June 2011

13 June

Busy, busy, busy! in the birdroom with my most successful breeding season (at this stage) ever. Never like to say too much as there's still a chance things could go wrong but with three more nests due over the weekend and a total of 11 hens sitting / to be set in the nest few days looks like it could be my best ever season.

The cinnamon plan, which got off to a slow start, has recovered with 6 visual cinnamons bred and 4 more carriers with a couple of nests still to come. I've bred several nice white ground birds and the clears and darks look nice too, with a lovely three parts dark yellow hen really catching my eye. Training cages are on some of the first round young and things look so far so good.

I moved 6 of the hens into the flights over the weekend as i'm winding down the breeding season now. There are a few birds i'd like to get additional young from so i've set them again, a number are due this coming weekend, some 'll set this evening and three have built up but are yet to lay.

Its funny how there's been a mix of results across the fanciers i know, some have had a great year while others their worst on record. There doesn't seem to be any logical explanation, their methods remain the same, the birds are the same for some reason birds that have done well one year are doing nothing the next.

Although there are still birds to breed i'm turning my thoughts on which flighted birds i'd like to keep with a view then to looking at the young i want to retain. There are a number of things to consider when managing the selection process, quality is the overiding factor, by that i mean the quality of the young bred and the quality of the adult, i'll consider fertility also, although there remains no guarantee that just because a bird has bred this year it will do next!

20 June

Well the last nests of the season were set over the weekend and three more nests hatched out, with seven hens still on full eggs this could turn out to be my best breeding season ever. It's great to get the numbers but for me it's always been about the quality and this year i seem to have both.

I've made some subtle changes to my breeding preparations this year and so far at least they appear to have paid dividends, through careful selection and good conditioning the fertility rate is up and the mortality rate of youngsters is down. I'm attributing this down to three factors, firstly although i made greens available in the run up to the breeding season i offered no additional protein to the cocks or hens, secodnly i treated all of the birds with a medicated solution created to cleanse the gut 8 weeks before the start of the breeding season and thirdly i've changed my egg food mix - using two preparatory feeds with additional Belgium supplements.

This preparation combined with my priority pairs approach has i feel helped. Of course the real test comes after the moult and on the showbench and having won a couple of colour specials and third best champion at the specialist shows i attaneded last year the bar this year is once again raised.

I like to set myself targets in the hobby, somthing to aim. so for example it was my ambition to win every colour special and a best novice at a specialist show, and although i missed out on best allied to white as a novice (I've since won it as a champion) I did have two best novices and mulitple colour specials. I'd set myself a target to win my first best colour special after three years as a champion, i achieved it in two taking the best heavily variegated award at the Midland show. I'd set myself 5 years to win best champion - this will be my 5th year so here's hoping!