This Weeks Questions For Big Bird

Mario is smitten with his new bride.

Please post unrelated questions this week here.

Wednesday

Question Do you have any experience using boiled seeds, added to softfood when breeding? Seems more do, as to eliminate contamination.

Answer I tried using them briefly once but did not continue with them. When I add something to my softfood, I evaluate if the birds feed it more and the effect on the chicks growth rate and only keep those things that make a positive difference, I could not see any advantage to adding boiled seeds to my softfood. Perhaps some others can comment on their experience using boiled seed added to softfood.


Tuesday

Question  Does keeping Roller hens near, around, or in the same room with the males, affect the song of the males? Do they pickup faults and undesirable harsh notes?

Answer Breeding selection is the number one reason rollers are faulty. The second most likely source is being in close proximity, same cage or roller team stack, with a faulty Roller male.  In general, hens can have obnoxious call notes which can be learned but this is much more likely if they are housed in the same cage.

Prevention is the best answer. Do not breed birds that are faulty or hens whose fathers were faulty. House young birds from the same nest in the same cage. Separate young males from hens promptly but keep the males always with brothers or if not possible step brothers.

If you are concerned about other noises outside their immediate cage, play a radio during daylight hours. Back when I first started breeding rollers, I would play classical  radio stations and cello tapes. Since I breed a number of kinds, lots of roller breeders figured mine would learn bad stuff and be faulty because they were spoiled by hearing other kinds of birds in the aviary. The first time I showed rollers, five roller judges went in to hear my birds, they came out shaking their heads, saying those birds are clean! Other kinds are not a problem, they probably can't even hear them sing their wild songs.

The secret of my success with not breeding faulty stuff and being careful what cage they were in and not moving them around to other cages. My friend, Janice, once moved birds around from cage to cage and before she realized it over half her young males were singing faulty notes, she was not even sure what bird inherited it and polluted her flock! She had to cull all of them and all their sisters, on the bright side, we learned a valuable lesson, both heredity and environment are important.