Baby Bourke Parakeet April, 2017 Update

2017 Baby Bourkes for sale,
hand fed and very tame.

All the photos in this post are of young Bourke Parakeets from the first clutch of Pretty Boy and Rosie, or from Stormy and Peaches. Rosie hatched three Rosy Bourkes from four eggs;   Peaches hatched five of her six eggs, producing three Rosy Bourkes, two normals (wild color) and one lutino. Although Stormy is a normal Bourke, he carries a gene for lutino from his father, a lutino Bourke.

Normal 2017 Baby Bourke,
hand fed and for sale.

One of two Normal Bourke Babies
Hand fed and very tame.

Flame and Fuchsia are our oldest pair of Bourke Parakeets.  She always lays five eggs per clutch and in the past usually hatched and raised them all. However, last year none of her eggs were fertile. This year, she's not had much success either. But, she does make a wonderful surrogate mother.

Young Opaline Rosy Bourke,
a tame swinger.

Our newest hen, Bella, a normal, laid four infertile eggs. Then, in her second clutch she had two fertile eggs out of four. They both hatched. However, the first baby died and it appears to me that it was not fed. Sometimes young, inexperienced hens do that... Sad, but true.

So, when the 2nd egg hatched two days later, I removed the baby and gave it to Fuchsia who is sitting on her usual five eggs. Some might be fertile in this, her 2nd clutch, but they haven't hatched yet. I candled them and removed one that was definitely fertile and replaced it with Bella's baby. I'm confident that Fuchsia will raise this little fuzzy creature and will probably have saved its life.

2017 Opaline Rosy Bourke,
tame and for sale.

I've been hand feeding those eight babies from the two clutches so they will be very tame. Each one is beginning to eat on its own and will be ready to go to a new home very soon. We're located on the south coast of Oregon near Coos Bay.  Sorry, but we are not currently shipping birds.

Below is Rosy Bird's Latest Video:

PEACE & BLESSINGS EVERYONE!

Bourke Parakeet Baby Update

The last clutches of baby Bourkes from this summer have all gone to their new homes ... all 14 of them. Earlier clutches from these two and others were sold and gone before these babies arrived.

 

Rosie and Pretty Boy's 3rd Clutch of 2015

 



The same clutch from above, now out of the nest
and ready to sell to other bird lovers.



These four are from Fuchsia and Flame's 3rd Clutch.

Here are Fuchsia and Flame's four, all out of the nest
 and able to go to new homes. Miss them already.

 

One little lady, Peaches, is two years old and on her first clutch ever. She is a pretty Pink Opaline Fallow, red-eyed hen. Her mate, Stormy, is a Normal whose father was a Lutino (yellow and pink). If her eggs are fertile and hatch, it will be interesting to see what they look like.

 

I bought Stormy a few months ago and he only hatched last January. He's very young to be a father. If their mating was successful and the eggs hatch, I will watch very closely to be sure all the babies are adequately fed. Sometimes young fathers aren't very good at it ... yet, he's feeding his mate and that's a good sign. If necessary, I'll help with feeding the new hatchlings.

Will keep you updated on this late-in-the-year clutch.

May all your birds thrive.
Peace and Blessings.

 

 

Hand Feeding Baby Rosy Bourke Parakeets, and a Link to Video with Tips & Tricks

Hand feed, or allow parents to feed?

Four newly hatched Rosy Bourke Parakeets.
Best to wait and allow the parents to feed them
until the young are about two weeks of age.

These two hand fed birds are learning to eat on their own.
Offer lots of choices for them, especially spray millet.

Bourke Parakeets are easier than most birds to hand tame while young. Even those left in a cage all the time will become quite friendly, coming up to the cage bars when you talk to them.

If you can hand feed your baby birds, however, they will become remarkable pets, sweeter and more affectionate than those that are hand tamed. It is labor intensive and requires a great deal of care.

Click below for Video on You Tube of me hand feeding Rosy Bourke babies:  

HAND FEEDING VIDEO - TIPS AND TRICKS

Two hand fed baby Rosy Bourke Parakeets.

Mother Rosy Bourke in nest box with her youngsters.

Four Baby Rosy Bourkes being parent fed.



Rosy Bourke Fosters Another's Baby At 18 Days of Age

So many things to post about and so little time. 

There really are five baby Bourkes in this photo.
Red-eyed baby is laying in front of the two in back.

Our Rosy Bourke, called Rosie, is the sweetest of birds. She and Fuchsia were both on their 3rd clutch of the year and I didn't want them to begin laying more eggs even before their current clutch had fledged ... just knew they would. To prevent that, I removed their youngsters to hand feed and took the nest boxes off their cages.

 

I'd been hand feeding their babies for a day and a half when the unexpected happened. It looked like my husband was having a stroke and I called 911 for an ambulance. Fortunately, it wasn't a stroke, it's Bel's Palsy, which most people recover from in a few weeks ... thank you, Lord.

 

However, Wednesday morning proved very chaotic. I had to follow to the hospital. What to do with the hand fed babies!? It seemed highly possible that they might fly my husband to a larger city than our rural community. Even if they didn't, under no circumstances would I get home in time to keep feeding the baby Bourkes. We live a half hour drive one-way to the hospital as it is. I wouldn't leave him and commute back and forth while he was in danger.

 

As they loaded him into the ambulance he asked if I'd be following. "As soon as I can," I said. Then raced around the house making sure the dog and cat had plenty of extra food and water. Fortunately, I'd already freshened all the birds' waters, but I added extra water bottles to all the cages and gave them all two sprays of millet (that was fastest).

 

Still, what about the babies?

Hand feeding baby birds, I change their box each time
they're fed. Throw out the paper towel liner, and allow
pine shavings under them to dry from droppings that
soak through the towels. A clean box at each feeding.

Fuchsia's nest box uses plastic cables to attach it to her cage and my husband puts it up while I hold the box ... not a quick fix.

 

I decided to trust my sweetest bird, Rosie. Her box has two hooks that allow it to quickly hang from the side, easy to install. I sliced through half the duct tape covering the hole where her nest box had hung and folded it back like a door. Then put the box back on. It hadn't been cleaned yet, but that wasn't much of an issue.

 

The real issue was, will they re-accept their young after almost two days absence? And, more worrisome, Will Rosie and Pretty Boy accept a foster baby that is already 18 days old? Not even a newly hatched chick?  Not only do they need to feed it, they need to not "savage" it as an intruder in their nest ... a potential risk.

 

Yet, it appeared to be my best option and I put all five babies into Rosie's nest box.

 

No one was home at our house from early Wednesday morning until late Wednesday evening after my husband was released from the hospital. I immediately checked the babies. All five were stuffed full and contented. 

 

What a wonderful bird is Rosie, our Rosy Bourke hen!  And, what a grateful diagnosis for my husband. He may be very uncomfortable for several weeks, but it isn't life threatening. God is good.

 

I still want to post photos of the two pretty baby Linnies we've had for two weeks now ... that post is coming up next, I hope. If things will only slow down a bit, smile. 

Peace & Blessings.

 

Rosy Bourke's Second Clutches From Three Hens

Hello All and Welcome,

The second clutches of the season are doing well. Flame and Fuchsia have four offspring, one with red eyes.

Flame & Fuchsia's 2nd clutch of four.
They raised three in their first clutch this year.

Rosie and Pretty Boy hatched two of four eggs. One offspring has red eyes.

Our tame Rosie with her two babies.
She raised three in her first clutch this year.

Rhett and Cherry have one new baby and three eggs yet to hatch (hopefully).

This is Cherry, our oldest hen and not tame.
She is covering one new baby and three eggs.
She and Rhett raised two babies in their 1st clutch this year.

Peace and Blessings.

May all your eggs hatch and all your baby birds grow strong, healthy and beautiful!

The newest member of our household, Skoshi-san.
He's a "Sheik" -- Peke and Shih-Tzu.

Rosie Rosy Bourke and Her Baby Bourkes

Rosie is eager to escape from her brood of three and take a bath.

Rosie, happy to grab a bath.

Rosie's mate, on my husband, wants to
participate but is hesitant.
Rosie never hesitates.

A Spa moment without the kids.
"Take me away."
Cool and refreshing.

She also appreciates help with feeding her babies since her mate, Pretty Boy, isn't keeping up with the feeding ritual. He's younger than she is. A little help from us is appreciated.

Rosie steps out of her nest box. She's eating the extra
Exact Handfeeding Formula I give to hand fed baby birds.
She was hand fed and is used to it. It's easier than getting "milk"
from her mate and feeding the kids. It's ready immediately
and she stuffs her little ones with it.
Pretty Boy hasn't been totally dependable.

When I hand feed the current six, I give some to Rosie too. She, in turn, feeds it to her three who are fat little rascals.

Rosie's three babies are growing. The oldest is much
bigger than the other two. The unhatched egg was
probably between them, meaning these two are 2 and 4
days younger than their older sibling.

Happy Bird Raising with Peace & Blessings.

HAND REARING PARAKEETS, Question and Answer



These are the two youngest of five babies in Fuchsia's clutch.
She may look like she's willing to feed her baby, but she's
really stealing a bite of the Exact formula for herself.

Mandy Asked: "Hello, just another question for you if you don't mind answering. I took a 3 week old baby bourke out of her nest on saturday (today is thursday). She is one of three but her mother stopped feeding her, she is quite fluffy with her feathers coming in slowly, however, checked on her siblings today and they are fully feathered,looking like bourke's. Is there something I am doing wrong as to why she is not growing as quickly being hand fed as apposed to parent fed?"

My Answer:  If there's no physical problem, I'd guess the baby may not be getting enough to eat, is not consistently warm enough, or both.

Perhaps your baby is the youngest in the clutch and therefore slower? Hopefully, the reason the mother quit feeding it is not because it had a physical problem. I have one that I'm still feeding twice a day after more than a year because it can’t adequately eat on its own. It has remained slightly smaller than most Bourkes, but it's too sweet to consider putting down. It also eats slowly compared to healthy babies. It doesn't "guzzle" its food. Does yours? Guzzling is a healthy sign.

When you started hand feeding this youngster, did you try returning it to its mother to keep it warm? Some hens will accept the baby and keep it warm even though they don't feed it. Others, push them aside. It's easier for you if Mama keeps the baby warm, but risky at first if you don't watch them closely and retrieve them if necessary. Sounds like you're past that place, however.

Just fed with a very full crop.

View from above shows full crop extending over the shoulders.

Rotund crop from below. Wait until almost empty
before feeding again. At this age, feed again in
about four hours.

Parents literally stuff their babies so full they look like they will burst. We need to do the same thing with hand fed babies. They are rarely full when we think they are. If the baby stops eating before its crop looks like it could burst ... protruding in all directions like an over inflated basketball ... then perhaps the food has cooled too much, too fast.

They like it warm. Not hot, but very warm. Exact Hand Feeding Formula has directions that give the degree range. It's a good idea to start this way until you're familiar with what temp feels right. They say about 105 degrees Farenheit or (102 to 110). For one bird I mix one teaspoon of Exact into two teaspoons of boiling water, stirring until it's cool enough to feed. I test it on the underside of my wrist like you’d test human baby formula.

Try to use a very small container for the food, one that holds heat. (Goodwill and Thrift Stores have an assortment). You can also sit the small container in a bowl of very hot (nearly boiling) water to keep the bowl of food warm. Be careful not to slop more water into your food mix.

Healthy babies "guzzle" down the food from an eye dropper very quickly, so feeding only one baby should make it easy to finish feeding before the food cools too much. I assume you're using an eye dropper. If not, you should.

How often are you feeding the baby? I'm feeding my current clutch four to five times a day, about every four hours. Newly hatched chicks need to be checked every two hours and fed if the their crop is empty. For the first week of life, I get up twice a night, then drop it to once a night at age two weeks. After that, I sleep through the night and feed them only during the day (but I don’t sleep in).

Are you keeping your baby warm enough? Dry enough? Accumulated droppings are wet and cold, so clean the box every time you feed them. Mine have pine shavings under paper towels. The paper towels absorb droppings and get tossed each time the babies are fed.

Box on table above a heat source. Notice they can move
closer or farther from the heat as they need to. Box is
closed when they are not being fed.

I put an electric oil heater near (not under) my box of babies to be sure they stay warm. The box is long enough that they can move toward or away from the heat source. Also, I've learned to feed more than one at a time. That way they help keep each other warm. Even though our home is 70 to 74 degrees inside this time of year, at night I use the heater. I don't use it except for hand fed babies. Otherwise, their mother keeps them warm enough.

Good luck. I hope your little one grows up to bond with you as a healthy, loving and affectionate pet.

Fuchsia at bowl and Flame on my hand. These two babies
aren't theirs, but they treat all four alike - with disinterest.
They're still feeding the three left in their nestbox, but seem
satisfied to let me take over on the two youngest and the
two shown here from another pair's clutch.  Their main
interest is in the "delicious" Exact Hand Feeding Formula.
These two parents were hand fed babies themselves a little
over a year ago.

Peace & Blessings

ROSY BOURKE FLEDGED BABIES AND FEEDING TIME

Rhett and Cherry's three youngsters at upper left. Rosie and Pretty Boy's
two babies, one at far right and pink-eyed youngster at lower left.

Five young Rosie Bourkes are ready to leave home. Haven't offered them to pet shops yet, but will soon. They are from two clutches. Makes Flame and Fuchsia's five babies a bit more remarkable. Those five are all growing and doing well. Imagine seven birds in the cage though. Perhaps tomorrow, I'll remove some to hand feed, along with Cherry and Rhett's second clutch. Those parents are getting on in years and can use the extra help.

Flame and Fuchsia accept some Exact handfeeding formula.
With five babies to feed, they can use this help. The bird in the
center is Pipsqueek, who still requires handfeeding over a year
after fledging. She isn't able to feed herself due to some
physical handicap.

Dad, Flame, is on my hand. Mom, Fuchsia, has her head in the bowl
Pipsqueek (or Pip) is eating from the eyedropper.

These birds bring me such JOY!

Peace and Blessings!

Bird Leg Deformities

If you missed the comment question at the end of the previous post, here it is with my answer:

“Hi Gail! I am about to get a baby Bourke's - I've had tiels and doves and others (some handicapped) for the last 30+ years, but have never had a Bourke. This baby is special, having a leg apparently splayed to the rear. If I could post a photo, I would... apart from offering flat perches, etc. do you have any advice to offer? Have you ever seen a defect/deformity of this type? The baby does attempt to use the leg/foot."

Answer: I once had a Budgie who lost a leg to a cat. She managed to live out a long life by standing on one leg and did okay. She could fly and land on a perch one-legged. Animals are amazingly adaptable. If your bird seems to fall off perches, then a low perch is wise, or possibly a flat shelf. Bourkes are sweet little birds and yours should make a nice pet in spite of the deformity.

 








That said, here is another possibility. See the photos sent to me early last year by Debbie in San Diego. This baby Splendid parakeet had a problem that was possibly worse than your Bourke’s. Look at the solution Debbie in San Diego devised. It seemed to work for this baby.

Debbie wrote:

“Scarlet is still doing great. She is now in a big cage and has most of her feathers. She has even made a few attempts at fluttering around. The splint is off. The first two days I wasn’t sure if it had worked. Her legs seemed weak and she sat down often, but after two days she gained strength and now all is good. The various perches in her cage are low and she climbs all over them. I am still feeding her, but she also plays around in the food bowls.”

Perhaps your bird might benefit from something similar, or perhaps it will use the muscles in its leg and over time recover on its own. It sounds as though it may have laid incorrectly in the nest in such a way that it caused the leg to splay outward. Pine shavings help to avoid this. Or, maybe it's something else entirely.

Best of luck with your young Bourke.

Birds and Their Feathers: Selecting a Healthy Bird

Healthy Splendid Parakeets, Rainbow & Jewel.

When selecting a bird to add to your flock or as a pet…There is much to be learned by examining a bird’s feathers since feathers are a good indication of a bird’s health and well-being. Molting is a normal process where feathers are periodically lost and replaced with new plumage. I’ll attempt to identify the difference between a molt and when something might be wrong with the bird, such as disease or malnutrition.

One-week Rosie Bourke babies, pink tipped feathers
just starting to show.

Budgerigar parakeets (budgies) appear bald when they hatch. Bourkes and Splendids both have “natal down” covering them. Like any chick, it’s wet at first hatch, but quickly dries to become fluffy. These are actually downy feathers, those that provide added warmth by underlying the larger outside feathers in mature birds. A baby bird’s feathers begin to form in the follicles as the bird grows. These appear as darkened areas under the skin that are easier to see in larger birds than in small parakeets such as Budgies, Bourkes, Splendids and other small members of the avian family.

Feathers gradually protrude through the skin, encased in a sheath. The fuzzy tips of feathers soon begin to show through the end of the sheath. If you are raising Bourkes and have a mixed pair (one Rosie and one Normal), you can begin to recognize their future color at this stage. Rosies will show their pink at the ends of feather sheaths on their backs one to two weeks after hatching. You’ll also know their sex since color is sex-linked in Bourkes. Hens from mixed parents will be the color of their father. Males will be the color of their mother.

Rosie Bourke babies with some down still present.
No stress bars on them. Lines are color and fade as they mature.

Until their first molt, most young birds have the same color plumage as the hens of their species. This is especially true of Splendids. Males develop their scarlet chest after their first molt. However, even the rose color in Bourke males’ deepens and seems to become richer as they mature.

Sexing Baby Splendids: Although young Splendid parakeets look like mom at first, you can lift their wings and look for white bars on the bottom of their wings to help determine males from females. The undersides of the wings of adult Splendid males are all black. Youngsters with white bars (or stripes) under their wings are female. However, some have broken white bars and that makes identification trickier since they could be either sex. In my clutches, however, the hens have had solid white bars and the broken white-barred babies grew up to be males that later filled in with black after their first molt.

Close up of healthy feathers on a Rosie Bourke.

Healthy feather development requires adequate nutrition. If there is a disruption in the absorption of nutrients when the feathers are developing, stress bars may appear on the feathers. In this case, feathers may be a normal length, but with a line across them where areas on each of the shafts are empty of the colorful pieces that poke out and lock together. This can be caused by digestive disturbances, pro-longed periods of chilling, or the bird not being fed enough as the feathers were developing. They can appear as dark lines or white lines, depending on the color of the feathers.

If only one or two feathers have these bare areas, they are probably not stress bars. This can happen when a feather sheath isn’t preened off soon enough. What you need to watch for are continuous lines of stress bars.

Yet, a bird with stress bars may since have recovered and be healthy. If it's healthy, replacement feathers won't have the stress bars. If it is a bird you’re considering purchasing, you might want to wait and watch, skip that bird and look for another, or have the bird evaluated by an avian veterinarian before purchasing it.

Molting is caused when feathers are pushed out by new feathers coming in below them. A bird should never have bald spots because of a molt, and most birds molt the same feathers on both sides. The easiest way to recognize a molting bird is the feather sheaths you will see at the wings, tail or head. Lone birds will have more trouble preening these off than if you have a friendly pair. They will help preen areas for each other that they cannot reach, for instance, the top of their heads.

Damaged feathers also occur if birds fly into things, or from over handling. See my articles on safety.

As always, looks at the bird's eyes. They should be shiny and alert. Not half closed or watery. Also, inspect the bird’s vent. If feces have gathered there, the feathers around the vent are wet and/or soiled, that’s a bird to avoid as it may be ill. You don’t want to introduce that bird to your other birds. New birds, even apparently very healthy birds, should be quarantined for ten or more days before introduction to your others. If at any time, one of your birds appears ill, address the problem promptly and keep it separated from your others to avoid spreading the problem.

Bird Shows – Also Buying Birds

In my previous Blog I promised Noah to talk a bit about my experience at bird shows. They are exciting and lots of fun. However, it’s a good idea to know how to reach the breeders/sellers after the show. Most have business cards, pamphlets, or something. If not, ask for a contact number and hope it’s real. You should recognize healthy birds and avoid those that seem lethargic. Expect healthy birds to be active, or at least responsive to you when you approach or talk to them, they should have dry vents and clear, alert eyes ...

The best price I’ve ever found on cages was at a bird show. I’ve since ordered more online, but shipping costs made them more expensive than from the bird show, and they were exactly the same. Boxes of California millet at the show were also more reasonable than from our local Grange. And, the quality was better.

When I decided to raise birds again, I investigated varieties that I’d not previously owned. Bourkes were said to be quiet, peaceful parakeets in addition to being beautiful. That won me over. I started looking for breeders, but none were close. However, there was an annual bird show in Hillsboro, Oregon and they listed Bourkes as a variety being offered. It was a 4-hour drive for us, but it turned out to be well worth the trip.

Our first bird show wasn’t as huge as others I saw in Ohio, but there were a lot of bird dealers present with all kinds of birds. The number of finches was particularly impressive. There were also lots of parakeets, and at least three people had Bourkes for sale. The one thing I never saw at any of the Hillsboro shows was a Scarlet-chested, or Splendid, parakeet.

The best-priced Bourkes were offered by an elderly woman from northern Washington near the Canadian border. A friendly male Bourke came right up to the side of the cage when I talked to him, so he was my first pick.

The friendly hen I selected at the show apparently had the same color band as the male indicating she was a close relative. So, she stayed and the woman pointed out another hen she was certain was unrelated. I took her and named the pair Rhett & Scarlett.

Scarlett turned out to be a wonderfully sweet bird, but not very robust. In her too short lifetime, she produced only one baby, Bonnie. However, she fostered another bird’s egg and when a hen rejected a newly hatched chick, I gave it to Scarlett whose infertile eggs were close to a hatch date. She fostered the baby … something that’s not supposed to happen. As I said, she was a very sweet bird. Yet, fostering that baby wore her down and she died before the baby was fully weaned. Rhett finished feeding it. Although elderly, Rhett is still with us and still producing!

A year after buying Rhett & Scarlett, I chanced to see an ad in our local shopper for Exotic birds and called to see if they might have Bourkes. Turned out that she had individual pairs of many kinds of birds, and Bourkes were one of them. I bought the Rosy pair and her only pair of Splendids. Later, I had an opportunity to buy two Normal hens from a bird store that was going out of business.

The Rosy male was quite a singer, so I called him Bing (as in Crosby). His mate became Cherry. They did not reproduce, so he acquired a Normal hen, dubbed Stella (a variety of cherry tree). Bing and Stella became champion producers and very tame, wonderful birds! As we’ve discussed before, all their Normal offspring were males and all their Rosies were hens. The males were the brown wild shade like their mother and the Rosy hens were dark pink like their father.

After Scarlett died, Rhett acquired Willow, the other Normal hen. He fed her and wooed her, but they never reproduced. Eventually, Willow found a mate with Bing, Jr. and they’ve done remarkably well at producing beautiful babies. Although Bing, Jr. is a Normal Bourke, as is Willow, their daughters have all been Rosies, and all the Normals have been males. He has to be heterozygous.

As Willow transitioned to Bing Jr., lonely Cherry went into Rhett’s cage. It was love at first sight, even if Cherry is a bit bossy. They have produced quite a few beautiful Rosies and Rhett’s sweet nature over-shadows Cherry’s pushy personality.

Wanting to add new blood to my lines, a few years later I made another trip to Hillsboro for the annual bird show there. I bought a beautiful Rosy Bourke male to put with Bonnie (actually not the first Bonnie who died young like her mother. This one is out of Rhett & Cherry). He became Clyde, and they’ve done well together.

That same trip, I also bought a white faced pair with pink eyes. They were a mistake. I bought them from the same woman I bought my first young pair from. She said she simply wanted to downsize her flock, but I suspect these were not two-year-old birds like she said. They had not interest in breeding and within the first year, the hen was dead on the floor. The male moved to an aviary elsewhere in trade for a Splendid hen. He did reproduce for that person, however, and I actually have a male Bourke out of that union … another trade.

So, maybe the buy wasn’t too terrible, as I ultimately got a Splendid hen from it. She mated with a son of Merlin & Millet, my first Splendids. That union produced three more sons, however, the hen died of egg binding with her second clutch. So sad. Merlin & Millet’s son, Rainbow, has had two other hens since then, but all eggs have been infertile.

In the past two years, poor economy has caused the Hillsboro bird show to be cancelled. With the price of gasoline so high, fewer people attended and many out-of-area sellers weren’t willing to make the trip to Portland, Oregon any longer.

***

The single baby photos are of our most recent addition, Band #25 for 2010, out of Chitter and Bella. As an aside, Chitter is the father of three clutches (8 babies) with Brandy, and an earlier clutch of three with Candy. All of Brandy’s babies had to be removed and handfed because of one death and injuries to other babies. He was my first suspect. However, no harm has come to this little one. Is Bella more protective? Or, was it Brandy who was guilty all along? If she has a clutch with her new mate, Rory, we shall see. I’m monitoring Chitter’s offspring, and later will monitor Brandy’s offspring very closely. Don't want to lose any.

Shared the photo of Australian parrots just because they're pretty and added a lot of color. Smile.

Peace & Blessings!

That's the Way the Egg Rolls...

Or, don't count your birds before they hatch...  Smile.

Sugar & Spice's third clutch of three eggs was fertile, but did not hatch. She stayed with them long after they should have hatched and I left her alone until she abandoned them herself. Opening the eggs, the babes were about half developed. Did they get cold one night because she was frightened off them? I keep a night light on so that won't happen. They could always find their way back. Who knows what caused it, I don't. It is, however, very disappointing ... most of all for her. Poor mama, she's never raised any babies.

On a happier note, one of Bella's two eggs has hatched! The other is due to hatch today or tomorrow and hopefully will. She, too, has had two clutches that did not hatch. Her first two were infertile. So, I moved her mate, Rory, to another hen who needed a rest between clutches and put successful, Chitter, in with Bella. He got the job done! Hurray!

It's unusual for a hen to only lay two eggs. She laid a third, but it was very tiny. Realizing it wasn't any good, she pushed it away. I have no idea why they sometimes lay tiny eggs, but that's better than when they have one too large to pass and egg binding is the result. (There's more on egg-binding in previous posts).

We have to watch this pair very closely. If you've been following this blog, you will remember that one pair were prone to injuring their young and their babies had to be pulled and handfed. I moved each of the parents to other mates. This is the male, Chitter, from that pair. Is Chitter the "bad" parent?  He successfully raised three babies in another household with a different hen before I acquired him.

The potentially "bad" hen's history is different. She also had a clutch in another household (not the same place) with a different mate. Only one egg hatched, and that baby died too. I didn't see it, so I don't know if it was savaged or died a natural death. If she is successful with the so-far unsuccessful Rory, she will have to be watched too. More so, if Chitter successfully raises his clutch with Bella.

After years of raising Bourkes, to find a "bad" parent is very unusual and highly unlikely. Most are very attentive and sweet-natured birds. I'm eager to see which one of the two it was, as there were no other birds in their cage with them.

Bella, on the other hand, is fiercely protective of her eggs and baby. Just peek into her nest box as I just did, and she scolds and hisses. Many of my hens are so used to me that I can pick them up and look under them if I want to, and they don't get at all flustered.

Bird at Left:  "Somebody tried to help catch me who isn't an experienced bird person. They grabbed and I got away, but lost my tail! It will grow back, but now they call me Stumpy!" Frown.

P.S. Although Stumpy's photo was taken today, the photo above is of Bonnie, not Bella. Since this is Bella's first successful clutch it's understandable that she's wary of intrusion into her nest box. I'm being very careful with her.  Bonnie is an experienced mom and accepts my "visits" as routine  and no big deal. Smile.

Peace & Blessings,

and if you put all your eggs in the same basket, may they all hatch anyway!

Breakfast for Babies

Time for breakfast.

These youngsters are eating on their own, but the youngest still begs to be fed. To keep him healthy, he gets two feedings of Exact Handfeeding Formula a day now, but also has nestling food and other seed available.

As long as the youngest is being fed, the other two like some special attention too. I make enough so that they can share. Mostly they sample some, then fly to my shoulder or arm. Then walk around the table and finally come back for another taste or two.

If I put my finger under their breast, they step up. I move them to my face to talk to them, and they will nibble the tip of my nose. I believe that's a sign of affection...very sweet.  I love birds.