Abstract
Who would have thought that two budgies would have led to a breeding collection of: budgies, cockatiels, finches, lovebirds, doves, rosellas, Indian ringnecks, conures and cockatoos. Not me.
When my husband and I married, part of the merger was a parakeet (budgie) at his house and one at my house. Naturally, we wanted to consolidate two cages into one. Little did we know that one was a male and the other a female. Actually, we didn't find that out for sure until two years later when we decided to build our first patio aviary in San Jose, California. What a joke! The idea was to put a few colorful birds together in one large aviary, with no safety door mind you, that was 15' x 16' x 7' high. The main purpose was to sit and enjoy the birds and let them do their thing. The collection consisted of: one pair of budgies, a pair of canaries (the female flew the coop shortly after acquiring her), 16 ring.neck doves, and a male cockatiel.
At the time, I knew nothing of bird keeping, clubs or magazines. I owned two bird books, neither of which dealt with aviaries, so I began to check out books from the library. Most of the books were written in the early part of the twentieth century. They were helpful, but I kept thinking there must be more up-to-date information. I knew I needed help, but didn't know where to turn. The reason why I knew help was needed was the fact that eggs were laid, babies hatched, babies were being killed or born deformed. However, believe it or not, I did not become discouraged.
We decided (actually, the neighbors decided for us) that we should get rid of the doves. They cooed morning, noon and night. Instead, we bought a pair of diamond doves and their sound pleased everyone.
Just when we got things settled down, my husband's company moved us to the San Joaquin Valley in California. At this point I was seven months pregnant and wanted to move the bird collection as well as our household items. I had traveled all over town searching for more books, finally acquired a few to give us some good guidelines for building aviaries, diets and what should or should not be kept together.
After the big move, we began co plan our landscaping around the outdoor aviaries, both of which would have safety doors! One aviary would be off the kitchen, 4' x 8' x 8', divided for colony breeding of budgies alone and the other half for four pair of zebra finches and a pair of diamond doves.
Another aviary was constructed behind the diving board of our pool, measuring 3' x 12' x 61, with a section for two pair of cockatiels and another for two pair of peachface lovebirds. The busy summer months of daily use of the pool did not phase the birds in the least. All went about their business of laying and rearing their young. I might add at this point that I nearly single-handedly built these aviaries. I knew nothing of carpentry, but had a great sense of determination. If the aviaries were to ever be built I knew I was the one to do them. So I began to check out carpentry books at the local library. I managed to learn to operate a circular saw, cut wire, drive nails, use a staple gun and put a roof on backwards. Ah, yes,, mistakes were made, but those mistakes were never made again. I made new ones with each new aviary!
The raising of the budgies was most enjoyable. I never knew what color the babies would become and I loved watching their behavior. I bred mostly English males to commercial American hens. I was pleased with their size, color and stamina. The babies were always banded between the fifth and seventh day. Records were kept on all pairs. Most of the time the hens stayed with the same box year after year with little bickering and fighting. All budgies were observed and pairs and boxes were noted on 3 x 5 cards. Only once did I have a pair of budgies swap mates.
All of my birds were fed Topper's vitamin fortified seed mixes, fresh water daily, dark greens, fruits and vegetables, and soaked seed with nestling food added when babies were due to hatch and all through rearing. With the budgies, I averaged four to five babies per nest and I allowed them an average of three nests a year at which point the boxes came down and were disinfected, aired, sprayed with camiside, lysol and stored. My boxes went up in February and came down in November. All boxes were numbered and placed back in the same position each year.
After only two and a half years we were moving again. This time further south in the San Joaquin Valley and instead of a few birds we moved eighty! This figure included adults and babies, some of which were still in the nest. My one and only, at the time, experience at hand feeding was a fiasco, so I chose to put pairs and babies in small cages leaving the babies in the nest boxes and hoped for the best. I did not lose one baby! All finches and budgies continued to care for their young all through fledging.