December In The Bird Room --- Month By Month Journal

December 2018 In Summary:
I fed a different diet than usual.  Not by choice!
Was it wrong?  We will see!
One of the most important things to success with breeding canaries is the canary seed mix, in my opinion.  I prefer a plain mix of canary seed and rape.
In fact, this seed mix is the Number One thing that I feel is responsible for success or failure in breeding canaries.  There are several other factors to do in canary breeding, but what you feed them is number one.
Most canary/finch mixes, especially the ones available in 2 pound bags at pet shops, contain too many other types of seeds, such as millet.  The bits of pellet or egg food and dehydrated fruits such as coconut are not necessary and I think of them as 'candy'.  I have nothing against pellets, but I feel the ones in a seed mix are of inferior quality.  These mixes also contain broken oat hulls which lower the overall protein of the canary's diet. 

They LOVE to take a bath in the Ioford/DufoPlus water!

Oh, and I learned several new things about genetics.... and I bought 15 new birds!

Email Updates from my blog --- fixed, I hope!

SORRY to everyone signed up to receive updates when I post to my blog!!!
There are several old posts tacked on the end of the email!
I think I have that fixed!  :)

THANK YOU for your interest in my blog.

I will be starting the Canary Fun and Games in early January, so your patience will be rewarded!
:)

2018 Surprised Me With Some Good Things!

I learned a few things in the past year!
Several experiments gave me answers... and an article on hen genetics explained the subject clearly.
I had some good things happen, even though the year was so chaotic.  You'll never believe all that happened!
First, I'll begin with last fall, November 2017.  I kept extra birds, because they were so nice.  :)  What an exciting time I had making plans for 2018!  I had 82 birds, which is 'way more than I had planned, but such nice birds that I just had to keep them for one year's breeding!

I also began The Apple Experiment.  Several years ago, I discovered, by accident, that consuming a large amount of apple stopped my chickens from laying!  I was given about 80# of fallen apples and I dumped them out in my poultry yard.  Within a week, my hens were not laying a single egg!  Several elderly farmers cautioned me to feed small amounts, instead of all they wanted to eat each day. Plus,  I have read that putting water cleansers in their water may also slow the canary hens' egg laying (canarytales.blogspot).  The water cleanser mentioned contained citric acids.  So, I began to feed apple, with an occasional water treatment, as an experiment.
And I also began a simpler seed diet.   Well, it worked.... the majority of the hens delayed egg laying for several months. (continued)