ringneckmutations.com

It's taken me several weeks to prepare for the breeding season by cleaning cages and nest boxes and making my breeding pair selections, but it's all complete and the birds are in.

I have eighteen breeding pairs again this season. Nearly all the pairs have bred together before and are bonded which leads to better breeding results. I have several two year old birds breeding for the first time so I won't be expecting too much from them but then they can surprise you and two of the young Cleartail cocks already have clear heads showing that they are very mature for their age..

The show was a bit quiter than previous years with visitor numbers seemingly down but it was still a good day out.

Thank you to all my customers and good luck with your new birds.

Cobalts, blues and Lutinos were released into the main flight on the weekend as they are now old and strong enough to look after themselves. Two more weeks of flying and gaining confidence and they'll be ready to go to their new owners (see below).

A blue bird having a sample of blood taken

My son holding a five week old turquoise lacewing..

The turquoise lacewing chick seen above.

The chick being returned to its nest.

Chick ID 110066 having ring number 52JMJ11S fitted today (video below).

89 eggs in total laid to date.

75 hatched.

6 infertile.

8 death in shell.

All the chicks are growing well and 38 have now been closed leg banded for identification. There's just one egg left in the hatcher so hopefully this will hatch tomorrow and I will have 75 chicks for the season.

A nest of contented chicks at 12 to 17 days old.

A nest of blue and cobalt chicks with their dad.

A nest of Lutino chicks with their dad - how they've grown since April 29.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

74 hatched.

6 infertile.

8 death in shell.

0 in the incubator.

1 in the hatcher.

The garden and aviary is looking nice with the early summer sunshine bringing out all the flowers.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

69 hatched.

6 infertile.

8 death in shell.

4 in the incubator.

2 in the hatcher.

Things are still going well but I did have two dead in shell this morning which was a real disappointment. I think I should have assisted them to hatch as they were fully developed and had the correct weight loss but failed to hatch. Because of this loss I decided to step in and assist another chick to hatch. I was checking every couple of hours and it wasn't progressing with pipping the shell. I don't like having to assist hatching because there's always a risk of rupturing blood vessels if the chick isn't fully developed but this chick was chirping constantly and appeared to be stuck in the same position in the egg when viewed through the Ovascope. I used a small tweezers to pick off fragments of the shell at the air cell end of the egg following a small crack in the shell that had been created by the chick. The photos below show the chick before and after it pushed itself out of the egg.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

61 hatched.

6 infertile.

6 death in shell.

10 in the incubator.

6 in the hatcher.

51 hatched.

6 infertile.

4 death in shell.

20 in the incubator.

7 in the hatcher.

Below is the last chick to hatch today.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

47 hatched.

6 infertile.

4 death in shell.

21 in the incubator.

8 in the hatcher.

44 hatched.

6 infertile.

3 death in shell.

23 in the incubator.

9 in the hatcher.

35 hatched.

6 infertile.

3 death in shell.

26 in the incubator.

15 in the hatcher.

Things are still going well with chicks hatching daily and so far the incubators are proving to be worth their expense even if it does take me a couple of hours every night to check every egg. But that way I can assess each egg to determine its level of progress and then make a decision when to switch it from the incubator to the hatcher.

The first two chicks of the season were rung today with blue rings for 2011 (see below). They are both 12 days old and are from Pair 17 - Cobalt cock x Blue hen.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

29 hatched.

5 infertile.

3 death in shell.

30 in the incubator.

16 in the hatcher.

The weekend has been quite eventful with the chick count increasing steadily and with 8 eggs in the hatcher tonight which should all hatch over the next two days; and another 40 eggs in the incubator.

The chick in the egg below hatched earlier today. The egg shell is clearly cracked and the pink shadows in the air cell is the chick.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

24 hatched.

5 infertile.

3 death in shell.

Today I reduced the incubator humidity by 1 degree to 39 degress as some of the eggs are not losing weight in line with the planned 15% weight loss. Hopefully the eggs will be back on track tomorrow.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

13 hatched.

3 infertile.

1 death in shell at 16 days.

1 death in shell between 10 and 14 days.

Below are photos taken yesterday of a chick in the hatcher as it broke through the shell.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

12 hatched.

1 infertile.

1 death in shell at 16 days.

1 death in shell between 10 and 14 days.

The incubators are proving to be very effective so far. All the eggs are losing weight daily in line with the planned 10% to 20% weight loss from laid egg to hatching and all are on course to hatch which is something I never had when the eggs were left with the hens to be incubated naturally. Still, I'm not counting my parrots just yet (get it) as it's early days and things may change.

I'm very happy with Pair 17 - Cobalt cock x Blue hen. They had five fertile eggs and they've all hatched and the chicks are doing well.

89 eggs in total laid to date.

9 hatched.

1 infertile.

1 death in shell at 16 days.

1 death in shell between 10 and 14 days.

              The first chicks of the season hatched this morning.

Both chicks were awaiting me in the hatcher at 7am this morning. They were then placed in the nest box with their parents, Cobalt cock and Blue hen. Then when I got home from work there was another one waiting for me in the hatcher from the same pair of birds.

85 eggs in total laid to date. 

80 eggs in total laid to date. 

Still not enough weight loss for the eggs so I've reduced the humidity another 2% to 42%.

75 eggs in total laid to date. 

Finally, the last pair to lay have an egg, Pair 9 - Cobalt Cleartail x Blue split Cleartail.

There are eleven eggs in the incubator now and they are all still healthy but they're not losing weight in line with a 15% weight loss from laying weight to hatching weight so I've reduced the hunidity level again to 44%, 6% down from the original setting on March 27.

69 eggs in total laid to date. 

One egg from Pair 18 was transferred to the incubator today and another from Pair 14 due for transfer was found to be infertile at day 14 (photo below).

To give an idea of egg size the photo below shows an egg with a size S leg ring (the size for Ringnecks).

The photo below shows a candled egg from Pair 17 at 21 days.

65 eggs in total laid to date.

All eggs are being weighed on their hatch day and during incubation to monitor weight loss. Below is the digital scale used.

61 eggs in total laid to date.

Though the three pairs yet to lay up to March 27 are still without eggs. To be fair the birds have only been paired together for nine weeks with the boxes opened up just six weeks ago and the hens are still working the nest over and the pairs are bonded. Maybe they will all have fertile eggs and I'll have clear eggs from those birds that were a bit too eager - time will tell.

The eggs in the incubator are doing well. All the embryos are healthy and showing signs of continual vein growth and subsequent weight loss. Heart rates of the embryos measured with the Buddy egg monitor are ranging from 90 to 280 beats per minute (bpm) depending on the age and develpoement of the embryo.

58 eggs in total laid to date.

50 eggs in total laid to date and hopefully 30 or 40 more to go.

Today I set up my new RCOM50 Pro incubator and placed the first batch of eggs inside. I have researched lots of articles on the internet and the common advice is to set the temperature at 37.5 degrees C and humidity at 50%, so that's what I did. The incubator is fully automatic and has a sliding floor to turn the eggs at pre-set intervals and angles.

This is a new experience for me and I'm hoping all goes well with lots of new birds on the perches in a couple of months.

The first seven eggs laid were candled with a Brinsea Ovaview and Ovascope and all showed various levels of fertility. They were then checked for viability with a Buddy egg monitor and all were found to be healthy. This was a nice surprise as two of the pairs were newly introduced due to two of the birds only recently joining my collection.

My new RCOM50 Pro Incubator with eggs in top left corner.

A close-up of the eggs - you can see the unique ID marked on each egg with a pencil.

The incubator's digital display showing the incubator funtion set-up - temperature at 37.5 degrees C, humidity at 51% (set at 50%, variable by 1%), egg turning angle at 90 degrees and at a frequency of 180 minutes.

.

The Brinsea Ovaview & Ovascope (above)

Pair 13 - Turquoise Grey Pallid x Turquoise Pallid laid their first egg so there's only three pairs left to lay any eggs at all.

48 eggs in total to date.

43 eggs in total to date.

Pair 2 - Blue split Cleartail x Turquoise Cobalt split Cleartail

42 eggs in total to date.

Pair 6 - Blue Pallid-Ino x Turquoise Grey Pallid

Pair 8 - Turquoise Grey Pallid-Ino x Turquoise Grey Pallid

Pair 10 - Creamino x Blue Pallid

31 eggs in total to date.

Pair 1 - Cobalt x Violet Blue.

Pair 4 - Turquoise Cleartail x Blue Cleartail.

Pair 16 - Cobalt Grey x Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue.

Pair 14 - Grey Pallid-Ino x TurquoiseBlue Pallid have also laid their fourth egg.

21 eggs in total to date.

17 eggs in total to date.

13 eggs in total to date.

9 eggs in total laid to date.

2 eggs in total to date.

Later than planned due to the bad weather, I have now prepared all the nest boxes and opened them up and the birds went straight in to investigate. The wood mix I use for the nest boxes is three parts untreated wet forest bark and one part dry untreated wood chip. I am lucky in that I have a local supplier that sells the forest bark and it is ideal for the birds as it has large lumps of bark and twigs for them to chew which helps bring the hen come in to breeding condition and because it's wet it aids the need for humidity in the nest box.

I have been told by some breeders that some bark mulch available on the market is treated with chemicals to help it rot. It's then absorbed by the eggs in the box and leads to dead-in-shell chicks. So make sure you use an untreated product.  

Untreated forest bark                                                  Dust free untreated dry wood chip

Finished mix of forest bark and dry wood chip             Nest box filled 100mm to 150mm deep

At last the weather seems to have become a bit milder and I paired all the birds together. I normally pair the birds in November or December but I've left it until now because I didn't want any hens becoming egg bound in the low temperatures we've been experiencing. All the birds are fit and healthy and have come through the worse winter weather for years very well and are now eager to breed. The cocks have been displaying on a daily basis and feeding the hens in the avairy where they are all housed together outside the breeding season. Fingers crossed that the weather continues to improve and the birds have a good season.

We don't often get any significant snow on the South Wales coast but this landed on us overnight and the birds suddenly stopped showing any interest in displaying to potential mates. The front of the aviary is covered with plastic and the snow didn't get in, so the birds are dry but cold as the temeperature is minus 8 degrees C outside and minus 2 degrees C inside the aviary.

Thanks to all my customers and best of luck with your new birds

The breeding season is now over and all chicks have fledged successfully. I've had mixed fortunes with some lovely coloured birds being bred but unfortunately lots of dead in shell chicks from over 100 eggs. I've reviewed my management of the birds and the breeding process and nothing is different to that of the last several years which have been very successful. I have concluded that the late cold winter and early cool dry spring could be to blame. The birds didn't start laying until March/April which is some two to three months later than normal which could be down to the very cold weather in January and February. When eggs were eventually laid humidity levels were very low during incubation and more importantly during the hatching dates. Raised humidity levels are required during the two to three day pipping and hatching period and this didn't appear to occur; I think because of the cool dry weather. Chicks that were pipping the egg shell when examined before I left for work in the morning were dead in shell when I returned home. Other chicks that were only a few days from hatching were suddenly dead in shell. This was probably due to the egg drying out and the chicks being unable to release themselves from the shell as their body contact with the dried out shell had rendered them stuck. As a result of these problems and the unpredictability of the British weather I am seriuosly thinking of purchasing some incubators and artificially hatching next seasons chicks. I haven't done this before and it will be a new experience for me so I am going to consider all the pros and cons before I commit myself. I'll let you know what I decide!

Some of the chicks (at the back) and their parents (at the front) are in the pictures below.

Some of the chicks are now only a week or two away from fledging and include Blue, TurquoiseBlue Pallid, Cobalt Cleartail, Turquoise Grey Cleartail, Albino, Creamino and many other colours.

Creamino

Cinnamon Grey

TurquoiseBlue Pallid

Cobalt Cleartail

Many of the chicks are now sprouting clourful feathers and its a guessing game for a few weeks as to what mutations they are, although some are obvious already like the Turquoise Pallids, Grey Pallids and Creamino in the photos below.

These chicks are between ten and sixteen days old. All bar one now have leg rings. Note the plum red eyes of these chicks which are Pallids.

I now have thirty-one chicks in the nests with 28 eggs about to hatch. Four of the pairs of birds have started laying a second clutch of eggs after I fostered their eggs to other pairs that had either dead in shell chicks or infertile eggs.

Below is a picture of the chicks from a Blue Pallid-Ino cock x Turquoise Grey Pallid hen (pair 6), they are between two and six days old.

The Grey cock x Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue hen (pair 18) unfortunately had five dead in shell eggs and one hatchling from the six eggs in the clutch. I fostered the chick to another pair of birds which was accepted without any problems (the chick above) and now the hen has laid another clutch of four eggs which may yet increase.

I have also fostered fertile eggs from three other pairs. I have done this as the foster parents and the donor parents only had two or three fertile eggs with the rest being infertile so it made sense to increase clutch sizes to four or five eggs and hope that the donor hens would lay another clutch. Fingers crossed!

83 eggs in total laid to date.

80 eggs in total laid to date.

           The first chick of the season hatched today, less than one hour old!

Blue Pallid-Ino cock x Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue hen (pair 16) - first egg laid today.

64 eggs in total laid to date.

Cobalt Grey, split Cleartail cock x Blue, split Cleartail hen (pair 8) - first egg laid today.

Cobalt Grey, split Cleartail ?? cock x Blue, split Cleartail hen (pair 9) - first egg laid today.

TurquoiseBlue Lacewing-Ino cock x Albino hen (pair 15) - first egg laid today.

Egg 1 from Cobalt cock x Violet hen (pair 1) was seven days past its expected hatch date and a check with the egg monitor revealed that the previously fertile, healthy embryo was now dead (known as dead in shell). The photos below show the egg and dead chick. I'm hoping the remaining two eggs are still viable. However, I have fostered these two eggs to another pair to incubate in the hope that the Cobalt/Violet pair will lay another clutch. They are a two years old first time breeding pair so the fact that the eggs were fertile is a plus.

Egg with dark shadows inside the shell,             Chick and yolk sac still attched to the shell.         Developed chick a few days from hatching, typical of dead in shell.                                                                                                                    note the yolk sac and the egg tooth.

However, the first egg laid on 16 March by pair 13 was infertile and was removed. I then opened the egg and photographed it to show what they look like.

Grey Cleartail cock x Grey, split Cleartail hen (pair 11) - first egg laid today.

30 eggs in total laid to date.

Creamino cock x Blue Pallid hen (pair 14) - first egg laid today.

Four other pairs have also laid additional eggs. I will start checking the eggs for signs of fertility in the next few days using the Buddy egg monitor. To see how it works check out the link on the links page.

24 eggs in total laid to date.

Grey Pallid-Ino cock x TurquoiseBlue Pallid hen (pair 5) - first egg laid today.

19 eggs in total laid to date. 

This pair will produce some lovely colours such as Cobalt, Turquoise Cobalt as well as Cleartail in Turquoise, Blue, Turquoise Grey, Cobalt and Turquoise Cobalt - fingers crossed.

Blue cock x Blue hen (pair 13) now have three eggs.

Grey cock x Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue hen (pair 18) now have four eggs.

Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue hen

Another other egg was laid by an experienced Cinnamon TurquoiseBlue hen paired with a Grey cock (pair 18).

This is the first egg laid in 2010 

Violet hen (back), Cobalt cock (front)