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.
Showing posts with label yellow-faces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yellow-faces. Show all posts
Monday, December 26, 2011
Monday, December 19, 2011
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!
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!
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