So the blog about the fall/winter breeding season is taking off in the forum section of the EBF.
An uypdate on those last four fallows. They were fostered under a cobalt pied hen and are growing very well! The quality even seems to be better than expected. They also have a younger violet pied stephbrother (assuming from the pied pattern it is a cock). It has a stunning colour but I fear quality wise it will be a lesser one.
Bert
It is still sunny here. But september arrived so the fall/winter breeding season will start today. Everything is ready. I will start a new blog in the forum section - this blog section is less practical I found.
But before I get my rings in a month or so, what is born in the mean time will be banded with 'old' rings. Yesterday I banded the 3 oldest pinkies of 4 fallow chicks.
The two fallows of the previuos round were first and second in class this weekend on the Belgian National Show (yes
The youngest was in bad shape by the evening and shaking (like a fever). Topped it up again but it didn't make the night.
The other two have fledged today.
Bert
When I went to check up on the youngest chick: it's doing better, though still not as it should be tough but that wasn't really expected. So I force fed it again and noticed it nibbling at the millet spray I dumped in the box. So we're hopeful.
I used this opportunity to take a proper look at the older ones as well for the first time. It only confused things more. The oldest does show some 'opaline' traits on the head, but does not show the typical opaline spot on the side of the wings. So n
I said before
The three baby fallows seem to be:
mauve fallow
sky opaline fallow
sky fallow
What an incompetent budgerigar breeder I am. The first one looks like it is going to be opaline as well (hen in that case), and perhaps the second one also mauve (I'm being careful with my statements now).
The mother has chosen a different box for her second clutch so the chicks were left a bit behind. Especially the youngest chick is lethargic and had an empty crop. I force fed it yesterda
I did an egg count yesterday:
The grey pied cinnamon hen has 4 eggs (didn't not check for fertility again).
The mauve fallow hen is on 3 eggs again.
The older dark green cinnamon is on one egg for days now. Thinking of retiring her for now.
The dark green split fallow hen is on its first egg and its sister is also getting interested in the boxes. So hoping those will breed me some better splits.
Bert
The three baby fallows seem to be:
mauve fallow
sky opaline fallow
sky fallow
The first one is from cobalt fallow x mauve fallow so no surprise.
The other two are from cobalt fallow split opaline x cobalt opaline split fallow.
In the mean time I've separated the main birds for the coming breeding season in a flight. Very please with the quality in that flight and there are still a few young birds that haven't moulted completely through yet that should also end up in that flight. Ca
I might have forgotten to mention it but I also have a grey flight. Yes, I don't favour the greys, let alone grey greens but sometimes you just have to look at quality before colour when obtaining new stock.
Anyway, it used to be filled with a grey cock split ino and two grey hens. They were all new birds from last year. I really should take a picture of those three because they all have a different shade of grey. The cock has bred me a few decent greys, the hens haven't bred this season so
Here a picture of the outcross cobalt cock. Love the mask and it is a tall bird as well.
Not the best picture as I've taken it when it was in the flight and the dusk was setting in.
Bert
As expected the chick with the mauve fallow hen (band 436) stayed alone, so I moved it to the other fallow box that had one normal and two fallows (band 437-439). A few days later the normal chick died (air in the crop), but the three fallows are growing nicely and starting to feather! I can't wait for them to fly around in the flight.
In the flight with the two split fallow hens and an older hen that were accompanied by two main line cocks: I threw away the eggs of the older hen again (unfe
Checked the boxes yesterday evening and the fallow with the fallow hen is still alone. Hmmmm might transfer it if it stays like this to the other box ones it is banded.
The other box with the cobalt opaline hen (split fallow) had it's 3rd chick: also a fallow. So 3 fallows so far.
Bert
I haven't been updating this blog as I should.
Well, all that has been reported before turned out a failure. But in the fallow flight I now have the old cock paired to his two daughters: mauve fallow and cobalt opaline. When I checked in saterday the fallow hen had a fallow chick and the cobalt a black and red eye.
So I will be breeding a few fallows this year!
Bert
I don't do that many nest box checks in the flights. Yesterday I went through the boxes:
The cobalt opaline hen split fallow has 4 eggs, 3 clearly fertile. Hopefully a few fallows will be born here in two weeks or so.
The normal sky hen has two eggs. Hopefully these will be fertile, unlike the many ones she laid the past 6 months.
The main line hen with the main line cocks is spending more and more time in the nest box, but no eggs yet.
Bert
The same split fallow cock that was with the wrong hen was now chatting up the normal sky blue hen. Not the mating I had planned: she was meant for one of the fallow cocks. So I threw out the split cock. Almost immediately the mauve dominant pied fallow cock (probably split recessive pied) started chatting her up: much better. Yes I really mixed up my colours in that cock. The dark factor in the fallow is intentional but both pied types are accidental and I will need to breed them out.
When
Both split fallow sisters in the third flight aren't showing much interest in the breeding cages. That will hopefully change. Yesterday I noticed a hen in the big flight was very interested with what was going on in this flight.
It was a small 2010 hen, first generation of what would become my main line. She bred me 1 of "the three 2011 cocks": the 3 best birds I ever bred. Last year she was paired up to another on those 3 cocks. This year she raised one nest as foster because she is such a
Yesterday I put in an extra the mauve fallow hen and a split fallow cock into the fallow breeding flight. Guess what happened? The split fallow cock decided to pair up with the wrong hen. This hen is either the sister of this cock (in which case she is split) or just a bad hen from a foster pair. My records are empty on her band number (which probably means she's from the foster pair). Anyway: a bad combination. So I've thrown out this hen in the hope that the cock will pair up to the fallow hen
It's been a while since I updated. It has been a very busy week for the family. Good busy. Anyway, I'm here now.
One of the split fallow hens is on eggs. Dad is her dad. I would have preferred her mating with one of her fallow half brother, but such is the way of colony breeding. One of the two fallow half brothers is chasing the better sky blue hen.
I would have thought this sky blue hen would mate up with the fallow dad since they have been in a breeding cage together for 6 months. Wel
Flight one: I've thrown in a second grey hen in breeding. Both hens still have a few pin feathers but hopefully one of them will come into condition soon.
Flight two (fallow): Some of the birds are checking out the breeding boxes.
I've also prepared the third breeding flight. I will put seed & water in tomorrow and then the birds (the two sisters and a few cocks). While doing that I also decided to only make 4 breeding flights: greys, fallow, the two sisters and recessive pied.
Bert
It has been snowing and cold for far too long in Belgium. And I so much wanted to start breeding in the outside flights. Even more so after a visit to @stef who had all his breeding cages filled.
Found this budgie comic that seemed appropriate:
http://cagedcomic.com/2013/03/08/uncaged-3-the-snowining/
So I better get the 'sunny' thread going now that the weather only shortly drops below freezing each day. It spurred me to clear out two of the small outside flights. All outside flights w
