Wearin' Of The Green

Beautiful Green Borders Males

Pair of Green Borders laid their first egg today!


Some eggs collected this morning.

This is a special day in the Hogan household. First thing this morning my husband Pat hung the Irish Flag on our front porch.

Here he pets one of our Malinois, Tosca while he waits to see if a Leprechaun will bring him a surprise.

Sure enough, the phone rang with a report that a Leprechaun was seen in the area! And what a surprise he found on our porch!!


Bella, our other Belgian Malinois, is wondering what the excitement is all about.

Tonight we will celebrate by attending the Wichita Shockers versus Nevada NIT Basketball tournament game. Go Shocks!!

Building Too Deep

Young Stafford male gives the young hens' nest a inquisitive look!


She had built a nest which was well filled around the shell but had stopped too soon before filling in the center. This leaves her nest very deep and open, so with an Oh well....she snuggles in contently.


Hoping she was not finish building yet, I check the nest but she had already started laying her first egg of the clutch. Note how deep the egg is positioned in the nest.


This shot shows just how very deep her nest really is! The danger of this deep nest is the hen may be held up too high from the egg to make good contact between her bare breast and the egg. If the eggs are fertile, they may not hatch because of poor incubation temperature. The deep nest also discourages nest mating.

Even though she has laid her first egg, it is not to late to encourage her to fix it! Just remove the first egg and instead of replacing it with a plastic egg, put a bunch more nesting material right in the center. Some people like to shape it for her with an object such as a small light bulb. Instead, I just fill the whole with nesting material and leave the fixing up to her.


At first she looked at me in disbelief! You want me to do what? You sure made a mess of things!!!!


But the next morning when I checked her, the nest was much better and she had laid her second egg.

The second egg was then removed and one plastic egg was placed in her rebuilt nest. It is unnecessary to replace each egg with a plastic egg. Rather one plastic egg is enough for the whole clutch!

Tails Tell The Tale

Beautifully shaped young yellow feathered cinnamon variegated Border hen. While admiring her head and body, it is important to look at the width of her tail!


What I want to see is a very narrow "piped" tail but instead it is wide! When birds are frighten they sometimes widen their tail but this young lady hops around merrily with her tail all fanned out all the time!

A relaxed bird that displays a wide tail is either out of condition or especially in Borders may have inherited short longevity genes... Some Border lines have been given high doses of vitamins and over the years, they have adapted and require a similar high amount of vitamins. Perhaps this is because of the epigenes that control the genes. If high vitamin needs are not met, the bird will display a wide tail and if the high vitamin needs are not met over a period of time, they will have a short lifespan. It can also be due to poor intestinal absorption which runs in some varieties.


Her roommate in the same cage has a piped narrow tail.. Even when birds are fed identically they can pick and chose and not eat a well balanced diet. Never the less, I will put a little more nutrition to them. Twice a day I will offer the ABBA green 92 with Breedmax (1 tablespoon to 4 cups ABBA green) and they will also get a dish of bee pollen each day.
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This two year old hen loves to sun herself. Note that beautiful piped tail!!


This Border male has lost his beautiful confirmation as he is in breeding condition. Note his piped tail.


View of the above breeding male from the top.


Critical Concept: Keep an eye on the tail width. If your birds are getting their nutritional needs met, they will display a narrow piped tail! Should a bird's tail be wide when it is relaxed, kick the vitamins up a notch.

This Week's Things I Always Wanted to Ask or Share with Big Bird???

Please post here your tips and questions for Big Bird.

Tips include the best tips you received from other breeders.

Sunday

1. Deb relayed that Clarice James recommended Buckwheat for conditioning. I used it in a mixed seed sprouting mix. Any comments?

Questions

1. Joyce writes she has a 17 day old chick that is crying as the parents are not feeding. What should she do? If she hand feeds will it effect how long it takes to wean the chicks?

Take A Second Look

My Favorite Stafford Mosaic Male, even won second in HIS class at the National Cage Bird Show. Yesterday, I decided it was time to check his vent development as there were several hens getting close to pairing with him.


Bottoms Up. Oops, how surprised I was to see that he is a SHE!! The Mask Really Fooled ME!! LOL


She is considering this potential suitor but she really had her heart on the non-crested cock she was caged with when the wrong sex discovery was made.


Hopefully, she will move on and accept this crested mosaic cock for the sake of her babies!


Remember a week ago, this DKB German roller cock 3506 was coming along but not quite ready for breeding.

Take a second look a week later, the vent sides are filling out more and more redness is apparant. Still needs to lose all yellowness but he is usable now. Click on each of his photos and compare the development!

Rate Gloster Canary Web Sites

Request from Barbara Gray to check out and rate her gloster queen web site at http://www.topiccraze.com/topic?topic=glosterfancywebr

Loved her Gloster pictures! Also check out the other fantastic sites!!! Great pictures and information!!

Cutting Burlap On The Bias

Loose weave natural burlap manufactured by the DeWitt company, www.dewittcompany.com and sold at many garden centers and large chains such as Lowe's. Rolls are 3' X 24' and sell for less than $10.


The loose weave makes it easy to shred especially when cut on the bias. Avoid the temptation to cut with the grain in short little rectangular pieces.


To cut on the bias, begin by cutting off one corner.

Cut strips, noting the strands need to be coming diagonally from both sides. The last strip can be cut up a little further but as you approach the edge the strands stop coming diagonally.


Where the strands are no longer diagonal, cut across.

Turn the part where strands are not diagonal and cut the corner off like in the beginning.

Continue cutting long strips on the bias.

To shred, start at the strip end and pull in the center of the end so that strands come from both directions.

It goes pretty fast when you cut on the bias and use the loose weave burlap! I use to buy burlap at the clothing goods store and it was a tight weave that was designed for bulletin boards. I would make my fingers sore struggling with shredding it and it would take me hours! It was such a monumental task that my friend Doyle Johnson, put shredded burlap on his Christmas Wish List!

It can be used without washing and makes a nice woven nest. Natural burlap does have a slight smell but soon airs out.