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This page shows what's
going on in my birdroom throughout the year. Click on the months below
to see what's been happening or
click here
to take you to 2008. |
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All being well the remaining five fertile eggs will hatch over the next few days. I have previously mentioned that the parent birds were prolific last year. Every egg produced was fertilised and all of the young were reared perfectly with no losses. |
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May 4th I'm expecting the final egg to hatch tomorrow. |
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I've also checked the progress of one of my Agate pairings this evening (ref March 12th, 23rd, April 5th and 25th) and there are two eggs. As mentioned in the last post on this pairing (April 25th), the first two rounds from these birds (seven in round one and seven in round two) were all clear. These eggs are the start of round three; if these are clear then I will split the pairing up and try again at a later date. This pair bred successfully last year and are in very good condition so I don't know the reason for the lack of fertile eggs. |
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May 6th This pairing is an 06 hen, bred by myself, to an 06Tony Gladwin cock bird. |
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I tend to find that when this happens some of the eggs get damaged due to the overcrowding inside the nest box. I will monitor the progress of these eggs as I may be able to put them under my other Agate pairing who are still currently laying. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I mentioned on April 30th about the colour of the bird (bottom of photo left) that I cannot identify. A fellow JSSUK committee member has bred one of these and I'd like to know what it is.....please see below.
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Initially, I thought this was a Pastel but after showing this bird to Laus Trigwell (JSSUK Newsletter Editor, Webmaster and the man behind Feathered Flyer) at the JSSUK AGM he informed me that it is not a Pastel as the belly colour is different to a Pastel's. In summary this Java has:
a. Dark Brown Head I thought it may have been a Pastel Agate, but the pastel gene would, I assume, turn the dark brown head into a lighter shade of brown (as it did pairing pastel to fawn to create the cream). By no means am I saying this is a new colour as I know to another breeder who has bred one of these, but I'd appreciate comments from anyone out there who may know what this Java is. Click Here and let me know your thoughts. |
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May 14th |
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May 21st My main aim for this year is to breed plenty of Normals but I've paired up the Fawns and Silvers in the hope that any young bred will be ready for the JSSUK members show in October.....I'm cutting it fine I know!!! I now have a total of eight pairs of Java's paired up to breed. |
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May 27th
I removed the eggs on Thursday last
week (May 24th) as the hen laid another 2 eggs. Today (Sunday)
there are still only 2 eggs in the nest with no signs of any
more to come. I will probably remove these eggs in a couple of
days to hopefully encourage them to go down again. |
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My other Agate pairing (ref March 12th, 23rd, April 5th, 25th and May 4th) laid a total of eight eggs, five of which were fertile. These started hatching on May 23rd. The clear eggs have been removed and I now have four young Java's in the nest, one split and three Agates. There is one more fertile egg underneath this clutch that should hopefully hatch by the end of tomorrow...if it doesn't then I will remove it in a couple of days. |
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June 4th You may have read on Rob's news page that the Java's I gave him last year had unfortunately escaped. Rob asked if I had any birds spare to help replenish his stud. I was able to help Rob by supplying a silver hen, a normal hen and a pair of Agate splits. Keep a look out on Rob's news page to follow their progress. |
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June 25th Work commitments and a holiday have been the main reason for this. On Saturday 23rd June I returned from a weeks family holiday in Devon, whilst I was there I managed to pay a visit to my good pal Rob Salem to have a look at his new birdroom and to talk Java's.
His new birdroom is almost complete
and should be up and running in the next few days. |
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Other stuff that's going on... She has recently laid a clutch of seven eggs with only one being fertile. As the fertility rate was so low, I took the clutch away to let the pair go down again. She is very lethargic in the cage and I can pick her up with no effort at all as she doesn't attempt to avoid me. I'll be gutted if I go in to check on the birds in the morning and to find her gone. She's one half of a pair I got from my good pal Steve Nesbitt back in 2005. She is not fitted with a closed ring but Steve believes she is an 03 bird. The saving grace is that I did keep a cock and a hen from this pairing who are both stunning birds. |
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June 26th |
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A Java Pal in my birdroom...
Steve dropped in to talk Java's for
an hour or so before I hitched a lift with him to see his talk
for myself. |
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Steve's 2 hour talk was held this evening at Essington Broad Lane Working Men's Club, just outside Bloxwich in Walsall (West Midlands). Without being biased towards my pal, it was one of the best talks I have ever been to. I knew Steve has done numerous talks over the past few years but I've never had the chance to go and see one. I was very impressed with the computer based presentation and the subject matter covered a lot more than I expected. Steve covered everything from the history of the Java Sparrow's numerous pseudonyms, Java's in the wild, Java behaviour, Java Hybrids, the JSSUK and all the way through to his own personal management and history with the species.
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In summary...a great night out...well done Steve!! |
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June 27th You can see her pictured here in the corner of a cage appearing very lethargic. She did have a couple of days in the hospital cage but it seems to not have improved her condition. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, this bird used to belong to Steve Nesbitt. We had a chat about this bird yesterday when he paid me a visit, he's pretty sure it's an 03 bird which would make it around 4 years old.....not that much of an old bird. I'll keep you posted!! |
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Other News... The Fawns put down to nest on May 21st laid a total of seven eggs with six being fertile. Five have hatched so far and, all being well, I should have one more over the next couple of days. |
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One of my Agate pairings ( ref March 12th, 23rd, 27th, April 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 18th, 22nd, 30th, May 6th, May 14th and May 27th) had seven fertile eggs from a clutch of seven, sadly only three have hatched and all the other eggs I discovered to be addled. I have had quite a high percentage of addled eggs over the last few weeks...could it be down to weather conditions??? Click Here and let me know if you have encountered bad luck over this very unsettled last month or so. This photo shows four chicks in the nest, well...one of them is a Silver that was from the Silver pairing put down to nest at the same time as the Fawns. This pair also laid seven eggs, five of which were fertile with only one hatching. Again, the remaining eggs were addled......strange!! |
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June 28th She is sat on the cage floor, eyes closed and has laboured breathing....it really looks like this wonderful hen is due to pass this evening. |
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On a lighter note.... the sixth fawn chick has hatched today. As you can see there is one egg left in the nest but it's not fertile. Still, I can't complain...6 out of 7 isn't bad!!! |
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Due to the high number of photographs on this page, the month of July will be on a new page to help speed up downloading. |
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