March 2011

Tuesday 1

It's been a busy few weeks in the birdroom, 10 of the 14 retained cock birds have now been taking from the flight cages and housed singlely and a number of the unflighted hens will follow later this week. February was quite a quiet month in the birdroom cleaning perches, cages and equipment in preparation for the forthcoming breeding season.

The cock birds are now really fit and a number of the hens seem to be further forward than in previous years. I've ordered some nesting material that is due to arrive today and so will make up a number of nest pans over the next couple of nights.

Wednesday 9

All systems go - well almost, a total of 16 hens have now been singled off with a number of flighted and several unflighted still in the flight cages. 4 Hens have built up and the first matings have happened since the last diary entry. One or two hens look like they'll be ready to lay in the next few days and I'm hopeful that by this time in a couple of weeks the first batch of hens will be set on eggs.

Each year I make slight changes to the breeding programme based on the experiences of previous years. My usual technique is to run a couple of pairs then the remainder of cock birds over multiple hens, this technique whilst delivering quality does have an adverse impact on the yield of young per nest. In an attempt to address this year, where I'm running a cock with more than one hen, I've identified the "priority hen" that is the hen that I'm most keen to get young off. To establish which hens are the "priority" birds I've adopted my usual criteria, pedigree, type, if they are flighted their off spring last year, and general fertility of the family line.

So this year I've run and left the cock in with his priority hen, even to the point that they'll build the nest together and rear the young (thats the plan at this stage). Now this approach is not without risk, mainly that the pair will bond and the cock won't be interested in other hens - however as the breeding season progresses and the condition of the birds increases I'm hoping to avoid this. Time will tell.......

Wednesday 23

The first 5 nests are now set, with a further 2 hens laying and 6 more having built up. Too early to say if the new approach is paying dividends but with 27 eggs laid so far, 24 of those set over the last few days I'm a good month ahead of last year. There are still 4 flighted hens in the flight cages, and a couple of hens who are yet to build up. Pleased to say that my variegated hen picture on the home page and arguably one of the best birds I've bred is sat on 4 eggs, and her mother, paired to her father again, is also sat on 4 eggs.

The change to british summertime this week will make it easier to manage the nights and add extra opportunity to move some of the cock birds who have done their job with the priority hens to the other hens they're due with. The staggered start seems ok so far, interesting talking to friends in the fancy that some already have chicks in the nest, some even have weaned birds, i'm hoping for a nice short breeding season with few problems!

Thursday 31

The first nests are due over the weekend with a total of 12 nests now set, i've checked some of the early set nests and the eggs seem viable, so it seems so far at least that my priority hen approach has yielded some initial success. The fluctuations in the temperature, changes in day light and young hens can and normally do present one or two challenges but i'm hopeful that problems will be kept to a minimum.

Whilst checking the eggs I noticed - for the first time in over a decade of breeding fifes, that one of the hens is on seven eggs, I set her on 6 and left her too it - on checking all seven are full, although not due until next week. She's run as a pair with a quality green yellow cock, but even for a pair i think 7 is too many to handle. The great benefit of setting a number of nests at the same time is that you can move chick around, so i know for example i have a pair of variegateds who are on four eggs but only two are full, they were set at the same time so all being well when one nests hatches i can move a couple of different coloured birds over to make a nest of 5 and a nest of 4.

Its one of the other advantages to keeping birds across a range of colours, it means chicks can be transferred and remain easily identifyable.