Food for the Molting Season

 

Some of this years canaries 2016.

Here are my long awaited Yorkshire Chicks at just a few days old. I am hand feeding them as the hen is not. I am using Abba's hand feeding formula.

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Seven days old and their eyes are open.  Relieved that  the parents have started to feed them because they wanted nothing to do with me and my food. Green Peas was the specialty food of the day along with the soft foods.

 

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 At fourteen days or so Evel decided to fledge the nest, "to early" I said, but there he was on a perch standing on those long legs. So thus the stunt boys name.

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Here they both are out of the nest and on the floor of the cage. First night out of the nest was not much fun at this tender age. Second night out was even less fun. When I went to bird room early next morning, Evel was NOT in the cage. Nope he was not there. He had managed to leave thru the bar of the cage you see here. I found him on the floor in decent shape, not to cold and not to happy.

I returned him to his cage with his room mate. Notice the wing feathers coming in nicely.

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So after the "I am leaving episode" Evel and Knevel refused to stay in their nest. I would put them in the nest and they would immediately jump out..  So I put a dish on the floor of the cage added a nest pad and here they are on the floor of the cage. Each day the feathers are growing and looking good. July 2 2016. I think they are going to make it. They should be trying to eat soft food in about 3/4 days.. I like the look of the wing feathers today. And..... they are no longer bald..

Wish us luck!

These chicks have been fed well by the parents. They have very full crops, the yellow bead of food in their neck is the crop.

Greens for the Canaries.

 This is my wildflower weed patch where the chickweed grows.

 This is a close up of a mature chickweed - you can see the shape of the leaf.

 This is one full chickweed plant. It spreads in a circle and  has a tiny white flower. Bottom right  corner is a dandelion. Also good and rich in vitamins for canaries. Top left is the plant I am seeking ID on..

 Close up of plant I need to ID??? It has a tiny pink flower.
Dove Foot Geranium/  Doves Foot Cranes-Bill  has been ID'd

http://www.juliasedibleweeds.com/edible-weeds-flowers/doves-foot-geranium/
Link to read more about this plant.

This I call, "Take Over" as you can see if you zoom in, the plant I need to ID has taken over the chickweed. Chickweed is a spring plant and soon will be gone for the year..so I like to take advantage of this and feed it everyday till it is gone for the year. The fledges love to play with it and spend much time eating and dragging it around like a toy. "its that little string inside the stem, you see"

Read more about chickweed here: http://www.juliasedibleweeds.com/recipes/chickweed-abundant-in-winter/

This years new chicks

And I don't have to chop carrots and they get their Vitamin A. Mixing this juice with my cornbread mix.

 I am so far really pleased with the Perle Morbide. Of course I will know more about the egg laying at the end of the season. PM is easy to prepare and I just add it to my cornbread mix and the birds eat is without concern that it is new.

Perle Morbide Bianche is designed for white birds. It can replace germinated seeds - improving egg laying, growth index and removing black spot in white birds eggs.

• Quick and easy preparation

• Completely edible

• Egg laying improved by 20%

• Elimination of mycosis and other diseases risks caused by germination process

• Can decrease Black Spot

• Can increase growth index

• Chance to add in the water any medicament or water soluble additive

 Putting a new light on breeding..How exciting.

I put this multi colored crocheted nest pad in with the hen this morning and by afternoon she had built her new nest... I think they like the new pads.

Saw these crocheted Nest Pads on a site, got out the old crochet hook, found some yarn and look at this.....They turned out really nice. The pad fits tight over the plastic nest. Will offer to white hen tomorrow to see what she thinks of it.

The American Singers have built a nice nest and the first egg appeared today.

This guy has a beautiful song..

More pictures of my Nestling food.

Here is a picture of the birdie bread nestling food I make for the young canaries.

Corn bread/muffin mix, 6 or more eggs, fruit and nut veggie mix, Total cereal, calcium, hemp seeds, spirulina, hemp and flax mix, water. The recipe varies according to what I can find at the store. The hemp/flax mix is new this year. After cooling the nestling food bread, I shred it to a small crumb mix. This is fed to the pair with very young hatches. For chicks that are a week or more > I then add carrots, broccoli, apple, quinoa or coucous, hemp seed, hand feeding mix, calcium, chickweed when available.

Aviary nest #2 - three chicks - is 27 days old now and almost ready to move to their weeing cage. Hen is building a new nest, so time to move.

This little chick looks like a fluffy marshmallow, she is a soft feather. Waterslagers.

Banding the young canary with the Elastic Bands.

 This is a picture of the applicator and the box of elastic bands.

 This picture shows the cock bird. His bands reads. Left leg red band 2015 bird. The black elastic band is his Assigned Color (AC) which is black. His right leg wears a 2015 split band of yellow/green, I had to use to ID him a split Waterslager.

 This picture is of the Hen. She wears the Red 2015 open ring band. Her Assigned color (that all her chicks will wear) is the elastic Orange

My canaries are banded with open rings. Blue is the color for 2016. As you can see in the bottom picture the young chick, wearing the blue (2016) #8 ID band. On the right leg is ID for the chicks parents. Top black is for the Cock bird and bottom orange is for the Hen. This is the first year I have used these Elastic Bands, they stretch and are so much more comfortable for the bird. This method of band ID will allow me to look at a bird and know who the parents are by band colors.

My green variegated male singers..Available to pet homes for their song, or to breeders looking for the Green Canary.

They have the lovely Roller song.

A good read for those interested  in breeding canaries.

Yorkshire Canary. This is my male that I got from Alex D in Texas last year.. We call him Tex.  His hen is Peaches and she is sitting on three eggs..This is my first time breeding Yorkshire's. And I am really growing to love this breed..