My pairings for the 2012 season

[Lushen1600]

This years breeding season is almost upon us, birds will go down in a month or 2 months time. I started last years season with only 1 pair which laid 5 eggs first round and hatch 2 chicks, the other 3 eggs had hairline cracks, second round laid 4 eggs and all were infertile.

This is my pairings for this season, please note that I don't have genetic history for all the birds so where you see (UGH) it will stand for "unknown genetic history, so here goes

Pair 1
Blue cock {(UGH) was told this bird came from green cock to green hen} x
Blue Lacewing hen (UGH)

Pair 2
Grey/ino cock (from Grey(df)blue cock x Blue ino hen) x
Grey lacewing hen (from Blue pallid cock x Grey pallid hen)

Pair 3
Lutino cock (from Ino cock x Ino hen) x
Lutino hen {(UGH) sister to blue cock in pair 1 from green cock to green hen}

Pair 4
Greygreen cock (UGH) x
Green hen (UGH)

Pair 5 - last years pair which produced only 2 chicks(1 ino and 1 green)
Green/ino (from Green Cock x Ino hen) x
Lutino hen (UGH)

Pair 6
Green cock (UGH) x
Blue hen (UGH)

Pair 7 - bought this pair on the 24th July 2012
Blue cock (UGH)
Blue Rainbow Hen (UGH)

So these are my pairings for 2012, will just have to wait and see what they produce, not gonna change them around this year as most pairs are already preparing their nestboxes and mating except for pair 3 (the hen does not want to accept the males advances to her, probably cos she is older than him, she is a 2010 female and he is a 2011 male, she is not aggressive to him though, she just chases him away when he come nears her and dances trying to get her attention, as I think he wants to mate with her, but she is not ready or doesn't want to mate with him, not really expecting much from this pair this season so even if they don't produce will let them have a go at it next season as I like lutinos)

Thanks
Lushen

Feel free to comment.

[jarreds mutations]

they will have beautiful babies

[Johan S]

Hi Lushen,

why the "UGH" ?

[Lushen1600]

All the birds with UGH(unknown genetic history) were bought from breeders who had bought these birds from other breeders without finding out the genetics of these birds and don't have contact details for the breeders which they bought the birds from, so its gonna be a bit of trial and error on my side for a few season to see if these birds are carrying any splits.

To be honest I bought the blue lacewing cos its a colour I always wanted in my collection, the rest was bought cheap from guys giving up the hobby for resale, but seeing that the season was approaching I decided to keep them to see what they will produce, will keep them for a few years, and swop females around to see what splits they hold and then decide if I want to keep them in my collection or not.

Although they are visually common colour birds, its possible that they can be holding some good splits or common splits or none at all. So its gonna be trial and error with these birds, but that's the fun part of this whole hobby cos you will never know what to expect and iit can surprise you, also a good way to learn about genetics.

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Meant to post these but didn't have time, here are some pics of my pairs

First up is the Blue cock from pair 1


Blue lacewing hen from pair 1

Grey/ino cock x Grey lacewing hen pair 2


Ino cock x Ino hen pair 3


Greygreen cock from pair 4


Green hen from pair 4


Green/ino cock x Ino hen pair 5


Green cock x Blue hen pair 6


Thanks
Lushen

[jarreds mutations]

i love the blue male in #1

[Lushen1600]

Thanks Jarred, he is still a very young male, a 2010 bird who only got his ring at the beginning of this year, he came from 2 green parents with lutino, albino and green siblings so if you work it out on the genetic calculator, the results of his parents to produce those colour chicks must be as follows

  1.0 green /blue ino
x 0.1 green /blue
% from all 1.0
12.5% 1.0 green /ino
25.0% 1.0 green /blue ino
12.5% 1.0 blue /ino
12.5% 1.0 green
25.0% 1.0 green /blue
12.5% 1.0 blue
% from all 0.1
12.5% 0.1 ino
25.0% 0.1 ino /blue
12.5% 0.1 blue ino
12.5% 0.1 green
25.0% 0.1 green /blue
12.5% 0.1 blue

Looking at the above he could be either the blue male or the blue/ino male which I'm hoping he is the latter, but only test mating will really tell me if he is split ino, I also have his sister who is the ino hen in pair 3.
I have unfortunately sold the parents as I didn't have space, whether is was a wise move, only time will tell, but they are sold to my friend who I told that if he ever wants to sell the parent I should have first preference

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all this is the latest addition to my collection, I bought this pair last night with the cage, nestbox and feeding bowls, cock is feeding the hen and she is nest active, but I don't expect her to go down this season as she is a 2011 chick, the cock on the other hand is mature and has his neck ring.

Pair 7
Blue cock (UGH)
Blue Rainbow hen (UGH)







Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Pair 6 laid their first egg today, the hen removed most of the shaving and chewed the rest onto sawdust, will leave her as she knows what she is up 2



Thanks
Lushen

[mallee_1]

Hi Lushen,

Looking at the photo I would be putting more nesting material in, you will have problems with eggs sitting on bottom of the box, and when they hatch out you can end up with young with splayed legs as they cant sit up because of the slippery botom of the box , there legs slide apart and become splayed. Take it from me, I learnt from this a long, long time ago.

Regulary top nest material up as they work it so that when they lay they have a good base to lay on and raise young, good luck with breeding season.

Mine just starting to lay now, so hopefully I crack some combinations I want this year.

Regards Glenn

[Lushen1600]

Thanks Mallee will top up the shavings but am concerned that it may dry up the eggs by depleting them of the humidity as I read somewhere that new shaving need a few days to stay out in the open to absorb some humidity so that it doesn't dry the eggs. Is this true, and if so how long should I leave the shavings in the open

Thanks
Lushen

[McmillanBirds]

Hi Lushen

A suggestion from my side is maybe wet some shavings lightly and when they are very nearly dry put them in her box, that way the moisture will be there. The parents of the grey/ino male you got from me are giving me headaches this year with their nesting material, on sunday I am going to pack damp shavings into their box, with dry shavings on top and new straw, so she can dig into that and not into her box, she has chucked everything out repeatedly. She has even made 2 holes at the back already, thank heavens she can't get through the corrugated sheeting at the back.

Carmen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all checked my nestboxes today and found that Pair 6 is now on 3 eggs



Had to swop the cock birds from Pair 3 and Pair 7 as the female from pair 3 does not want to accept the male, I guess because he is only 1 year old so I gave her a mature cock, will have to wait and see what happens, so my pairings are now as follows

Pair 1
Blue cock {(UGH) was told this bird came from green cock to green hen} x
Blue Lacewing hen (UGH)

Pair 2
Grey/ino cock (from Grey(df)blue cock x Blue ino hen) x
Grey lacewing hen (from Blue pallid cock x Grey pallid hen)

Pair 3
Blue cock (UGH)bought on the 24th July 2012 x
Lutino hen {(UGH) sister to blue cock in pair 1 from green cock to green hen}

Pair 4
Greygreen cock (UGH) x
Green hen (UGH)

Pair 5 - last years pair which produced only 2 chicks(1 ino and 1 green)
Green/ino (from Green Cock x Ino hen) x
Lutino hen (UGH)

Pair 6 - currently on 3 eggs
Green cock (UGH) x
Blue hen (UGH)

Pair 7
Lutino cock (from Ino cock x Ino hen) x
Blue Rainbow Hen (UGH)bought on the 24th July 2012

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Sounds like so much of fun, Lushen. I am new to breeding ringnecks and would like to add to my birds. At present my birds are all kept in a very large cage and seem to be living in relative peace. If I do purchase any new birds, can I introduce them immediately to this cage or should I house them seperately? I would also like to know where I could buy birds in Durban, from a reputable dealer, as I would love to get a latino pair as well as a cobalt pair.

Thanks
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, seeing that you stay in durban and its breeding season, I would advice keeping your birds in pairs to avoid fighting and losing birds through fighting, try to get more cages to house your birds in breeding pairs if you can, or you can breed in colony but expect fights but I wouldn't advise breeding ringnecks in a colony system

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Thank you Lushen and Molossus for your valuable advice. Appreciate all the help I can get. Thrilled! My baby now has 3 eggs! So excited.....

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Pleasure to help where I can, but just to let you know that I'm still learning as well, only my second season of breeding ringnecks so I got a long way to go

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, public holiday today, checked my boxes and Pair 6 is now on 5 eggs, all other pairs still have not gone down yet, will be patient as I only want one clutch per pair



Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi on checking my nestboxes yesterday, I found that Pair 5 now have 2 eggs and Pair 6 are still on 5 eggs. Last year Pair 5 only started laying in september so this year they started laying 1 month earliar. So that's 2 out of 7 pairs so far that have started laying, will update next week sunday when I check the boxes again

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Molossus thanks for the info, I do keep records but not with all the info that you keep, will add to mine what I have missed out. So that would mean checking nestboxes more frequently than once a week, how often do you check ur nestboxes?

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Lushen never underestimate the value of record keeping. I record first displays,matings.. nest box inspections date and no eggs..first eggs .. Last egg laid ... Hatching ratio ... Colors etc..this helps determine true value of the bird as a proven breeder...Good luck with your breeding.

And I add to that when the hen starts frequenting the nest and when incubation starts, which isn't always when the first egg is laid. And when I remember, some thoughts on the weather patterns as well.

[Lushen1600]

Thanks Johan and Molossus, you guys are very helpful and your advice is what us amateur breeders need to do the correct things and learn the correct ways of breeding ringnecks and their mutations. Your help is always greatly appreciated by me as I'm only breeding ringneck for the second season now and ur advice is what I need to be successful in my ringneck breeding programme

I meant to put up this pic of the eggs from Pair 5 which was found on sunday but I forget so here it is, I'm trying something new this year and not using any flash when taking out pics of the eggs as I'm not sure if the flash has any affect on the unborn chicks



Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all just a quick update, I now have Pair 1 on 3 eggs, Pair 5 on 4 eggs, and Pair 2 and Pair 4 are playing with the shavings in their nestboxes so they should be laying soon.

My Pair 6 which is on 5 eggs is due to start hatching from the 24/08/2012 so waiting with anticipation, by looking at the hen properly I can now say that she is actually a blue cinnamon and not a normal true blue, so that changes the outcomes of this pairing a little.

Will post pics of the eggs for Pair 1 and Pair 4 tomorrow

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all as promised, here are pics of the eggs for Pair 1 on 3 eggs and Pair 5 on 4 eggs

This is eggs from Pair 1


This is eggs from Pair 5


Will check boxes again on friday as I'm expecting some chicks to hatch and will update you guys

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Molossus, its amazing how you guys have such a good eye, surely must come with experience, so which basket do you say is fertile, Pair 1's or Pair 5's?

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Lushen, any news on pair 3 and their behaviour? I would be very happy for you if they decided to extend the family.

[Lushen1600]

Hi Johan, with Pair 3 I have seen several matings occur from last week and today was the first day I saw the lutino hen enter the box and she was in there for quite a while, when I had the 1 year old lutino male with her I did not once see them mating and the shavings in the box remained untouched, will inspect her box to see what she is doing on sunday, as I'm sure that she will be laying eggs in a few weeks time

Johan, just a quick question, do you handrear your babies or do you let the parents rear them, also how many clutches do you get from each of your pairs?

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Lushen, from my experience, handreared parrots (not exclusively IRN) do not make the best breeding birds. They sometimes tend to forget that they are parrots and will mostly favour human attention to there 'responsibilities'. Therefore, since my dad and I mostly breed for the aviculture market, and not the pet market, we do not handraise chicks often. The strongest chicks are also those that were raised beyond 21 days by their parents. At that stage, most IRNs won't double clutch in any case. Therefore, you need to make a decision on why you are doing what you are doing. And if you want to sell your chicks to fellow breeders, best start thinking about some more aviary space. As you upgrade your birds, keep your best parents (of the cheaper mutations) as feeders for your more expensive birds. That way, with some luck in timing, you may place eggs and get the more exclusive birds to double clutch.

Having said that, I have handraised many birds. In my matric year, my dad started a consulting business and were on the road a lot. During my final exams I had to juggle between my (always!) delayed study schedule, and hand rearing 40 youngsters! The stress was terrible and I swore that I'd only do it again in an emergency.

[Lushen1600]

Hi Johan, thanks for the information, and how you breed your ringnecks.

I don't intend to handrear babies from all my pairs, I have decided to let Pair 1, Pair 2 and Pair 3 chicks be parent reared, if I see that there are no red eyed chicks in Pair 1's clutch, then I will also handrear their chicks, which will mean the blue cock is not split ino, but if I find even one red eyed chick, then I will let the parents rear, as I want to keep a Blue Pallidino male and the albino female which they might produce.

Pair 4, Pair 5 and Pair 6 chicks will be handreared, unless of course I see unexpected colours in their clutches, then I will choose to parent rear.

As for Pair 7 which are still young and both are 1 year old birds, I don't expect much from them, but in the rare case that they do have fertile eggs and hatch them, I will allow them to parent rear as I believe that they need the experience to be parents.

As for cage space that something any breeder never has enough of, can't wait to get my own place in a few years time, as I'm currently living with the in-laws and I'm greatful that they are allowing me to pursue my hobby, when I do but my own place in about 3 years time or sooner, I will look for a place that has a lot of land at the back of the house so that I can continue my hobby.

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Molossus, thanks for the reply, here is a pic of the clutch of eggs for Pair 6 which are due to start hatching at the end of this week, how many would you say are fertile and how many infertile?



Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

I don't have Molossus' mojo for fertility inspection in pictures, but those eggs all look good to me...

[Lushen1600]

Hi Johan thanks for the reply, by looking at the pic of the eggs myself, I would say that the 3 eggs on the right, as well as the 1 egg on the bottom left look a much darker colour, when compared to the top left egg.

I would guess and say that the 4 darker looking eggs are fertile and the one lighter one is infertile, but I could be wrong as pictures can be very decieving, will wait and see what Molossus has to say

Both the birds in Pair 6 that created these eggs are 2010 birds, meaning both are 2 year old birds, so this is their first breeding run ever, so if I am correct that 4 out of 5 are fertile, then I'm happy cos it will mean they did well for their first try

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, sorry for the late update, I had a hectic weekend, only had a chance to look at my nestboxes today, here are pics and updates on the pairs that have eggs

Pair 1 has 5 eggs, completed laying


Pair 5 has 5 eggs, completed laying, some eggs look a little small compared to others, can anyone tell me the reason why


Pair 6 eggs started hatching, this is the first chick of my 2012 season


The rest of my pairs haven't laid yet, but will soon, Pair 2, Pair 3 and Pair 4 are still digging their boxes and Pair 7 haven't entered their box as yet

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, just a quick update, I found that a second chick has hatched in Pair 6 nestbox today


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Molossus, yes I will have my hands full with chicks this year, will have to start handrearing soon, its my first time handrearing chicks, so I hope I cope with this first clutch.

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, another quick update, the third chick in Pair 6 nestbox hatched today, amazing how they hatch daily when they were laid on alternate days, suppose this is due to the hen not incubating from the first egg.


Thanks
Lushen

[McmillanBirds]

Hi Lushen

Looking at the pic, your 4th egg is cracked. It should hatch soon, unless it was accidently bumped, although I don't think that was the case. Looking good

[Lushen1600]

Thanks didn't even notice that, will check the nestbox again before I leave for work tonight

Thanks
Lushen

[LadyCalypso]

nice chicks Lushen I hope I will get some this year I am putting up boxes soon

[Lushen1600]

Thanks LadyCalypso, you will also have some nice chicks

Sorry guys but I couldn't check the nestbox yesterday before leaving for work last night, as the hen was sitting tight onto the eggs and chicks and I didn't want to disturb her, will check today when i wake up after my nap

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, gonna update you guys daily if I can on the progress of my chicks so that others can use this as a reference to see how much ringneck chicks grow on a daily basis, on the hatching of the first chick will be Day 0, hatching of second chick Day 1, hatching of third chick Day 2, so that will make today Day 3


The fourth chick hasn't hatched yet, there seems to be a small crack on the egg by the looks of yesterdays pic, not sure whether to help the chick out or just to let nature take its course as I'm unsure whether the crack is caused by the chick trying to make its way out or whether the egg was accidentally bumped

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen...I am so happy for you. Your babies look just gorgeous...best of luck handrearing. My ringneck is still sitting on her eggs but they should have hatched by 25/08. Am very upset because I think they may be infertile.... But I also have sun conures, and two chicks have been born so far, which I will be handrearing (also my first time). But I have to admit my ringnecks are my pride and joy and I was most excited about their eggs hatching....but I guess I will most likely have to wait for the next breeding season.....Congratulations again!

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, thanks

Get someone in your area to candle your eggs for you to see if they are clear or if there is something inside, if all infertile, remove them so that your pair will mate again and hopefully this time get it right and lay fertile eggs so you don't have to wait till next season as I believe there is stiill a lot of time this season for your pair to go down again.

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen....great news...one of the eggs hatched this afternoon! I am beside myself! I guess that is why they say patience is a virtue. Learnt about candling today from Rod and Carmen.... something that will be of great help in future. Thanks...will keep you posted. Please post more pics of your babies. They're an absolute inspiration to all us birdies....Cheers

Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, good to hear that your chicks started hatching, patience is definitely worth it when breeding birds

I decided to open the cracked egg today as the fifth egg was laid on the 08/08/2012 so today would have been 23 days since the last egg was laid, I found the shell to be very brittle and on opening it, I found that there was something forming in it which only occupied 1/3 of the egg and didn't even resemble a bird, it also looked like it was going bad so I think that the chick must have died during the early stages of developement. Stupid me, I didn't even think of taking out a pic of the opened egg to show you guys and only realised that I should have taken one out only after I threw it over the back fence

For Eshana and all the other newbie breeders including me here is todays pic of Pair 6's chicks, as you will notice I left the infertile egg in with the chick for 3 reasons, firstly so that the mother doesn't sit too tightly on the eggs, secondly so that the chicks can huddle together on the egg to keep warm and thirdly so that it can be used as a size reference when viewing the chicks growth so that others and myself can monitor the chicks daily growth in comparison to the size of the egg so her is a pic of Day 4


Also when checking nestboxes today I found to my surprise Pair 3 has 1 egg in the nestbox, initially I thought it was too soon but when looking at my records, I noticed that I changed cock birds on the 05/08/2012, so today will be 26 days since changing cock birds so I'm holding thumbs that her eggs will be fertile. Here is a pic of Pair 3's egg


As for Pair 2 and Pair 4 they are still digging in their boxes, not sure why they are taking so long to lay, although the males have been mating with them, guess I will just have to be patient

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Beautiful pics Lushen....you sure are going to have your hands full handrearing all of them...but I'm sure it's going to be loads of fun. Cheers...
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Thanks Eshana

Hi all, here is a pic of chicks, today is Day 5



Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all just a quick update for today, this is a pic of the chicks Day 6


Also Pair 3 is now on 2 eggs


Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Your babies are looking great. And there's a distinct difference in size from day one to now. I had no idea that they grow so quickly!
I'm also celebrating as the other egg, which I thought was infertile, hatched as well. So I'm now mummy to two beautiful babies. So surprised as the eggs took over 32 days to hatch!
I noticed in your pics that your babies and your eggs are always sitting nicely on the wood shavings. I have filled my boxes with wood shavings but my hen always shoves the shavings aside and puts the babies onto the hard floor of the box. My other pair that have been mating for the past two months, have finally laid. One egg Friday evening and one this morning. But even with this hen, she keeps moving the wood shavings aside every time I place the eggs on the shavings..and pushes the eggs onto the hard surface. Don't know what else to do...any suggestions?

Kind Regards
Eshana

[Johan S]

Hey Lushen, of all the news, I'm happiest about pair 3. Two adult birds often don't need more than two weeks to make up their mind and get the process started. As for the others that haven't gone down yet; well you said it best. Patience! I have two pairs that, according to my records, started mating third week in July. And have been going at it constantly. Both started a clutch on 30 Aug. I am rather impatient, yet I enjoy breeding birds, fishing and growing cycads. Not the best hobbies for the impatient...

Things looking good on your side! Keep it up.

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana & Johan sorry for the late reply

Eshana its good to hear that your chicks are hatching, how many eggs were laid? Sometimes they take a little longer to hatch due to the weather and sometimes, if you have a big clutch of five or six eggs and the first 3 or four eggs which were laid may be infertile, the last 2 eggs will hatch last and therefore later, so if you are not marking the eggs with numbers, you won't know which eggs the chicks are hatching from.
As for the growth of the chicks, they do grow quite rapidly, so that's the reason y I decided to put pics of the chicks growth on a daily basis so that others as well as myself have something to refer back to in the future.
When it comes to wood shavings, I fill the boxes till the bottom of the inspection door, some hens remove a little, some remove more, as for this hen that has the chicks, I intially thought that she had removed most of her shavings and chewed the rest into smaller pieces, but later realised that what she had in her box is actually pieces of the inside of the nestbox, which she chewed away at. If you refer to earliar posts in this thread you will see that when she started laying you could see the bottom floor of the box, I decided not to add any more shavings and later found that there was more shavings, this was due to the hen making her own by chewing at the box, other breeders choose to continue topping up shavings, but I chose to let this hen be, to see what she does and now I realised that she chose to remove all the shavings which I put, in order to chew at the box and make her own nest.

Johan I'm just as excited about Pair 3 laying as you are, as even if they have only one clutch, it will give me some genetic information about the cock and hen
As for patience, being a carp fishermen myself, I have learnt how to be patient, but sometimes I also would like things to speed up, as I'm sure we all do, but I believe that the birds know best what they are doing and we will have to wait for them when they are ready, will keep you guys posted on any uodates and will put todays pic of the chick later when I get home after work as I am dayshift this week

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, sorry for the late post, this was supposed to be posted yesterday afternoon, but I really got caught up with work, here is yesterdays pick of the chicks Day 7

Seems to me that one chicks eye is starting to open from the pic, will be putting on rings onto these chicks in a few days

Will post todays pic of the chicks when I take one out today after work

Thanks
Lushen

[smick]

G'day Lushen,following the post with interest. One question do you put in each time the pairings at the bottom of post or is there a way to save it and add it everytime . My pairs are going ok with 2 prs sitting and the other 2 prs mating and entering boxs.
pr1 turquiose blue pallid cock to blue hen- mating but have bred last 2 seasons without problem,allways seem to go later then others.
pr 2 green pallid cock/blue to blue pallid hen-sitting with five eggs.
pr 3 turquiose blue cock/ino to creamino hen-sitting on 4 eggs
pr 4 indigo blue cock possible split pallid to df violet blue hen- mating and entering box,first season,cock 2yrs and hen1. so if nothing happens not worried as young.
Last year green pallid cock was with creamino hen as he was 2 and her 1,bred 2 green pallid babies. the turquiose blue split ino cock was originally bought for the creamino hen but at 1 last year decided to pair her to the other cock. This year he is with his hen and are paired up well and sitting tight. If season goe's well am aiming at getting violet blue pallid cock and pair it to when i breed 1 a indigo violet blue hen from pr 4.

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for today.

This is todays pic of the chicks for Pair 6 - Day 8


Hi Molossus here is a pic of the eggs for Pair 5 taken today which are due to hatch by this weekend, which would you say are fertile and which infertile


Hi Johan, this should excite you Pair 3 is now on 3 eggs


And for all of the newbie breeder who would like to know what patience is worth here is a pic of Pair 2 which has now started laying and is on 2 eggs


Now that leaves Pair 4 which hasn't laid as yet, the hen is still digging the box, she will lay soon. I don't expect Pair 7 to do anything as they are still young

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Smick, to enter your Pairs in the bottom of the posts got to the top of the screen and click on User control Panel, then on the left side panel click on Profile, then click on edit signature on the left side panel of the next page, then type out your pairings in the space provided and click on update/submit

Nice mutations you have, I also would like to get a creamino some day

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Love the pics...please keep them coming! My hen from my first pair had laid 3 eggs, but one of the eggs had disappeared. The remaining eggs have hatched so I have two babies from pair one. My 2nd pair have been mating for just over 2 months but the hen only laid her first egg on 1 September and the 2nd egg on 3rd September. This morning I found a broken egg lying at the bottom of the cage. Can't understand why she did that...
I don't know the colours (pallid, creamino, etc) So I'm just going to call out the colours as I see them. My first pair is a green/olive/yellow hen and a blue/grey male. My 2nd pair are both blue/grey, male and female. Now you know just how much I know about colours and mutations...lol... I'm sure Molossus is having a good laugh at my expense too....
Please keep up the good work Lushen and keep us regularly posted, especially us novices....

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, was the broken egg you found on the floor from the nestbox or did the hen lay another egg which cracked on the floor

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

No, the egg was not from her nesting box. It looks like she dropped the egg while sitting on her perch. Not sure if she dropped the egg out of fear. Last night it was very windy and raining quite heavily. My hubby went out to cover the cages with their protective sail covers (which have been built over the cages - like a blind). That might have scared her into dropping the egg...not sure...

Regards
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, most probably she had laid the egg in the nestbox, and it may have cracked and leak out egg white, thus causing the egg to stick to the bottom of them hen, she then must have come out of the box with the egg stuck to her and whilst in flight outside the nestbox the egg must have fell onto the floor.

Hi guys my hen from Pair 3 is not looking too good, when I went out to feed this morning, she came out the nestbox as usual, she is eating but I notice she seems very lethargic and when flying from the floor of the suspended to the landing perch she sometimes doesn't make it and lands back onto the floor, her balance seems alittle off as well, do you guys thinks that she is eggbound, and what would I do to solve this, I know there are articles on the net on eggbinding, but would prefer to hear from you guys. One breeder has told me in the past that if one of my hens get eggbound, I must wrap her in a towel and hold the towel over steam to have the egg release, anybody ever try this and does this work, according to my records she is due to lay her next egg either tomorrow, but it could also be late this afternoon. Looking foward to your replies,

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, I have just spoken to our bird club chairmen, and he says that she is probably, not too good as it is cold here in pietermaritzburg today, and she is probably in the process of laying, he advised not to wrap the bird in a towel and put over steam, I informed him that she is is the nestbox and he said that she will be ok in the nestbox as it is quite warm in there and I shouldn't interfere with her, but just to check on her later this afternoon, he said that if she is eggbound, then I should take her out and keep her indoors in a seperate cage with a light to keep her warm so that she will release the egg, but only if I'm certain that she is eggbound, he also said that if I do take her out the cage to keep her inside, she may not go back to sit on her eggs and I may have to foster the eggs.

Would still like to hear what the rest of you guys have to say

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

So sorry about your hen Hope this weather lets up. It is miserably cold and rainy here in Durbs and I am pretty worried about my birds as well, especially the babies. About your hen, I suggest you perhaps e-mail or ppm Molossus. He has such a lot of experience and is always willing to share his invaluable advice. I can imagine how worried you are....

Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi guys thanks for the replies, I checked on the hen when I came from work and she seems to be looking better but hasn't laid her 4th egg as yet, I would be more relieved once she has laid, then I know thar she is gonna be ok, she is in the nestbox most of the time, will check on her tomorrow and let you guys know how she is doing, I'm not sure if she is eggbound or just under the weather but she is now looking much better than before. Sorry I couldn't reply earliar, I was at our bird club comittee meeting and only got home now.

Also before I go here is a pic of the chicks for Pair 6 for the 05 September 2012 - Day 9


I just brought home 5kg of Avi-Plus phase 2 handrearing feed which I had ordered through our club, now will have to get some syringes, towels, 1 mixing bowl and 1 tumbler and I will be ready for handrearing, I already have my boxes and shavings, but will need to ask my wife to get some polar fleece to keep the babies warm

Thanks
Lushen

[McmillanBirds]

Hi Lushen, I have only read your post now as I have been so busy. I hope your hen is ok. Please keep us posted. I lost a hen due to being egg bound and extreme heat in the nest box(major heat wave), so I know the feeling.

[Lushen1600]

Hi Carmen, thanks for the reply, I never knew that you lost a hen due to her being eggbound, sorry to hear about that.

I heard her moving around in the box this morning when I was feeding before leaving to work, so I never check the nestbox as I didn't want to disturb her, will check again today after 16h00 when I get home from work and keep you guys posted, I hope she will be ok and I hope by the time I get home from work today that she would lay her 4th egg by then and then I will be relieved

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, I've checked on the lutino hen from pair 3 yesterday, and she seemed fine, although she hasn't laid her 4th egg as yet, saw her come out her nestbox and feed and go back in this morning, will check on her when I go back home from work today, will also check if she has laid her 4th egg.

Here is an update for yesterday of Pair 6's chicks -Day 10


Will post todays pic of the chicks later once I take one out when I get home from work, will also start ringing the biggest chick tomorrow as the biggest chick will be 12 days old

At what age do you guys ring your chicks?

Thanks
Lushen

[McmillanBirds]

Hi Lushen

I used to ring my babies between 10-12 days depending on how big they were. Buttercup feeds her babies well, so they are little fatties so had to do them at 10 days, pushing it at 11. I used to wait until the eyes started opening and then try. If they fell off, I would wait a day or 2 and try again.

I once had a list with all the different birds ring sizes and age you had to ring them. By ringnecks they had a 7mm ring and to ring them at 12days. With the bigger babies I found it a tight squeeze to get the ring over their foot. Not impossible but I don't think it was extremely comfortable for the poor little thing(that was my first attempt at ringing), he growled at me. I was using a little vaseline so it would slip on easier and a toothpick just to help pull that back toe through. After that first attempt I started ringing them before the 12day period if the babies were a little plump.

Hope that helps

[Lushen1600]

Hi all

Here is todays pic of the chicks of Pair 6 - Day 11
They have gone so big and starting to open their eyes, will have to definitely start to ring them from tomorrow, Thanks for the info Carmen, hope the rings go on

Pair 2 - I found 3 eggs in the nestbox and 1 egg laid outside which was cracked, so I'm a little sad about that.


Pair 3 - The hen still seems ok but is still on 3 eggs, she hasn't yet laid her 4th, don't know if she stopped laying or if she is eggbound, here is a few pics of her, what do you guys think






Thanks
Lushen

[McmillanBirds]

Yay!! My Little Grey has eggs with his lady love!! I am so happy!!
Your lutino hen looks ok to me... I am not an expert though, I would keep watching closely though.
All of the wood on my breeding boxes has swollen because of the moisture in the air and I can't open the doors. I am going to have to take a knife or screwdriver in to wedge the doors open!! I hope tomorrows weather is better. It has been absolutely miserable.
Might take Buttercups babies out on Sunday. Will check and see how big they have gotten. They were already taking up half the box space last weekend!
All the best

[Lushen1600]

Hi all,
I have some very sad news, I lost my Green/ino Cock bird from Pair 5, I found him dead in the nestbox with the hen and their 5 eggs, when I did nestbox inspections today, not sure what happen to him as he was fine yesterday when I was feeding them, I doubt the hen killed him as there was no injuries to him, I think it may have been the bad weather that we had for the past couple days but not sure. The eggs for this pair should start hatching from today, I hope the hen will cope with feeding the chicks on her own.

On to more positive news I managed to ring the 2 bigger chicks from Pair 6, the smalllest one is too small to ring just yet, will ring him/her in 2 days time. Here is todays pic of the chicks Day 12


Pair 3 - I am now convinced that the lutino hen is ok and that she has finished laying, 3 eggs in total, will keep you guys updated on this pair

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

So sorry about you losing your green/ino cock. It must have been the awful weather. I am on the north coast of KZN (La Mercy) and we've had an endless week of cold and rain. I was absolutely terrified for my birds. I can imagine how upset you are. Each bird has it's very own personality, which grows on you. Very difficult when something like this happens. Take Care...

Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, thanks for your condolences, its been 3 years now that I have been keeping birds and this is the first time that I have lost one, sometimes although we try our best and give our birds the best care and the best food, there will still be things which will be out of our control, and although I am sad that I have lost one of my best cock birds(he was a good father, fed his hen and chicks well and helped with incubating) I guess this is one of the things that we have to deal with as birdkeepers, that we will have some losses, but we should still carry on doing the best for our birds cos they deserve the very best. Will keep you guys posted as to how many eggs from Pair 5 hatch and also on how the lutino hen copes on her own to feed the chicks

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all I went to durban on saturday afternoon and only got back home now, so unfortunately I couldn't get a pic of the chicks for today Day 13, will definitely take out pics of them tomorrow when I come from work.

I went to the back to check on my birds now and noticed that the hen from Pair 3 had laid a very big egg outside her nestbox on the cage floor, so I guess she was struggling to lay the egg as it was very big, the egg in unfortunately cracked so will have to throw it away tomorrow after work, I hope she is ok though, I can't check on her as it is almost midnight, but will check on her first thing tomorrow when I get home from work.

I also heard babies making noise in Pair 1's nestbox, so for now I can tell you that some eggs must of started to hatch but will only be able to update you guys on all the pairs tomorrow after work.

I'm sure that the eggs for Pair 5 must have also started hatching, but can't hear the noise of babies from her nestbox. Pair 5 eggs were laid a few days before Pair 1. Will give you guys a complete update tomorrow

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Hope you had a great weekend! So glad all your babies are starting to hatch. Do you intend handrearing them all? If so, how will you manage, especially when you have to go to work? I am presently hand rearing two baby conures (ringneck babies will only be ready in 1 1/2 weeks), and I'm finding that it is a full time job. I have to plan my life around their feeding times... But they are an absolute joy to take care of.... Can't wait for the ringnecks...

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, I'm gonna take my babies out at 3 weeks old so that I will give them 3 feeds per day, I will feed them once is the morning, come home and feed them again during my lunch break and again after work, if they need a fourth feed, will give them one before I go to sleep, but I doubt I will.

I won't be handrearing all my babies, it will depend on the colours of the chicks in the nest. For Pair 4, 5 and 6 I will handrear all the babies unless I see something out of the ordinary. For Pair 1, 2 and 3 I will let the parents rear. For Pair 1 I may decide to handrear if I see all black eyed babies, but if I find even 1 red eyed baby, then I will let the parents rear.

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Do you handrear only the babies you intend selling? Or only those with unusual colours? Those you do not hand rear, do they allow you to touch them when they are fully grown? My IRNs that I purchased early this year are not hand reared birds and will not let me touch them. They don't like it when I go into their cage to clean up and scream their protest at me. Sorry for so many questions but I am trying to learn from you... Keep well.

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, I'm only going to handrear birds which are going to be sold as pets, the rest will be parent reared to be sold and used as future breeding birds. I'm gonna handrear the cheaper more common colours, and parent rear the more expensive and unusual colours

Here is todays update, sorry that I'm putting this update so late. On inspection of nestboxes, I found the following:-

Pair 1 - 2 chicks hatched, most probably 1 yesterday and 1 today, so yesterday would be Day 0, so here is todays pic for Pair 1 - Day 1

As you will notice, 1 of the chicks seem to have what looks to be an inflated lung or air sac, but I could be wrong, it just seems to high to be the birds crop, will recheck tomorrow with another pic, but can someone clarify what this is?

Pair 2 - still on 3 eggs, no pic was taken

Pair 3 - also still on 3 eggs and the hen is ok, no pic was taken

Pair 4 - still hasn't laid, hen still digging the nestbox

Pair 5 - no eggs have hatched yet, not sure if they are fertile or infertile, will need to get myself a little torch so that I can candle my birds eggs, will leave the hen to sit on her eggs, seeing that I lost the cock bird. Here is a pic of the eggs taken today


Pair 6 - had to put on the rings for the 2 bigger chicks again, as I found they had come loose and were lying in the nestbox. The biggest chick is now 14 days old, the second chick is 13 days old and the smallest chick is 12 days old and currently too small to ring. Here is todays pic Pair 6 - Day 14


My maroon bellied conure pair started digging their box so I'm hoping that they will lay soon, my pair of white racing pigeons is on their second set of 2 eggs(first set was infertile, very young pair, only 8 months old) which I'm hoping to be fertile, but highly doubt that they are, time will tell as they are due to hatch by the 24/09/2012. That's all for today

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

As you will notice, 1 of the chicks seem to have what looks to be an inflated lung or air sac, but I could be wrong, it just seems to high to be the birds crop, will recheck tomorrow with another pic, but can someone clarify what this is?

Looks like the crop to me. You can sometimes gently massage this air sack out.

Pair 5 - no eggs have hatched yet, not sure if they are fertile or infertile, will need to get myself a little torch so that I can candle my birds eggs

I have downloaded and installed a torchlight app on my phone. I have been candling my eggs with the phone this season. It is more than bright enough, and being an LED, also doesn't get hot enough to damage the egg.

My maroon bellied conure pair started digging their box so I'm hoping that they will lay soon.

I LOVE maroon bellies and green cheeks. In my opinion, they are far superior pets to IRN. They have awesome personalities and character.

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is a quick update for today

Pair 1 - 3rd chick hatched, here is a pic of Pair 1 - Day 2
Seems as thought there is no inflated air sac showing today

Pair 5 - still no eggs have hatched, used Johans technique and used my cellphone flash to candle the eggs, found 4 infertile eggs and 1 fertile egg - no pic taken but if you look at yesterdays pic it will confirm this, you will see the 1 smaller egg looks a different colour to the 4 larger eggs, so not a very good fertility ratio, will most probably keep this chick if it hatches, in remembrance of its dad which I lost last week.

Pair 6 - The rings seem to have stayed onto the chicks, doubt they will come off now, will have to wait for the smaller chick to grow some more before I can put a ring on it. Here is a pic of Pair 6 - Day 15


Hi Johan, I do agree with you, maroon bellies and green cheeks do make excellent pets, I would like to however parent rear any babies which I get from this pair, as they seem to be very scarce here in pietermaritzburg as compared to green cheeks which are very common, want to look for someone else closeby who is also breeding maroon bellies so that I can have my lot sexed and buy the opposite sexes of what I get so I can make new unrelated pairs

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all just a quick question Pair 5 where I have lost the Green/ino cock has not had a very good fertility ratio from the tim I had it, last year the hen laid 5 eggs first round and only 2 chicks hatched, second round she laid 4 eggs and all were infertile.

This year she laid 5 eggs and only 1 fertile egg.

Spoke to out bird club chairmen and he said if I'm getting infertile eggs, then 90% of the time the blame could be pointed to the cock bird and only 10% of the time will it be the hens fault.

My question is, what are the causes of infertile eggs and would it be a sign of an old cock bird. The reason I ask is that Pair 5 was the first pair of birds I bought and the breeder oi bought them from wasn't totally honest to me with regards to these birds, only found that out after I joined this forum that some of the information he gave me was incorrect. He told me that the cock bird was 4 years old and the hen was 3 years old when I bought it, but now I'm thinking that the cock bird may have been an old bird as they is no way of telling the age of a bird if it doesn't have a ring. Would like to hear your thoughts on this

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Lushen, it is hard to tell what went wrong there, but there are a number of reasons for infertility. Perhaps the cock has problems (under developed organs, age, who knows?), perhaps the hen has similar, sometimes both are perfect and they simply aren't compatible (split them up and they breed like crazy with the new partners). Sometimes it's not the birds, but environmental factors. Could be something like the diet, could be the perches, etc. Hopefully, you'll get some more feedback.

The years have taught us some hard lessons. 1) I rarely by mature birds, and only from people that I really know well and trust. 2) I rarely by birds from person AB if the ring on the bird doesn't say AB. Cut out the middle man, and by directly from the breeder. That way, you can phone them up any time and they'll be able to answer questions about your bird. If you follow these rules, you will severely limit your options and you will need to be extra patient to find the exact bird you are looking for. However, a lot of risk is cut out in this process. The only time you don't have this luxury is when you purchase super rare mutations. Like they say, "Use it, don't use it."

[Lushen1600]

Hi Johan thanks for your reply, I have learnt my lesson and will only buy young birds from now onwards, and will also only buy from reputable breeders who ring their birds and have adequate records. Your reply about the cause of infertile eggs does make sense. I willl be putting the lutino female with another male for next season to see what happens. Any suggestions as to what colour male I should get for her?

Here is an update for today
Pair 1 - still only 3 chicks hatched, 2 more eggs to go - Day 3


Pair 5 - the only egg which I saw to be fertile hatched, please excuse the poor quality pics from here onwards, it was late in the evening and my mobile phone battery was low, so the flash didn't want to activate, will get better pics tomorrow. Day 0

Seeing that this is the only chick that the mother is going to feed, I would like to see how quickly this chick grows, in comparison to the chicks in Pair 6, also I think I may need to ring this chick earliar if it grows quickly

Pair 6 - Once again I apologise for the porr quality pic, will take better pics out tomorrow. Day 16


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 1 - 4th chick now hatched, all black eyed babies so far so maybe the cock bird is not split ino, as I was hoping for, but just a normal true blue, so all male chicks will be blue/pallid and all females will be just blue, here is todays pics of the chicks - Day 4



Pair 5 - here is todays pic of the only chick, black eyed as well so it will be green like its dad, if its a male, it will be split ino, if its a female, it will carry no splits - Day 1



Pair 6 - gonna take these chicks out on sunday for handrearing, they will be 18, 19 and 20 days old, here is todays pic - Day 17


Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Pair 1 - 4th chick now hatched, all black eyed babies so far so maybe the cock bird is not split ino, as I was hoping for

Careful to jump to conclusions to soon, Lushen. You will need some more chicks (typically at least three nests) to be very certain. Sometimes you need up to 18 young from the same parents to have a confidence of more than 95%.

This season has been rather cruel to us. Three pairs of split fallow to fallow; 3/13 red-eyed babies. One pair gave 1/6, the other 0/5 and the other 2/2. And, like you, I have already started jumping to conclusions about some of them that I probably shouldn't do.

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Your babies are all looking really good. Sad that only one egg hatched from pair five, especially since you lost the cock bird from that pair. You will have your hands full this week, when you pull your babies for hand rearing...but it is such fun! Really enjoying all the pics. Dying to see what colours you get when the babies start to feather out (on those birds that you plan on keeping), so please keep us updated with regular pics.

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Friday 14/09/2012, sorry that it is late

Pair 1 - stiil 4 chicks, think the last egg is infertile, gonna leave it in anyway, here is a pic with the mum in the nestbox with the chicks - Day 5


Pair 5 - here is a pic of the chick - Day 2


Pair 6 - here is a pic of the chick - Day 18


Hi Johan, I will definitely keep that in mind and watch future clutches to get the proper genetics for this birds. Thanks for the reminder

Hi Eshana, will continue to update you guys on my chicks daily growth. The chicks in Pair 6 are already quite used to my hands, cos I play with them everyday in the nestbox when I take out my pics, as you will see with the above pic that they are stretching their heads out to me, instead of running away which the chicks I bred last year used to do.

Will post todays updates later today

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for today Saturday 15/09/2012

Pair 1 - here is todays pic - Day 6


Pair 5 - here is todays pic - Day 3


Pair 6 - here is todays pic - Day 19


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Sunday 16/09/2012, sorry for the late post

Pair 1 - here is a pic for the day, Day 7


Pair 5 - here is a pic for the day - Day 4

Growth of this chick seems a little slow

Pair 6 - here is the last pic of the chicks in their nestbox - Day 20


And here is a pic of them in their box indoors after taking them away from their parents after lunch time

They all were quiet easy to feed especially the 2 smaller ones which ate from the syringe quite well, the biggest one ate but not as eagerly, fed them twice yesterday and once this morning.

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Monday 17/09/2012, once again sorry this update is late, my day got a bit hectic yesterday and wasn't able to post pics of the chicks, but here they are, will try and post todays update later today

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 8

Please excuse the bad pic, not sure how the black lines came on it, only noticed late last night and was too late to take another pic

Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 5

As you can see the mother is feeding well as the crop if full, but growth seems slow, this chick came from the smallest egg so that could be a reason why the growth is slow as it could have been born as a very small chick

Pair 6 - here is the days pic - Day 21

Here you can see them in a cardboard box, cos the whole three was bought by another ringneck owner from Durban who took them yesterday, he promised to send me daily pics of them, so as long as he sends me pics, I will update you guys on their growth, the 2 bigger ones were starting to show green in their feathers and the smallest not showing colour as yet, they were all eating very well, both at lunch time and the evening feeds althought the oldest one ate slowly at yesterday mornings feed, he got used to me and ate much better at the lunch and afternoon feeds

Will update you guys for today later and if the buyer sends me a pic of the chick will post it here

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Have you candled the eggs of pair 5? If you already mentioned, my apologies. I'm too lazy to re-read everything.

[Lushen1600]

Hi Johan, I did use the torch on my cellphone(after you gave me the idea) and found that the four large eggs where infertile and the smaller egg was fertile, and the very next day that chick hatched

Hi all here is an update for Tuesday 18/09/2012, was busy with studies so didn't have a chance to go online, I'm writing a paper on friday so please excuse me for all the late entries for this week

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 9

The hen seems to be feeding them well as all of them have full crops

Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 6

The chick has seemed to have grown much since the previous days pic

Pair 6 - here are pics sent by the buyer - Day 22




Pair 4 - and finally my patience has paid off, found that pair 4 has start laying and now have 2 eggs in the box, just have to cross fingers and hope that they are fertile, as the male is a very tame handreared male


Will try my very best to put todays pics up later today but no promises

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

I am amazed at how quickly your babies have grown, especially the little one that hatched out of the five eggs. You made referance to a cock bird that was hand reared with the possiblity of those eggs not being fertile. Is this usually the case? Do hand reared birds have a problem reproducing? Was not aware of this. Learning something new every day.

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, sometimes handreared adult birds don't do their duty when it comes to breeding, because they become too playful, I have noticed him mating with the female, but he sometimes didn't bend his tail so that his vent touches her, so their is a possibility that their eggs may not be fertile, will just have to wait and see.

The hen from Pair 6 which I just sold chicks from was also handreared by the previous owner, but she did a good job of looking after and bringing up her young, so I wouldn't say that all handreared birds won't be able to breed, it a matter of trial and error to see if the individual bird will do the right thing when breeding season comes along

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Thank you Lushen

That clears up a few problems for me, as my kids are determined to hand rear a few chicks and keep them....but I would want the chicks to breed (if they choose to) as they grow older. I have to remind my kids that they cannot keep all the babies Sorry for being a constant pain Lushen, with all my questions

Kind Regards
Eshana

PS: best of luck on the paper - Friday!

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, you are certainly not being a pain by asking questions, I did the same when I first started and that is the whole purpose of a forum is to answer peoples questions, otherwise forums like this won't exist if there weren't any questions, so ask away, cos I always ask questions, cos I don't know it all, and remember no question is a stupid question.

Here is todays update Wednesday 19/09/2012

Pair 1 - here is todays pic - Day 10


Pair 5 - here is todays pic - Day 7


Pair 6 - here is the pic that the buyer sent of them for today - Day 23


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for today

Firstly I would like to thank a fellow breeder and friend Saif who bought me an LED torch so that I can candle my eggs

As soon as I got it I candled the eggs for Pair 2 and found all 3 eggs are fertile, also candled Pair 3 and found all 3 eggs fertile, now just have to hold thumbs that they incubate the eggs properly and they hatch

Pair 1 - here is todays pic - Day 11


Pair 5 - here is todays pic - Day 8


Pair 6 - here is todays pic sent by the buyer - Day 24

The buyer told me today that all the chicks seem to be getting blueish feathers from the sides of the bodies and tail, but he said that its hard to say and he will confirm in a few days, so I'm not gonna stress about it until he knows for sure that there are also blue feathers coming out with the green feathers

Thanks
Lushen

[willowisp71]

Hi Lushen,

I'm a newbie to this forum, and have just finished reading through this entire thread. I'm still only learning about IRN's but I must say, following the progress of your pairings and the hatchings is providing a wealth of information about the breeding process, and colour mutations etc. I still don't get how the mutations and colours work, but I find it so interesting!
So sorry to read about your cock from pair 5, that must have been gut-wrenching for you. But seeing the daily photo's of the chicks is just fantastic, (those babies are just gorgeous!), and I will be book-marking this thread to follow their progress.
Now waiting in anticipation for the others to hatch

Regards Deb

[Lushen1600]

Hi Willow, thanks for your reply, I'm glad that someone has learnt from my breeding experience and that's the purpose of me documenting my breeding season progress on this forum, so that others as well as myself have something to refer back to. You will in time learn how mutations and colours work, start looking at the primary colours and the basics of genetics and work your way up from there and in no time you will be up to speed.

Here is my update for Friday 21/09/2012, sorry for the late reply, just wanted to relax after my DP test yesterday, it went well, and I know I passed, just have to wait for results, then I got 2 exam papers to study for in November.

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 12

I'm not going ring them just yet, from experience I know that the rings will come off so I'm going to wait 2 days till the bigger chicks are 14 days old and start ringing

Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 9



The little guy is growing well and mum is feeding him well without her mate

Pair 6 - here is the pics sent by the buyer for the day - Day 25





Can only see green feathers so far in the pics, will have more feathers in a weeks time so will have to wait till then to see what's happening

Will post todays pics later as I'm day off today

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all sorry I didn't update yesterday, but here is the update for Saturday 22/09/2012

Pair 1 - Here is the days pic - Day 13




Pair 5 - Here is the days pic - Day 10


Pair 6 - Here is the pic sent by the buyer - Day 26


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Sunday 23/09/2012

Pair 1 - Here is the days pic - Day 14


Pair 5 - Here is the days pic - Day 11


Pair 6 - Here is the pics sent by the buyer - Day 27






Pair 7 - when feeding, I found the hen was scratching in the box, when she came out and I inspected the box, I found that she was digging in the shavings, I haven't seen this pair mating, so will have to wait and see what happens


I candled my white racing pigeon pairs eggs and found them to be infertile again, so I removed them and will have to wait for them to mate and lay again
When feeding my maroon bellied conures, I noticed that both of them were in their nest box, one popped its head out, looked at me and went back into the nestbox, I inspected and found that they had 1 egg, I'm glad they have started laying, this is the first time I'm breeding conures so I hope all goes well. You can follow the progress of the maroon bellied conures here
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15625

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Monday 24/09/2012

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 15


Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 12


Pair 6 - here is the pic sent by the buyer - Day 28




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update, finally managed to get my updates back on track

Pair 1 - here is todays pic - Day 16


Pair 5 - here is todays pic - Day 13


Pair 6 - here is the pics sent by the buyer - Day 29




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for today (Wednesday 26/09/2012)

Pair 1 - here is todays pic - Day 17


Pair 4 - Found 3 eggs in the nestbox when I inspected today


Pair 5 - here is todays pic - Day 14

Brought the chick indoors to be handreared as I have decided to swop the mother for 4 cockatiel youngsters with a friend of mine. I will be handrearing this chick and keeping it in remembrance of the dad which I lost and the mum which I now swopped, this pair of ringnecks was the first pair of birds that I purchased when I first started keeping birds 3 years ago

Here in the next pic you can see by comparision with my hand at 14 days being the only chick being fed by one parent, this chick has grown well, the food in the crop is from its mother feeding it. I took it out just after lunch time and left the crop to empty before feeding it tonight and it ate very well, took 5mls of feed.


Pair 6 - here is the pic sent by the buyer - Day 30


I'm expecting the eggs for Pair 2 and Pair 3 to hatch soon, so I have my thumbs crossed that all 6 eggs from both pairs will hatch and survive and be fed by the parents as all the eggs are fertile

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for yesterday 27/09/2012 (thursday)

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 18


Pair 3 - found 1 chick had hatched and the second egg halfway cracked, so I used a toothpick and helped the chick out, surprisingly both the chicks are red eyed so I suppose they could be green cinnamon babies or something more, time will tell, the 3rd egg was starting to crack so should have hatched by today, will check once I get back home today from work.



I know Johan will be just as excited as I am about Pair 3's eggs hatching. Just a quick question, what are the colour of the opaline babies eyes at birth(red or black) I know that on Zahir Rana's website he mentions that opaline should have black eyes, so just want to confirm

Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 15

This chick eats very well, currently feeding 8mls

Pair 6 - here is the pics sent by the buyer - Day 31



So far all chicks have green feathers

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

You are right, I'm very excited for you about pair 3! As to your question, opalines have black eyes at birth.

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Friday (28/09/2012)

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 19


Pair 3 - the last chick hatched and it is also red eyed, any guesses as to what colourd these chick might be - Day 1


Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 16


Pair 6 - here is the pic sent by the buyer - Day 32


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all sorry for the late updates, worked this weekend, so didn't get much time to go online

Here is an update for Saturday (29/09/2012)

Pair 1 - here is the days pic - Day 20


Pair 2 - when I checked on friday there was 3 eggs, and when I checked on saturday, there was 3 chicks which surprised me as this hen is one of the hens which is very skittish and will come out the nestbox as soon as she hears me in the backyard, and will only go back into the box, when I finish feeding all my birds and have gone out of sight. I was expecting at least 1 red eyed chick from this lot, but unfortunately, all black eyed chicks


Pair 3 - here is the days pic, mother seems to be feeding well - Day 2


Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 17


Pair 6 - No pic was sent by the buyer for today - Day 33

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Sunday (30/09/2012)

Pair 1 - Day 21 + Pair 5- Day 18 - took out the chicks from pair 1 today for handrearing and put them together with the chick from Pair 5, all chicks have leg rings on so there will be no confusion about which chick came from which nestbox, here is a pic for the day with all 5 chicks in on box


Pair 2 - here is a pic for the day - Day 1


Pair 3 - here is a pic for the day, I checked the nestbox and found only 2 chicks, the 3rd chick was missing, not sure if it died and the mother threw it out or if she ate it, will check through the shaving today to see if the chick is under the shavings, it could have been the chick which I helped out the egg, and my scent could have got onto it and the mother may have killed it, but I highly doubt that as all 3 was alive yesterday, first time for me to see a chick dissappear from the nest, anybody with similar experiences - Day 3


Pair 6 - No pic sent by the buyer for today - Day 34

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for today

Pair 1 - Day 22 + Pair 5 - Day 19 - here is todays pic, the chick on the top left is the green chick from pair 5 and the rest are from pair 1, For Eshana here you can see the difference in size from the bigger blue chicks(top right and bottom right) as compared to the smallest chick(bottom centre)


Pair 2 - here is todays pic - Day 2


Pair 3 - here is todays pic, went through the shavings and still can't find the 3rd chick, so I'm still confused about that one as the other 2 chicks are being fed quite well by the mother - Day 4


Pair 6 - here is todays pics sent by the buyer - Day 35




Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

There sure is a marked difference in size amongst your babies. Incredible....the little one sure has a lot of catching up to do . I am equally mystified at the disappearance of your chick. Amazing, there is absolutely no sign of what happened to it. If the mum ate the chick, surely there would have been some blood evidence, but the box is absolutely clean and, why would she kill that chick when she is taking such good care of the others? But it is so sad too....that poor baby just wasn't given a chance...
Thanks again Lushen for your wonderful updates....

Warm Regards
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, the little guy/girl has a lot of catching up to do although he/she is only a few days younger than his/her siblings, so as you can see that size difference is uncontrollable in the same nest and it all depends on how the parents feed and who they feed more to.

Well as for the chick that has dissappeared, there must be some reason behind it which I can't explain, but can only guess what could have happened.
The chick could have died and the mother could have ate it
The chick could have died and the mother could have threw it out of the nestbox, this I find hard to believe cos she never even take the eggshells out the box when the eggs hatched, I had to remove them, and that could have triggered here to eat the chick or not feed it and it could have died because my scent could have gone onto one of the chicks when I was removing the eggshells or when I helped the 2nd chick out the egg.

I doubt that either parent are deliberate chick eaters as the other 2 chicks are fine and being fed well, so still not sure what happened, my guess is as good as yours

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Tuesday (02/10/2012)

Pair 1 - here are some pics for the day - Day 23
First pic is of the 2 bigger blue chicks


Second pic is of the 3rd blue chick(bottom left) and the chick from Pair 5(top right)


Third pic is of the smallest blue chick

This chick was digesting food very slowly and shivering, so seeing that I don't have a brooder or an infra red light, I asked Carmen if she can grow this chick for me for a week or two as she has as light, I'm so thankful that she was able to help me out. First thing I'm going to make myself after this season is over is a brooder with a light and water holder to keep young chicks in so that they don't feel cold, another lesson I have learned from this is that I should have only taken out the 2 bigger chicks from the parents and allowed them to grow the 2 smaller ones for a while till they were big enough for me to cope with.

Pair 2 - here is the pic for the day - Day 3

Found one chick dead under the shaving with no food in its crop, of the other 2 chicks, 1 has quite a bit of food in its crop whilst the other doesn't have much

Pair 3 - here is a pic for the day - Day 5

The 2 chicks that are left are being fed well and they have grown

Pair 5 - here are some pics for the day - Day 20
Ok before I post pics I would like to say that when I initially pulled this chick out the nest I noticed that it had pinkish feet and light coloured nails and didn't think much of it until now, the first pic shows the feet and nails


Second pic shows the back of the bird with its pins on the wings and tail, I must point out that the yellowish on the pins was due to the flash and not what the pins look like


Third pic is of the rump and tail pins, the tail pins start with a slight bit of bluish at the base and most of the pin is off white, but if you notice clearly there are yellow tufts coming out just above the tail pins


Fourth pic is off the head, here if you look closely you will also notice yellow tufts on the head


Final pic is of the flight pins, they start of half bluish at the base and are half off white till the tips, similar to that of a green feather quill/pin but much lighter, could this be the cinnamon factor making the pins look lighter

So the parents which where sold to me as a green/ino cock and a lutino hen have more in their genetic makeup that just that. So anyone with suggestions of what the genetics of this chick could be?

Pair 6 - here are the pics sent by the buyer - Day 36




Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Your littlest baby looks just like the baby I lost. Absolutely emaciated and very cold. I am praying the baby makes it, but with Carmen, you have left the baby in wonderful, caring hands.
You mentioned building a brooder. I would be so grateful if you could give me an idea on how to build one. They are rather expensive to buy. Please explain what materials I would need for a basic brooder. My hubby is an engineer so I am sure he will build me one if he has an idea on what to do.

Cheers
Eshana

PS: Thanks again on your tutorial on genetics. Really enjoying it!

[Lushen1600]

Hi Eshana, when I build my brooder after breeding season, I will put up a DIY thread with pics so that others who want to build one will have some idea of what to do.

The little baby is definitely in good hands with Carmen, next time I'm not going to take all the babies out at once, will take out the bigger chicks and leave the smaller ones

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Thanks Lushen

A DIY thread on making a brooder is an excellent idea and will benefit all.

Cheers
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Wednesday (03/10/2012)

Pair 1 - here are pics for the day - Day 24
First pic is of the biggest chick


Second pic is of the second chick


Third pic is of the third chick


Fourth pic is of the smallest chick that is with Carmen


Pair 2 - here is the days pic - Day 4

Found another dead chick in the shavings today, such a dissapointment but this is what you can expect with a young hen that's breeding for the first time, fortunately the last chick is being fed.

Pair 3 - here is the days pic - Day 6


Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 21


Pair 6 - no pic sent by ther buyer for the day - Day 37

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Thursday(04/10/2012)

Pair 1 - here are pics for the day - Day 25
First pic is of the biggest chick


Second pic is of the second chick


Third pic is of the third chick


Fourth pic is of the smallest chick that is with Carmen


Pair 2 - here is the days pic - Day 5


Pair 3 - here is the days pic - Day 7


Pair 4 - I found another egg in the maroon bellied conure nestbox and since they have already cracked there first 2 eggs, I have decided to take the 3rd egg I found today and put it with pair 4's eggs for incubation, it unfortunately also has a slight crack, so I'm not expecting that this egg with hatch a chick, its the smallest egg of the lot


Pair 5 - here is the days pic - Day 22


Pair 6 - no pic sent by the buyer for the day - Day 38
The buyer has unfortunately not sent anymore pics, so I won't be doing any more updates on these chicks unless he sends more pics

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Friday(05/10/2012)

Pair 1 - Day 26 + Pair 5 - Day 23, I had to go to Durban for the weekend so Carmen help me to feeds my birds, so here is a pic of the 3 bigger chicks of Pair 1 and the 1 chick from Pair 5


Fourth pic is of the smallest chick that is with Carmen


Pair 2 - here is the days pic - Day 6

Unfortunately the mum has even stopped feeding this chick, so I asked Carmen if she would like to try fostering this chick under one of her hens whose eggs have started hatching as this baby was going to die if left with her mother who isn't feeding her

Pair 3 - here is the days pic - Day 8


Pair 4 - Found another maroon bellied conure egg and put it in pair 4's nestbox, once again they are the 2 smaller eggs, Pair 4's eggs seem to be infertile but won't be removing them unless I get more maroon bellied conure eggs which I will replace them with



Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Saturday(06/10/2012)

Pair 1 - Day 27 + Pair 5 - Day 24, here is a pic of the 3 bigger chicks of Pair 1 and the 1 chick from Pair 5 currently being looked after by Carmen


Fourth pic is of the smallest chick that is with Carmen


Pair 2 - here is the days pic - Day 7

Here is a pic of the chick which is being fostered with Carmens chicks which have hatched, you will notice that although this chick is supposed to be about 7 days old, it looks the same size if not smaller than Carmen's chicks which have just hatched, and that's due to the money not feeding properly.

Pair 3 - here is the days pic - Day 9


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Sunday(07/10/2012)

Pair 1 - Day 28
No pic taken for today of the 3 bigger blue chicks

Pic of the smallest chick that is with Carmen

I have swop this chick with a cash difference with Carmen for an Albino chick which she is going to wean for me and I will use the albino for breeding purposes in the future

Pair 2 - here is the days pic - Day 8

Here is a pic of the chick which is being fostered with Carmens chicks

Pair 3 - Day 10
Was unable to take a pic as I was in durban for the day

Pair 5 - Day 25
No pic taken for today

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Monday(08/10/2012)

Sorry for not posting any pics for today but I worked a long shift today and got home late, will post some pics tomorrow

Pair 1 - Day 29
No pic taken for the day
Babies are all growing fine and feathers coming out well

Pair 2 - Day 9
Unfortunately this chick did not make it, I would like to thank Carmen for trying and I know that she is more sad than me about losing this chick, but this is something I expected might happen as the chick was too small for age and left too long with her biological mother who wasn't feeding it before I took any action. I wanted to give the young hen a chance to learn how to feed her young, but unfortunately she failed so in future I will need to taken action from the very first day that she hatches her chicks and does not feed

Pair 3 - Day 11
No pic taken for the day
Babies are growing well, eyes have started opening, can't wait to see what colour they will be

Pair 5 - Day 26
No pic taken for today
Baby is growing well and from the feathers that are coming out I can tell that this is a cinnamon baby so the dad was actually a green/cinnamon-ino and not just a green/ino, amazing what you can learn about genetics. To prove the Dads genetics, I will have this chick surgically sexed and if its a female, then my assumption would be correct, if it turns out to be a male, then I would have to look at the mothers genetics, but for now I would say that the dad was a green/cinnamon-ino and that this baby is a hen

Thanks
Lushen

[SCB 22]

Hi Lushen ,

You dont have any Dom edge babies or rainbow babies at the moment?
Have a friend from JHB thats looking, and i did say I would find out what you have available.

Thanks

[Lushen1600]

Hi. SCB22 I have 2 babies that are growing up from my pairing of Dominent Edge Blue Cinnamon Male to Lutino female, both babies have red eyes, so not sure what colour they are going to be, I am however keeping both babies for myself but will let you know in the future if I get visual dominent edge birds

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

Hi Lushen ,

You dont have any Dom edge babies or rainbow babies at the moment?
Have a friend from JHB thats looking, and i did say I would find out what you have available.

Thanks

Your friend looking for a pet or to breed with the bird? Might be able to help depending on the answer.

[SCB 22]

They are wanting to introduce new blood lines to their breeding at the moment, but are more than happy to take a baby and wait for it to mature, as they are in no rush.

[Johan S]

If it is for breeding, I can help. Don't have handraised birds. Send me a PM.

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is an update for Tuesday(09/10/2012)

Pair 1 - Day 30 + Pair 5 - Day 27
Here is a pic for the day

The 2 bigger blue chicks are going to their new homes today, the 3rd chick will be going to his/her new home next week, also you will see a lutino chick which I took from Carmen for a friend who booked a lutino from me, but due to me not breeding any lutino chicks, I'm thankful to Carmen for being able to get me a lutino chick to sell to my friend

Pair 3 - here is a pic for the day - Day 12


Pair 7 - Checked their nestbox as the hen was in the nestbox quite frequently, found 1 egg in the box, so not sure when she started laying, will check to see if she lays any more eggs and keep you guys update


I have noticed Pair 1, Pair 2 and Pair 6 mating a few times, so time will tell if they have a second clutch, but even if they don't I'm ok with that and willing to wait for next season

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 1 - Day 31
Here is a pic of the 3rd chick which will be going to its new home next week

If the buyers of the other chicks send pics, then I will post them here

Pair 3 - here is a pic for today - Day 13


Pair 5 - here is a pic for today - Day 28

As you can see this chick is definitely cinnamon green

Pair 6 - here is a pic sent by the buyer for the day - Day 44


Pair 7 - Checked their nestbox today and the 1 egg which I found yesterday is gone, nowhere to be found, so its either she cracked it and removed it or she ate the egg, both birds being 1 year olds, this can be expected, but she is still sitting inside the nestbox, so I'm going to leave them to be and not disturb them for a week and see what happens

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Your birds are looking great. So sorry about your littlest one not making it, but I've come to realise that the first feeds in the first week from their mum is so important for their survival. Unfortunately in some cases the baby has to be reomoved from day 1 to ensure its survival, which must be rather difficult....I can't imagine how difficult it must be to handle such a fragile baby.... .... That is why I'm so glad I have you, Molossus and Carmen to turn to for any future help I may require if placed in such a situation
I am thoroughly enjoying the genetics tuition site. Looking forward to the next lesson. Keep up the good work.

Warm Regards
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 1 - here is the pics for today - Day 32
Here is a pic of the 3rd chick


Here is a pic of the smallest chick that now belongs to Carmen


Pair 3 - here is a pic for today - Day 14


Pair 5 - here is a pic for today - Day 29


Hi Eshana, its good that you are enjoying the lessons on the genetic calculator, but this is just the start and there is a lot more to go with future lessons. With regards to the chicks that I have lost, that all come in the package when breeding birds, and the reason I enjoy keeping and breeding birds, is that it is challenging and educational. As you can see I have documented everything as it has occured so that others who want to get into breeding can first read through this thread and know upfront what to expect when breeding ringnecks, so that they can make an informed decision as to whether they would like to start breeding ringnecks. Lots of people think that people who breed birds make a lot of money, but that is not always the case, as a bad season can bring loss rather than profit. So for me breeding ringnecks is a hobby, the money is a bonus

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

Keeping and breeding ringnecks is a joy as I have discovered over the past year, and with it, also comes sorrow, when you lose a bird. It is also a lot of hard work and one requires a lot of patience...but the reward surpasses all. I have become so enamoured with mutations and the various colours available, that I think I have been giving Carmen a headache . But I am thoroughly enjoying the experience....
I am ever so grateful to both you and Carmen, for the pictorial lessons you guys provide daily. Thank you so much for the time and effort your'll put in to help us novices.

Warm Regards
Eshana

[Johan S]

I have become so enamoured with mutations and the various colours available

Eshana, and to think there are more to come that isn't even listed on the genetic calculator. It will take some years to understand their interaction with the other mutations so that they may be included in the correct place. Then they need to get the appropriate names, but it'll hopefully happen in the not too distance future. Exciting times!

[McmillanBirds]

Hi Lushen

Keeping and breeding ringnecks is a joy as I have discovered over the past year, and with it, also comes sorrow, when you lose a bird. It is also a lot of hard work and one requires a lot of patience...but the reward surpasses all. I have become so enamoured with mutations and the various colours available, that I think I have been giving Carmen a headache . But I am thoroughly enjoying the experience....
I am ever so grateful to both you and Carmen, for the pictorial lessons you guys provide daily. Thank you so much for the time and effort your'll put in to help us novices.

Warm Regards
Eshana

Hi Eshana, no headaches here , I think I must give other people headaches with my questions as I am sure you have seen with some of my other topics. We all have to start somewhere, we all have questions and I think we all never stop learning.

Lushen, the baby I have taken will be going to a new home today. I have asked them to send daily updates so I can forward them to you. I have it at work with me today and everyone is going goo goo eyes over him

Best to all
Carmen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Friday 12/10/2012.
Was unable to take any pics of my chicks as I worked a 12 hour shift on this day

Pair 1 - Day 33
No pic taken for third chick

Here is a pic of the 4th chick that Carmen has now sold


Pair 3 - Day 15
No pic taken for today

Pair 5 - Day 30
No pic taken for today

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Saturday 13/10/2012.

Pair 1 - Day 34
Here is a pic of the 3rd chick


Here is a pic of the 4th chick that Carmen has now sold


Pair 3 - Day 16


Pair 5 - Day 31


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Sunday 14/10/2012.

Pair 1 - Day 35
Here is a pic of the 3rd chick, this baby went to his new home today, so if I get any updated pics from the buyer in the future, I will update you guys


Pair 3 - Day 17
No pic taken for the day as I finished work late

Pair 5 - Day 32


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Monday 15/10/2012.

Pair 1 - Day 36
Here is a pic of the 4th chick that Carmen has now sold


Pair 3 - Day 18
Looking at the pins coming out, it looks to be 1 lutino and 1 albino chick, will know for sure in a weeks time


Pair 5 - Day 33
I forgot to take a pic for the day, sorry

Pair 7 - look into the nestbox and found the hen was sitting on 3 eggs, she seems to be incubating well as I hardly see her come out the nestbox, also find that the cock bird frequently goes into the nestbox, probably feeding her in the nestbox, so I guess giving them some privacy for a while without disturbing them helped


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Tuesday 16/10/2012.

Pair 1 - Day 37
Here is a pic of the 4th chick that Carmen has now sold


Pair 3 - Day 19


Pair 5 - Day 34
Sorry once again I forgot to take a pic of this chick for the day, this is what happens when you work all types of shifts, or maybe its just me getting old, so please excuse me for not taking a pic

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Wednesday 17/10/2012.

Pair 3 - Day 20


Pair 5 - Day 35

I forgot to mention that this bird is sold, I decided to sell it as I was made an offer on the baby and thought about it and agreed to sell, as I decided that if I wanted to go foward and get better mutations, I can keep too many babies and if I wanted a green cinnamon in the future for my breeding program, mature birds are not hard to come by, so it has been paid for and the buyer will be collecting this chick on Saturday 20/10/2012

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Thursday 18/10/2012.

Pair 3 - Day 21


Pair 5 - Day 36


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Friday 19/10/2012.

Pair 3 - Day 22


Pair 5 - Day 37


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Saturday 20/10/2012.

Pair 3 - Day 23


Pair 5 - Day 38

The buyer collected this baby, so if she sends me any pics, I will update you guys

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Sunday 21/10/2012.

Pair 3 - Day 24


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Monday 22/10/2012.

Pair 1 - Day 43
Here is a pic of the 4th chick sent by Carmen on behalf of the buyer


Pair 3 - Day 25


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update
I'm finally back on track with my updates

Pair 3 - Day 26



So from the pics I can now say that I have 1 lutino chick and 1 albino chick, which means that the parents genetics are now as follows

Dominant edge blue cinnamon cock is split ino
Lutino hen is split blue

So with the new found genetics of the parents, this is what they are capable of producing

1.0 blue edge_dilution(sf) cinnamon /ino
x 0.1 ino /blue
% from all 1.0
12.5% 1.0 blue ino edge_dilution(sf) /cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 blue ino /cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 ino edge_dilution(sf) /blue cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 ino /blue cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 blue edge_dilution(sf) /cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 blue /cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 green edge_dilution(sf) /blue cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 green /blue cinnamon ino
% from all 0.1
12.5% 0.1 blue cinnamon edge_dilution(sf)
12.5% 0.1 blue cinnamon
12.5% 0.1 green cinnamon edge_dilution(sf) /blue
12.5% 0.1 green cinnamon /blue
12.5% 0.1 blue ino cinnamon edge_dilution(sf)
12.5% 0.1 blue ino cinnamon
12.5% 0.1 ino cinnamon edge_dilution(sf) /blue
12.5% 0.1 ino cinnamon /blue

So I will have to have the chicks surgically sexed as they could be either males or females

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 3 - Day 27


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Thursday 25/10/2012

Pair 1 - Day 46
Here is some pics of the 1st chick sent by the buyer for today






Here is some pics of the 3rd chick sent by the buyer for the day



The last pic is of the 3rd chick is together with a lutino chick that I got from Carmen for the buyer


Pair 3 - Day 28





Will change the shavings today as it getting quite messed

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is today's update

Pair 3 - Day 29
Here is a pic of them in the nestbox


Here is a pic of them in a handrearing box, while I cleaned there nestbox and put clean shavings


Here is a pic of them back in the nestbox with clean shavings


Thanks
Lushen

[SCB 22]

Hi Lushen,

Are those the 2 you mentioned keeping?
Are you leaving them to be parent raised?

Do you have any other eggs due to hatch? (Love reading your updates)
Ive just been given an olive male and green female, but im sure they wont breed this year, but lovely to have some new birds in my home again.

Thanks

[Lushen1600]

Hi SCB 22

Yes those are the 2 chicks I intend keeping and yes I'm leaving them to be parent raised as I want to use them as breeding birds in the future. I do have Pair 7 on 3 eggs but I'm not sure if they are fertile, as both the hen and cock are 1 year old birds. Pair 4 which had 3 eggs were found to be infertile, and the 2 maroon bellied conure eggs which I put in for the hen to incubate also seem infertile

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Saturday 27/10/2012

Pair 1 - Day 48
Here are some pics of the smallest(4th) chick sent by Carmen on behalf of the buyer




Pair 3 - Day 30


Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 3 - Day 31
Please note the following pics were taken without flash and are very dark, will have to go back to using the flash when I take out pics tomorrow




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is today's update

Pair 3 - Day 32




Pair 4 - removed the 3 indian ringneck eggs and the 2 maroon bellied conure eggs as they were all infertile

Pair 7 - candled the 3 eggs and all infertile as I expected, but I'm leaving it in so that the hen gets accustomed to sit the full incubation period

My maroon bellied conure female seemed to fly very oddly yesterday and was landing on the cage floor, so when I went to check on her this morning, I found that she was flat on the floor with the male next to her and she wasn't moving much, I immediately checked her nestbox and found 2 eggs inside and my first thought was that she was eggbound. I took her out the cage and palpated her pelvic area to find no egg inside. I phoned our club chairmen who said that she has possibly drained herself of calcium due to the number of eggs she was laying and cracking and now is too weak to move. So I took her to him to see if he can get her back into normal condition and she will be there for the next few days, I hope she is going to be alright, as they seem to be very hard to find these birds for sale very often compared to other birds for sale.

Thanks
Lushen

[Eshana]

Hi Lushen

So sorry about your conure. I hope she heals quickly. Take care....

Kind Regards
Eshana

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Tuesday 30/10/2012

Pair 3 - Day 33




Sorry for the late updates

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Wednesday 31/10/2012

Pair 3 - Day 34




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Thursday 01/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 35




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi Lushen

So sorry about your conure. I hope she heals quickly. Take care....

Kind Regards
Eshana

Hi Eshana, I spoke to our club chairmen and he said that my conure is doing a little better, but she is gonna be with him for a while because she is going to take time to recover

Thanks
Lushen

[millyz_madness]

Hi I'm new to the site today and have just read your entire post and it's very helpful and I love looking through your photos

Thanks
Mel

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Friday 02/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 36





Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Saturday 03/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 37




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi I'm new to the site today and have just read your entire post and it's very helpful and I love looking through your photos

Thanks
Mel

Hi Milly, I'm glad that you have joined this forum, there is a lot that you can learn from the experienced guys and gals on here, just like I learn every day from them, glad that you like my thread and posts, hope you are here to stay for a very long time

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all, just want to do a quick summary for round one of my breeding season, so that all can have an idea of what I have encountered

Total number of Pairs - 7

Total number of Eggs laid - 30
Dissappeared/eaten eggs - 1
Eggs found out of nestbox cracked - 2
Infertile eggs - 12
Fertile eggs - 15
Dead in shell - 1

Total number of chicks hatched -14
Dissappeared/eaten chicks - 1
Dead through mother not feeding - 3
Total chicks brought up - 10

1 x adult cock bird died in nestbox - Pair 5 (sold female)

So as you can see from the above statistics, not a very good breeding season, but this is the same experience most breeders are having in the vicinity, from my experience as you can see above only 10 chicks were brought up from 30 eggs being laid, which is not very good, but considering that some of my birds are young(1 pair being year old) and breeding for their first time, I'm hoping to have a better season next year as I don't think my birds will go down a second time. Will continue with the updates of the 2 chicks that I am keeping from Pair 3 until they are fully fledged and eating on their own. Now I need to concentrate on next years season and look at ways on how to improve the ratio of number of chicks hatched to number of eggs laid, any advice from the more experienced guys in this regard will be most appreciated as I believe that all newbies will benefit from this advice when they plan their future breeding programmes

Thanks
Lushen

[millyz_madness]

Hi I'm new to the site today and have just read your entire post and it's very helpful and I love looking through your photos

Thanks
Mel

Hi Milly, I'm glad that you have joined this forum, there is a lot that you can learn from the experienced guys and gals on here, just like I learn every day from them, glad that you like my thread and posts, hope you are here to stay for a very long time

Thanks
Lushen

Thanks lushen!! I most definAtely intend to be here for a long time I have bred budgies for years but am excited to say I'm getting my first hand raised approx 12 week old baby IRN in just a few weeks the DNA results will be in tomorrow or Tuesday so excited to find out the gender!!! He/she as far as The breeder and I know, is a green lacewing with red eyes.
Since being on this board it most definAtely makes me consider breeding irn's myself haha
Thanks mel

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Sunday 04/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 38




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Monday 05/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 39




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is todays update

Pair 3 - Day 40




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Wednesday 07/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 41




Sorry for the late updates, currently in college studying for my practical exam on thursday and 2 theoretical papers next week, so I will try by all means to take out pics on a daily basis and post them in my free time, please excuse me if I don't post on a daily basis

Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Thursday 08/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 42




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Friday 09/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 43




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Saturday 10/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 44




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Sunday 11/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 45




Thanks
Lushen

[Lushen1600]

Hi all here is the update for Monday 12/11/2012

Pair 3 - Day 46




Thanks
Lushen

[willowisp71]

Hi Lushen,

Thanks for the updates, it's been lovely to follow your progress, and interesting to see your stats for this years breeding season also......

And just do I can test out my GenCalc knowledge, thus far, would this be the correct calculation for your Pair 3??

1.0 blue edge_dilution(sf) cinnamon /ino
x 0.1 ino /blue
% from all 1.0
12.5% 1.0 blue ino edge_dilution(sf) /cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 blue ino /cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 ino edge_dilution(sf) /blue cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 ino /blue cinnamon
12.5% 1.0 blue edge_dilution(sf) /cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 blue /cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 green edge_dilution(sf) /blue cinnamon ino
12.5% 1.0 green /blue cinnamon ino
% from all 0.1
12.5% 0.1 blue cinnamon edge_dilution(sf)
12.5% 0.1 blue cinnamon
12.5% 0.1 green cinnamon edge_dilution(sf) /blue
12.5% 0.1 green cinnamon /blue
12.5% 0.1 blue ino cinnamon edge_dilution(sf)
12.5% 0.1 blue ino cinnamon
12.5% 0.1 ino cinnamon edge_dilution(sf) /blue
12.5% 0.1 ino cinnamon /blue

Or did I miss something?

And if correct, are your chicks, in fact, visually Lutino and Albino, ie not showing any of the other mutations (being ino/blue cinnamon and blue ino/cinnamon, and both male)? Or is it too hard to tell at this age? Would the cinnamon or the edge-dilution even show up in these 2 birds?

As you can see, my fascination with this genetics gig has not waned I eat, sleep and breathe the stuff at the moment

[Lushen1600]

Hi Willow your calculation is correct.

As for your question ino or blue ino will mask edge dilution so the babies will look like normal Lutino and normal albino and will have to be test mated to preferably normal green or normal blue birds which are not carrying any splits to determine if these birds are actually dominant edge

As for cinnamon, I haven't personally seen an ino cinnamon or a blue ino cinnamon and the only pic I saw online of one looked like a green pallid, so I'm really not sure what they are supposed to look like. If you go up and look at the first pic taken out for Thursday 08/11/2012, you will notice that the albino chicks flights and tail feathers look off white, but in reality the whole bird look normal full white. So 3 questions came to mind when I first saw that pic

1) Did the flash used in that pic cause the tail and flight feathers to go off white?
2) Is the flash that was used in the pic showing something that cannot be seen by the naked eyed?
3) If indeed the flash did cause some feathers to go offwhite, why only the tail and flight feathers and not the rest of the bird?

So as you can see even I'm not sure, so as I am keeping these 2 babies, I will wait for them to mature and test mate them to see what their genetic makeup actually is, so its all about patience

Thanks
Lushen

[SCB 22]

Hi Lushen ,

wonder if you can help,

what is an albino genetically? Like your lutino is a green bird with the ino making it white, what is the genetic make up required to breed an albino?

A friend has a female albino and grey lacewing male.
They had 2 chicks, one albino, one grey lacewing, what will the babies genetically be? Will the albino be split for anything? Does the sex of the babies influence what they will be split for?

And secondly, a olive male paired with a green cinnamon lacewing, what babies would they produce?

Thanks

[McmillanBirds]

(sorry if I am sticking my nose in here Lushen )

Hi SCB 22

For the grey lacewing and albino pairing

1.0 grey(sf) blue pallid
x 0.1 blue ino
% from all 1.0
50.0% 1.0 grey(sf) blue pallidIno
50.0% 1.0 blue pallidIno
% from all 0.1
50.0% 0.1 grey(sf) blue pallid
50.0% 0.1 blue pallid

So you see, the 'albino' baby is really not an albino. It is most likely a grey pallidino or blue pallidino, they are very light in colour. once they are fully fledged, in the light you should be able to see hints of blue or grey in the body feathers.

As to albinos, as you say about lutinos(green and ino, they are green series birds), so are albinos(blue and ino, they are blue series birds).

For the other pair, if i am not mistaken(and the male has no splits):

1.0 DD green
x 0.1 pallid cinnamon
% from all 1.0
100.0% 1.0 D green /pallid-cinnamon
% from all 0.1
100.0% 0.1 D green

Hope that helps

Carmen

[SCB 22]

SORRY CARMEN!

I meant a Creamino hen with Grey Lacewing Cock.
One plain white baby, and one grey lacewing.

Could you do the calculations for that pair again please?

My apologies, thanks for the help.

[McmillanBirds]

Lol, its all good, but even with that pairing you won't get any albinos out of them. Here are the results:
  1.0 grey(sf) blue pallid
x 0.1 turquoise(parblue)Blue ino

% from all 1.0
25.0% 1.0 grey(sf) blue pallidIno
25.0% 1.0 blue pallidIno
25.0%1.0 grey(sf) turquoise(parblue)Blue pallidIno
25.0%1.0 turquoise(parblue)Blue pallidIno

% from all 0.1
25.0% 0.1 grey(sf) blue pallid
25.0% 0.1 blue pallid
25.0% 0.1 grey(sf) turquoise(parblue)Blue pallid
25.0% 0.1 turquoise(parblue)Blue pallid

So I still think that you should be able to see a sheen of colour in the sun/light with that little guy.

[Lushen1600]

(sorry if I am sticking my nose in here Lushen )

Carmen

Hi Carmen, you not sticking your nose in here, just wanting to help a forum member, and that's fine with me

Thanks
Lushen

[willowisp71]

Thanks Lushen, for the clarification! (I might just be getting the hang of this genetics thing )

I, too, will be very interested to see how these 2 work out for you. Keep the photo's coming It will be interesting to see the albino when it's a little older, and how the tail and wing feathers develop

[Lushen1600]

Hi guys sorry about not updating this thread, studying for my exams had me busy and now that it is over I can once again concentrate on my ringneck breeding, I do have pics of the 2 chicks, but am not going to put all of them online but what I will do is take out a few more recent pics of the albino and lutino chick later today and share with you guys, they are still with their parents, although I have seen them eat on their own, I do find from time to time they still beg from their mum for food and she obliges and feeds them.

I received my results for my exams and am grateful for passing both my theoretical papers and my practical exam, so that leaves me with my last 2 theorectical papers and 1 practical exam somewhere is May/June 2013 and I'm going to have a short break from studying for 1 year before continuing. So after those last exams, I can concentrate on next years breeding season.

I'm currently planning which birds to pair up for next season, and may put down 8 or 9 pairs for next season, currently have 6 pairs from this season and I have obtained another 1 year old pair but still have to have them surgically sexed to prove that they are a pair, so I will be looking at obtaining another 1 or 2 mature or 1 year old breeding pairs for next season so that I can get myself up to 8 or 9 pairs.

I currently have cage space for 6 pairs as well as 1 walk-in cage for my youngsters, so if I want to get to 9 pairs, I will need to complete a double breeder which I have been putting of for 2 years, as well as make or buy one more suspended cage for my stand. I did sell one wooden cage which I used for my 1 year old lutino cock and turquoise blue pallid hen this year so will replace that will a suspended cage.

I also sold all my conures and bought 4 fischer lovebirds which I need to also have surgically sexed and amm currently busy making a suspended double breeder for them as I am on leave and go back to work on the 2 January 2013.

So for next season I'm gonna change my hens around, but would like some suggestions from you guys as to which hens to pair with which cocks and why would you put them as a pair, don't forget I no longer have Pair 5 as the cock died and I sold the hen

Thanks
Lushen

[willowisp71]

Hi Lushen,

Firstly, congrats on the results of your exams, and enjoy your well-deserved break

I have been reading with great interest the thread "Deep and Emerald" started by Willy, and one issue that seems to keep cropping up there is the availability, or lack there of, of pure green or "wildtype" birds. It got me thinking as to how easy these birds are to come by?

Thinking of this issue and looking at your pairs from this season, (and without scrolling back through the pages of this thread to find out), I got to wondering whether or not your green hen from Pair 4 and green cock from Pair 6 are straight up Greens, or are either of them split to something else? Was this determined at all from the resulting chicks?

I am pondering on the merits of the deliberate breeding of pure "wildtype" birds for the sake of experiment control when trying to determine the workings of other potential new "mutations" such as Emerald, and whether it is a viable option or not? Or are there breeders out there, (both is Oz and SA) that are already doing this?? I got the impression that it was becoming difficult to acquire a green bird that wasn't split to blue, but I could have misinterpreted somewhere along the line

[Lushen1600]

Hi Deb I acquired both the green birds from Pair 4 and Pair 6 as well as the blue cinnamon hen from Pair 6 from one breeder, he purchased the blue cinnamon hen from a local petstore which was handreared and both the green were purchased from another breeder, I put the green seperately as I did not know if they were siblings.

The Green cock paired with the blue cinnamon hen in Pair 6 produced 3 green chicks

The Green hen paired to my handreared greygreen cock laid 3 eggs but all were infertile

Before season started, I got the ring numbers and initials of the both green birds and tried to track down the breeder which was difficult at first, but eventually someone in our bird club told me where he stayed, and one sunday I took a drive to his house and eventually managed to meet with him during the breeding season

On speaking to him about these 2 green birds DDA 10 and DDA 31, he said that they were his chicks from 2010 but he never kept records as to where they came from and couldn't say if they came from the same parents.

He invited me to his back yard to have a look at his birds, and I saw that he had both pied, clearhead fallow and cleartail mutations in both green series and blue series birds.

His pairing were always one visual of a mutation to 1 split.

He did also have 2 green pairs which he used as fosters, and when I ask if the birds could have come from those 2 pairs, once again he said he can't remember and told me that he normally removes the eggs from those green pairs and replaces them with eggs from his other mutations so that his more expensive mutations can double clutch

I have heard of a breeder who bought 2 greens from him as normal greens and paired them together and had a clutch of 5 with 2 green pied chicks.

On the other hand I also know another breeder who bought a pair of green split pieds from him that also had a clutch of 4 with 2 green pied chicks.

So I'm in the predicament as to whether io should pair them together to see what splits they are carrying. I on one hand am doubting that they will be siblings of the same nest as their ring numbers, DDA 10 and DDA 31 are far apart, but on the other hand they could have come from the same parents in the sense that DDA 10 could have been from the first clutch and DDA 31 could have been from the second clutch.

It is in my plan to pair them together next season to see what happens, but I'm not sure if I should.

And as to your question, it is very rare or difficult to get green or even blue ringnecks for that matter that are not split to anything. So if you do come across a pair of greens or blues that only give you green or blue chicks, my advice is to hold onto that pair and some of their chicks as you will need them in a mutation programme

Thanks
Lushen

[Johan S]

I have been reading with great interest the thread "Deep and Emerald" started by Willy, and one issue that seems to keep cropping up there is the availability, or lack there of, of pure green or "wildtype" birds. It got me thinking as to how easy these birds are to come by?

Hi Deb, all I can say is GOOD LUCK! You are going to search long and hard for pure wildtype. I think even wild caught birds sometimes carries recessive mutations. The sad irony is that mutation breeders will keep putting mutations together to the point that it becomes impossible to find pure birds. I stopped breeding lovebirds about 15 years ago, and when I went to look at some birds out of curiosity to see how things developed (about two years ago), I found to my shock that nobody could sell me a pure wildtype bird. After some searching, I got in touch with somebody that said that the only way will be to import wild caught birds, there aren't any 100% sure greens left in the country. Ringnecks takes longer to mature, but they are heading down the same road.

[19266022]

WOW a loud backyard hey hahaha

This years breeding season is almost upon us, birds will go down in a month or 2 months time. I started last years season with only 1 pair which laid 5 eggs first round and hatch 2 chicks, the other 3 eggs had hairline cracks, second round laid 4 eggs and all were infertile.

This is my pairings for this season, please note that I don't have genetic history for all the birds so where you see (UGH) it will stand for "unknown genetic history, so here goes

Pair 1
Blue cock {(UGH) was told this bird came from green cock to green hen} x
Blue Lacewing hen (UGH)

Pair 2
Grey/ino cock (from Grey(df)blue cock x Blue ino hen) x
Grey lacewing hen (from Blue pallid cock x Grey pallid hen)

Pair 3
Lutino cock (from Ino cock x Ino hen) x
Lutino hen {(UGH) sister to blue cock in pair 1 from green cock to green hen}

Pair 4
Greygreen cock (UGH) x
Green hen (UGH)

Pair 5 - last years pair which produced only 2 chicks(1 ino and 1 green)
Green/ino (from Green Cock x Ino hen) x
Lutino hen (UGH)

Pair 6
Green cock (UGH) x
Blue hen (UGH)

Pair 7 - bought this pair on the 24th July 2012
Blue cock (UGH)
Blue Rainbow Hen (UGH)

So these are my pairings for 2012, will just have to wait and see what they produce, not gonna change them around this year as most pairs are already preparing their nestboxes and mating except for pair 3 (the hen does not want to accept the males advances to her, probably cos she is older than him, she is a 2010 female and he is a 2011 male, she is not aggressive to him though, she just chases him away when he come nears her and dances trying to get her attention, as I think he wants to mate with her, but she is not ready or doesn't want to mate with him, not really expecting much from this pair this season so even if they don't produce will let them have a go at it next season as I like lutinos)

Thanks
Lushen

Feel free to comment.

[Lushen1600]

Hi 19266022, not really, ringnecks are not that loud, I did have conures which where quiet vocal, but have now sold all my conures and bought some lovebirds, so its quietened down a bit

So this is just what I have come up with for my planned pairings for the 2013 season in about 6 months time, nothing cast in stone so will probably make some changes

Pair 1 - Blue cock x Blue Pallid hen, will stay the same as last year

Pair 2 - Grey/ino cock x Grey Pallid hen, will stay the same as last year

Pair 3 - Dominant Edge Blue Cinnamon Cock x Blue Cinnamon Hen (taken from pair 6)

Pair 4 - Greygreen cock x (will have to look for a mature normal blue hen)

Pair 5 - Replaced with Greygreen cock/?pied (due to yellow flight on wing)UGH x Grey hen/?pied (due to white flight on wing)UGH also due to the seller saying that they are split pied, but I will only call them split pieds when they produce pied babies for me

Pair 6 - Green cock x Green hen (from pair 4), both these birds came from the same breeder, went to see him again yesterday and when I asked if he hatches the original eggs from his green foster pairs, he said he doesn't as he replaces them with eggs from his more expensive mutations, so it would be interesting to see if these birds that have come from him are holding any recessive splits and hopefully holding the same recessive split so that they could produce a visual

Pair 7 - Lutino Cock x Blue Turquoise Pallid hen, will stay the same as last year

Pair 8 - (looking for a Mature Lutino/blue or Albino Cock) x Lutino/blue hen from pair 3 but they seem to be hard to find mature so will have to wait and see if I get one

So far those are the pairs I intend putting down for the current season, I was going to buy a green pied x green/pied pair at the end of February, but the breeder has told me that he is not selling the birds any longer, but I have seen a blue/pied male x green pied/blue female which seem to interest me, hope they are still available at the end of February and I will take that pair as they are both 2011 birds and will be ready for this coming season

Young birds that I currently have

Chicks from pair 3 (2012)
Albino cock ? Masking dominant edge, will have to be test mated
Lutino/blue hen ? Masking dominant edge, will have to be test mated, also if the father is also visual cinnamon then this hen should be an ino cinnamon so that will also have to be test mated to find out if it is carrying cinnamon

Chicks I got from Carmen, also 2012 chicks
Albino Cock
Pallidino Cock

Also looking foward to 2012 mauve turquoise hen that I have ordered which will be coming in April

So will have to wait and see what happens, hoping to have a good season and a few surprises, time will tell, I apologise for not posting pics of the albino and lutino chick from pair 3 as got caught up in the festive season, I will try and put some up today as I am day off

Thanks
Lushen

[willowisp71]

Hi Lushen,

Thanks for your response regarding your green birds - sorry I haven't responded sooner, been caught up in the festive season with family and friends Yes, it will be interesting to see the outcome if you do decide to mate the 2 greens together next season - from your conversations with the breeder, it does sound more than possible that one or both birds may be split to something else. Time will tell

Hi Johan,

Interesting to hear that finding 'wildtype' birds is becoming more and more difficult. Do you think this is detrimental to the species? Will it become a problem later down the track in regards to strengthening bloodlines etc?

In my search earlier this year for a young hen, I came across at least one breeder who seem to have a green pair that have only ever produced green offspring. But I guess it's possible that one is split to blue, and therefore only ever able to produce green chicks,some split to blue......one would never know unless they test mated both birds with different mates of other mutation I guess