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Penny W

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Blog Entries posted by Penny W

  1. Penny W

    and there are more....

    By Penny W,

    I started my zebra collection with 6 -  this has now increased to 38 (I think - but they don't sit still!). Every time we go out we seem to acquire a few more! Last week I paired my best birds and now have 5 boxes with eggs! Tho original pair that I put together laid their first egg 2 weeks ago - I was worried as they didn't seem to want to incubate, however once there were 4 eggs they incubated and today, less than 2 weeks after the last egg I have a chick! I thought it took longer but there is a live chick being fed by the parents. Just waiting to see if the other 3 eggs are good. I have ordered a special torch for checking the eggs but it has not arrived yet - the birds have beaten technology! I'll be interested to see what chicks I get from my first pairing - black cheek he with normal cock. Bit early to tell just a few hours after hatching!!
    My partner has now paired his budgies too so we are setting up a busy maternity unit! Life is going to be busy in the next few weeks.
  2. Penny W

    Stranger in the camp

    By Penny W,

    I was sold a bird last week and told it was a white, black faced cock. I didn't really want it, but it came as half of a pair, the hen being a normal which is what I was looking for. I'm not convinced it is a cock - to the extent that I have put him/her in my cage of hens and he/she is not creating havoc! I posted a picture on some facebook pages and the general consensus is that it is a hen, possibly grey cheek cfw. Anyone else got any good ideas?

  3. Penny W

    All change!

    By Penny W,

    I keep my hen and cock zebras in separate flights. So far it is has been the hens, and the foreigns having access to the outside flight. Today it was time for a swap. the flight cages are designed so this swap can be done without having to catch all the birds so it was just a case of encouraging the hens into one long flight cage and the cocks into another then opening different doors and voila - their accommodation is swapped over. It didn't take the cocks long to realise they could go out into the fresh air which they seemed to really enjoy - and they put themselves to bed when it got dark, I didn't have to chase them back in like I do the hens.
    The widowed hen has worked out that it is her who needs to feed the chicks so they seem to be doing OK. They won't go into the nest box but as it is not cold I'm not too bothered by that


  4. Penny W

    There is an egg!

    By Penny W,

    Well, today there was an egg in the nest box - but neither finch was in there and it felt quite chilled - is this normal?? Should they not be making an effort to keep the egg warm?? Or do they not incubate until they have laid the whole clutch??
  5. Penny W
    Well, three of the four eggs hatched but yesterday one of the chicks was dead in the nest, it was well fed but appeared to have been flattened by the parents :-(
    The last egg is still in the nest - should I remove it or wait until the parents throw it out??
    Of my other pairs I now have 6 pairs with eggs 27 eggs so far! Our candling torch has arrived and it appears that most of the eggs are fertile, maybe I should have ordered more than 20 ZFS rings!!
    My finches are definitely doing better than my partners budgies - of 10 pairs he put down only 4 have started laying
     
     
  6. Penny W
    I have been very slow to update this blog - not found time to visit the site for a while.
    My breeding seems to be improving - I have actually bred some hens now!! (Still have an excess of cocks though). I have rung my first round of Timors too - there were 4 originally but I am left with 2, I have another nest of Timor chicks a few days old and a nest of Timor eggs too. With my zebras I am doing well with Penguins, I have a few fawn penguin hens so I'm tryong to work out how to get a fawn penguin cock. My thought is that if I put a fawn penguin hen with a fawn cock who is split penguin I might get a fawn penguin cock, the other way I thought of would be to put a fawn penguin hen with a pure fawn cock, then at a later date put any cocks from that pairing (should be visual fawn but split penguin) with fawn penguin hens. I think that is right.
    My other finches are doing quite well, I am breeding hecks grassfinches at a great rate, I also have just had a nest of 5 gouldians fledge, I have 2 other nests of gouldian chicks - one of 3, one of 4. They are only days old so I am well aware that it can all go wrong.
    I currently have a nest with 3 chicks in it - hatched 2-3 days ago. I have no idea what breed they are I have never seen anyone going in and out of the box - but the chicks are being fed. I shall have to wait and see!
    I had a pair of silverbills who raised a chick, it is only now, 2 months on, that I realise that the chick is a grassfinch, not a silverbill at all, they were duped!
  7. Penny W

    my growing babies

    By Penny W,

    Bearing in mind that 6 months ago I would never have believed that I would own zebra finches I am really please with the way my babies are colouring up, hopefully I can upload some pictures




  8. Penny W

    Exciting times

    By Penny W,

    I seem to be having a good run on chicks at the moment, I have a nest of zebras starting to hatch today, I now have 4 Hecks chicks and best of all, my nest of gouldian eggs started hatching today, I know that gouldians are not renowned for being good parents so I hope they will raise their young. I have some Bengalese, but none ready to use as foster parents yet, I spent a long time yesterday trying to sex my Bengalese - but gave up! The star finches have started laying again, I hope they see it through this time rather than abandon the nest.
    I bought a pair of cherry finches today - we now have 13 types of bird between us, 11 different finches, budgies and quails, to think that I started with 6 zebras! 18 months ago we had no birds at all!
  9. Penny W

    And then there were 4!

    By Penny W,

    There are now 4 eggs and one or both of the finches is in the nest box at all times. Fingers crossed that the eggs are fertile. Time will tell.
    We are off to the Welsh National Show this weekend, just to see what is out there. This finch hobby is a bit addictive!
     
  10. Penny W

    update

    By Penny W,

    it's been a while since I updated my blog.
    I'm winding down on breeding now as we are away at the end of April and I don't want to have to ask the neighbour to have to check nest boxes. It's giving me a chance to take stock and work out what I have and what I want to keep. We seem to have ended up with an abundance of cages (a lot of which are flat packed in the loft at present) Last weekend, when it was the Stafford Sale we had arranged to buy a load of cages from a guy who was giving up the hobby, he lived nearby so we made a weekend of it, collecting his cages on the Saturday, staying overnight in Stafford then a quick whizz in and out of the Stafford Sale on Sunday morning. The finches there were a bit of a disappointment but Steve got some budgies that he was pleased with.
    Yesterday we drove to Kent in a hired lorry (with a 56mph speed limiter), a 4 hour drive, to collect a shed for the birds, problem was we had to dismantle it and it was not just a shed, it was insulated and lined. We got there at 9am, left at 3pm. By the time we had unloaded and returned the lorry to the depot it was almost 10pm, we were exhausted. I'm sure it will be worth it when the shed is built and up and running.
    This evening we took the latest 11 babies from their parents and put them in a bigger cage. I seem to do really well on breeding cocks - hens are a bit of a rarity in my fledgling cage so if anyone has a glut of hens they would like to swap...................????!!!!
  11. Penny W

    busy week

    By Penny W,

    well, since the weekend there have been ups and downs - maybe more downs than ups :-(
    One nest of 4 CFW chicks, nearly fledged, one died, it looked like it had moved away from its siblings and got cold?, its crop was full.
    Of my 2 first chicks, today I noticed them feeding themselves which cheered me, 2 hours later when I went into the bird room, one of them was dead
    A nest of 5 CFW chicks have all been plucked by one or both of their parents, the hen has also been plucked bald. I have removed the hen and the cock seems to be feeding the chicks OK, I'm not sure if they will regrow their feathers though??
    On the plus side, the pair who hatched their first chick last Saturday now have 4 chicks - so far all doing well, but it is early days.
    I'm expecting my bigger babies to leave the nest in the next few days - they are beginning to look a little cramped in their nest boxes, especially the pair with 6 chicks!
    I'll see what the next week brings.
  12. Penny W

    nice surprises

    By Penny W,

    Got back from holiday today. My ZFS rings had arrived - and so had several chicks! I ordered my rings when I had just 2 cocks and 4 hens, so thought 20 rings would be plenty for my first year - how wrong can a person be?? I now have 22 chicks - from 5 pairs (9 pairs were put down). 2 of the chicks are too big for 2016 ZFS rings but the remaining 20 were all rung tonight! Now to order more as I have another pair sitting! My CFWs are very prolific. My light backs did not seem to know what to do with their chicks and threw them out of the nest, maybe they were too young? - I will give them a break and maybe try again later, maybe split the pairs and see if they look after chicks better with a different partner. We have spent a happy 2 hours in the bird house, there are a few budgie chicks too. Lets face it, who wants to unpack / do the laundry after a holiday??
    Back to work tomorrow
  13. Penny W

    update

    By Penny W,

    It's been a few days since I updated my blog so here we go. My 2 remaining chicks are looking healthy, beginning to feather up but not sure what colour yet!. Of my other 8 pairs down, 7 have eggs, the smallest clutch being 3, the largest 7 (obviously didn't know when to stop!) Yesterday, after a bit of carpentry by my partner we acquired another breeding cage, we put our best normal hen in and the couldn't decide which was the best cock to go with her. We made our decision and put them together, she was most definitely NOT interested, so we tried our second choice cock - they were all over each other (literally) in a matter of minutes - there are obviously personality traits in finches to be taken into consideration. They now spend almost every minute of the day in the nesting box out of view! (what husseys!!). So we will wait and see! Of the pairs I put down earlier this month, most of them got down to business straight away so I'm concerned they will hatch their chicks too early for my zfs rings - and I thought I had waited long enough to pair them! Oh well, what will be will be!