Lee Pycroft

don't think I haven't noticed that you've changed your avatar profile picture!

White Zebra! Your on the list!

Helloooooo my friend, welcome to this great forum. Lots of info on here and lots of people with great knowledge, enjoy. A few rules for you to follow that you might not have come across yet, these also apply to the other members too especially if your name is Jane,Andrew or Claire . If you beat me in the photo comp, YOUR BARRED! Mention black cheeks, YOUR BARRED! The only time Black Cheeks or BCCFW'S can be mentioned on this site from now on is if the words are in a sentence involving such words as... Lee Pycroft, I've got some excellent black cheeks you might be interested in OR Lee Pycroft, i know someone who is selling some good quality black cheeks. Thought seeing your new to the site it was only fair to let you know!

ADMIN ADMIN ADMIN! this member needs baning asap, he's a bad-un!

Yeah that sounds good, whats a gold star by the way?

Thanks Claire, i'm willing to travel for the right bird but finding them is proving difficult! I thought once a bird has the black cheek gene in it, it will always be passed onto any chicks as I thought it was genetic/recessive?

welcome to the forum DaisyMay, hope you enjoy it, they're not a bad bunch!

Hi Claire, That's what i'm trying at the minute, both pairs that I've paired up are all split for black cheek! All 4 birds are a decent size and colour's. Any babies would have the black cheek in them hopefully! The better ones of these babies I will keep and breed/pair the babies from pair A with babies from pair B etc. Going to keep on the look out for any black cheeked birds and introduce them if and when I get them (IF). The main aim for me this breeding season is to try and get the black cheek gene into my stock. I'm aware it's a long process, so need to make a start somewhere! Not ideal using splits but better than nothing. Will update on here the developments either positive or negative. So if anyone knows of any black cheeked birds, hens or cocks, please let me know.

This is one of my breeding cages,it's in my box/3rd bedroom room at home, wife's not too impressed though lol

cheers matey, fingers crossed i can breed some decent sized black cheeks and go from there! Will still keep an eye out for the odd bird, be it a hen or cock bird.

Hello everyone, thought i would update this page for those of you that are interested (plus I'm bored, into my second week of 2 weeks leave and have no jobs left to do lol) The 2015/2016 plans.......Well the plan for this year (2016) was to extend my set-up. I hoped to basically put another shed onto the other end of my flight and attach a small flight to that! The new shed would purely be a breeding shed where i plan to house as many breeding cages as i can, and when the babies have fledged, put them in the smaller flight until they colour up and then make decisions on them etc... At the moment those plans have been put on hold to due finances being restricted due to costs of re-training courses for both myself and my wife.Hopefully come summer time we'll both be back on track and i can get my bird/breeding room built and up and going! But meanwhile i have a plan. What do you think to the following? For those who know me and follow my Facebook page, I'm keen to breed black cheeked CFW's.. But getting a couple of good sized birds (exhibition sized) has been a constant problem. Very few about and people/breeders that do have them are not too keen to sell them which is fair enough. I did aquire one black cheeked cock bird a few months ago but sadly it died.But all is not lost, i do have 4 normal's that are all split for black cheek, and just happen to have two breeding cages (that's all i have currently). I have paired them together! Now the plan, i'm not keen on aviary breeding for various reasons but i'm planning to put some nest boxes into the indoor aviary. Once the current birds in the aviary start pairing up and nesting, as soon as they start laying eggs i'm going to swap their eggs with any eggs from my split for black cheek birds and use the aviary birds to rear my black cheeked eggs (basically use them as feeders). Hopefully this way i can increase the amount of black cheeked chicks?, however all the 4 birds that are split for black cheek are Normal Greys! Fingers crossed i can breed 20 or so birds, then later in the year or possibly next year (in hopefully my new bird room) breed them with my better CFW's.. So guys, what do you think? Good idea?

Thanks everyone, I had a great day. Sorry for the delay, been really busy at work!

GUTTED THAT THIS FORUM IS GOING TO CLOSE Just going through this thread, the help and advice was very helpful and I would have been lost without it.. For those who do facebook I have a page connected to my personal facepage simply called "My Zebra Finches" If you want to carry on chatting everything Zebra, please feel free to look it up.

Hummm? not sure! I used felt on the inside of the avairy as it looked nice, clean and tidy, plus i had a load left over, but... The birds when flying around have poohed all over it and i also put a perch too close to it, so again when they sit on the perch they fire pooh onto it lol.. Now, cause it's felt i can't clean it very well, so should have left it as wood and painted it so that it could be wiped clean. As for the rest of it, nothing really other than the fact (like most people) never seem to have enough space! Time and money premitting i have drawn up plans to extend it. I want another shed to house as many breeding cages i can get in it, a flight also to house the new babies once they fledge! The plan would be keep all the babies until fully grown before making decisions on what to keep, then once breeding has finshed i would have two set ups, all the cocks birds in one and all the to hens in the other! Would just make everything alot easier! So that's the future plan ;-)

Welcome to the forum Richard, please keep us updated with your progress! Lee

Happy Birthday fella, hope you had a good one, you share you birthday with a very important person my daughter lol Think you should celebrate by sending her some of your excellent birds :-) best wishes....

Yeah that's the one "with 2 likes" I only made the group public today lol. Only two people in my gang at the minute, my dad and I I will still be posting on here and annoying people with my questions! Trying to get the best of world's, being on both gives me access to more breeders and gain more knowledge! ps, last night I went "live" with the page and I'm no longer Billy no mates lol. nearly 40 people requested to join the page in 24 hours! Happy days.

Just an update for those interested! I'm back on Facebook and I have created a Zebra Finch page which is all about my keeping of these birds, loads of pictures etc. If your interested and want to have a look, search "My Zebra Finches" and it will come up with my page! I will be adding pictures and updates throughout my breeding season and hope to share my experiences with like minded people! And hopefully learn a bit more about these wonderful birds.

Welcome to the forum Liz!

thanks speedwaybaz, will try that, may need a bigger shed then lol... Good excuse to extend my set up, well, that's how I'll put it across to the wife :-)

Thought it was time for an update folks for those interested. I have put a few pairs together and been very successful (or lucky) and I have breed exactly 20 birds the last few weeks. Had to send off for some more ZFS rings. I say lucky as a few experienced breeders I know haven't had the best of starts, maybe down to the warm days but very cold nights?. I have recently let the new babies out into the flight which was great to watch, watching them fly properly for the first time, have a bath for the first time and them exploring their new home! The one downside to all these new additions is going to be the "DECISION"... The decision on what to keep and what to sell. I sold one pair the other week and it was difficult to let them go. Is this normal or am I just being a soft wuss? lol I 'm waiting for the most recent babies to colour up and decide which of them to keep. The two I let go were nice looking birds but not the biggest! I will see what the remaining 18 look like before making a decision on them! Just a question on size for those with the knowledge, how long does it take for them to reach full size. After 4 weeks they seem to have reached their adult size? will they get any bigger after that? Here's a picture of 6 of my most recent babies. I great start to my first ever breeding season. It's so enjoyable, I'm hooked :-)

Thanks Emmy, my understanding of it (probably wrong might I add) I'll have two pairs of birds like this: Black Cheek Cock paired to a CFW hen ( pair 1) CFW Cock paired to a Black Cheeked hen.. (pair 2).. then in 12 months I'll breed the babies from pair 1 with the babies from pair 2 as they'll be spilt for black cheek? and I should get some mutations which will include black cheeked CFW??? Wrong??? help? lol

Glad someone has asked this question as it's going to be my first attempt at what I would call "proper" breeding to get a certain mutation. I went to the Stafford Show yesterday with Merv Shields, and he told me that he is going to have a go at producing some black cheeked CFW's... I have no doubt they'll be wonderful as he has already bred some awarding winning black cheeks and CFW's, which despite my desperate requests he won't sell me lol... With this in mind I bought a good sized black cheeked cock bird yesterday which I'll pair with my biggest CFW hen... I have several big CFW's cock birds but only have a small sized black cheeked hen! Shall I use her? or try and get a bigger sized hen, as I'm after size and colour? Then breed their babies to get BCCFW's? As I say, it's going to be my first attempt so will see how it goes...