Bourke's 2024 Nest Boxes Going Up

Husband helping with our ANNUAL EVENT ... Smile. 

Bourke's Parakeet Hens First Clutches of Spring, 2022

Our twelve babies from first clutches of 2022. 

Available Bourke's Parakeets, and "Foot Color to Identify if Split?"

Our 2nd and 3rd clutch babies are weaned and ready for their new homes. Sweet, tame birds. 

Splendid, Scarlet-Chested Parakeets New to Our Flock

A new pair of Splendid Parakeets have joined our flock! 

Advantages of Co-Feeding Our First Clutches

Songster entering the nest box of his four youngsters.

This year we retired Rosy and Pretty Boy. They are elderly and their clutches from 2018 and 2019 weren't very successful. We might let them have one clutch later in the summer, but will wait and see. So, we have three pairs reproducing at present. Two other pairs we hope will do something in the future.

Because of the pandemic that's currently keeping us all at home, we decided to only co-feed these babies. If, for any reason, we had to be away from home, or were ill, hand feeding would be a problem. Co-feeding is allowing the babies to trust us and become tame without a full-time commitment to feeding them.

Watch the video of our 11 first clutch babies of 2020 on the colored link.

You Tube Video Link, click below

2020 First Clutches of Baby Bourke's Parakeets - Tame and Sweet

PEACE AND BLESSINGS!

Nest Box Construction

This post is taken from Chapter 17 of my book,
 "Rosie Bird's Guide to Small Exotic Birds" by Gail A. Lewis

Home to multiple clutches of baby birds, the humble nest box duplicates
the hollows where many varieties of birds nest and reproduce in the wild.

Making a nest box for your birds need not be an overwhelming project. Anyone with basic carpentry skills and a few tools can produce an inexpensive and functional box. The sizes given in this chapter will yield a box suitable for the various Grasskeets discussed in this book. It also works for Linnies and Finches. If you plan to raise larger birds, proportionally increase the dimensions.

Tools You Will Need

A saw capable of cutting plywood.

A 12 inch ruler or tape measure.

Drill with a 3/8 inch bit, 1/8 inch bit, and a 1¾ inch hole cutter.

Piece of 3/8 inch dowel – about six inches.

Rasp to round off corners.

Sandpaper to smooth edges.

Carpenter’s glue, such as Elmer’s Wood Glue.

Clamp(s) to hold pieces together as they dry.

A generous handful of small finish nails.

A hammer to drive those nails.

Pliers and small wire cutters to install nest box.

Each nest box is constructed of a bottom piece made from ¾” exterior plywood. The sides and lid are made of 3/8” plywood.

We asked our friendly local lumberyard to rip a sheet of plywood into nine inch strips lengthwise. Since a sheet of plywood is 48 inches wide, this yields five 9” x 8’ strips and one thin remainder. Save that remainder to use later. If you’re only making a couple of nest boxes, check with your lumber yard to see if they sell half-sheets of plywood.

Here’s a cutting list of pieces needed for a Grasskeet-sized box:

Floor – 9” x 8 1/4” piece cut from ¾” exterior plywood.

Front – 9” wide x 11” high plywood piece with the entrance hole, and a row of four or five small holes, 1/2” down from the top.

Back – 9” wide” x 10” high cut from plywood.

Side A – 9” wide x 9 ¾” high cut from plywood. This ¼” is the lip that the lid will rest on.

Side B – 9” wide x 10” high plywood piece. This will become the hinge side.

Top or Lid – 8” wide x 10” long plywood.

Schematic of the Nest Box

Viewed from above — Lid not shown

All corner joints are glued and nailed
for strength and stability.

Preparing for Assembly:

1. Cut your plywood floor to size.

2. Cut out the plywood pieces from a 9 inch strip of plywood.

3. The front will be mounted against the cage. Determine where you want to place the entry hole. [This will be determined by the location where you intend to remove several bars of the cage so the birds can access it from inside the cage.] It can be centered, or off to either side. Draw a horizontal line across the back (the 9” x 11” piece) about 3 ½ inches down from the top. Draw a vertical line where you want the middle of the entry to be. Where these two lines cross marks the center of the entry hole. Drill a 1¾ inch diameter hole there.

4. Carefully sand and smooth the edges of the entry hole to protect your birds.

5. About ¾ inches below the entry hole, drill a 3/8 inch hole on your vertical line for a perch.

6. Take your six inch dowel and carefully drive it through the hole under the entry. Enlarge the hole slightly if necessary, but not so much that the dowel doesn’t fit tightly. Center the dowel so there’s as much inside as there is outside. This allows a mother bird in the nest to stand on it while the father bird in the cage feeds her from outside the box. You can make this easier by placing one of the cage’s perches adjacent to it.

7. Drill a series of four or five 1/8 inch holes in an evenly-spaced line about ½ inch below the top of the board. They will be used to attach the nest box to the cage.

Creating the hinge:

1. Take the thin leftover strip of plywood and cut a piece equal to the width of the lid. This will be used to form a hinge. The lid is hinged from side-to-side and is attached between the front and back of the cage.

2. Apply glue, clamp the strip tightly, and let it dry.

3. After the glue has dried, use the rasp and sandpaper to round the bottom and top edge of the hinge end. This will allow it to open and close without binding. You’ll also want to round the exterior corners and edge, sanding them smooth. You’ll be lifting the lid often to check the eggs and baby birds...so smooth is nice.

Assembling the Nest Box, Step 1:

1. Lay your floor board floor flat on your work table. It helps to lay the four sides of the Nest Box on the work table around the floor so you can visualize how it comes together.

2. Attach the sides. Apply glue to one side of the base. Put Side A in place and drive several nails along the bottom to reinforce the connection. Remember, the lid will close onto Side A; its placement determines the direction the lid faces. Repeat the process, putting Side B on the opposite side.

Assembling the Nest Box, Step 2:

Attach the front and back. Spread glue along the floor edge and the edges of the piece. Carefully slip it in between the sides you’ve already put on. Nail along the floor and temporarily clamp. Repeat the process with the final piece. Once it’s in place and clamped, drive some nails along the joint where the two sides meet.

Assembling the Nest Box, Step 3:

Install the lid. Put the lid on the box the way it will be installed. The hinge portion should slip in between the front and back sides. Hold in place by pressing down the lip onto Side A, the shorter side, so the lid is level. Mark this position on Side B with a pencil line.

Now turn the box on its side and align the lid with the pencil line. Move it away from Side B creating a tiny gap so it doesn’t rub when opened. Once the lid is properly positioned, drive a 2d (1”) finish nail through each side and into the thin scrap glued to the lid. The nails will act as a hinge allowing you to open and close the box lid.

How to attach the Nest Box to a cage:

Align the nest with the hole you’ve created by removing several sections of the cage’s bars. Feed an 8” plastic cable tie through one of the holes previously drilled across the top of the Nest Box. Loop it around the upper horizontal bar of the cage and tighten. Four or five ties securely hold the box in place.

You can view our nest boxes at the Link Below: 

ROSIE BIRD VIDEOS on You Tube

***

PEACE AND BLESSINGS! 

Mystery Bourke Parakeet -- Part Two

He or she looks more yellow here than actually is. The striking blues don't show up in the video as well as they should. These colors will darken and change after a first molt ... so, our little one remains a mystery yet to come...

Mystery Bourke Parakeet & Sibling -- Part One

This is only Part One ... Part Two coming soon. Then, a final Part Three later, after a molt. He is a sweet bird and pretty amazing!

Rosy Bourke Lutino hens Blossom & Starfire on Video

Sister Rosy Bourke Lutino hens: Blossom, hand-tamed, was hatched in 2015 and parent-raised by Stormy and Peaches. Starfire, hatched in 2016, was hand-fed from two weeks of age until weaned. She is also out of our Normal Bourke, Stormy, who also appears in the video below. Their mother is an Opaline Fallow Rosy Bourke, named Peaches. Both Stormy and Peaches were hand fed and very tame.

Although Blossom is not hand-fed, she became tame very easily. It probably helped that her parents are tame and she was handled in the nest as she grew up.

Be sure to enjoy our other Rosie Bird videos on You Tube.  

Peace & Blessings!

BOURKE PARAKEET BABIES AS THEY GROW, a Rosy, Lutino, Rubino & a Normal

Peaches and Storm's first clutch. She laid five eggs and hatched them all, but one red-eyed youngster disappeared within the first few days. The other four thrived. See them completely grown up at the end of this video.

Peaches is an Opaline Fallow Rosy hen out of Rosie and Pretty Boy, both Rosy Bourkes with dark eyes. Storm is a Normal Bourke. His father is a Lutino (yellow) and his mother is a Rosy. They produced a very diverse, beautiful clutch!

Peace & Blessings!

 

 

ROSY BOURKE PARAKEETS, SOME NEWLY HATCHED BEING FED

Great Egrets and Double-crested Cormorants near Coos Bay, Oregon

Rosie Bird's most recent video. Love the southern Oregon coast.

Peace & Blessings!

Bourke Parakeet Visits -- Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Bird Lovers Everywhere!



Newly weaned Rosy Bourke Parakeet babies.

A Rosy and a white-faced opaline fallow Bourke.

Some of our sweetest Rosy Bourkes have come to say hello. Rosie Bird posts video's on You Tube. This video of our tamest members went up today.

http://youtu.be/UVcXq1JQK8o

 

May 2015 give you many blessings with healthy,

happy birds to bring cheer into your life.

 

Peace & 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 Parakeet Video and Recent Update

Rosie Bird has many videos downloaded on You Tube. The most recent is attached below this post.

 

We allowed Rosie and Pretty Boy three clutches this year. Rosie laid four eggs each time, hatched and raised all four every time. Twelve baby Rosy Bourkes from my sweetest hen, Rosie. Not all birds are as consistently successful as she is.

 

This year in her first clutch she had two Opaline Fallow Bourkes, so I decided to hand feed them rather than her third clutch, as typically done in the past. I kept those two very sweet, tame Opaline Fallow Rosy Bourkes as future breeders. There is one of both sexes and their new names are Songster and Peaches. As you may guess, he sings and wolf whistles beautifully.

 

Rosie's second clutch of four were all lovely Rosy or Opaline Rosy Bourkes, but no Fallows with red eyes. In her third clutch there was one Opaline Fallow.

 

The video below shows four of Rosie's sweet babies. Two are from her first clutch and the two I'm hand feeding are from her third clutch. All ten of her sweet offspring have been sold and have gone to new homes. The last two, very sweet hand feds shown in the video left today. We met both buyers in Reedsport. One of our babies will live in Florence, Oregon and the other in Forest Grove, Oregon.

Bourkes are among the cleanest and quietest of birds. I highly recommend them. Although I love Linnies, cockatiels and finches of all varieties, Bourkes remain my favorite Small Exotic Bird.

 

Link to all Rosie Bird Videos on You Tube

Peace & Blessings!

Amazing Praying Parrot

A bird brain? Don't think so ... he's brilliant.

Catholics should especially appreciate this.

Love it!

Enjoy.

 

 

Peace & Blessings to All.

ROSIE BIRD DOES VIDEOS ON YOU TUBE

You won't want to miss the video's we produced and uploaded to You Tube.

A few were posted on this Blog in the past, but not all. We will continue to add more and more as we go along. We recently created a beginning and end unique for us that is added to several.

Have a look and let us know what you think! Click below:

Rosie Bird Videos on You Tube

 

Peace & Blessings to Everyone.

May your birds remain healthy, happy and live long lives.

 



Bald Eagle video of a mother with her young

For my bird loving friends, I want to share this charming video of Bald Eagles in the nest.

I notice that Bald Eagles don't regurgitate food for their young. She's feeding them scraps from her mate's kill.

If you watch closely you'll see a third chick struggling to release himself from the egg shell. Wish the video had gone a little longer, but he does successfully exit the shell as the video ends.

 

 

If we love any birds at all, we tend to love them all. Enjoy.



 Peace & Blessings.

 

Hand Feeding Lineolated Parakeets Video

This video was taken when the birds were 17 and 18 days old. I did another ten days later and will put it up soon. Have to load it into You Tube.

 

Also did one of a 5-day-old Bourke parakeet being hand fed. I love hand feeding baby birds, but they're getting me up at all hours of the night!

Below is a link to my earlier post with these same babies: 

 

 Even Younger Linnies

 

Peace & Blessings.

 

 

Egg Incubation, Bourke Parakeets & Lady Gouldian Finches - Video of Live Eggs

Video of live Lady Gouldian eggs and Bourke Parakeet eggs taken yesterday. They are kept warm in a homemade incubator and turned every few hours ... even through the night. Temperature needs to remain at 98 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or 35 to 36 degrees Celsius. A light bulb under a dish of water provides humidity. There's more detailed information on doing this in earlier posts. Search Incubation or check the Archive titles.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Peace & Blessings