September 2nd

For the last couple of months I have been making my own rearing food to see if my Java's take to it.

Well I'm pleased to say they do seem to enjoy it and I have seen nothing in the young Java's development to suggest that it is of lesser quality than commercial foods.

It is principally based on Paul De Nil's rearing food (without his vitamins and pinkies). On my new look website I will be publishing a page with the ingredients and how to make it.

In the mean time, here is a close-up of the rearing food I am currently using.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

The young Java that was being neglected by its parents (ref: August 29th & 30th) seems to be doing ok now.

You can see in this picture that the said bird (bottom left of the photo) is smaller than its siblings but the promising sign is that there is food in its crop so the parents are now paying more attention to this young nestling.

September 4th

I have split up one of my Agate pairings, cleaned out the cage and prepared a new nest box.

This evening I have paired up an unproven pair of Silvers.

I have only bred from one pair this year so any young bred from the pair pictured right can be used to make unrelated Silver pairings.

September 11th

I checked in on a nest this evening of one of my Agate pairings. Sadly there was chick dead in shell (see picture right), it's a bit of a strange one as half the shell is missing.

When I checked in on the birds before leaving for work this morning there was a small hole in the egg and I could see this young Java moving around inside as it began its breakout of the shell.

You can see in this photo that the young bird is still bent up as though it were still in the egg. My thoughts are that it never had the strength to break out and died earlier today.

I also believe that the parents may have pulled some of the shell away to give the youngster a helping hand....sadly this Java was not meant to be.

This chick is from an Agate pairing but would have been a split bird. If this was an Agate then the beak would have been pink and the eyes would be red.

 

 

September 26th

I haven't had the chance to update over the last couple of weeks due to work. I've been working on the Shell Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

Not very interesting I know....but I thought I'd let you know why there has been no updates to my website. Thanks to my wife and kids who fed and watered the birds in my absence.

Whilst I was working away my wife ran out of my usual Versele Laga seed mix.

As she never had the time to go to my usual supplier she went to the local pet store and purchased 20kg of "Buckton's Foreign Finch Mix".

The seed mixture is different to my usual mix and contatins larger seeds. My birds are taking it but they are leaving the bigger seeds seem to be going for their favourites....canary and panicum.

Pictured right is a close up of Buckton's Foreign Finch Mix.

Over the last two days I have had four young fawn chicks hatch. This is the second round from one of my best fawn pairings.

There were a total of seven eggs in this clutch, the remaining three eggs are fertile and should hatch in the next day or so.

October 7th

It's been 11 days since my last update, once again this has been due to an extremely busy period at work. I'm not spending as much time as I'd like with my birds but they are being fed and watered as per my usual routine.

I have a couple of things to mention today, firstly, I have fitted ring number 76 to a young Fawn (or possible Cream). There is one chick left to ring in this clutch (which will obviously be 77) that should be done tomorrow.

As I have mentioned several times on here, my plan for this year was to breed 100 but that's not going to happen. I have a new Agate pairing which are on 6 fertile eggs (2 of which were taken from a Fawn pairing that I will be separating this week) and I have a pair of Normals that are due to start laying their second clutch any day now.....this will be my last clutch of this year.

 

Secondly, I thought I'd show you the progress of a nest of 6 Normals.

These young birds are from the very first pair of Java's I purchased that got me hooked on the species (from my good pal Steve Nesbitt).As you can see, all 6 birds are doin' fine!!

Thirdly, this evening I have spent an hour or so selecting some of my birds to enter in the JSSUK annual members show (in conjunction with "The Bird Show Of The Year 2007" organised by the Parrot Society). The show is this coming Sunday October 14th at Staffordshire County Showground.

I will only be entering 3 or 4 birds as most of my birds are currently breeding and many of my current year birds have slight damage to their tail feathers (caused by the mesh in my flight cage).

I'll update later in the week with more info.

October 9th

Going back to August 2nd you will see that one of my fawn pairings had young that had differing colours in their tail feathers and I thought this may be a male/female difference.

This query was answered promptly by the JSSUK chairman, Tony Gladwin, who informed they were Creams. Take a look at this photo from the second round from the same Fawn paring. You will see that there is a clear difference in colour between the five young Java's in the nest.

On the left of the picture are two fawns, the chicks on the right have pale blue/grey feathering (as you would expect with Silvers). I never took photo's of the first clutch (which coincidentally had the first Creams I have ever bred) so I cannot say for sure what these birds will be. I can only assume that they are Creams.

October 14th

I had a great day today, I was at Staffordshire County Showground for the "Bird Show Of The Year".

I entered three Java's in the JSSUK members show, two adult Normals and one adult Silver. I was hoping to show a lot more birds but sadly most of my best birds are currently breeding and my current year birds are not yet in "tip top" condition.

I only achieved 3rd in the adult Silver class....see photo right.

It was also great to meet up with some of my JSSUK pals. Whilst the members show was taking place I helped out on the JSSUK stand with my good pal Steve Nesbitt.

Our main task for the day was to sell members birds...it felt like I spent most of the day in the catching aviary catching up birds that had been sold.

It was great to meet up with a few familiar faces. Rob Salem came up the stand to collect an Agate hen I had for him, it was great to see him with his family...sadly I never got to spend much time with him as the Java's on the stand were selling like hot cakes and my services we required in the catching aviary......again!

Still, it was great to see you again Rob (albeit briefly) and I hope the Agate settles in ok.

And the last update for today...The young Java chicks in the nest mentioned on October 9th are developing well.

I thought the chicks with the lighter feathering were possibly Creams but it seems pretty clear that they Opal Isabel's.....I'll upload more photos as they develop.

October 15th

A new unproven Agate to split pairing have hatched their 1st chick today...and it appears to be an Agate.

The cock bird is a storming split bird that was bred from the first Agates that came into the country (bred by Phil Thompson).

The hen was bred by myself last year. (Reference to the adult pair is September 10th)

October 21st

Six days on from the young Agate hatching (October 15th...last update) two more young Java's have hatched.

These two hatchlings are fawn's from eggs I fostered into the nest when I split up a fawn pairing that have had a prolific season. The remaining egg in the nest is addled so that's it for this clutch.

There were a number of clear eggs in this clutch that were removed. On the bright side...it looks like I have an Agate from a brand new bloodline.

October 28th

This morning I met up with three of my JSSUK pals/ colleagues at Chester Zoo.

The photo above shows (from left to right) Dave Pover, Steve Nesbitt, yours truly and Andy Dutton outside an aviary that is currently housing seven Timor Sparrows.

If you would like to know what we were doing there then you'll have to join the JSSUK and get the next newsletter that will reveal all. Please.....no funny emails about 4 Gorillas!! 

October 29th

Just a quick update on the progress of the new Agate pairing (ref September 10th, October 15th and 21st.

The Agate chick has been rung and the two fostered Fawn chicks are about three to four days behind. You can also see that the hen has started to lay way too early, there are three eggs in this nest that I'm hoping to get fostered out to another pair that have just started laying.

I'm sure that most of you fellow Java breeders out there have experienced this premature egg laying with your birds.

November 5th

Not a lot happening at the moment, so I thought I'd just show you the nest from the last update (ref September 10th, October 15th, 21st and 29th).As previously stated, this nest has one visual Agate and two Fawns.

Can you tell which one is the Agate??

November 20th

A couple of weeks ago one of my best Normal pairings laid a total of seven eggs in their second round....all fertile too! I decided to foster a lone Agate egg into the nest and upon inspection the next day the Agate egg and four other eggs were thrown from the nest.

This was totally against the character of this pairing as they have bred for 2 years without laying a clear egg....every egg they produced resulted in healthy chicks.

It appear that the introduction of another egg flipped a switch in their brain that caused them to reject most of the nest.The downside to this is that of the three remaining eggs only one has hatched...the other two appear addled.

 

 

 

Compare this photo from Rob Salem's javafinch.com to the two Java's above and you will see a difference in the colour of the belly.

The main body colour of the bird's I have bred appear paler than a standard Agate.Has anyone else out there bred these birds??I'd love to hear from anyone who has...or anyone who knows what these Java's are.

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December 16th

One of my JSSUK colleagues emailed me this morning to inform me (and the rest of the JSSUK committee) of the sad news that John Wainwright passed away last night.

John was a highly respected bird keeper and show judge and was involved in bird-keeping and exhibiting for many decades. Quite recently, October in fact, John judged the JSSUK's member's show at the Bird Show of The Year held at Stafford's Bingley Hall. I believe John was not too well on the day but his dedication to the hobby didn't keep him away.

I only met John on three occasions, the most memorable being when I visited his home in Whitchurch to collect some show cages from him ( John also made high quality show cages for virtually every fancy in the UK). I thought I'd only be there for 5 minutes to simply collect my cages but John was a very hospitable man and my "quick visit" turned in to a two and a half tour of his birdroom and birds, a couple of cups of tea, and general "chin wag" all about one of his main passions in life.......birds!.

John is a great loss to our hobby and he will be sadly missed.I would like to pass on my sincere condolences and thoughts to his family at this very sad time.

December 30th

Apologies for the lack of updates this month, I do try to update as often as possible but this month, and Christmas in particular, has been a bad one to say the least. Without going in to too much detail my wife, both kids and me have all been hit with some kind of "bug" and it really has knocked us off our feet. My birds have took a back seat over this period and it really has been a chore getting the Java's fed and watered.

Over this period I ran out of my basic Versele Laga seed mix and as my regular supplier is currently unavailable I had to venture out (on the day after Boxing Day) to visit a local garden centre that has a pet centre. I had no other choice as every other alternative supplier was closed over the festive period.Pictured right is the seed mix, I haven't got a clue as to the supplier as the 25kg of seed was supplied in a clear polythene bag tied up with a cable tie.

As you can see the mix has the seeds found in most common foreign finch mixes (Canary, Niger, Various Millets and Panicum) but I have never seen Safflower before in a standard finch mix.Safflower are the large white seeds and are very hard to the touch. To be honest of the 25kg mix around 7kg is Safflower and I can categorically say that Java's do not eat it.

I currently have approximately 120 Java's in my birdroom and every single seed pot has untouched Safflower in them. As you can see in the "After Feeding" photo, every type of seed has been eaten but there are no Safflower husks to be seen.

This photo is applicable to every seed pot in my birdroom.

Lesson learned today.....Java Sparrow's do not like Safflower (I don't think they are strong enough to crack them open).

Before Feeding.

After Feeding.

Click Here for My Java Diary 2008.

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