First fledglings of 2013

My first fledglings this year.

Pair 1 turqs
Green, possibly dark green and cinnamon, both red fronted and both hens. They are very flighty as can be seen by their sore noses.

Bengalese

5 in total. Mainly chocolates with a bit of pied. The white one is showing signs of darker colouring.

On top of turk pair 2's nest box.

Pair 2 turks chicks are almost ready to leave, although one is a bit later than the others..I'll have to watch this one as the mother is ready to go down again.

Pair 4 turks now have chicks, at least 4, possibly 5. They have had the biggest brood of all my turk pairs and unfortunately are in the small breeding cage.....I hate cages!

I'm hoping the cock is split for yellow and opaline (which is possible from his pair 1 parents) so I get some yellow opalines and cinnamon yellow opalines to bring out a good covering red from the deep red fronts of the parents, else all I'll get is red fronted cinnamons and normals. The pink eye lids already show at least one is a cinnamon of some sorts.

Pair 3 have a chick

more chick photos

Pair 2



Bengalese

It look's like some are pied and one is pied without the dark bits.....how can it be a pied?

Eitherway the lack of pink eyes, would imply that they are all from the young dark male, who I now believe is a dilute chocolate self. Apparently chocolate is the normal in bengalese, dilute is a lightening of the colour and a self is no white markings, unlike some of his offspring.

Latest chick photos

Pair 1
Red fronted normal and a cinnamon

Pair 2

Red fronted yellow opalines. Two with a good amount of red on their backs.

Bengalese

Seeing the white bird I thought both males had fathered chicks, however it has dark eyes. Therefore all chicks I assume are from the dark coloured male and not the albino male. Bengelese gentics must be very strange, I'll have to look into it one day.



update

Pair 1

2 chicks

Pair 2

3 chicks

Pair 3

1 fertile egg. Probably good its only one as the hen is not in great condition. She can now rest for a bit.

Pair 4

At least 4 fertile eggs. Surprised as I didn't think the male would be old enough.  Pity these are in my smallest breeding cage, unlike pair 3 that have the whole aviary.

bengalese

at least 5 chicks

A case of natural selection

My pair of albino bengalese finches have this year shared the aviary with the young normal male I bred last year. Despite knowing it is common with these finches, I was still surprised that all 3 shared the incubation and now rearing of the chicks. It looks like all the chicks are normal. Perhaps this is case of natural selection of the dominant normal colour over the mutation.

The turq chicks are growing fast...

Pair 2 chicks

First Chicks of 2013

Pair 1
2 chicks. Not great, however I'm surprised even at these two hatching as the male has been very violent to the hen. He's feeding the chicks, but he didn't feed her during incubation.

Pair 2
3 chicks. Not the bumper clutch like last year, however I think the ridiculously cold spring has an impact.

Pair 3
I had high hopes for these producing very red birds. However, the hen is still young and not in good feather condition. They have a few eggs, but I don't expect much.

Pair 4
Now laying. However the male is very young.

Bengalese
Chicks, but don't know how many.