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

Early April 2019

I am exactly one month ahead compared to my previous breeding season in 2017 (no breeding last year).
However, the weather is also advanced:  warmer, and more sunny hours.  In 2017, we saw very cold, dark and stormy months of March and April.
I find it interesting:  my indoor domesticated birds are reacting, at least in a small way, to the conditions outdoors.

Things are going well in the bird room.
Several older birds did not hatch a single egg of their first nest.  I wondered how these 5 to 7 year old birds would perform.  They do show their age, by the way they behave, but are all excited about beginning a second nest, so I will know more in another month.
The younger pairs are doing well.... with nests of 4 and 5!  One hen was nervous, laid only two eggs, but hatched both.

The Good News is:  several of the pairs from which I most wanted offspring, are proving to be good parents!  So, I should have some promising birds this fall to carry out my breeding plans for 2020!

I banded the first nest of 2019!  They are from an agate/agate/carrying opal pair.
My first Columbia Canary Club bands!!!!!!

I set the nest in a small can, to keep it upright and stable.  The little plastic cup contains corn starch, which I use on the foot of any chick that seems too large to slip through the band easily.
The pencil is included to remind everyone:
KEEP GOOD RECORDS!!!

More bird room photos.... and a closeup of my system of keeping the eggs until they are returned to the incubating hens:

Do you RECYCLE your bird water?

I recycle my bird water!
That is just a fancy way of saying:  I save the dirty water from the canary water tubes to use on my houseplants.

Canary grass growing with an amaryllis bulb.
Note the scrap of newspaper.... it must have been in the canary water!

You see, I BUY filtered water for my canaries.
Our home uses well water and I have read warnings about using a water high in Total Dissolved Solids for poultry.  Canaries drink a surprisingly large amount of water, considering how small they are.
So, I decided to go to the extra expense of buying 'good' water for my birds.  The local grocery has a 'do it yourself' kiosk where I refill 5 gallon jugs.
I don't have to say it:  my whole room full of birds use a LOT of water!!!  It takes 2 1/2 quarts of water to refill all the tube waterers for all the cages... and this is a time of year I only have adult birds!  I shudder to think how much water I will be using mid-summer when the chicks are all grown up!

I recommend emptying and refilling the water containers every day.
But, at the moment, I am skipping a day and refilling approx 3 times a week.  IF you don't dump out 'old' water every day, I recommend cleaning the waterers at least once a week.  In this busy season, I am glad I have a second set of water tubes.... and once or twice a week, I simply put up a clean waterer. 
There are the birds that must wash their food... and their water containers always have bits of dried fruits, pellets, etc.  Other birds keep their water tubes so clean, they would not need changing for several weeks!
However, I still recommend, as time allows, dumping out 'used' water and refilling with fresh water every day.

This leads to the RECYCLING!
I save the 'used' water to water my houseplants.
Since the well water is also not suitable for plants, I either save rainwater or buy water for them!
Saving the bird water for use on the plants gives me twice the use for that expensive bottled water!

Canary Photos are Online!

My page of CANARIES FOR SALE has MOVED!

Facebook says they will not allow posts from this site, if I am selling canaries here.

So, I made a new site, just for my canary sales,
and have moved any posts and photos of birds for sale to
👉 MontanaCanaries.blogspot.com!

THIS SITE (savoysingers.blogspot.com) will be my main blog,
and place to gather GOOD INFORMATION!

I have updates planned to my Savoy Singers Aviary birdroom journal,
the List of Canary Links,
as well as the Canary Games to be played in November!