Easy Early Nest Cleanup
After about a week or so, the chicks nest becomes grossly soiled. The nest shown is Stafford mosaic chicks, all three have crests. I have great hopes that they just might be show stoppers as even their baby feathers are resistant to taking up the red coloring agent! Can't wait to see that mosaic pattern after they molt!
A fast an easy way to do this first cleanup is to take scissors and cut away the mess. In a few days, I will completely change the nest pad and put very little nesting material in the nest so that the chicks will have more room and the nest will be clean again.
2 comments:
Hello Linda , I thoughly enjoy reading your Blog and find it very informative. I read the comment about dropping the lights from 13.5 hour to 9.5 hours Is this the proper way to bring on the molt? I am concerned about stressing my birds with such a drastic drop. Would it not be better to do it gradually. I thought was it best to drop it by 15 min. increments. I know it is important for the show circuit to have the birds finished molting before show time, but not to the expense of the birds. What is your view on this. Houseofflight.blogspot.com/ member of the LoneStar State Canary club.
A quick healthy molt is best for the birds! When I am ready for molting, I turn off all artificial lights in my aviary. There are double windows on the south and west so it is not totally dark. when you do this the molt takes about six weeks but if you do it gradually it can easily take all summer! The molt is very stressful on the birds so a slow molt is twice the stress! The date I turn off my lights is generally June 21st approximately or the first day the temperature hits 100 in Wichita!
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