NORMAL DAILY ROUTINE
When I can, I get out in the birdroom 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 of fallen out of the nest box over night, and is too young to be out.
KEEP GOOD RECORDS
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 birdroom, 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, that 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, 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 (KISS ) system – KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID it works well for me.
