Friday, June 1, 2012

Bourke Parakeet and Lady Gouldian Updates

After downsizing, now only three cages in the living room.
Rosie is in the top cage. The two lower cages with nestboxes
belong to 2011 hens. They haven't done anything yet.

Four cages in the nook off the kitchen. Fuchsia and Flame on top left.
Rhett and Cherry below. Gouldians are in the cage at lower right.
Pink-eyed, white-faced Bachelor in upper right needs a
special mate. Hoping for a Lutino.
Our three oldest Rosy Bourke hens each have two eggs with more to come. It will be interesting to see when they hatch because Fuchsia and Cherry are not staying on their eggs yet. However, Rosie began staying fluffed up and in the nest box as soon as she laid her first egg.

Setting on the eggs does affect their hatch date...18 to 21 days is typical. I'm betting Rosie's will begin hatching at 18 days and every other day thereafter. Fuchsia and Cherry's will be slightly delayed depending upon when they begin to keep them warm.


Duke Daddy-bird on his Lady Gouldian eggs. He gives
Duchess a break periodically throughout the day.
She is always the only one in the nest at night, however.

Our Lady Gouldian finches don't provide us with many opportunities to see their eggs. He goes into the box before she comes out and vice versa. However, I decided to move Rosie's cage, which had been above the Gouldians, into the living room. In doing that, Rosie remained on her eggs, but the Lady Gouldian fled the box to see what was going on. It gave me a chance to look inside. She has seven (7) eggs. She didn't set on them until all were laid and they should all hatch the same day. I expect that to happen next week, June 6-8.


Fuchsia on two eggs with more expected. She's hand fed,
very tame, and  her first year 2011 she and Flame produced
more young in a year than any of our other Bourkes ever have.

Rosie, who looks just like Fuchsia, is also on two eggs.
Although hand fed because her own mother was dreadful,
she is a great little mother. She is our sweetest bird,
very friendly and affectionate. Mated to dark pink Pretty Boy.

Cherry is a grandmother and great grandmother many times over.
She takes this whole business in stride. Although not hand fed
like Rosie and Fuchsia, she is not afraid of anything.  It's all
"old stuff" to her. She and Rhett are wonderful parents.

Peace & Blessings Everyone!

2 comments:

daily dose said...

how are you able to sex the Rosies? Appreciate the advice! I have a Rosy, and I've always been curious. My avian vet said a breeder would be able to better tell than he would! lol.

Gail A. Lewis said...

Hello daily dose,
There are lots of posts on this site about sexing Bourkes. Enter "sexing" in the search box and you'll get a list of lots of them. Here is a link to just one:

http://thesplendidbourkebirdblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/sexing-bourkes.html