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... :)

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'!