Great season for King Quails

My King Quail hen has just hatched her third clutch for the season. 

The clutches have been as follows 

Seven or eight eggs are incubated 

- First clutch four were hatched and two grew to adulthood. 

- Second clutch four were hatched and three grew to adulthood. 

- Third clutch one was hatched. 

Their has been a silver mutation in both of the first clutches and I have two adult males out of the five mature chicks.

The female has made her nest in three separate places for each of the clutches using seed husks and dried grass to construct the nests.

The group dynamic of the flock is quite interesting overall when chicks are born and I really enjoy watching them in general.

Interesting mutation

My Indian Ringneck have been producing a lot of the Creamino mutation. One hen that I held onto for a couple of years darkened in colour and produced a clear tail and clear wing.

I don't if this classified her as a "Clear tail" mutation but it was interesting none the less. Unfortunately she had to be moved on as I had no space for as she was related to all my males.

Malting

Malting I have noticed only generally affect some species of bird and not others. It only takes a noticeable affect on my Indian Ringneck Parrot and Gouldian Finches with some individual being affected more than others. Some bird look terrible for a few weeks until their new feathers come in and they look like a new bird.

This years malt has allowed me to see for the first time on my young male Indian Ringneck "Tommy" how long it takes for the ring to develop around the neck of a male. It has been two years for "Tommy" which has always been assumed knowledge for  myself but this is the first time I have seen it for myself.

Princess Parrot Runt

 The smallest of the clutch of four Princess Parrot chicks simply got too far behind its bigger siblings. My Plan was to top him up with hand rearing formula to give him a leg up but he just got too far behind and found him pushed to the side cold with his eyes closed.

I pulled him out and put him in my heated hand rearing box and fed him the formula and he picked up nicely on the first day. However the second day was different story with him not readily feeding and I had to force him to eat to a degree. Unfortunately he didn't live out the day.

The picture below shows the comparison in size between the smallest and his siblings. Oddly I witnessed one of the bigger chicks feeding the smallest although it may have just bee a simulation of what its parents feeding.

Double Clutches

It has been a very successful year getting four different breeds of bird to produce young but if that wasn't enough two have decided to have there second clutch for the year. The Red Rumped female was laying new eggs in the nesting box even before all the young had left the box and by the egg fragment I believe she may have hatched the first of her second clutch.

Meanwhile the King Quail female found a new nesting location as soon as her previous chicks were of an independent size and she has produced another four chicks. The chicks are an exact replica of the previous clutch; one silver and three normal coloured.

Princess Parrot Chicks... Finally!!!

I have been keeping Princess Parrots for some time now but never had any luck with breeding them until now. Probably due to my terrible luck with females losing two since the purchase of my original pair but this year my young female has produced four chicks!

When she first started to lay she broke her first egg. I took this to mean that she was inexperienced and would probably produce next year, like I have experienced with other pairs of parrots in their first season. However she laid four more eggs and although I wasn't expecting much she hatched them all.

I think I was trying too hard with the Princess Parrots trying different types of boxes and giving multiple options. I had spoken to a couple of breeders and they said they just use a standard medium sized box. So this year I offered a medium sized parrot nesting box with non toxic wood shavings as the nesting material.

Colour Mutations - Red Rumped Parrots

This year my Red Rumped Parrots have produced two true coloured males, a cream mutation (creamino) like last year and a new colour mutation that I can't classify.

It would be awesome if someone that knows Red Rumps better than me can let me know what colour mutation I have here but it is certainly very interesting.

Quail Chicks!!

It has been a busy start to spring. My Indian Ringneck pairing of "Nippet"and "Nelly" have produced four chicks. Three of a lighter colour (Creamino or Albino) and one darker (Blue or Turquoise).

The Red Rump pair have also had at least three chicks. The mother is pretty tentative so I haven't got a real good look.

The surprise has been my King Quails. The female found a spot in the corner of the aviary, made a nest of dried grass and seed. She laid four eggs and they all hatched yesterday. There were three dark coloured chick and one lighter coloured chick.

6/11 I had a loss rate of the quail chicks. One drowned in the water container and another from exposure (I think) but I now have two nearly fully grown chicks and the hen has started to lay again.

Aviary Relocate

A broken/blocked sewage pipe has meant I have had to relocate my main aviary. Originally the area was paved which was why I chose the area as it provided a good base for my aviary. I have since found from digging that one of the previous owners simply paved over the access to the sewage pipe.

It has caused a nightmare with housing birds in different cages around the place but has afforded me the opportunity to really clean out and even paint the aviary in its relocation. I have re paved the base with some concrete to seal the base and any gaps between the pavers and aviary itself. To provide stability (to stop it blowing away) I have attached it to the ground with large plastic tent pegs at the front and have used metal formed it brackets to attached it to the rear fence at four points.   

Turk

Last week I lost one of my Indian Ringnecks suddenly; I was in the aviary feeding the birds when I noticed "Turk" climbing the side of the aviary and vomiting. I captured "Turk" and brought him inside to be monitored, we found missing feathers on top of his head and wound on his wing. He later  passed away that night...

My two theories of what happened for a otherwise healthy bird to die suddenly is -

1. Attacked by one of the other two Indian Ringnecks in the same section of the aviary. My wife witnessed my Creamino female "Milly" on top of "Turk".

2. Attacked from our Grey Goshawk that we see every second day or so. After "Turks" death we have witness it trying to bite through the aviary. My theory is that it somehow got a hold of "Turk" and caused him his injuries.

Turk and Milly

New additions

The last few months have been largely cleaning, maintenance and pest control.

However I have made some new additions. I have purchased a new Gouldian hen to replace the one that was attacked and killed by a rat.

The Nowra bird sale on the weekend also allowed me to add a male Cockatiel to pair with my hand raised female "Tishi" and a pair of King Quail. My son Noah has decided to name the pair of quail "Muddy" and "Rosy".

I have heard quite a few bad luck stories in regard to King Quail flying. Usually letting the quails out to have a peck around in the garden or back yard and eventually ends up in the quails getting spooked and flying away for good. I was demonstrated this ability at the bird sale with one of my new quails flying straight up and half way across the hall when being transferred to my box.

Selling Birds

The somewhat frustrating issue of selling birds.

I both loathe and enjoy selling birds at the same time. Pet shops only offer a low amount of a bird worth so it forces me to list my birds online for sale to recoup some money for my hobby.

Some of my pet peeves are

- Asking questions that are clearly stated in the ad
- Asking for a discount. Even though the bird is listed at a more than fair price to begin with; I don't list a bird for sale at certain price to be bartered down price that I actual want to get...
- No shows. Why organize to pick up and bird and not turn up? You either want the bird or not.

I do enjoy chatting with other bird owner however and I have found that bird owner a generally very nice people. 

I have had the most success with Gumtree but I have also used Petlink in the past.

Pests - Rats & Mice

A downside of keeping birds is the fact that the seed will attract rats and mice. They carry disease, can hassle bird during raising of young and even attack birds as I have just found out with my female Gouldian finch. She was attacked through the aviary mesh and greatly damaged leg and succumbed to injuries this morning. The rat returned last night to try and finish her off, knocking the finches water supply off the side of the aviary.

I have managed this in the past by keeping my seed in plastic sealed bins in the shed and keeping an open packet of Ratsak if the rodents feel the need to snack on something. I also concrete any entry holes in the aviary that mice make. I now have the need to take a more proactive approach to resolving this. 

Aviary reconfigure

Time has come to move on this seasons young. My three Indian Ringnecks have already been sold and two out of the three Red Rumped Parrots are sold (one going to my neighbors).

I have also decided to cut back a bit a reconfigure. Galah's are up for sale and I'll be moving my Princess Parrot pair into their space and my Green Cheeked Conures will also go with trio of Indian Ringneck Parrots (Turk, Milly & Bo Bo) going in their space in hopes of developing another breeding pair with "Bo Bo" laying a egg this season and not hatching it.

This will allow me to move my Red Rumps and other Ringnecks (Boe and Tommy) into my silver aviary and I may even look at placing my hand raised Cockatiel "Tishi" in the aviary too and pairing her with mate.

Buddy

After keeping my the little Burke Parrot alive for nearly two weeks he past away. It was upsetting as grew attached to Buddy but what I can take from the experience is that have gained some skills and gear in hand rearing for other bird abandoned by their parents or if I choose to hand raise a bird. 

After cleaning out the nesting boxes from the Bourke Parrot cage I found a lot of mice droppings to the right hand side of the nesting box. I suspect the mother pushed the chicks out because of being hassled by mice. From what I have read this is one of the common causes bird will abandon young.

I believe Buddy had some injuries from the fall from the nest. His leg was obvious but I'm not sure if further injury had caused him to pass away.

Buddy

I have named my abandon Bourke Parrot chick "Buddy". I has become obvious that she has an issue with one of her legs; I'm not sure if this was the reason she was chucked out of the nesting box or something that happened in the fall.

I'm now a lot better set up with a plastic box with a reptile heating pad taped to the bottom. This now allows me not to worry too much about keeping her warm and just focus on feeding. I'm roughly feeding her every four hours and during the night I feed her just before bed, once around 1 to 2am and when I wake. She now chirps when she hears me mixing her food with the teaspoon anticipating the feed. 

The thing I have definitely noticed about "Buddy" is that she is a fighter and has a determined will to live.

Aviary Update

A lot seems to be happening with my birds at the moment. The first of Red Rumped Parrots chicks has emerged from the nesting box.

Also the Indian Ringneck chicks wont be far off. This year I have got two Albino and one Blue. My pair of Albion and Turquoise (Pastel Blue) has produced to date Albino, Blue, Creamino and Turquoise.

I have found my hand rearing of the baby Bourke Parrot a little taxing on the sleep side. I need to get set up better with keeping him warm (a heat pack is simply too much work). I going to purchase a plastic container with stick on thermometer and heat pad. It's too hard constantly looking after heat and food. 

Emergency Hand Raring

Hand raring a parrot is something I always wanted to do but knew it wasn't going to be easy so it has always been shelved in the too hard basket. Until unforeseen circumstances has forced me to learn how.

On Sunday morning I found one of my Bourke parrot chicks on the floor of the aviary dead. The other chick still alive in the nesting box, I gave the female the benefit of the doubt and hoped she would still look after the other chick. Unfortunately that afternoon I returned to find the other chick on the aviary floor (I presumed dead as it wasn't moving). I actually took about half an hour to go into the aviary to remove the chick to only find it alive!

I was totally unprepared to be looking after a helpless chick and was lucky that the chick had been fed recently having a full crop. I decided to go with a heat pack to to keep him warm, waking a couple of time during the night to reheat it. I was not expecting him to make it through the night but he did.

The next day I took him to work with me and pick up some parrot hand rearing formula. I fed him using a tea spoon bent into a flute and he ate greedily. I was expecting to have most issues with this part but he filled his crop quickly. 

He is only a week old today and he is healthy other than a red mark on his neck where the mother removed him from the nesting box. He seems to be a little survivor.

Red Rumped Parrot - Colour Mutations

As my pair of Red Rumped Parrots is true or as would appear in the wild and I was not expecting any colour mutations. However one of them must be a split Lutino as I have two Lutino chicks.

Bourke Parrot Chick

I got a shock this morning to find my Rosa Bourke Parrot had hatched a chick. She has always laid eggs and incubated but never hatched before.

Persistence has really paid off with my Bourkes finally. Over the years I have had two pair and although I have been told they are relatively easy to breed I have had no luck with my Bourkes until today.

It should be noted that I offered her two breeding boxes. One with non toxic saw dust and one with peat moss as the nesting material. She chose the one with the saw dust and as seen in the picture emptied most of it out.