[MANAGEMENT]
When I can, I get out in the bird room early
morning, I have a quick look around for any problems that may of occurred over
night, then it is time to give the birds their silver beet, and they are
straight into it, and then they pump it straight into their chicks, this gives
me time to check out the nest boxes, for eggs that may of hatched over night,
or any chick that may have been flattened by a hen that sits to tight.
I then check the water containers, and put back any
chicks that may have fallen out of the nest box over night, and is too young to
be out.
I keep good records, and believe this helps with
your breeding in the future, not all of us have a photographic mind, and every
bit of info should be recorded, then its off to work, and I wont get home for 8
to 12 hours, My wife will turn on the lights if I am to be working late, and
the auto dimmers come into affect that evening.
When I get home from work, All stressed out, I go straight
to the bird room, my wife Roslyn and Daughter Melanie are very understanding, I
spend the next one to one and a half hours doing the budgie check, all the seed
dishes are filled, then the soak seed is put into a bucket of fresh water, and
left to soaked again as I check the boxes, I have a pen over my right ear, a
water based black texta over my left ear, a red pen in my left pocket, and my
torch in my right pocket.
I check every box, tapping on the top before
I lift the top, the hens know that is the signal to evacuate the box, and most
do, I have some hens that have to be picked up and moved, and they do not seem
to care, I look for newly laid eggs, and number them with the black water based
texta, and mark the date and egg number on the nest box card, when there is
more than three eggs, I put my torch to them to check for fertility, and mark
the card with a red tick if fertile, E.g.: egg no 2 fertile, red tick, Some
boxes have newly hatched chicks, so I mark the nest box card with the red pen,
putting the date the chick hatched and what egg it hatched from, and I check to
see if any chick need to be rung, if so the ring number is placed on the nest
box card,
After
I have checked all the boxes, also looking for any problems, and handling all
the chicks, checking out the best ones to look for the features, I rinse out
the soak seed, washing it well, and feed to every box, and the excess goes to
the aviary birds,
I
finally say hello to my family as an UNSTRESSED man.
I spend a lot of time on the weekend washing the
birds implements, which are used in the breeding cabinets, I then go through
the birds, looking for any pair I can pull out, birds that haven’t laid, pairs
with clear clutches, and eggs that haven’t hatched.
I place any fresh food in the flights that will be beneficial to my birds, I am fortunate, and have a lot of seeding grasses, and gum branches to feed to my birds.
I use the (KIS) system – KEEP IT SIMPLE - it works well for me.