Emmy

Hi Col Today is the zebra Finch Society show - the next Stafford show is on Sunday 14th October I'm sure there was a map posted for the previous show at Stafford showing directions - I think it was posted a while ago in one of Gary's posts (Zebraman) but I'm sure someone will be able to say if its held in the same place in October. Emmy ps if you click on the zff calendar at the top of the page it usually has the information about shows for the current month. Hope this helps Just found the post from July hope this link works Stafford Show 8th July 2012

Hi Col Welcome to the forum Hope you manage to get the birds you're looking for. At the moment I've got CFW, fawn, normal, and pieds Z. Finches and I've got a pair of orange breasted Finches on order. (Only one pair of canaries though ) Emmy

Hi Andy Thanks for the photograph they're lovely birds. Nice to see the canary there too. I'm not sure whether or not to try putting my pair of canaries into the aviary beside the finches because when I had the female canary in beside a male zebra finch -just the 2 of them in the cage, she was a bit bossy (hence her name : Bossyboots ) chasing him so much so I had to separate them and then go and buy a male canary to keep her happy. The other problem is if they didnt get on I cant think of a way to get them back out of the indoor aviary. Emmy

Lovely birds Jon, I've got 2 fawn hens in my lot. Thanks for sharing the photographs (ps. Dont forget to keep 2 photographs to send to Mark1e for the September photo competition . Emmy

Thanks for the explanation jon I havent seen any of those before it looks a really lovely bird.I always thought any type of parakeet couldnt be kept with Finches. But they seem to be quite happy together. Emmy

Got it wrong Dave you never say in front of a 'hen' what you should have said, is she's a stunner and she's the boss ! :lol: :lol: ) which is usually true no matter what or who you are talking about Paul that was a fantastic video and they are lovely birds. Well done! Emmy

Lovely photographs Jon the birds are really great -- the last photo? the bird on the right looks pink? what is it? or is it me that needs to go back to specsavers again? :lol: Emmy

Andyn I know that problem about getting photographs-- once they are in the aviary they can do what they want - and they seem to know it too I'm keeping that pair of pieds in a cage for the time being until they settle in with each other and hopefully when I transfer them into the aviary the will stay paired up together. When I get the pair of orange breasted ones I'll do the same with them. I really like the colours of that pair - imagine you getting a similar pair Emmy

Really nice birds Jon glad the 'instructions' worked Emmy