Chill

Looking good mate well done

Cracking normals Nick ,good luck with the show season.

Hi and welcome mate.

Welcome to the forum,enjoy.

Hi Steve welcome and enjoy the forum .

Welcome soccerbird enjoy the forum.

Love the triple blacks well done Trevor cracking bird.

Well done Chris,lovely birds look so cute with the crests

A few pictures of some of my new fledglings , also a bf that's just come through his first moult, quite happy with them nice stocky birds for mutations

Very nice shape Paul I especially like the head quality looks like a keeper to me mate, hope all is well,regards Chris.

Lovely bird ,well done.

Welcome to the forum Melanie, loads of good knowledge and advice on here enjoy.

Hi Zottan, Lots of good knowledge and advice on here, enjoy.

Hi Dave , good to see more people from north east on forum , loads of good advice on here enjoy.

Hi, great forum full of expert advice and good banter enjoy

Cracking birds Paul well done again

Welcome back to the hobby , you will get some great help on here and being close to stafford show is a real bonus plenty of quality birds in the sales there,good luck with the breeding.regards Chris

Hi greenheron you will get lots of info on here there's a wealth of knowledge to be unpicked ,have fun.

Well done , love the bf one of my favourites had a few myself this year

Good info kareem thanks, I seem to be getting a lot of fawn hens this year seems like most of my males are split to fawn.

Thanks Trevor must be the blackface male that's passing on then which makes sense now as he fathered a fair few fawn hens with his last mate as well , cheers for the info much appreciated.

Hi phil welcome, sounds like a nice sized aviary and that hedge will offer good protection from the cold and wind in winter,you might need to cover a bit more of it in winter ( I use clear tarpaulin )just to keep the cold draft off the birds ,it's the cold wind rather than just the cold which seems worse for them as for keeping just males this is great but you could keep hens as well but just don't give them any nesting material or boxes you will probably still get courtships and bonding going on and the odd egg in the food bowls ect . As for how many birds to keep all I can say is a general rule of thumb is about 1 pair per 3 foot of floor space max but I personally feel that the less birds the more they thrive and happier they seem to be I breed outdoors in aviary and my pairs settle better and have larger more successful clutches when there are less birds in there. Heat in winter isn't always needed for zebs but obviously has it's plus points who knows what Mother Nature will throw at us so be prepared with a few holding cages maybe in the shed , light is a good idea maybe near feeding stations as it gives the birds an extra few hours in winter to get a feed as when it's dark they eat less which in turn doesn't help them stay warm and keep there energy levels up .good luck with the finches I guarantee if you do get hens you will probably want to start breeding within a few years as watching them pair up and courtship is a big part of the fun for me with keeping these cheeky little birds .

Cheers Norfolk I thought this would be the case but this helps me when selecting which pairs to keep for next year I've just got to watch my big black faced male when there being flighted together easier said than done though as he's a real charmer with the hens that one haha. I have been using exhibition sized grey hen split for bb and fawn ( I'm guessing split fawn as she has fawnish cheeks and throws out fawn hen chicks for fun )to try and get some size into a few of the birds this year and have succeeded in getting some larger mutations out of her just need to find a massive bb or bf hen for next year as well as bc oh my god the wish list is growing by the day.thanks for the help

Just thought I'd share a pic of some of this years young mutations ,shame you can't keep them all isn't it you get quite attached to them when youve watched them colouring up, the black breasted male is split for black cheek , I'm going to get him a nice exhibition sized black cheek hen for next season I think ( if I can find one ) seems like all the serious guys are snapping these up to put with there cfw but here's hoping,I think the hen in the middle is bf bb would it be a bad idea to pair her up with a bf male or is that not a good idea because of the bf death gene ( dominant ) or is it ok because of the bb in her.

Stunning birds Paul