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

(This journal entry has been added 7/2019. Sorry for the delay, but I am returning to keeping the Bird Room Journal up to date!)

2019 has been a strange year, outdoors.  March, April and May have been warmer and much sunnier than normal

In the bird room, progress has been going according to plan! 

• I have learned a few things about the effects of the changes in my diet plan.  I have been mostly satisfied.
  I am keeping notes, and will post a summary of what parts of my new diet worked/didn't work.  :)
• The Good News:  Most of my 'most anticipated' pairs produced some very, very nice youngsters.  There were also some unexpected beautiful babies from new pairs. 
• The Bad News:  Most of the newly purchased birds and several of my oldest pairs did not produce a single chick!  In early April, when these pairs were not beginning to nest, I began putting fertility vitamin supplements in their water, and increasing their protein, in both seed and softfood.  I understand why the old males (8-9 years old) did not produce fertile eggs, but the new young  hens who layed/set and still did not hatch a single egg, are a mystery to me.  Four of 6 birds from one breeder died!  Three of four hens from another breeder sat in an empty nest without building or laying eggs.  But they sure were happy just sitting in the nest for days on end.

Here are the first youngsters,
hatched in April!
I haven't taken photos up close,
but there are many very nice ones! 

My rocking chair is still in the bird room, but the seed tub is all that is sits in it

In my life away from the canaries, the ranch work has been busy.... and keeps getting even more busy!

Here are a few of my other 'animal friends':
 

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!

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

Late March 2019

Breeding has begun!
The bird room is vibrating with male song and hen twittering.
Bits of string, jute and yarn fly in the air.
A page in my notebook is filled with cage numbers and dates of incubation.

Some things are going according to plan, but there have been a few surprises.
Good News first:  Half of the prospective pairs are getting along well, and have nests built.  The other half are getting along well, happy to be in a cage together.  Most are beginning to tear paper and I am putting more nests into cages every day!

My new system of cage numbering and coding with slips of paper with date of expected hatch is working well.  Making plans ahead has kept things going well on on those mornings I have 20 minutes to check the hens!

Now for the Bad News:
I had three hens show symptoms of egg binding.  One was an old 6 year old hen, and unfortunately, she is gone.  The other two survived with the help of calcium in their water.  One was another older hen, and the third was a new bird purchased last fall.  Everyone else seems fine, but the entire bird room is receiving calcium in the water.
I suspect my limited time in the bird room the past two weeks is to blame.
Our ranch work jumped into Spring overnight, it seemed, and my plans for the bird room became less than the most important.  As a result, I did not feed softfood 3 times a week, as planned.  Once a week was the most I did prepare for the canaries.  I also put the F-vite mineral supplement in for the birds only twice, instead of four weeks.

The Best News of All:  I finished my Canary Diet Research!
I had so much fun!
It was a great way to occupy myself while I was impatiently waiting for breeding season.
I spent my spare time reading and making experiments, instead of hovering over the canaries.
I discovered so many tips and little gems of advice.... and there are many web pages by breeders that deserve reading and re-reading!!!
I kept a few notes, and am sharing the research:

Canary Diet Research --- Finished!!!!

Please begin on Page One!

My Canary DIET RESEARCH --- Finished!

I spent the past three months working on serious research into diets for canaries.

I am sharing my notes, and the most interesting portions of my study, as well as what I learned!

Please begin on Page One!

- Page One - I Began With The Basics
- Page Two -  Information I Found Most Interesting
- Page Three - Experiments and Comparisons (with photos)!
- Page Four - I Decide For and Against Some Popular Foods
- Page Five - Specific Brands of Seed/Supplements,  plus my revised Soft Food Recipe  

I encourage everyone to do a little Canary Diet Research of your own!

I have added the best 'diet references' and web articles to the

Canary Seeds page of links.

Nests and Nesting Materials

Why is it, we want to try new things, when the old things are working quite well??? 
I am telling myself it is OKAY; as long as I only try one new thing at a time!
So, I am experimenting with a new liner for my nests, and keeping the same nesting materials.

I have been satisfied with squares of paper towel or coffee filters taped into the nests.
This year I tried something new:  disposable nursing pads. 
They seem to be about the right size and have two adhesive strips to keep them in the plastic nests.
(I did search for the largest size available.)

Left: nursing pad
Right: paper towel, folded four times, taped at edge

I have not yet put a nest with the nursing pad in with a hen, so we will see how well it works.  The one disadvantage I can think of is that I may miss the masking tape on the edge of the nest.  It is so easy to simply tear off the tape with the paper towel:  the nest is clean and ready to use again.

I am also filling baggies with homemade nesting material.... a good job to be done while watching television.  Yes, I did buy several bags of jute material specially made for nesting.
I still sit for hours, to cut and unravel cotton yard!
And if I do brag myself up, I can tear strips of just the right size from a sheet of paper towel!

 I do have a method behind my madness.  Here is WHY:

• I like to mix materials.
  WHY?  I think it makes them work a bit harder to weave them altogether well, thus giving them an extra day to build before egg-laying begins.  Just seems to work that way.
• I start out with larger, bulkier pieces, such as the jute strings and the strips of paper towel.  I've seen hens tearing the paper towel strips into smaller pieces.
• When the hen has built a little base of the jute/towel, sort of a ring in the nest,
  I will give her the various sizes of cotton yarn;  some pieces left whole, others with the strands partially separated.  I also tear apart cosmetic cotton balls.
  WHY?  This is used as a more dense, also smoother, inner layer.  I've seen hens sitting in the nest, and really arranging this final layer with their feet!  It makes a good tight nest, and no eggs are lost among loose materials.
• I like to portion them out to the hens once or twice a day.
  WHY?  For me, a hen that has a huge pile of materials available, seems to think she has to use it all quickly before some other hen takes it! 
  Giving unlimited material MAY encourage hasty nest building.
  I don't like huge nests, overflowing the nest.

These are just my observations.  I have not proven them... just my thoughts.  I have only used the jute for the past two years, and my hens are not crazy about it.  I have seen great nests built entirely from the paper towel, or newspaper/paper towel combination.... of course with the cotton as a final layer.
Each hen has a preference:  some hens prefer only the cotton yarn.

LEFT:  I also had great success with circles of fleece sewn into a wire nest.
Maybe, with that extra layer, the hen found it easier to get her pieces tucked in?  Maybe, her pieces stayed in place when she added later pieces?