In this episode we discuss what behaviour to look out for during breeding, so that you don't have to do as many nest inspections. Nest inspections can cause abandoning of chicks.
Thanks for the video Clyde. I had some strange behaviour from one of my pairs which you might be able to help me with. I have a pair, hen was over 18 months old as I bred her myself and male was purchased so no idea of age. I put them together and they paired very well and raised a clutch of 4 and all fledged. Male took over the feeding and the hen went down again on a clutch of 5, all were fertile so all was going well. However as soon as the eggs started to crack and hatch then some of the eggs were pitched, I found them in time and put them back in but again they were pitched. In the end the hen stopped sitting and they all got cold and were finished. My theory was that the male wasn't in feeding mode as he was feeding the first clutch solo while the hen sat on second clutch and he never did his bit on the second clutch. So I let them go for a third clutch and again the eggs were fertile but as soon as they started to hatch then the eggs were pitched out again. I separated the male and the hen did raise the only chick that survived so it was the male bird doing the pitching. Any ideas why the first clutch was successful and second/third were not? Why did the male switch behaviour?
Hi Jessica. The cock bird is prone to misbehaviour when they over stimulated hormonally. I have reduce the amount of softfood I give my birds and I have found it makes a big difference. So lets say you repeat the what you did first time around. When the second clutch is started reduce the protein in the softfood (egg to every second or third day). This way the first clutch still get the nutrients for optimal growth but the cock bird does not get over stimulated by breeding hormones. This should solve the problem.
@@thehouseofgouldians Thanks Clyde, thats good to know. I have retired him now for the season but I will track that for next time round. Thanks for the answer.
I noticed that chicks start to sound at day 3. Once I hear their cries, I count back the three days and write that as their hatch day. I won't touch nest boxes until they are at least 2 weeks old.
Great Emily. The less we inspect the better. Are you ringing your birds? Day 14 would be a bit big for ringing but brilliant in terms of the discussion.
@thehouseofgouldians yes, I have to band the babies before they leave the nest. That's why I go in there around that time. I have a community aviary and sometimes I have about 4 nests all ready to fledge at one time. If I don't Band I won't know whose baby is whose. I find that a community aviary of gouldians is very interesting to study. I make sure never to have more than two birds related at a time. I will keep two sister or two brothers, but that's to make sure that birds are not inbreeding. I find that only some hens will be monogamous while others will breed with the same two males for every clutch. Even though I have a community aviary I was able to coherse certain birds to pair with others and it has worked 90% of the time so far. All of my pairs were made by me, the last 10% are the ones that choose to have multiple partners, but they still raise nests with the original partners I gave them.
Very interesting method and something I'm sure others can benefit from in terms of how you ensure you do not have in breeding. I'm also interested in hearing more about your method for pairing in a colony setup. What part of the world are you from?
