New Year Budgie Update

I've been remiss in keeping this story current but so much has happened in the past couple of weeks that it's been difficult!  I can't say I remember what order everything has happened in, so I'll just try and remember everything so it's all included.

The Babies

The chickies are growing like crazy.  At about a week of age the youngest of the three died for no apparent reason leaving Momma Bird with two loud, rambunctious chicks! They opened their eyes about a week ago, started growing their feathers, received their names, and have started being taken out of the nestbox to be held and played with in an effort to make them sweet, tame, loving little budgies. In  keeping with the Christmas theme I wanted, suggestions made by a reader, and the chicks own personality, the babies ended up with the names of Dasher and Blitzen.  The oldest chick with the yellow on his head is Dasher.  I think he'll end up looking like a normal green bird just like his daddy.  Blitzen looks to be taking on more of a light blue or violet hue right now.  

Dasher, first day with eyes open.

Dasher and Blitzen

So far my attempts at letting the parents feed the babies while my husband and I socialize the babies daily seem to be working.  Both babies seem to be quite relaxed around us.  Of course, it's still early in the game so who knows how things will turn out later.  There are proponents for both methods of taming and this seems to be the easiest and safest way to progress at this point.  And if it works?  All the better!

The Bird Room

The bird room is coming along, though right now it's an absolute disaster!  I was finally able to order my cages and stands, though due to unforeseen circumstances I was not able to order from LL Cages for my initial order.  I've spent the last two days putting together cages, rearranging furniture, cleaning, and moving birds all while trying to cause as little stress on my nesting birds as possible.  During the process of moving the birds into their new cages, I was finally able to put together the pairs I've been wanting to put together for a long time.  I have a few birds I'd like to get a DNA confirmation of their sex, and I've got a few birds who are still too young to be breeding.  Those birds are together in larger flight cages, just hanging out.  

Lucy and Ricky

Lucy ended up laying EIGHT EGGS!  As expected not all of them are fertile, but still, eight eggs is a fairly large clutch for a budgie.  I tried taking one of her infertile eggs and fostering it out to Momma Bird to see if she'd brood it, but Lucy turned around and laid another one.  Apparently she thinks she needs eight eggs, no more and certainly no less.  That's something to remember about Lucy.

Lucy and Ricky

It's been 14 days today from the date she laid her very first egg, the one that was infertile.  I expect the rest of her eggs to begin hatching starting in about four days from today.  It'll be fun seeing how many chicks come from that clutch - and if I need to pull and handfeed any of them.

The Finches

The Finches continued laying and eating eggs for several days.  I consulted with my bird mentor who advised me that it was likely due to a calcium deficiency.  So I started supplementing their diet with eggs and powdered egg shells which seems to have stopped the egg-eating behavior.  However two days ago I returned home from a trip to find one of my hens on the bottom of the cage unable to fly.  She was puffed up and when she would try to fly she would get about 10 inches off the ground flapping madly then fall back to the ground. I grabbed her and gave her a good once-over and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with her other than a few small areas where it looks like she'd been plucked. Thinking that a period of observation was in order, I placed her (and her mate) in the heated hospital tank where she's done fine for the last two days.  I'll probably be moving her back into a regular cage today or tomorrow and see how she's doing.  I suppose it's time to separate my little finch couples now, it seems that they're not getting along very well. 

Well, I suppose that's it for now.  I'm sure that there's quite a bit I've forgotten, but it must not have been that important!  

Until nest time, keep on chirpin'!

Eggs Hatched and Eggs Laid...

Momma budgie (as she has come to be known) has now hatched all of her eggs.  She started out with five, one was infertile, one was fertile but failed to develop, and the remaining three have hatched into precious little chicks!  It honestly seemed like they would never hatch, but hatch they did and they're now growing like weeds.  I'm noticing that Momma budgie is spending more time out of the nest box now.  When I see her out on the perches with the guys and flapping through the cage I'm keeping an eye on the nest box to see what's happening there, and sure enough - one or the other of the daddies is keeping an eye on the babies.  It seems to be the green daddy that sticks his head in the most.  This comes as a surprise to me really;  I hardly saw him feeding Momma at all while she was brooding but he seems to really be coming through now that the kids have arrived. The babies are starting to get pretty loud now.  As I sit here typing, I can hear the babies upstairs just chirping away!  Granted the rest of the flock has gone quiet, but I doubt that I'd have heard their cries a day or two ago.  I also started handling them today.  I picked them up for about a minute each but none of them actually made it all the way out of the nest box.  I didn't want Momma or either of the daddies to see me holding one of their kids...  I didn't want to cause them any stress or anxiety but I did want to start conditioning the babies to being held and picked up.  They're so tiny it's hard to believe they wont just fall apart while I'm holding them!

But enough about that!  I mentioned earlier that my other couple had laid an egg but I questioned it's viability.  Well, I still question the viability of the initial egg, but the couple has laid a second egg!  I feel fairly confident that it will turn out to be fertile because I've seen mom and dad er... taking the necessary steps to fertilize the egg. *wink*  It's really pretty funny watching the two of them.  Mom is pretty protective of her nest and rarely allows dad in.  Daddy has to go stand at the door of the box and lure her out with his sweet warbles, and she still comes out grousing at him!  Eventually though, they're sitting side by side on the perch, and when something gets too close to the nest, they're both right there together defending it.  It's a beautiful sight to see.

I made some changes with two other pairs that weren't making any progress.  Essentially I switched out the males and am trying different ones.  In one particular case, I think I've made another love match.  :)  (Why is there a part of me that feels like a budgie pimp?)  In the other case, I'll just have to wait and see what happens.  In that paring, I set up my cinnamon female with my new English normal grey cock.  I'd like that to work out, but she's been resistant to all of the males I've tried her with so far, so it may not.  As usual, I'll just wait and see!

Until next time... :)

New Blood

Today I drove up to Ft. Collins and met one of the local budgie breeders I've been exchanging e-mails with.  It was good to meet someone with years of budgie knowledge whom I am able to use as an additional resource for my breeding program!  Originally we had arranged the sale of a single English budgie hen today, but when I arrived she said she had evaluated her flock and in an effort to help other responsible breeders get started, she was willing to sell me additional birds!  So I walked out with two new English hens and a new English cock.

Meet Id, an English, normal grey cock:

Erie (left - normal grey hen) and Electra (right - sky blue cinnamon hen):

That's an American budgie sitting there in between Erie and Electra in the above picture.  It provides a sense of scale to demonstrate the size of the English budgies if you've not seen them in person.  They really are big birds!  And when they fly, you hear this WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP from their wings... it's not a dainty flutter like the little American budgies have! 

This is Electra from the front and the same sky blue American

 

I'm really excited to add these birds to my flock.  I think they'll add a whole new level of quality to the birds I breed.  If they knew how important their roles are, they'd probably look even more proud than they already do!

Baby Number Three, AND...

Baby number three has appeared right on time.  I'm amazed every day at how perfect and tiny these chicks are!  I'm starting to be able to see some pin-feathers under the skin of baby number one who is about twice as big as the new fellow.  Since I've been checking the nest in the evening, its been too dark to take worthwhile photos, but Colorado Budgies has an excellent page with daily photos of a growing budgie so you can follow the progress. Their photos are FAR better than any I could take right now - close up and very detailed.

AND... one of my other pair has laid their first egg! The hen has been sleeping in her nest-box for 2-3 nights now and I've been expecting the egg at any time.  Apparently now's the time!  I'm pretty excited about it!  Something interesting I learned recently is that when a hen is getting ready to lay, the quality of her droppings change.  I'll have to think more about how to describe it, or even get a picture of it, but once you've seen it, it's something that sticks with you.

More birds?

Oh my, what have I done?

Today I went in to my part-time job at the bird store and took the three 9-10 week old chicks I inherited when I made one of my bird purchases.  As is typical for me, I couldn't leave a bird without bringing more home!  I've been looking for more yellow-faced hens.  I really like that color mutation and am very interested in understanding the complicated genetics underlying it.  I started talking with one of my colleagues and, surprise! surprise!, she has a pair of yellow-faces.  She gave them to me to bring home and set up.  I'll bring her the first couple of clutches when they start producing and I'll keep the pair.  It seemed like a fair trade to me!

The other four birds I brought home were wee little finches.  I made the offhand comment that I wanted to hand-raise some finch and was told to take some home and go for it!  I'm going to hand raise one or two clutches of finches and see how that goes.  They're so teeny-tiny and cute when they're adults, I can't wait to see what the babies are like.  So now I have a bunch of budgies AND finch!

I suppose I'll just not mention the lady who came into the store the other day saying that her pet budgie has all of a sudden turned into a hormonal monster, and "did we know any budgie breeders who wanted an "all yellow" bird that just wanted to make babies?"  Who? Me?  So I'll be taking in a lutino hen sometime early next week.  My flock seems to be exploding and I haven't hatched a single egg yet!  How FUN!

Bouncing baby... Chicks!

Today I finally procured a mini-maglight to use when candling eggs.  Using a smaller light makes it easier to get the light right up next to the shell so you can see in.  It's amazing the difference the right light can make!

As soon as I got home with my light, I went right up to the budgie room and pulled the drapes.  It wasn't nearly as scary picking up the egg this time, in fact, I didn't even pick it up.  I just held the light to the egg while it was still in the nest, turning it a little bit if necessary to get a clear view.  This way I was able to see that four of my five eggs appear to be fertile!  And even more exciting, I could see the little chicklettes moving around inside two of the eggs!  Next to my own pregnancy, seeing that was one of the most cool things I've ever experienced.  I just can't believe that it's going to get better!

Getting Started: The First Post

Well, I know I said I was starting at the beginning.  I lied.  I'm actually starting my story a few weeks into my budgie breeding venture.  If I ever get time (and if anyone is actually reading this and is interested), I'll go back and tell the beginning of the story, but if I tried to go back now I'd start behind and never catch up!  So I'll start with today.

My name is Vicki, and yes, I'm probably nuts.  In the past couple of weeks, I've gone from having no budgies at all to having (as of this afternoon) 27 budgies and five eggs (one of the hens was on eggs when I bought her). If you're interested, I also have a Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure and a Bronze Wing Pionus as well, but those two are pets.  The majority of the birds I acquired off of Craig's List but I have bought a few from the PetBox stores when I've seen that they had a color I was particularly interested in.

Yesterday was a big day in budgie land.  For the last 10 days or so, I've had all of the birds in one large flight, kind-of a "get-to-know-you" session.  Yesterday I pulled the three hens who looked most mature and ready to breed and set them up with the cocks I'd like to see them with.  Two of the three pairs I put together seemed to be instant love matches.  The couples immediately fluffed up and started feeding each other, and one of the three pairs have already started mating.  The two happy couples I've already set up with a nest box, so with luck I should start seeing eggs within the next week to 10 days.  The third couple might take a bit longer.  The male is quite interested!  He's fluffing and bobbing his head, chirping and doing his best to impress the little dilute cinnamon hen he's with but she's not having anything to do with him.  He's quite the Romeo, so I think he'll manage to woo her before too long!

I also made the purchase of a young albino yesterday.  Due to the young age of this baby, I don't know if it's a cock or a hen.  If I had to guess today I'd say it was a cock but only time will tell.  I suppose I hope it's a cock because it's easier to spot an albino hen than it is to spot a cock that might be split to the 'ino' gene.  If you're not familiar with budgie genetics, try The Budgie Place.  Their colors and mutations link has done wonders to help me.  I'll try to do a post on genetics at a later date, but start with that link - the pictures and descriptions are better than anything I could ever do!

And finally, I ordered my breeder cages yesterday - or rather, I tried.  I sent an email to the folks at LL Cages, but I've not heard back from them yet.  If everything goes the way I hope it does, I'll get six of these with two stands:

Each cage is 36"x18"x18"h and has a removable divider in the middle so the cages can be divided into two 18" square cages.  There are four dishes with openings (two on each end) and openings for nest boxes on each end as well.   I had hoped to find them in white as opposed to galvanized since the white is so much easier to clean, but at $55/cage the price just can't be beat.  Plus, LL Cages is a family business and any small business that has managed to remain open these past few years surely gets my patronage.  (Would you believe they answered the phone by just saying, "Hello?" That's how family they are!)

I think I've about got all the birds started I can start for now and am at the wait and see point, so I suppose I'll just wait and see.  I'll be sure to keep you updated!

Well, that wraps up the first edition of A Bunch of Budgies, so until nest time, keep on chirpin'!