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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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July 1st They initially laid four eggs, one ended up on the cage floor, two were clear and one was fertile. As I have previously mentioned, having one chick in the nest is fine by me. Some breeders may have taken the eggs away to encourage the hen to lay again but I'm not fussed. This is their first attempt at parenting so if this chick is reared and successfully fledges there is no reason why there won't be more fertile eggs in round two!!! |
One Normal chick (and two clear eggs) |
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July 6th This evening I've cleaned out all the double breeders, it's the first time I've cleaned the cages since I first used Hemcore on the cage floors. Well, it certainly takes a while longer. The problem with my cages is that the litter drawers are only 3/4" deep so the Hemcore tends to overflow as the birds forage around for seed and grit. I'm not too concerned though as the Hemcore is pretty absorbent which means I don't have to clean out once a week....I will now do it once every two weeks, so I save time in the long run!!! On the right is a photo of the chick that hatched on July 1st, I'm a little concerned at the size of this chick as it should be a little bigger at this stage. The parents are "first timers" so I'm hoping that raising this chick will be good practise when they have a second round. |
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Last weekend I set up some hooks to hang millet sprays. Previously I was wedging them in the top of the cage fronts but the birds kept pulling them out. They also made a mess on the birdroom floor as the seeds would collect directly underneath each cage. I've nicked this idea from Steve Nesbitt. I now have fitted small plastic coated hooks to the back of each double breeder. Two or more millet sprays are bound together with masking tape and then looped over the hooks. It's good that the hooks are plastic coated as they have no sharp edges for the birds to get caught on. The width of the hook is also too large for it to get caught behind the bird's closed rings. Cheap and simple!!!! |
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July 7th I've also had a visitor to my birdroom today, that being, Steve Nesbitt. Steve has returned to the hobby after a short break and came to collect a pair of Normals. On Boxing day last year Steve came down to my house as we were going to Villa Park to see Aston Villa (my team) play Everton (Steve's team). Bringing with him two of his breeding pairs of Normals that I purchased from him. Well, the pair that Steve took today were the offspring of the above mentioned pairs.....crackers they are too!!! Steve also gave me his thoughts on the Silvers that I've been having problems with sexing (ref March 19th, March 22nd, April 12th , May 16th, June 1st). It now seems I have 8 Silver Hens and no Cock birds (with the exception to one that is currently breeding). Anyone out there have some quality Silver Cocks that they'd be prepared to exchange for some Silver Hens???? |
Steve and me in my birdroom earlier today. |
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July 9th Here is the chick pictured at eight days old. Java chicks are usually bigger than this at this stage but the parents are feeding it regularly as every time I inspect the nest the chick's crop is always full. I think it's just a case of "see what happens". You can see in this photo that the quills in the wing are just about to break through, usually they would be about 1mm long at eight days.
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Also today I have some good news from the Fawn's nest (ref June16th). The first round of eggs were all clear, but I have candled the nest today and I have five fertile eggs from a total of seven. You can see in this photo that two of the eggs are clear. If you look at the clutch, the second and third eggs on the second row are dull compared to all the other eggs. Having fertile eggs does not mean they will all hatch....but fingers crossed!!!
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July 10th This pair were prolific in the first round with seven chick fledged from seven. This round also had seven eggs, one got smashed in the nest leaving five fertile eggs and one clear (you can see the infertile egg at the top of the photo). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I also wish to reiterate my plea for some Silver cock birds!!! If anyone out there has some quality Silver cock birds, I'd be happy to exchange for Silver hens. Click Here and let me know if anyone is interested. |
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July 12th |
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An update on the single
Java chick (ref July 1st, 6th
and 9th)!!!
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July 13th The first Fawn Java chick of 2006 has hatched out. The parents were put down to nest on May 28th an laid a total of eight eggs, all of which were clear (ref June 16th). The second round has produced seven eggs with five being fertile, so, all being well I may have another four chicks in the nest by the weekend. I was quite surprised to see that any eggs would hatch out with this pair as every time I've gone into the birdroom, the hen has come of the eggs for long periods of time. I thought the eggs may have cooled leaving the growing chicks dead in shell. Still, that doesn't seem to be the case as this little fella has proved!! |
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July 14th Also, another Fawn chick has hatched out too!!! (ref yesterday).
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The chicks have fledged and will be separated next week...these are second round chicks so the parents will be rested. However, the hen has started laying again, so I will remove the eggs when she has finished laying her clutch and then separate the birds. The eggs, pictured right, are more than likely fertile so I will try to foster out two or three under another pair. I have also took the Silver fledglings from their parents today and the three Normal's they have fostered (ref June 30th). As I took the youngsters away, I fit the coloured plastic split rings that assist in identifying the birds in the flight cage. I discovered that the chick that should have had ring number 28 does not have a closed ring fitted.....bugger!!! I know I fitted the ring as it says so in my records, it must have fell off shortly after fitting the ring. |
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July 18th Here is the chick aged seventeen days.....it really should be bigger with more feather growth. I know the parents are feeding it as every time I inspect the nest the chick has a full crop. You can see in the photo the chick is panting, due to the heat. My birdroom reached 100f today.....maybe the heat is taking it's toll on this young Java. I have a feeling this chick may not live to see the weekend. |
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Better news from the prolific Normals (ref July 10th, July 12th and July 14th). These hatched over a four day period so you can see the difference in size. The parents are doing a terrific job with their second round and if these five fledge, that will make a total of twelve chicks bred this year by these first time Normal's. |
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Also good news from the Fawns (ref May 28th, June 16th, July 9th and July 13th). A total of four chicks have hatched out so far and there is one more fertile egg in the nest (and two clear).....it may or may not hatch out...it should have hatched today, but you never know..I may have an addition to the family tomorrow. |
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A Bug in my birdroom!!! Does anyone out there know what this bug is??? This evening as I was changing the seed in the flight cage I noticed this thing crawling around in the seed hopper. It's approximately 10mm long and hairy...it moves pretty quickly too!!! If you know what it is Click Here and let me know. |
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July 20th Compare the photo to two days ago (July 18th) and you will see there is no significant difference. This chick is nineteen days old now and, like I have mentioned, should be a lot more developed at this stage. Take a look at the full crop...at least the parents are feeding it well! |
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I also managed to get a nice shot of a Normal fledgling that is due to be separated from it's parents this weekend. |
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Exciting News.......for me anyway!!!! This Saturday morning (July22nd) I will be making an early drive to South Wales to visit one of the countries top Java Sparrow breeders, that being, Bryan Roberts. Bryan is secretary of the Java Sparrow Society UK and is one of the handful of breeders to successfully breed the elusive "Agate" Java. I will be purchasing two visual Agates and two Splits to hopefully help establish this mutation within the UK. I will also be purchasing a Silver cock bird to help ease my well documented silver shortage. For those of you who have never seen an Agate Java Sparrow see the photo on the right to give you an idea of what it looks like. Read about the Agate on Rob Salem's website. Click here to see his article. |
The Agate Java Sparrow (Rob
Salem) |
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More News.......for Java keepers worldwide!! The Java Sparrow Society UK has a brand new website www.javasparrow.org Now Java enthusiasts worldwide can join our society and get to know what's new in the Java Sparrow world!!! Subscriptions can be paid via Paypal so this really does open up membership to the rest of the world. I know many of our friends in the U.S.A are keen Java keepers and I get several emails from all over the States....so guys.....why not join??
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I've had a really busy weekend so I haven't spent much time with the birds to gather enough information for a big update. Yesterday morning I went down to South Wales to visit Bryan Roberts (JSSUK Secretary) to collect some Agates. I spent around two hours with Bryan as he showed me around his very impressive set up. I was planning on taking some photos of Bryan and his birds but the battery in my camera was flat. When I got home I put in some new batteries and took a quick photo of the Agate cock. It's a bit "grainy" as I was using the digital zoom but I will endeavour to get some good photos over the next few days. In the meantime, here is the photo!!! And a big thanks to Bryan for supplying me with my first Agates!!!
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July 24th Progress on the single Normal chick (ref July 1st, July 6th, July 9th, July 12th, July 18th and July 20th) has improved as the chick seems to have had a growth spurt. The chick is now twenty three days old and if it were normal size would be fledging in seven days from now. This will not be the case with this chick but it looks like it will be ok.
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The nest of Normals (ref July 10th, July 12th, July 14th and July 18th) are progressing well with just one more chick to ring. These chicks are between 10 and 14 days old and are developing as expected. |
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The nest of Fawns (May 28th, June 16th, July 9th, July 13th and July 18th) are also progressing well. This is the first fawn clutch of this year so I will be putting another pair down to nest soon so I will be able to pair up unrelated youngsters, hopefully to sell at Stafford in March nest year. |
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And finally for today, I managed to get a nice photo of my newly purchased Agate cock birds. |
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July 25th I've paired up the visual Agate cock to the split hen this evening and put them down to breed. I was going to leave it a week or two but the birds are in great condition so I thought I'd give them a try.
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July 27th Not a lot to mention today but I thought I'd show you the progress of the single chick (ref July 1st, July 6th, July 9th, July 12th, July 18th, July 20th and July 24th). It's now twenty six days old and should be fully feathered by now. I'm not concerned anymore because the growth rate over the last few days has accelerated quickly....I reckon it will still be another ten days before it fledges.
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July 30th Rob and I have occasionally conversed via email since he very kindly put a link on his website to mine. Rob (along with Steve Nesbitt) is partly to blame for getting me interested in Java Sparrows. As some of you may know, Rob gave up his hobby a year or two ago, which was a surprise to many people because of the hard work he put into his new "magnificent" birdroom. A while ago Rob mentioned in an email that he was thinking about getting back into keeping Java's, but was a little undecided. So last week I offered Rob a couple of pairs of bird's I've bred this year, and to my delight he accepted my offer and is now officially "back in the hobby". |
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The timing was right for Rob to pick up some birds from me as he was on his way back to Devon after visiting his family in Merseyside. As I only live a stones throw from the M6Toll, it wasn't too far out of the way for Rob to call in. Rob spent around an hour at my place which wasn't really long enough as I think we both could have spent a lot longer talking Java's and websites. He also informed me that javafinch.com may be undergoing a "revamp" in the not to distant future....I think I can say for most of us that we all look forward to that!! Finally, before Rob left, I could tell he was getting the "Java Bug" again as he took another bird to put with his newly acquired two pairs........it won't be long Rob till you've got a shed full!!....LOL.
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July 31st Rob has also added a new page to his website that documents his visit to my birdroom.
Take a look by clicking the
following link:
http://www.javafinch.com/stuart/stuart.html |
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On Saturday I noticed that one of the two Silver's I have bred this year was looking a little under the weather...nothing to concerning as it was still fairly lively and was eating and drinking OK. Last night it didn't look as though much had changed, but this evening when I checked in on the birds this bird was looking very withdrawn and quite lethargic, it was sitting in the seed hopper and didn't seem to concerned when I reached in to take the photo (shown right). As you can see, it's feathers are "fluffed up" whcih is usually a sign that the bird isn't feeling too good. When the bird was perched it's tail was bobbing up and down and it has also been panting rather a lot. |
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Upon seeing this bird tonight I immediately put it in my hospital cage in the hope that it may pull through. I noticed that the birds legs had turned from pink to purple, so as I've never seen this before in my twelve months with the species, I called Steve Nesbitt for some advice. Steve informed me that he had experienced the "darkening" of the bird's legs when they were sick and to expect the worse. All I can do is check on the bird first thing tomorrow morning, but I won't be surprised if the bird has passed away. This is one of the sad things about keeping and breeding birds, all of your birds appear healthy then all of a sudden, and for no apparent reason, a bird falls ill. I'll keep you posted tomorrow.
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Agates!!!!
I've discovered over the
weekend that the visual hen (ref July 24th)
started singing!!!! Hence, it's not a hen but a cock bird!!! I now have
two visual Agate cock birds, one Agate Split cock and a Split hen. I'm
hoping to get another Split hen to pair up with the
visuals.....but that may not be possible due to the rarity of the
Agates......watch this space!!! |
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August 1st It didn't appear to have improved overnight so I changed the water and went to work. This evening when I got home from work I discovered the Silver is still "hanging on in there". Again, like this morning, there doesn't seem to be much improvement but it has been eating and drinking. The droppings look normal too so it's safe to say that it's not suffering from any digestive illness. I'll keep you updated tomorrow. |
Will it survive this
evening??? |
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Here's a photo of the single Normal chick (ref July 1st, July 6th, July 9th, July 12th, July 18th, July 20th, July 24th and July 27th). It certainly has come on over the last few days, but had it have grown normally, it should have fledged by now. The chick is now thirty one days old!! |
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The Fawn chicks are developing well too (ref May 28th, June 16th, July 9th, July 13th, July 18th and July 24th). Here they are at around 16 to 17 days old. |
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August 2nd It still looks withdrawn and sick but it is eating and drinking plentifully and does appear to be a little more alert......but that may be me just wishing it would get better. It's been in the Hospital Cage now since Sunday at a temperature between 85 to 90 degrees. |
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The Normals (ref July 10th, July 12th, July 14th, July 18th an July 24th) have laid their second clutch of six eggs. The five young Java's have been separated from their parents and put in the flight cage this evening. |
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I have finally finished my birdroom safety door this evening too. This has been quite a difficult project as I had to build the door and frame as a detachable assembly. The reason for this is because if the frame was fixed, I wouldn't be able to open the litter trays in the end cages on either side of the birdroom.
Look closely at the frame
and you will see four latch bolts (see below)
The only thing I need to do
now is add a couple more latch bolts to the middle of the frame to
secure it further. |
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August 3rd Upon returning from work this evening it was still perched but I noticed there was a mass of droppings congealed around the birds vent (see right). I took the young bird out of the cage to clean away the droppings as I thought it may cause problems. As I held the bird in my hand it passed away. |
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The stress of being handled was enough to finish this poor bird off. SJD#24 06 was not to be! |
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August 6th The cock bird was bred by Tony Gladwin (JSSUK Chairman) and the hen was bred by Andy Dutton (JSSUK Patronages Secretary). |
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August 7th Here it is with it's parents! Notice the hen's wings are down...she has laid an egg today, hopefully the first of a more successful round. |
The hen (top of the photo)
has laid an egg today, see how her wings are positioned lower than
normal. This is a good indication that she is due to lay again. |
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August 8th So today I have paired up another pair of Silvers. A Bryan Roberts 05 cock bird and a Phil Thompson 05 hen. |
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August
12th The photo on the right shows the foot of a fledgling that is about forty days old. Somehow in the nest the back toe has worked its way back into the ring....on two birds!!! Is this pure coincidence or could the parents have done this trying to get the rings off? I have never had a problem fitting rings and have never come across this before. It seems strange that this has happened to two birds from the same clutch. Having said that, the first round from this pair encountered no problems at all. I did manage to release the back toes from the rings with no problems and the birds did not seen distressed as I was doing it. One of the birds legs was noticeably darker in colour due to the restricted blood flow. Take a look at the photo and see how the blood supply to the quick seems OK......I'll keep you posted on the progress of these birds, hopefully they will make a full recovery. Click Here and let me know if you have experienced this. |
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On a lighter note, here's the first fawn of 2006 to fledge!! |
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August 14th The parents of this chick are the very first pair of Java Sparrows I got from Steve Nesbitt last year. |
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August 16th I also gave Steve a pair of 06 Normals that I have bred this year. Here's a photo of Steve and myself in his birdroom.......I will be adding a new page soon that shows more on my visit.
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August 19th On July 29th I went to see Bryan to get two pairs (2 visuals and 2 splits) of Agates, but it turned out I picked 3 cocks and 1 hen. The 2 hens, pictured right, now give me three pairs that I can hopefully breed from. |
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After leaving Bryan's, I carried on down the M4 to Camarthen to spend an hour with Laus Trigwell (the man behind Feathered Flyer). Laus is the webmaster for the JSSUK web site (www.javasparrow.org) and I called in to get some training from Laus on the "background stuff" so I can help out on the administration side of the society website. I also took a few photos of Laus' set-up which I will be making a feature of shortly. |
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August 20th It's been over three weeks since they were paired up, I usually find eggs appear between six and fourteen days from birds that are in condition, it's taken a little longer with this pair which may mean the eggs could be clear. I should know in a week if there are early signs of fertility. |
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The Fawn's (ref May 28th, June 16th, July 9th, July 13th, July 18th, July 24th and August 12th) have laid the first egg of round two. |
The unproven pair of Silver's put down to nest on August 8th currently have two eggs in the nest. |
The Normals (ref July 10th, July 12th, July 14th and July 18th) have six eggs in their third round. I don't usually let my birds have three rounds but I am tempted with this pair. |
The Fawn's put down to nest on August 6th have built the nest but no eggs as of yet! |
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The Normals (ref July 10th, July 12th, July 14th, July 18th, July 24th, August 2nd and August 14th) have hatched a total of four chicks from 6 eggs. |
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August
22nd The general health of the bird is fine, he's singing all the time, his droppings are normal and he's eating and drinking fine. The only other thing I can mention is that the vent may be looking slightly swollen...but that may be an illusion due to the dropped wings. Click Here and let me know if you have experienced this before.
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Have you seen this before?? |
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A view from the other side....It has all the characteristics of a hen that's about to lay an egg.......only this bird sings and has laid no eggs!!! |
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For those of you who visit the "Feathered Flyer" website, you may have seen that I have placed an advert for "Cutthroats Wanted". I have decided to get two pairs and today I've managed to get two cock birds (see photos), a member of Feathered Flyer, Dean (aka connorfish) is very kindly picking two hens up for me tomorrow from Clevley, Lancashire.......I'll keep you posted. This acquisition is by no means a reflection on my passion for the Java Sparrow, I just feel that it would be nice to breed something else in my birdroom too. If you have read my diary in January you will see I had some Heck's Grassfinch and Bengalese and I sold them to concentrate on Java Sparrows, well...to cut a long story short....I miss having another species in the birdroom.....but I'm not planning on more than two pairs of Cutthroats....famous last words....lol!!! |
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Both birds are close rung and were bred in Europe. |
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August
23rd As I mentioned yesterday Dean very kindly offered to pick up the birds whilst on a business trip to Lancashire, I met with him just after lunch to collect them....thanks again Dean mate...your a star! (Also thanks to FF member "jugglerjeff" for recommending the breeder....thanks mate!!!) |
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Also today....the Fawns put don to nest on August 6th ( and ref August 20th) have laid their fist days after 17 days from pairing up.....fingers crossed!! |
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August 24th Dave and I became friends in the early part of last year as I contacted him via an advert in which he was selling some Javas. Dave is also the Publicity Officer for the JSSUK! I will , in the near future, be doing a feature on my visit to Dave's set-up, but until then here we are in Dave's birdroom.
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August 28th I've had a few people respond to my "dropped wing query" and several people responded by saying that they have Java's like this and are perfectly fine. My only concern with this pairing is if the offspring (if they have any) will carry this visual trait. As the Agate is so rare, I cannot afford to not breed with him so, as mentioned above, I paired him up yesterday. |
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Not so much luck with my other pair of Agates! (ref July 25th and August 20th). The hen laid a total of seven eggs with only one being fertile. Luckily I have a pair of Silver's that are on eggs with an incubation cycle identical to the Agates. Usually, after pairing up birds eggs appear between six and fourteen days, I have found that clutches laid after fourteen days are usually clear with exception to the odd fertile egg.....as in this case! I have taken the clear eggs away in the hope that they will produce another round....preferably fertile!!! |
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August 31st There is a total of three fertile eggs in the nest (the clear egg is a fostered silver egg) but as you can see in the photo, the egg that is far right has been chipped leaving the chick "dead in shell". I've candled the other fertile egg this evening and could see the young chick inside the egg moving around....I'm pretty sure this will hatch tomorrow. If you read back through the previous weeks you will see the parents had only one chick in their first round which developed very slowly, you could say he was the runt of the one bird clutch. looks like there will only be two chick from round two! |
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Please Note: Due to the amount of photos on my "Java Diary" page, adding more news to this page will only result in lengthy download time of the page. Therefore, the next two months (September & October) will be on a separate page. You will still be able to access all months by clicking on the relevant month tabs.
Visually, nothing will
change.
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