Baby's Day Out

It has been a week since I last put on a new post and there has been a lot "growing " on. As you will see the nestlings have gone from tiny wiggly things with no feathers to almost the same size as the mama and papa.
The once four little eggs from a few weeks ago are now three cute soft peeps.We did loose one of the chicks.But these three look strong and healthy.They began to fly from their nest and look around in the cage. We thought it would be fun to take their picture in my silk plant.
Mama and papa are still feeding the babies but have began building the next nest. So I expect to see more eggs beginning next week

Banding Day for the Babies

Four wiggling little red bodies reach up to be fed but not this time .It was time to band their legs.Today was the sixth day since they hatched,they were beginning to poop over the edge of the nest and that is when banding is time to begin. Waiting longer may make it impossible to band them because they are growing so fast.By waiting another day their legs may have grown too large for the band to be passed over the front three toes and passing the fourth toe back through the band.Banding just before bed time will help to insure that mama wont throw the band out of the nest, and our work was not invain.

And The Day Has Arrived

The day has arrived, the hatching has come and gone. And we have four baby Red Liprochrome canaries. Four little wiggling bodies poke their heads up to be fed. Bright red bodies with spiked white mohawks.
This morning we heard tap, tap, tap, and the mama and papa stood looking from the edge of the nest. They knew that all the hard work of nest sitting had paid off and their little chicks were about to make their entrance into the world. Sure enough by the end of the day all four had wormed their way from the little speckled egg.
Mama and papa were clearly excited and rushed from perch to perch and peared into the nest.

Canaries with a personality

Well things in the bird room are going well. The hen is being a very responsible little mother even before the babies arrive .She is very diligently sitting on the four little blue speckled eggs. She comes out of the nest now and then to eat and fluff her wings.
I read that your not supposed to feed treats to them during this time because she might spend too much time away from the nest. But she past the test and so we continue to give her a little apple and broccoli. She quickly comes down to enjoy the sweetness of the apple and returns to her job.
As she works very hard keeping the eggs warm and turning them regularly the papa seems to think he has work to do too. He sits in the front corner of his side of the cage and stands watch as if he were sitting on the edge of the nest. So there he is sitting flat on his belly in the bottom of the cage.
At first we were concerned that he wasn't feeling well, and kept a close watch on him .But as soon as she would come down off the nest he is up and lively wanting to feed her between the bars.
For those of you that have never had a pet canary or two I would only like to encourage you to give it a shot. They have a sweet personality and will bring many hours of enjoyment to someone who takes the time to stop and watch them as they spend their day. Also a big plus is that they are cheap to feed and not at all messy like some other pets. The male will sing you a happy song as long as you give him plenty of water and good seed and some fruit or veggies now and then.

Red Liprochrome Canaries and a baby.

Four Speckled Blue Eggs

Well our little hen has been busy this week .Yesterday she laid the fourth and last of her first clutch of eggs. The last egg, as expected was a bit more bluer than the others and seemed to be a little more pointed.I am not putting pictures of her yet because I don't want to frighten her from the nest.
Last year we had a little hen that laid five blue speckled eggs and the last one also was a bit more blue than the others.We did not turn the first egg a half turn like we were supposed to and ended up with only four babies. This picture is of last years family.
This male, Romeo as we called him eventually had to be separated from the family because he was always trying to mate.Romeo would be best for breeding two females at once.He was good about helping mama feed the babies thru the cage.(The picture above is of one of the babies from last year). We tried to remove the divider so that he could be in the cage to help full time but he started to do his "mating dance"and singing with great enthusiasm to one of the female babies.So back went the divider.
Well as thing progress with this years couple I will post more. Thanks for checking out this blog. Look for more updates and please leave your comments. connie