April 2013

22 April

A month very much of two halves in the birdroom. The early part of the month, with very cold nights, was difficult in the birdroom many of the early nests resulted in single figure hatchings, in a couple of cases young took up to 17 days to hatch. Laying of eggs was also a little erratic, with hens laying one, missing days, oh the joys!.

Still as the video below shows, some success and as the days pass normality is returning. The young bird below is one of two eggs that hatched in this nest, bred from a self green yellow cock, the son of my self green special winning buff hen from the north of England in 2011.

The clear buff hen below is sitting on 4 full eggs, she's the full sister of my variegated yellow hen that won the colour special at both the Midland and North of England shows, she had a fair run on the show bench herself, 2nd in the clear buff hen class at both of the same shows where her sister won. She's one of seven clear hens in the breeding team this year, 4 of which todate have young in the nest, 2 are on eggs and one although built up is yet to lay.

The first nest of three from my foul green buff cock, he's fathered 5 young so far, hoping that they're of the same quality as their parents - only time will tell! All but 4 of my fife hens have now laid, the remaining hens have built up and with the warmer weather now shouldn't be long before they lay too. Acquired some more stunning Norwich, 2 more pairs from my friend Richard in Ireland, they've built up and 2 of the 3 pairs have now laid. Fifes will always be my first choice but i have a real soft spot for the Norwich.

Delighted with the recent article by Brian Keenan in a recent edition of cage and aviary birds, i've known Bri for over a decade and during that time we've enjoyed some great discussions on bird keeping, and plenty of leg pulling too!