September In The Bird Room --- Month by Month Journal

This month has been like a VACATION in my bird room!
The birds are happy and healthy.  The young ones are beautiful!  The adults are content and active.
What I'm doing in the bird room:
DIET:
Although there are less feathers floating around, the birds are still in The Molt, so I feed a seed mix that is a little 'higher than normal' in the amount of oil and protein seeds.  I begin with the Canary Roller Mix by Leach Mills, and add a portion Song Treat by Sleek n Sassy.
The basic mix contains canary seed, rape seed, flax seed with 1/3 part of the Song Treat which contains nyjer and rape seeds, oat groats, several small millets, and hemp.  The final seed mix has quite a few  'oil and protein' seeds.
My canaries LOVE the Ioford/DufoPlus combination 2 days on alternate weeks with Nekton Bio, during the molt. 
I also feed apple slices, grated squash, and alfalfa greens.

(Our alfalfa field in bloom ->>> )

CLEANING:
Yup, I've begun deep cleaning the bird room!
We have had many days of rain this past two weeks, so I have set the extra cages outdoors to let Mother Nature do the first cleaning cycle.
My plans!
Oh, I am excited for next year!
This year has been a good one for my birds!
I had mixed results, with many new birds purchased last fall dying!
I also had a few pair of older birds, which produced less than normal during the season.
But, I see so many promising youngsters!  :)
I have an opportunity to take steps ahead! 
More on my 2020 plans next month.


NEXT MONTH:
I have a few new things coming next month....
and we will be playing the Canary Games!
Stay in touch... watch my FaceBook page:

September in the Bird Room --- Month by Month Journal

September
Month by Month Journal
=============

 COMMENTS are enabled for these journal posts so please jump in with your advice or questions!
---------------------------------------------------------------
This month, I was busy with ranch and family, so I spent less time in the bird room, which turned out to be a good thing!
I began a 'simple diet' for my adult birds: a basic seed diet, almost no fresh greens or treats, and no egg food.  The young birds were given a few oil seeds, and various treats such as fall dandelion leaves, etc.
All the birds look healthy, happy and are growing like weeds.  I have been VERY HAPPY with my new crop of youngsters this year!  I have 35 set aside that I want to keep for myself!  Yikes!!!
At this time of year, I want my adults to totally forget breeding!!!  They have earned a rest period.  If everyone is coming out of the molt in good condition, I even stop mineral supplements, except for cuttle bone.  The youngsters do continue to have mineral powder in their cages.
I did intend to begin my 'apple-feeding' experiment this fall but I forgot this year!
(I posted last year, how feeding apples to my poultry flock caused them to stop laying eggs... so I feel daily feeding of a small slice of apple may help my canary hens stop tearing paper and laying.)
I was also late at photographing the young birds for sale... I just ran out of time.
I began my 'deep clean' of the bird room and all breeding supplies such as nests, cages, fake eggs, etc.
Both the cleaning task,and the realization of just how many birds I had for sale, made me realize... really and truly realize, I had begun this breeding season with TOO many pairs!  ( I will address this top next month!)