Thursday 31 May 2012

June 2012 Pairings

Paired 14 birds today. And another 12 birds to pair over the week. That will make a total of 20 pairs. Very early this year because I am going away in September. No UBC's for the unbroken cap shield held in October this year. The birds seem to be in good condition so I will let them go. I haven't bred my birds since October-December last year, so they have had a long rest and should be raring to go! I will have to do a major cull before I go away, so my mum has minimal birds to look after. It was so hard pairing this year. I probably got it all wrong but lets see how I go.

Pair 1: Grey opaline (hen)- Yellow face grey opaline (cock)1st egg lay 13-6-12 (1) First hatched 11-7-12  Second chick hatched on the 13-7-12 but died, yellow belly. I moved the other chick, which I probably shouldn't have done because the hen abandoned the nest with 2 eggs left to hatch. I have transfered the remaining eggs, I don't give them much hope but you never know. Nestbox has now been removed.


Pair 2: Cinnamon GreyGreen Opaline (hen)- Cinnamon Grey (cock)1st egg lay 10-6-12 Hen got sick. So I removed the nestbox and have transfer the fertile eggs.


Pair 3: Dark green opaline (hen)- Dark green (cock)1st egg lay 12-6-12 No fertile eggs of their own but have transfered fertile eggs and two chicks to their nestbox.



Pair 4: Cinnamon cobalt (hen)- Cinnamon Dark green (cock)1st egg lay 8-6-12  Hen lay 9 eggs 5 fertile but all were dead in shell. I removed nestbox 15-7-12

Pair 5: Blue Fallow (hen)- Grey Green/ fallow (cock)No eggs. Nest box removed 22-6-12
Pair 6: Grey green Opaline (hen)- Sky spangle (cock)1st egg lay 8-6-12 All 8 eggs infertile but this pair now have 3 foster chicks.
Pair 7: Cinnamon light green Opaline spangle (hen)- Dark green Opaline spangle (cock) 
1st egg lay 12-6-12 Nestbox closed 14-7-12. All 10 eggs infertile.
Update: 10-6-2012, I now have a total of 18 pairs, 6 of which have started laying. Will update photo's shortly.
Pair 8: Yellow lacewing (hen)- Green (cock)1st egg lay 11-6-12 First chick hatched 30-6-12(2)
First chick is green hen and second chick is blue, white down so more than likely Opaline and a hen.

Pair 9: Yellow lacewing (hen)- Green (cock)1st egg lay 11-6-12 First chick hatched 2-7-12 (3)
Chick one is green, second and third chicks too young to tell but are both plum eye, so therefore cinnamon.

Pair 10: Sky/fallow (hen)- Cobalt (cock)1st egg lay 14-6-12 First chick hatched 10-7-12 (1)
 This pair had three fertile eggs from seven, one dead in shell and I died at 1 day old, it had an open belly (never seen that before). The remaining chick is doing well. The cobalt cock is a very devoted dad and never leaves the nestbox when I open the door. He tries to hide the chick under his belly. I think most of the time he kicks the hen out of the box because she is hardly in there when he is.

Pair 11: Cinnamon Green Opaline (hen)- Sky/cinnamon (cock)1st egg lay 16-6-12 First chick hatched 12-7-12 (4) 3 chicks have plum eyes so therefore are cinnamon.

Pair 12: Yellow face Grey Opaline (hen)- Cinnamon Grey/ Lacewing (cock)1st egg lay 19-6-12 First chick hatched 11-7-12 (1) One fertile egg from 6 and it hatched so I am very happy. Hatched with black eyes so has to be a cock. The only chick is sky blue!!


Pair 13: Light Green (hen)- Light Green (cock)1st egg lay 17-6-12 First chick hatched 17-7-2012 (2)


Pair 14: Yellow face sky clearwing (hen)- Golden face recessive pied (cock) Pet type On 2nd round of eggs All eggs dead in shell for a second round.

Pair 15: Grey Green (hen)- Blue Fallow (cock) 1st egg lay 10-6-12 All eggs addled or dead in shell.

Pair 16: Golden face Cobalt Violet/ clearwing (hen)- Cobalt Violet greywing/clearwing (cock)Pet type 1st egg lay 10-6-12 (2nd round)  1x baby from 1st round- Cobalt violet (cock) All second round eggs dead in shell.


Pair 17: Cinnamon Sky Dominant Pied Opaline Spangle (hen)- Golden face Cobalt Greywing (cock)Pet type On 2nd round of eggs First chick hatched 22-6-12 (4) A welcome surprise in this nest. I just discovered this hen is split greywing!!! That is the fun thing with breeding pet budgies finding little genentic surprises in the nestbox. So in this box; chick 1- sky violet greywing, chick 2- goldenface dominant pied, chick 3- sky blue spangle greywing and chick 4- is goldenface dominant pied greywing  spangle. Photos below of Mother and Father.


Pair 18: Cinnamon Light green (hen)- Yellow Opaline Lacewing (cock) 1st egg lay 4-6-12 (2nd round) 1x baby from 1st round- Yellow Opaline lacewing (hen) This hen lay a whopping 13 eggs, 8 of which fertile. Unfortunately all dead in shell.


Update 4-7-12: I've had so many egg eaters this season. I keep a bag of 100 white marbles in my breeding room in case this happens. Cheep marbles from the $2 shop. A fraction of the price compared to dummy eggs. I just pop a couple in the nest and once the hen lays 3 of her own eggs without eating them, then I remove the marbles. 100% success with this method.

Sunday 20 May 2012

First lacewing chick.

Here's my baby at about 12 days old. My very first lacewing hen (Opaline). Hatch date 1-5-2012
Here she is at 22 days old.
Here she is today on the last day of Autumn at 30 days old.
Here she is at 45 days old.(bad photos)

Saturday 19 May 2012

Young bird Shield

I've got five birds in the young bird shield today. My two fallows are going, a blue, a green and a grey.
I have been preparing them for the last few weeks.
and after

Fallow hen got 25th and the fallow cock came 26th.............Eek........Such a long way to go.