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GET THE BEST FROM YOUR BREEDING PAIRS A subject written about at great lengths these days, is the fertility, or the lack of it, within our breeding birds. Without doubt, over last thirty three years of breeding budgerigars, I have seen them change in every direction size, length and weight, head size and proportion with reference to the back skull and top skull above the eye and indeed the position of the eye, the width of face on the bird, the depth of mask, the size and shape of the spot, the size of shoulder, to be able to carry this large head and face, the sweeping back line at the right angle to give the required style and of course enough of the bird below the perch to complete the picture. If all this were not enough, we have even changed the feathers on the bird, ranging from yellow to super buff and the occasional freak feather duster. we widened the feather, lengthened the feather and changed its texture and in the final analyses we conclude, our bird of today does not reproduce as proclivity as the bird of yesteryear, or the birds of the wilds of Australia! Fertility is of course a
most important factor that should be at the top of the list, but it does not
score points at shows and is quite often overlooked. As we progressed with
exhibition budgerigars its reproduction has become harder, so we need to
take advantage of anything that will give you an extra edge to reproduce more
youngsters. How often have you read that the average clutch of eggs laid by
budgerigars is 4-6, but can be increased by taking eggs away, well there is
nothing new about that piece of information, but I have never applied it before
the way that I have this season. The following is what I did and my breeding
records show the result so far. At the date of writing 11/3/97, twenty-six
pairs have laid a total of 229 eggs, in thirty-two clutches, nine of which are
second round. So far I have rung thirty chicks with 96 rings, fifty seven with 97 rings and another unrung chicks in partly hatched clutches, with others still waiting for the first egg to hatch. Of course proper conclusions can only be drawn at the end of the breeding season, but so far of the full thirty two clutches laid, I believe that I have been instrumental in increasing the clutch size of eighteen of those clutches. By systematically removing unfertile eggs I believe that the hens were encouraged to lay extra eggs, the following was the result. One round seven eggs, eight rounds eight eggs, three rounds nine eggs, one round ten eggs, two rounds eleven eggs, three rounds twelve eggs. One of the hens that laid twelve eggs did not produce a fertile egg until the sixth egg was laid, with the next three fertile and the last two clear. Now if she had of only laid five eggs she would not be brooding any young, as she is now. Also quite a few pairs, first three or four eggs were infertile and if they had averaged four or five eggs, they would have only produced the odd youngster. As a rule I only like four or five chicks to a nest, but the situation is my birdroom at the moment is only one nest with three young, all the nests have four, with the exception of three that are successfully raising five youngsters. Mind you for the first time I am using Slais egg food every other day, where as I used to only feed bread and milk and I believe that is making a substantial contribution towards healthy, strong youngsters. Back to the removal of clear eggs and the system that I use. I always wait until the day after the third egg is laid before removing the first egg if it is clear. However, a warning, only if the hen sits properly from the first day of laying! before now I have had the first three chicks all hatch on the 22nd day, because the hen did not sit until the third egg was laid. This is a exception to the rule, but serves as a good illustration to show how careful we should be about discarding clear eggs. When the fourth egg is laid, I will wait a day, then if the second egg is clear I will throw it out. Five days is enough to tell if a egg is fertilised, providing of course, that the hens sitting properly. If in doubt wait another day or two. The method described leaves the hen sitting on a maximum of three eggs, until the first fertile egg is laid. Not always, but on most occasions I believe the hen will try to make up the short fall and lay extra eggs, even up to doubling the number of the clutch she would have originally laid. This method can of course be used to encourage those special pairs to lay extra eggs for fostering, to increase the amount of youngsters sired by, but not raised by, those birds carry our highest hopes for the next show season. As for the safety and health of our hens laying large clutches of eggs, I don't think it is possible to fool, coax or bribe a hen to lay more eggs then she can comfortly cope with, providing you only let her two or perhaps sometimes three rounds. It is often all the raising of a brood of chicks that depletes the resources of our birds and it is that function that we need to keep tighter control on. I hope that this may prove to be of benefit to other breeders and produce a few more eggs, which in turn will put a few more youngsters on the perch.
Clive Wakeman | HOME | MAIN INDEX PAGE | CLIVE'S PAGE | |