Wearin' of the Green Special Contest - First Bird Posting

Cead Mile' Failte (100,000 Welcomes)

From the original green canary a number of beautiful varieties have evolved, some of which are still wearin' the green!!

Each day till St. Patrick's Day, a canary photo will be posted through March 16th. Send your entry in on March 16th as a comment post on this blog posting. On March 17th, all winners, who correctly identify each canary type, will be recognized. In addition, the winner who also correctly identifies the proper show classification all birds will be declared the ultimate winner!

Here's a chance for everyone to participate at their appropriate level!! So what is the correct type and/or show classification of the actual canary at the top, bird number one? This bird's size is greatly enlarged by the photo, it is actually a small sized bird and not to be confused with the larger sized type bird which has the same shape. (Be sure and click on the photo for enlargement to identify the feathering.)

If you have a picture of a different green canary that could be featured in this contest, please send it to me at hogancanary@juno.com.

Some of the standards and bird photos are taken from the DKB/AZ Farben- und Positurkanarienstand, a book of standards, that I received last year at their show in Germany. I loved the ultimate in bird showing experience and continue to study the materials they gave me frequently!

I have also ask my husband, Pat, to provide a daily picture of Ireland, selected from his three trips, for our enjoyment and to get us ready for St. Patrick's Day.

Bachelorette Hen Versus Hogan

Why don't you just do what I want you to do?

The one thing I can count on when I leave the aviary for a few days, as I did this weekend to attend the NCBS Board meeting, is that some things will progress without me just fine but other things will be a disaster! This time was no exception, on the plus side a border couple in the high tier, went right on with the plan, the cock feeding and being attentive but not bothering the nesting material, and the hen laying and setting as expected. The only problem is that since I was gone, the eggs were not removed and come hatching time. likely the eggs will hatch over a three day period giving some chicks an advantage and the last hatched a disadvantage. As I refilled their dish of hemp seed this morning, which they get free choice when the hen is sitting, my face passed close to the nest. I was really excited when I could feel a warmth coming directly from their clay nest! At least something went well without me!!

My husband does feed and water while I am gone, and I do not think complaining about his care is a good idea but one of the cages with three of my German imported original hens, was unable to get to their water as the container was nearly falling away from the cage. A quick look and I could be a slight eye squinting, a sign of dehydration, corrected quickly once I replaced their water. I really hate it when something like this happens but it is an accident and but if I were there it would have been discovered in just a few hours not 24 - 36 hours later...I replaced the water container and changed the placement so it is unlikely to ever happen again. Although the dehydration squinting corrects quickly, it is a concern because I have heard of poultry operations who deprive birds of water to precipitate a full molt. Certainly, I would never do that deliberately. I found this on Sunday, and I have not seen any long feathers on the cage bottom, the first sign of a full molt, so looks like this one is going to turn out OK. Oh well....all is well that ends well...

Before I left town, I had noticed that although bachelorette had a well-developed vent, she had not built a nest. So I said to myself, "looks like she and shocker are taking their time and that is great"! Wrong, Sunday I discovered that in the front corner of their high tier cage, she had laid four eggs on the floor with almost no nesting material... and under her clay nest!

Well the fight was on and I tried to convince her that if she tried her nice clay nest, she would love it. I even offered to compromise and make her a nice floor nest. The picture above is the nest I offered her but compromise is not in her nature!!I have offered floor nests on occasion and had some success with other hens immediately accepting it, but not this hen!!

I also moved her clay nest and all perches to about an inch off the floor and in desperation I removed the two perches closest to the nest. Well she was not impressed!! So OK I finally told her, OK you win, I concede to you, but there are consequences for this young lady!!

I foster her eggs to another Stafford hen and if I had an empty flight I would have tried Doyle's approach, but lacking a flight, I decided to stop her floor sitting by changing the environment in her cage. Everything was moved to different positions etc and she looked at me like she thought I had gone totally nuts!! Assuring that I had the last word, I started her back on the weekly vitamin E in the water to encourage her to re-cycle as Doyle suggested.

Well, she is not sitting on the floor anymore and I am hoping she will build a proper nest next time. I just hope this soap opera with her is over!! If you have the opportunity to place bets, better bet on this hen every time!!

Moral: The more priceless the pair, the more you will pull your hair!!

Tuesday's Tipster - Doyle Johnson

Congratulations Doyle on being selected this weeks Tuesday's Tipster!!

Recycling Strong Willed Hens Sitting on the Cage Bottom

Each year, I have had strong willed hens that would not accept any nest I have tried. Again this year, I had two of my most prized hens wanting to lay on the cage bottom!

I tried moving the eggs to a outside nest, but they would not go to the nest. They persistently continued building a weak nest on the cage bottom from burlap they pulled out of the outside nest. Even after all of my efforts to try and change their behavior, the hens still were what poultry breeders refer to as being "broody". That is they still wanted to sit on the bottom of the cage, as if they were sitting on a proper nest.

So I moved each hen to a flight and left them for three days with other young birds I had weaned. In the flight, they moved around and forgot about sitting on the floor. Then I move each back to their cages with the cocks and each within a week had move to the outside nest and laid eggs!

This is the first time, I have gotten hens to use the nest that was provided for them! Each hen now not only laid in the proper nest, but now have eggs that have hatched, and the their babies are doing fine. Since this success, I have move a bronze hen to the flight in the same manner and returned her and now she is on eggs in the proper nest. I do not know if this is the answer but it has worked for these three hens!

Thanks so much Doyle for sharing this great tip with us! You are an invaluable friend who with almost no notice comes to my rescue! I hope all of you bloggers have friends you can count on like Doyle!!

Tuesday's Tipster is a regular feature of this blog! Just send your tips to canarytales@juno.com and write blog tip in the subject line to identify your Tuesday's Tip! Please be a friend and share a tip with us!

Your Show of Shows

National Cage Bird Show

I spent last weekend with the members of the National Cage Bird Board of Directors in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I am happy to report that a fantastic cage bird show is being planned for November 19 - 21, 2009 at the Renaissance Tulsa Hotel & Convention Center!

The hotel with its elegant European Style has a Four Diamond-rating. I look forward to sharing these superb accommodations with my friends and my show birds! A special feature of this facility is the spacious hotel rooms and the much appreciated close proximity of the convention center to the hotel lobby! Check out this lovely hotel at www.renaissance tulsa.com.

Don't forget to make your plans early and include that youth exhibitor from your club who just might be the lucky winner of the $1000 college scholarship! More information on this years show including the posting of the judges is at www.ncbs.org!

If you are not a member, join now and receive the informative news bulletins and get your copy of the show catalog in advance of the show! As a special bonus this year, members will be able to buy show tags in advance!

See you at the Greatest Cage bird Show in America, Your Show of Shows!

Feeding Behavior, The Indicator of Mating Readiness

Encouraging the Hen to Invite Mating

Wednesday was the sixth treatment with the ABBA water soluble vitamin E in the water for the cocks and the third treatment for the hens. As I evaluate the birds they are coming along nicely except I would like to see the non-paired birds feeding eat other more. The reason being that this is a good indicator that when paired with a mating ready cock, the hen will invite mating by begging and squatting for the cock. Although I have stressed the the cocks need to have the right vent development, I believe it is actually the hen inviting mating which is the most important factor in whether eggs will be fertile!!!

So I dropped the carbohydrates, bread and oatmeal, and increase the protein in all birds diet. To the regular seed mix which has added sunflower pieces and song food, I have added some hemp seed and bee pollen. I also dusted the mix generously with petamine breeding formula and Lewis Lab brand of Brewer's Yeast. Within 24 hours, the hens abdomens are hotter and feeding behavior is greatly increased! Note: I do not offer any egg containing eggfood till I pair the birds. It is fed daily to paired birds till the last egg is laid and then again when the first chick hatches.

The border hen pictured was trying to sit in a seed dish on the floor, but when I checked her a couple of days before I changed the diet, she was only slightly swollen, no heat, and certainly no skin glistening. Today, just 24 hours after the diet changes, see is hot, the skin is glistening and swelling has increased. I immediately paired her with an appropriate breeding ready border cock and she begged to be feed eggfood, squatted and invited mating several times before I could even grab the camera!! I placed a nest in the cage and she went to it and started building. When the hen immediately goes to the nest after mating, it is a good sign it was a successful mating!

If my timing is excellent, she will lay within five days of being paired. I actually prefer her to lay in five days as fertility is higher if mating occurs up to 14 days before laying than if the hen lays the following day. Once on a Saturday, I took a breeding ready hen with me to my friend Janice Klein's house and put her with one of Janice's cocks in a flight cage. While Janis and I drank Dr. Pepper and visited, the birds mated. I then took the hen home and put her in a breeding cage. She laid her first egg two weeks later, and all five eggs were fertile!

Today's Principle: If the hen is begging to be fed and the cock is feeding her, relax and don't give it a second thought, nature is working fine!!

This weekend, I will be at the National Cage Bird Board Meeting in Tulsa. So, I will not be positing again till Monday.

Sexing Our Canaries

Is it a hen or a cock?

First of all, I want to recognize Gates and announce that today they have been named Head of the Flock! Thanks so much for participating!!

Yesterday, Gates questioned the sex of the bottom bird. In yesterdays post, I was going on and on about the vent pointing forward, changing color from yellow to red, and finally engorging and all of the pictures except the bottom fit. The bottom bird has a pointed vent but it points toward the tail and some redness looks more like a hint of a ring around the vent. Gates was right in questioning, could this be a hen?

Actually, I have been questioning the sex of bird #783 for quite some time. It is a German roller and at one time was caged in a roller show cage as it starting to sing. The vent at that time felt like a small knob but it didn't develop and neither did its song!

There are a number of differentiating signs that help us sex our birds. Singing is one of them. We often tell the public that only cocks sing. Well that is generally true and of course the song quality of a hen is never as good as her brother. But, yes, some hens do sing just like this one! Fortunately, as they come into breeding condition they stop singing. But adding to the confusion is the fact that cocks often do not sing when caged with hens!

I often thought I could tell the sex by the boldness of the eye and aggressive nature but this is unreliable too because some hens are aggressive and some cocks are timid.

Another favorite is color. In some kinds of canaries, such as yellow rollers, the darker colored birds are usually cocks and the lighter colored birds are hens. The most reliable was to judge the color is not against other rollers but rather comparing the color of their siblings as they leave the nest. But like the singing, there are exceptions. The light colored top bird and next photo down is the same German roller cock that is uniformly light in color, and almost light enough to be called an ivory if it were a colorbred canary. The third bird down is a dark yellow German roller hen! I have noticed that this usually light colored cock is associated with a fantastic hollow roll. This light uniformly colored German roller will throw offspring with improved song quality and especially improved tone!! The photo on the light colored German male are not as light colored or as uniformly colored as he actually appears. So seeing the light color cock is great but color sexing is not reliable!

I have tried the needle on a string test, where you hold a needle on a string over a birds back and watch the direction it moves. If it goes back and forth it is a cock and if it goes in a circle it is a hen. I had great results with this technique but only when I already knew the sex of the bird!

When I went to the DKB German Show last year, I was given a book written in German, on raising canaries. Fred Proebstel translated an article that appeared in the Vocal Roll publication (Central States Roller Canary Association). This article suggested that you could sex the canaries by using and index card held in line with the beak bite line. The cock's eye will be bisected by that line, while the hen's eye will be above the line. This actually makes pretty good sense as we have long associated typyness with the hen who would naturally have a better frontal look than the more pinched look of the eye when it is in line with the beak line. Actually, in many cases I can see the eye placement without a card! This too is sometimes easy and sometimes indeterminable! On birds that are obviously cock or hen it is easy to interpret, but the ones that are undeterminable are not clear on the card test as the eye position on those hens seems lower and just slightly above where a cock eye would be. The bottom picture is the card test on #783. Is the bottom bird a cock or a hen?

I guess the moral of this long story is that the undisputed way to tell a hen from a cock is when she lays eggs! LOL

Are Your Canary Cocks Ready for Pairing?

Cock Vent Evaluation (Click on individual photos to enlarge your view)

Macho behavior and loud singing while dancing with drooped wings is a good sign that a cock is getting ready for breeding but the real test is to evaluate his vent development. When the cock is ready for pairing the vent will be pointed forward, red and not yellow and engorged (rounded) on the sides. The top photo is the German Roller DKB banded male who originally was very very fat! (click on the underlining to see an earlier January 10 th photo.) It is everything I require before pairing the cock with a ready hen! Note the engorgement!

The second photo from the top is a Border cock who shows some beginning signs of engorgement, he still needs more redness and engorgement. I consider him about 90% ready.

The third photo from the top is Gator Heat, the red Stafford. Notice he has good redness but the sides of the vent are a parallel and not at all engorged. Actually the photo is flattering his vent development! I consider him about 80% ready for pairing.

The fourth photo down from the top is another Border. Note that his vent has not pointed forward, lacks redness and certainly is not showing any sign of engorgement. I consider him about 50% ready.

The fifth photo down from the top is yet another Border. (Click on the underline to see his previous January 16 th photo.) This is the thin cock featured earlier. He is still thin but not as bad as before. I would give him only 25% ready.

Only the top canary cock qualifies for pairing!! The remaining cocks will have to wait. In the meantime, I will introduce them to small amounts of egg food and feed them some bee pollen.

Today's Question: What is your evaluation of the bird featured in the bottom photo? Please post your evaluation to this posting!! Come on and participate please!!!!