Below I've outlined a few things you need to do to ensure a successful breeding season.

Breeding Condition:

Before the breeding season even begins you need to get your birds into breeding condition, that is healthy, fit & ready for action.

Cock birds can be fed conditioning seed, but will require less effort compared with the hens.  You will know when your cocks are in condition as they will sing at the very sight of the hens, usually with wings dropped slightly & whilst moving side to side.

The hens need to have been exercised in a flight or other large area to ensure they are fit enough for breeding & producing eggs.  Conditioning seed will help prepare the body as will grit, charcoal & cuttlefish bone.  If possible get some calcium tonic to put in their water.  Hens will use lots of their own calcium up when producing eggs, so this is a good way to subsidise the calcium they get from the grit & cuttlefish bone.

You'll know when your hens are in condition, because they will start to carry nesting material and/or wood chippings.  They will also crouch on the floor or perch when a singing cock is placed within sight.

Its best not to disturb a sitting hen or a hen with young in the nest, so make sure the cage has had a good clean before you introduce the nest.  I have hear that being too clean & hygienic can affect a birds fertility, but have no evidence to support that claim.

Pairing your birds:

Allowing the cock bird to see the hen without putting them together is a good way to introduce the pair.  If you put them together straight away they may fight, which is best avoided.  Introduce a nest bowl to the hen with plenty of nesting material, if she is interested she will begin to nest.  You may also find the cock feeding the hen through any adjoining gaps, if this occurs you're probably ready to try the pair together.

You may find it necessary to part them again at first, but eventually you'll be able to leave them together.  Make sure you're getting them used to soft-food & green food, not in large quantities, but enough to interest them.

Egg Management:

Within a week of being introduced the hen is likely to lay her first egg.  She will lay one a day for typically four or five days.  To ensure these eggs all hatch together, which improves the survival chances of all the young, we replace the eggs each days with a dummy egg, returning her clutch when she lays her forth egg.

Its important to store these eggs in a dark cool location.  You must also turn each egg (180°) once a day to stop the yoke from sticking to the shell, which may cause complications & stop the egg from developing.

Incubation:

The hen will then sit the clutch for 14 days, during this time she will only get off the nest to eat, drink & go to the ladies.  If you've left the cock with her he will feed her on the nest, if not you'll notice she will only eat low energy seeds like plain canary, because she doesn't need the fats & oils in other seeds as she's not exercising.

Hatching:

Its best to start to check for egg shells and keep an eye open for newly hatch chicks on the floor from day 12 of the incubation.  Chicks are light & are sticky when they first hatch, which can sometimes get them stuck to their mothers feathers.  If you find a youngster on the floor, try to revive it by increasing its body temperature & if it opens its mouth, by giving a little warm water on a match stick.  Getting the chick back in the nest is always its best chance of survival.

You may also see the hen eating the egg shell, this is natural & helps the hen absorb the calcium she needs to produce further clutches of eggs.  From now on you will need to ensure she always has a good supply of soft-food & green food to feed the chicks (two to three times a day if possible).

Rearing:

The chicks will grow quickly & will stay in the nest usually until they are between 14 & 21 days old.  Its important not to disturb the chicks in the nest until they have left of their own accord.  If you do touch the nest be prepared for an explosion of youngsters.  They will leap out of the nest & go everywhere & may be small enough to climb out of the drinker holes.  It also makes life tough for the parents as they now have to chase around the cage to feed the young rather than go to one place to feed them all.

Weaning:

I like to wean the chicks when I know they can feed themselves, but others are prepared to wean them from 21 days old.  If you have the option to part the young from their parents, but leaving them access via a drawn slide or slide with holes, this will ensure they get feed if still too young.  Usually the cock will be happy to feed them, whilst the Hen gets on with building a new nest.

Hardening off:

By hardening off the young I'm talking about the transition from soft-food to hard seeds.  Initially keep them on plenty of soft-food, soak-seed & green food.  I fill the seed hoppers with rape seed, which is the softest seed they will find in a standard canary mixture.  They won't eat too much seed at first, but after about a month you can start to change from a pure rape seed to a standard canary mixture.  The young will still need soft-food through-out the molt (summer).

How to stop your hens from laying:

If you've finished the breeding season & have a hen lay, you need to let her finish laying her clutch.  Then replace the eggs with dummy eggs & let her sit them until she abandons the nest.  If you remove the eggs each day, she will keep laying until she has a clutch of eggs or until she is exhausted from producing eggs, which is why you should allow her to lay & sit the clutch of eggs.

This page was last updated on 18-Nov-2005 .