Penny W

We moved into our house 6 months ago and have worked hard since then. We have hardly touched the house but the garden and bird house have had a lot of tie and effort spent on them. Before we moved we were planning on a bird house approx. 8x6'. When we first moved we had to set the birds up in the garage - far from ideal but they were OK. Before we got around to building out smallish bird house we saw a shed being sold off which was perfect, just a bit bigger - well, a lot bigger to be precise - 24 x 12' in fact!. We had to hire a 7.5 ton truck, drive to Sandwich (Kent, 4 hours away) dismantle the shed - which was still full of bird cages, seed etc, etc. The shed was fully lined and insulated and the deal was we took everything away with us! We left at 5am, had dismantled and loaded up by 3pm, home by 7 then an hour to unload and then had to return the van. A long day. Before we could begin to reassemble the shed we had to do some major ground works, levelling the garden and digging down so the 12" sleepers that the shed stands on could be buried. For a long time our back garden was a patch of bare earth and mud. Over the next few weeks we painted and reassembled the shed and Steve wired it all up so there are plenty of lights, sockets, extractors etc. Steve is a perfectionist so it is all done to a very high standard. Eventually, about 1 month ago we moved the birds in. They were instantly happier in a light, airy environment. It is easy to clean and a joy to be out there. Over the past month we have been working on the outside flights and today the birds had their first taste of outside sunshine, they were a joy to watch. I have recently diversified with finches other than just zebras and now have some silver bills, owls, gouldians, diamond firetails, hecks grassfinches and masked grassfinches (may favourite). The masked grassfinches are the boldest and were quickly out exploring the outside world.

When I started my blog I had half a dozen finches (late last year). Emmy commented that 6 often turns into many more, well yesterday I had a count up - 84 plus 6 tiny chicks and several eggs being incubated! Hmm, time for a bit of a sort out methinks! Our new bird house and aviary is taking shape in the garden, can't wait until it is up and running, we might need a bigger one before we move in if I'm not careful!

I'm in Frome (Somerset is a big county!)

Bearing in mind that 6 months ago I would never have believed that I would own zebra finches I am really please with the way my babies are colouring up, hopefully I can upload some pictures

it's been a while since I updated my blog. I'm winding down on breeding now as we are away at the end of April and I don't want to have to ask the neighbour to have to check nest boxes. It's giving me a chance to take stock and work out what I have and what I want to keep. We seem to have ended up with an abundance of cages (a lot of which are flat packed in the loft at present) Last weekend, when it was the Stafford Sale we had arranged to buy a load of cages from a guy who was giving up the hobby, he lived nearby so we made a weekend of it, collecting his cages on the Saturday, staying overnight in Stafford then a quick whizz in and out of the Stafford Sale on Sunday morning. The finches there were a bit of a disappointment but Steve got some budgies that he was pleased with. Yesterday we drove to Kent in a hired lorry (with a 56mph speed limiter), a 4 hour drive, to collect a shed for the birds, problem was we had to dismantle it and it was not just a shed, it was insulated and lined. We got there at 9am, left at 3pm. By the time we had unloaded and returned the lorry to the depot it was almost 10pm, we were exhausted. I'm sure it will be worth it when the shed is built and up and running. This evening we took the latest 11 babies from their parents and put them in a bigger cage. I seem to do really well on breeding cocks - hens are a bit of a rarity in my fledgling cage so if anyone has a glut of hens they would like to swap...................????!!!!

I may be new to this game but I am trying to get on top of different mutations, I like the penguins, and have a pair, but they are both quite small so I have paired them with better sized birds with the view to next year crossing the babies and getting some bigger penguins (well, that is the plan). Last weekend I managed to acquire a large penguin cock and have paired him up - but so far, no eggs - we'll see. I also have several split black cheek chicks - with the intention of breeding some of my 'own' black cheeks next year. I know it will be a long journey, if my understanding of genetics is right by crossing 2 splits I should get 25% pure, 50% split and 25% who are not carrying the recessive gene. One chick I have from 2 normal looks like it may turn out to be a black cheek, meaning both parents must be split. I need to wait for him/her to moult out to be sure.

thank you Andy - so here are my fledglings

Having moved house my body decided that the stresses involved in house moving were too much and my body has gone into meltdown. For the past week I have been almost bedridden with high fevers and feeling rubbish, when I have a window of feeling slightly better I pop out to the birds, check a few cages, then collapse back into my bed - it's rubbish! Steve has been working hard - at his job, then DIY around the new house and keeping on top of the birds, I just hope he doesn't catch this bug off me. Anyway this weekend in a 'better' hour we set up a new cage for all my fledglings. They seem very happy - I have two more to move in with them in the next couple of weeks, I have 2 nests of chicks that have just been rung then another 5 pairs with eggs due to hatch in the next week or so. I had 2 nests of chicks last week - of similar ages (luckily). Steve suddenly noticed the cock bird in one cage was trying to take nesting into the box, he looked in - the 2 babies (there were only 2, the other 3 eggs were clear) had been completely buried, their crops were empty so he removed them and put them with the other babies where - one week on they are doing well. I was dying of my virus at that time so would never have noticed I would have attached a picture of my fledglings setting into their new cage but it appears the file is too big and I can't work out how to make it smaller!

Well, last week saw us moving house. No mean feat with a shed full of birds! Fortunately we were able to get access to the garage the night before the official moving date so we moved the birds then. That night I had a dream that one of the cages of budgies had managed to escape. My partner went to the new house with a van load of stuff, opened the garage door - and out flew a budgie! My dream had been true! The rest of the birds had survived the move and we even had 2 finches and 1 budgie hatch that night . Later that day one of our new neighbours came round asking if we had lost a budgie as one had moved into his conservatory when he had popped into the garden! We were planning on erecting our bird house this weekend. My partner had made it in flat pack form but the weather had other ideas! They will have to stay in the garage for another week! I have recently paired some more finches, one of which was a white finch, sold to me as a cock bird, but I wasn't convinced! I paired him/her up with a definite cock and this weekend The pair have started laying! I think maybe I was right!

going on the clue that Andy had some words right, my guess is an African elephant????? ;-)

Actually I think mum is a white, not a CFW

My first proper round of babies are beginning to leave the nest now. The chick in the picture is pure white (smudge from camera lens over left eye!) - no tear mark - parents are both CFW (Shame my camera has a black mark in the centre of the lens!)

well, since the weekend there have been ups and downs - maybe more downs than ups :-( One nest of 4 CFW chicks, nearly fledged, one died, it looked like it had moved away from its siblings and got cold?, its crop was full. Of my 2 first chicks, today I noticed them feeding themselves which cheered me, 2 hours later when I went into the bird room, one of them was dead A nest of 5 CFW chicks have all been plucked by one or both of their parents, the hen has also been plucked bald. I have removed the hen and the cock seems to be feeding the chicks OK, I'm not sure if they will regrow their feathers though?? On the plus side, the pair who hatched their first chick last Saturday now have 4 chicks - so far all doing well, but it is early days. I'm expecting my bigger babies to leave the nest in the next few days - they are beginning to look a little cramped in their nest boxes, especially the pair with 6 chicks! I'll see what the next week brings.

another one hatched today!

This bird keeping hobby is taking over! Today we went to a bird sale and came back with a pair of Bicheno (owl) finches and a pair of firetails. Both beautiful birds, this is for our aviary scheduled to be up and running this spring, oh, and I managed to acquire 6 more zebras - not quite sure how ;-) The pair of finches I put down as I left for holiday had one egg (from 5) hatch yesterday - no others have hatched so I'm thinking they may be no good - well, one baby, 2 parents, it should be well looked after!

Got back from holiday today. My ZFS rings had arrived - and so had several chicks! I ordered my rings when I had just 2 cocks and 4 hens, so thought 20 rings would be plenty for my first year - how wrong can a person be?? I now have 22 chicks - from 5 pairs (9 pairs were put down). 2 of the chicks are too big for 2016 ZFS rings but the remaining 20 were all rung tonight! Now to order more as I have another pair sitting! My CFWs are very prolific. My light backs did not seem to know what to do with their chicks and threw them out of the nest, maybe they were too young? - I will give them a break and maybe try again later, maybe split the pairs and see if they look after chicks better with a different partner. We have spent a happy 2 hours in the bird house, there are a few budgie chicks too. Lets face it, who wants to unpack / do the laundry after a holiday?? Back to work tomorrow

So when do they moult (sorry to be so unknowledgeable!)

I'm on holiday, left my birds with my stepson. Today he sent me a picture of my first 2 babies with their parents, fledged and doing well. Very pleased with them. My partner thinks probably clock birds, how long before this is obvious?

I have a continental CFW hen and that is who he is paired with - they have 6 eggs - lets see what happens!

I have a cfw cock bird with good flank markings but very pale (almost peach coloured) cheeks. Is this a 'fault' or is it some different mutation??

It's been a few days since I updated my blog so here we go. My 2 remaining chicks are looking healthy, beginning to feather up but not sure what colour yet!. Of my other 8 pairs down, 7 have eggs, the smallest clutch being 3, the largest 7 (obviously didn't know when to stop!) Yesterday, after a bit of carpentry by my partner we acquired another breeding cage, we put our best normal hen in and the couldn't decide which was the best cock to go with her. We made our decision and put them together, she was most definitely NOT interested, so we tried our second choice cock - they were all over each other (literally) in a matter of minutes - there are obviously personality traits in finches to be taken into consideration. They now spend almost every minute of the day in the nesting box out of view! (what husseys!!). So we will wait and see! Of the pairs I put down earlier this month, most of them got down to business straight away so I'm concerned they will hatch their chicks too early for my zfs rings - and I thought I had waited long enough to pair them! Oh well, what will be will be!

Well, three of the four eggs hatched but yesterday one of the chicks was dead in the nest, it was well fed but appeared to have been flattened by the parents :-( The last egg is still in the nest - should I remove it or wait until the parents throw it out?? Of my other pairs I now have 6 pairs with eggs 27 eggs so far! Our candling torch has arrived and it appears that most of the eggs are fertile, maybe I should have ordered more than 20 ZFS rings!! My finches are definitely doing better than my partners budgies - of 10 pairs he put down only 4 have started laying

I was sold a bird last week and told it was a white, black faced cock. I didn't really want it, but it came as half of a pair, the hen being a normal which is what I was looking for. I'm not convinced it is a cock - to the extent that I have put him/her in my cage of hens and he/she is not creating havoc! I posted a picture on some facebook pages and the general consensus is that it is a hen, possibly grey cheek cfw. Anyone else got any good ideas?

I started my zebra collection with 6 - this has now increased to 38 (I think - but they don't sit still!). Every time we go out we seem to acquire a few more! Last week I paired my best birds and now have 5 boxes with eggs! Tho original pair that I put together laid their first egg 2 weeks ago - I was worried as they didn't seem to want to incubate, however once there were 4 eggs they incubated and today, less than 2 weeks after the last egg I have a chick! I thought it took longer but there is a live chick being fed by the parents. Just waiting to see if the other 3 eggs are good. I have ordered a special torch for checking the eggs but it has not arrived yet - the birds have beaten technology! I'll be interested to see what chicks I get from my first pairing - black cheek he with normal cock. Bit early to tell just a few hours after hatching!! My partner has now paired his budgies too so we are setting up a busy maternity unit! Life is going to be busy in the next few weeks.

thanks Andy, Steve (my partner - a budgie keeper) said he will look at them soon, we were going to look for a special torch this weekend