March Hello about Bourkes

Hi All,  Sorry I've been away for a month ... so much going on. Too many trips out of town.

Rosy Bourke Parakeet, Fuchsia, on five eggs

We gave in to birdie demands and put nest boxes up a bit earlier than usual. Three hens have fertile eggs: Fuchsia, Rosie and Peaches.

Rosie, on four eggs. She is a Rosy Bourke Parakeet hen.

Peaches on six eggs. She's an Opaline Fallow Rosy Bourke.

Bella is on four infertile eggs, but she's new at this.

Bella on four eggs that can't hatch
because they're infertile.

Blossom and her mate have not ventured into the nest box yet. They're a new couple too, so we are hopeful they will soon take advantage of the nest box.

Songster in front and his hen, Blossom, behind him.
Songster is an Opaline Fallow and Blossom is a Lutino.

We have two lovely Lutino hens that need mates. Sunny is a mature girl from outside our flock, but none of our guys will have anything to do with her. All found mates elsewhere. Can't imagine why. She's very pretty and sweet.

Sunny, a mature Lutino Bourke Parakeet hen.

Starfire is a tame daughter from Peaches and Stormy. She's too young to mate, but doesn't have a fella waiting in the wings yet either. Tee-hee.

Sweet Starfire is a Lutino hen from Peaches & Stormy.
She is young, only hatched last year. 

With this many hens, we should limit how many clutches the gals have this year. Every year I'm fearful we won't be able to sell all the babies, that we will have more offspring than people interested in them. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet.

Eventually two or three of these pairs will find new homes. We still hope to have only four tame pairs, but it's difficult to part with any of them. Sometime down the road, we need to have a large indoor aviary in a room where the lights can go out early so they won't be stimulated to want to breed, giving them all an early retirement. But, I do love seeing the miracle of new life each Spring. So wonderful.

Even though we should downsize, I still hope to find a mate for Starfire and keep those two! For now, she's my favorite. All the older, original birds, will always remain with us too. Love them all. Smile.

Peace & Blessings!

May all your eggs hatch and your birds stay healthy and happy. 

You stay healthy and happy too!

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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.

Candling Eggs To Verify Fertility - A Better Way

Lady Gouldian hen on seven eggs due to hatch.

I have found a better way to candle eggs.

It's rare that my pair of Lady Gouldian finches are ever both out of the nest at the same time. However, when the sound of the vacuum cleaner made the hen leave her nest for a few moments, it was long enough for me to snatch a peek at her eggs. I used my new method of candling for the first time and found it worked wonderfully and I didn't even have to touch an egg.

In the past, I've shown eggs being candled using the center of a toilet paper roll, duct tape and a flashlight. This works, but you have to pick up the egg, place it over the hole in the duct tape, view it with the light shining through the tube, then put the egg back in the nest. The procedure is repeated for multiple eggs, and there is a certain degree of risk to each egg.

The light attached to my Kindle above is
bright and works perfectly for egg candling.
The flexible  neck can snake around to any
side of a clutch without moving the eggs.

As a new Kindle owner, I bought a light for my Kindle in case our electricity goes out. It's something to do in the dark. When the "Mighty Bright" light arrived, with its flexible neck, it occurred to me that it should work well for candling eggs. I used it in the finch nest and it was wonderful. I didn't have to touch or disturb the eggs and could immediately see that, YES, they are fertile!  Hurray!

I bought this light from Amazon.com and it was relatively inexpensive. I'm very pleased with it.

The photos below are actually of infertile Bourke eggs from last year that I kept in the refrigerator. I like to share them with children who visit. Since my Bourkes are not being allowed to reproduce yet this year, I did a mock-up to show the "Mighty Bright" light to you and how well it works. I'd like to have a photo of it candling the finch eggs, but who knows when an opportunity will arise without having to chase the finch parents off their nest. I'm being more careful with them than I need to be with the other birds. My parakeets are used to me being nosy. Smile. 

Peace & Blessings!



REPLACING NEST BOXES FOR BREEDING SEASON

Hello All,

Eight home made parakeet nest boxes after a good cleaning.

Dry and ready to bring inside. Installation was the next day.

I retrieved all our nest boxes from the basement where they’d been stored since last year, shook out a few mouse turds (frown) then brought them up to the laundry room and thoroughly cleaned them with warm sudsy liquid dish detergent. 

After a good rinse, they spent the afternoon on the deck drying in the sun, as the photo illustrates. The sun is beginning to drop on the horizon and the nest boxes, now dry, are about to come indoors. The next day we installed them on cages. An inch or two of pine shavings covers the bottom of our boxes. Bourkes and Splendids like pine shavings (don't use cedar).

Budgies need an indented circle in the bottom of an empty box for their eggs. We're not currently raising Budgies, so all these nest boxes are for Bourkes or Scarlet-chested parakeets.

It’s important to keep an eye on your hens when they’re laying. We’d planned a trip to Chicago during the month of May and I didn’t want our hens laying eggs when I wasn’t at home. This resulted in putting the nest boxes up late this year.



Jewel's new box. It sometimes takes a few days
for birds to investigate a recently installed nest box.
Usually the male checks it out first to be sure it's safe.

 Even though I had someone who would come in each day to provide them with fresh water and food, I wanted to be present during breeding season. If anything unusual were to happen, such as egg-binding, I could recognize and respond to the problem and, hopefully, save a hen’s life. It’s also a good idea to check your nestlings daily. If for some reason a chick isn’t being fed, you can pull the chick and save it with hand feeding.

As you know, having a nest box stimulates the bird’s desire to breed and rear young. Without a nest box, they usually won’t attempt to reproduce. However, like every rule, there are exceptions. One year, I had one female lay her eggs in a food cup in early February.  She has since learned to wait for me to put up a box. I think she realizes that if she waits, one will eventually materialize.

This box slides open on the side, rather than from the top.

Last year Cherry, an older Rosy hen who didn’t lay eggs in 2009, surprised us by raising a total of six youngsters in 2010.  And here I thought she was finished. Apparently not. There was no change of cage or mate  … everything was the same as always. I’m curious to see what she does this year.

Another of my older hens — a Normal named Willow — also appeared to have gone into retirement. Although she raised numerous clutches over the years, in 2009 and 2010 she never glanced at the nest box and turned away her younger mate when he tried to feed her. My husband asked why it was necessary to put a box on their cage.

“You never know,” I said. “Look at Cherry who raised young last year after skipping a year. We’ve nothing to lose. We have the box and it only takes minutes to install it.” Of course, those “lost” minutes were his sacrifice, not mine … Smile.

Clyde outside Bonnie's nest box. 

Peeking inside a newly installed box.

This morning, I looked up from my desk, and Willow was in her nest box!  Will she lay eggs? That is yet to be seen. She was an adult bird when I purchased her a number of years ago, and she isn’t banded. So her age is unknown. If hens live a healthy long life, they eventually quit laying.

Some breeders sell off their older, non-productive birds. I don’t do that. If they’ve done well for me, they deserve a pleasant retirement in the home where they’ve become familiar and comfortable.

Peace & Blessings.
May your birds bring you joy. 

Ask Questions...

As I read the key search words that bring visitors to this site, there are a lot of questions. Many I've answered in previous posts, but sometimes the search questions are unique. Even if they are not, it can be daunting to find answers buried in multiple posts. That's why label topics at the end of each post are helpful. They will sort through related articles for you.  

Rosy Bourke hen briefly left nest. The first of four eggs has hatched.

Don't hesitate to contact me with a question. For instance, someone searched on Google: "How long for Bourke parakeet eggs to hatch?"  They found this site, and I hope they located the answer in several of my earlier posts.

For the record, the answer is: typically 18 to 21 days and they usually hatch every other day. Ambient temperature has an effect too. Warm weather tends to encourage eggs to hatch sooner. Cold weather may delay hatching. Also, as noted in an earlier article, hens don't have to start brooding their eggs immediately. Count 18 to 21 days from the day they actually begin sitting on their eggs. Remember to keep a cup or bowl of water available for her to splash in, as eggs may need moisture, especially in dry climates.

If you have a specific question, you can reach me via: rosie.birds@gmail.com

Happy birding!

Splendid Scarlet-chested Parakeets and Determined Bourke Parakeets

Two pairs of Splendids are on friendly terms sharing a large common cage.
However, when nest boxes are introduced, that could change.



Cherry when nest box is first opened.
Notice relaxed tail.

Cherry after taking a photo with the flash.
Tail is spread wide, making herself appear larger.

Cherry, a Rosy Bourke hen, has four eggs that aren't going to hatch. Yet, she refuses to give up on them even after setting twice as long as it takes for eggs to hatch (18-21 days for Bourke eggs). I could take them away, but would hate for her to be angry with me.

Her previous clutch was also infertile, but I gave her an egg from one of her daughters who had laid it on the floor of her cage. That egg was laid about ten days later than any of Cherry's, but she stayed on it and hatched it. She raised the lone chick. She's been on these current eggs even longer, perhaps hoping beyond hope that one may just be late like last time.

This is Rhett, Cherry's mate. He's my eldest bird.

Cherry's mate, Rhett, was my very first Rosy Bourke. His mate, Scarlett, has since passed away, as did Cherry's first mate, Bing (he was quite a singer). Rhett and Cherry never did much with their first mates, but together they've raised more birds than I've kept count of.  As older birds, their productive years are behind them though.  Nevertheless, if Cherry continues to want to brood there may be other opportunities for her to foster eggs. For instance, one of the eggs she's sheltering is from a Splendid. I had hoped it would be fertile, but such was not the case. If it had been, Cherry would have raised it like one of her own.

Budgerigars also make good foster parents for any of the small varieties of parakeet. Timing is important, so my nest boxes all go back up on the cages on the same day. The hens may not all lay at the same time, but it stimulates them and they will overlap one another, making fostering (when necessary) a possibility. This way, I've been able to save many eggs from young mothers unwilling to set, or hens who suffered egg binding and recovered, but weren't up to caring for their clutch after that. Putting fertile eggs under other hens is highly successful. I usually pick an experienced hen, and/or one with only three or four eggs.

Jewel & Rainbow, Scarlet-chested parakeets.

Recently sold Rosy Bourke youngsters.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

UPDATE A FEW DAYS LATER:  Cherry finally gave up. She actually had five eggs, don't know why I thought only four. Two of the eggs were actually fertile. Sad that they didn't hatch. I'm thinking that maybe I need to add Vitamin D since they are never outside, and windows filter sunlight. They have iodine and calcium available. It surprised me that this aging pair is still able to produce fertile eggs...good for them! However, could her age have anything to do with the eggs not hatching? She always kept them warm and babies were fully developed. Some kind of genetic defect from older eggs, maybe?

Bourkes Laying Too Many Eggs. Why and What to Do.

Someone searching the internet for "my Bourkes are laying too many eggs," reached my site. I haven't addressed this question before, so here goes...

More than one hen in this box.

First, are you sure you have a pair of Bourkes and not two hens? Bourke hens—especially sisters or mothers and daughters—will sometimes share a nestbox, hence many eggs although not all from the same bird. If you have multiple hens present, provide at least one nestbox per hen. Extra's are even better so that they won't argue over the same box.

Are they in an aviary setting with several birds and not everyone has a mate? A hen alone will often lay many eggs if she doesn't have a male with her. She can be so eager to raise babies that she just keeps laying. I've seen Normal Bourke hens (wild color) do this more often than Rosy Bourkes.

If you're certain you have a pair, one male and one female, they may not be compatible and haven't bred. If her first clutch wasn't fertile, she may lay more eggs in an effort to have fertile eggs. The later eggs just might be fertile, so don't remove any of them unless you know for sure when each was laid. This is often not an easy thing to determine as, unlike some other birds, Bourkes go right back to laying. If you're lucky, the hen's first infertile eggs will simply help keep later fertile eggs warm.

I had one Normal Bourke hen who sat on a dozen eggs and four hatched! Having too many didn't mean that the fertile ones were harmed because there were too many. She managed to cover all of them. The first ones she laid were not fertile, then she bred and added to her clutch. I could have candled the eggs and removed those that appeared to have no life, but decided not to bother her.

If your bird is fairly tame, you can pick up eggs and hold them over a flashlight, but wait to be sure you know they are several days old before doing that. After a few days red vessels begin to show in fertile eggs. Myself, I'd rather let the hens decide which eggs are good and which are not. I usually leave them alone until the hens give up on them.

Fluffed out as far as possible to cover all the eggs.

Broken shell indicates an egg has hatched!

Experienced hens can tell the difference between good or bad eggs. Infertile eggs help keep the others warm and should be left there. Even after babies hatch, any remaining eggs add warmth. Eventually, eggs dry out and become very light. At that time, hens usually discard them if you haven’t already. They will push aside eggs that are no good, maybe even toss them out of the nestbox onto the ground.

I usually don't remove extra eggs until all the babies leave the nest. Then the nestbox should be cleaned anyway before it is used again.

If you are unsure about an egg, perhaps you think it's old, but worry about tossing out a good egg; here's a test. Take a cup of warm water (not hot, not cold, but warm to your touch), and gently place the egg in it. Good eggs sink. Old eggs float. Floaters can be thrown away. Gently pat the good egg off and replace it. A little moisture won't hurt it. In fact, hens need a water source for bathing as they may need to take water in their feathers back to the nest to keep the eggs moist.

Be sure to have lots of calcium sources available for your birds. Each pair should have a cuddle bone, mineral block and it's wise to add oyster shell. Some birds will ignore the other two, but use the oyster shell. Fresh greens are excellent too. Our birds love kale. If you have only one bird, it is still wise to offer fresh greens, although more important for breeding birds. On an earlier post, I gave the calcium amounts in various fresh foods.

After a hen has raised two or three clutches, remove the nestbox and let her rest for the remainder of the year before returning it. Or, at the very least, leave a minimum of three or four months between her previous clutches before returning the nestbox. I prefer to limit my birds to three clutches a year as I don't want to over-tax them. Returning nestboxes stimulates them to breed, as does day length — either natural or artificial light for twelve or more hours per day. If you don't want to raise birds and they are still laying even without a nest box, add more hours of darkness. If necessary, cover the cage with a dark cloth for two or three hours a day. You can also remove whatever they are laying eggs in ... a feed cup, for instance.

I've talked mostly about hens, however, the males also work hard at raising the young. They feed the hen while she's on the nest and once the eggs hatch, their work steps up. They must feed her more often. Some males enter the box to help feed the young, but normally they wait until the babies are feathering before doing this. After the babies leave the nest, they still need to be fed and most males take this over almost exclusively. By now, most hens are thin and need to recover. Depending on how many youngsters he has to feed, he's kept very busy. Older males may suffer more than younger ones and should be watched closely.

One of my older pairs were on their third clutch last summer when I decided to pull their two-week old babies and hand feed them. Rhett, my first Bourke was looking slightly "natty" and mom was too thin. These are not young birds, but they still want to produce, so I've let them. Although I took their babies, they weren't upset. Perhaps because they felt they'd done enough, were tired and glad to be empty nesters for a while. Also, they could hear their young when I fed them. The babies were moved to a small cardboard box, and placed near a space heater. Now, I’ve become so attached to these tame sweethearts, that I probably will never sell them. That's a risk when you hand feed!

Have a SAFE and SANE New Year's Eve.

Remember, you don't need alcohol to have a good time.

God Bless and Protect you and yours through 2011!

Bourke Parakeet Location & Coloration

Here is a map of the areas where Bourke Parakeets originated and still live in the wild. I would hazard a guess that there are now as many domestic Bourkes living around the world as there are living wild in Australia.

Probably there are more domestic Rosy Bourkes outside Australia and Tasmania than living there. However, Australian bird breeders raise Rosies too and seem to have a wider span of color varieties than anywhere else.  

As you know, Rosies (or Rosas in the UK) are not the native, natural color, but have been bred to increase the pink/rose shades.  Some Bourkes have even been bred to be more blue and even yellow, although the yellow looks rather washed out to me. See the photo at right of a "yellow" Bourke. It was taken from Doreen Haggard’s “Bourke’s Parakeets” book published in the UK. 

Will a yellow Bourke ever be as bright and colorful as a yellow Budgie or Turquoisine?  I don’t believe yellow Bourkes begin to compare with either of those parakeets.  Also, the bright pink and rose of the Bourke Parakeet is so very unique and unequaled in any other parakeet, so I see no advantage is striving for yellow.  However, I do enjoy the bright blue rumps on some of the Rosy Bourkes, and it is especially pretty on a Normal Colored Bourke. So, an all blue Bourke sounds attractive. Yet, Budgerigars have that color already firmly established. But, no others share in the remarkable shades of rose and pink found only in Bourkes.

This photo of two of my very young Rosy Bourkes shows the difference in color between a Rosy and a Pink. These two are siblings from the same clutch. They lack the blue rump that appears on both their Rosy parents, indicating perhaps that they are moving even farther from the Normal coloration.

Below is a Rosy Bourke male and a pair of Normal Bourkes. Notice the beautiful blue on their shoulders and the turquoise color at the base of the tail. The pink at the bottom of their chests is more muted and doesn't rise as far as on Rosy Bourkes derived from them. 

Feed me, Feed me ... & More on Breeding

In this first photo, all the birds want out to be fed at once. Sometimes I let them all out together, but it's easier to feed them one at a time (and less messy).

The three babies I'm feeding right now are almost weaned. They're scratching around and appear to be trying to eat seed. Hopefully, they are. Spray millet is the easiest, and I've given them nestling formula, as well as typical adult parakeet seed mix.

Once they are eating on their own, they will still want to be fed occasionally. Maybe it's only comfort food, or maybe it's needed to augment what they are eating on their own. No matter. I don't want them to go without, so I'll feed them until I'm certain they no longer need it or want it.

The three photos above are of three different babies. Although similar, I can easily tell them apart.

The picture in the lower right is of Rosie crowding into the box with the babies. See her long tail sticking out? The babies' tails are shorter. Rosie has been asking her brother, Flame, to breed so maybe she thinks she's ready for a nest box. She's not! Only three months old, she won't be ready until a minimum of 10-12 months of age ... best at two years old.  In a week or less, the tissue box will be history and the babies will be ready to sell.

As beautiful as Flame is (that's why I kept him), I may go ahead and sell him. Rosie needs a mate, and it shouldn't be him. I already have enough pairs, so keeping Flame and getting a mate for him simply adds more birds. I had considered keeping him because of his color and selling Rosie, but have decided I like Rosie too much, even if she's not as dark pink as Flame. 

Although distantly related, one of these babies may stay instead. However, at this point it's a guess which one is male. I hope to choose correctly. One looks just like Rhett, his father, and I think that might be the one to keep. He flies to my finger like Rosie does ... a good quality. The fact that I can call Rosie, hold up my finger and have her fly to it from anywhere in the room, is the main reason she's my favorite. Smile.

More on Breeding:

Three of my hens have had their three clutches in the last few months and deserve a rest to maintain good health. In the past, I've only allowed my hens to breed once a year. I put up nest boxes in Feb. or March and took them down after two or three clutches per hen. All came down in the Fall irregardless. Last year, however - because of noisy disruptions - we didn't have successful clutches in Spring or Summer. When things quieted down, the hens decided to go back to their nests in the Fall before the boxes came off, so I let them. Indoors with lights on in the evening, the day length didn't affect them much. Now, they want to continue to breed since the weather's sunny & warm.  

In discussing this with bird expert, Bob Nelson, he said that a two or three month rest period should be adequate. His recommendation? Close off the boxes until the Fourth of July and reopen them then. Sounds like a plan!

For us, this year has already proven to be a bountiful one for baby Bourkes, and may get better. Two other young hens have laid fertile eggs that didn't hatch. Maybe they will succeed next time, so their boxes will stay up. We have seven pairs of Bourkes altogether (not counting babies or Rosie or Flame).

Splendids, as mentioned in another post, haven't done well for the past two years. All eggs have been infertile. I moved males around recently, and am hopeful a change will create success ... even if only with one of the pairs! I have two extra males and it would be nice to have hens for them.

Peace & Blessings.

Getting Iodine into their Diet

Took the advice of neversink7 (see his comments on April 29 blog) and bought some granulated kelp from our local health food store in order to provide more iodine into our birds' diets. It was 44 cents an ounce (no minimum and no shipping charge). 

So far, the birds haven't investigated it like they would fresh vegies. Next step will be to try mixing it in with Petamine, a treat they like. He also pointed out that ladygouldian.com carries liquid iodine that can be added to their water. If our birds continue to ignore the granulated kelp, we might order some. We'll see.

Although most of my hens are successful, this year two have had fertile eggs that didn't hatch. Adding iodine may or may not solve the problem. It can't hurt to try.

This came from Canada. I won't buy anything that I know comes from China.

New Temporary Home

Our three baby Bourkes being hand fed are now able to fly...not well maybe, but they can leave the table and end up who knows where. 

They still need to be fed and still want to hide away during the day. But, their previous shelter/box was no longer safe. It was time to move them into a cage, but still give them a place to hide. The small cage I had available has small doors and the box they were in wouldn't fit.

The answer? You see it here. A Puffs tissue box turned on its side. Paper towels in the bottom are changed each time the babies are fed.  They can go in and out as they please, so they are free to roam and practice their flying as they please. They can also try to eat on their own as there are several easy-to-eat choices available.

I put tame Rosie and Flame in with them to see how they'd do. Rosie has already taught the smallest one to eat spray millet, or at least try to. When I reached into the cage this afternoon, the oldest flew onto my arm next to Rosie who always gets there first. Granted it was time to feed the babies so he was motivated, but it was a first for him and pleased me.

The two tame older birds are setting examples for the babies. Interactions between the young adults and the youngsters are cute to watch.

Be careful if you decide to do this, however. Adult breeding Bourkes might try to chase the babies away and could harm them. These two tame birds are very gentle and still very young themselves. Still, I watched them closely until I was certain they wouldn't "bully" the younger birds.

Albino Baby

I've just started hand-feeding this little guy. His bigger siblings have been grabbing all the food and he's too small to compete, He's fesity though. Looks like he's ready to fly away, doesn't he?

In the photo in the lower left notice the lack of pigment in the eyes of one baby Bourke vs. the other. They are from the same clutch. In previous years, two other babies from the same parents who were born with pink eyes like the one I've begun feeding did not survive. God willing, this little pink-eyed baby will. All prayers appreciated...

I'm curious to see what he/she will look like.  Other pink-eyed adults I've seen were not all white, but did have white faces. Their bodies were pink and wing feathers dark.

These babies hatched April 1, 3 & 4. As an Easter chick, he's not growing very quickly and starting today I'm going to hand feed him so that he doesn't have to compete with his two siblings. I've done a few supplimental feedings, but that only seemed to make his mother less inclined to feed him. Perhaps she's aware that something is wrong with him? Notice how dark his belly is. It's darker than the others. I hope that's not indicative of some defect or other.

I'll keep you informed of his progress, or lack thereof.