Hi everyone, I have been in New Jersey for
a couple days and my first priority was to evaluate all my birds in my
bird room, correct all the mistakes that my faithful helpers have
committed. It was a lot of work for me in the last couple days, but
right now everything is under control. Unfortunately, Rosa, my
confidante, took a three-week vacation to Portugal. Another employee, my
good confidante, had to have surgery on his arm so my poor birds were
left at the mercy to one willing good intention inexperienced
individual. What a mess! He was instructed to moist lightly the nestling
food supplement, instead he made a mud-like for bricks consistency. What
a mess! We had to remove all the feeding cups for nestling food
supplement from 156 double breeding cages. Lots of work! Thank goodness
everything is back to normal as of today's date.
PLEASE HELP FROM THE EXPERTS. Early this
year I traded a beautiful blue Gouldian male for two white chest
Gouldians. HOW DO WE DETERMINE THE SEX OF THE WHITE CHEST GOULDIAN? In
the normal Gouldian, the chest of the male is much deeper in color than
the female. That is very easy to determine, even for a beginner like me.
Now I am asking again, how do I determine the sex of the white chest
Gouldian? Please help.
My early-bred Gouldians youngsters from
October/November/December/January are now in full color. In the last
couple of days I paired several unrelated youngsters. I paired yellow
males split with blue to female blue. Will I get silver from this
pairing? This successful breeder, but not an expert on genetics of
Gouldians will sincerely appreciate your comments and help.
This area of New Jersey looks like the
spring of the year. All the lawns are green, all the fields and
uncultivated land are luscious green, lots of greens are available for
the birds, Dandelions are plentiful everywhere. My Chickweed plot is
green with plenty of little Chickweed plants about three to four inches
tall. Last night I picked up a considerable amount and all my birds this
morning had a feast. When I entered the bird room with a handful of
greens, they seemed to ask me, "Where have you been all this time?! We
miss you!" There is an old saying that says, "The handling of the owner
fattening the horse" (I don't know if this is the proper English
translation) It said (L'occhio del padrone ingrassa il cavallo). Even
though my helpers do the best they can, still my presence makes lots of
difference in my bird room.
I breed birds for a hobby and exhibition
purposes and I enjoy every minute of it. In fact, I spent all my spare
time in my bird room; there is always something to be done, such as
separating male from females, removing the bully from each holding cage.
Some males turn out to be so aggressive causing damage to other bird's
feathers. In the last couple days I removed six bullies from four
different holding cages. Checking bird wings and tail feathers for
damage and if damaged pull the feathers out and hopefully they will grow
back by the exhibition.
This time of the year while the birds
are molting, however, we are very careful to minimize excessive stays in
the bird room. We spend the time necessary to do the essential things.
As I stated many times, all birds will be better off if they remain in
peace and quiet.
Gouldians that were paired to breed last
year September/October ironically they haven't yet stopped breeding. In
fact, at this date, some of them are still sitting on eggs or feeding
youngsters. I am looking forward to a successful 2006/2007 breeding
season by the new young pairing. As soon as we determine the sex of the
two white chests in my possession I am looking forward to producing lots
of white chest blue, white chest yellow, and white chest normal. I
really like the white chest Gouldians. When I used to breed in my huge
outdoor aviary in Naples, Florida some years ago I introduced in the
aviary one very old (I got it for $2.00) yellow white chest male. Within
two or three years after the introduction of that old bird several white
chests appeared every year in my huge outdoor plant aviary. I still have
the picture of the aviary on the ABBA website @ www.abbaseed.com
<http://www.abbaseed.com/> , click on "My Experience with Gouldians",
and you can read my experience with Gouldians of those days in the 70's
and 80's and also you will be able to see my Photo Album. If anyone
wishes to add any photos in the ABBA Photo Album, e-mail them to us in
JPEG format only.
If you remember I mentioned earlier that
I put several Timbrados young males with a group of European Goldfinches
in a separate room away from all the other Canaries. This morning bright
and early I spent several minutes in that room and it was funny to
listen to the Timbrados youngsters mimicking the Goldfinch songs. I'm
really looking forward for the final results of this experiment. I will
definitely keep everyone informed.
Believe it or not, I still have one nest
of young Goldfinches being fed by their parents. Unfortunately, this
nest hatched while I was away and also Rosa is away. The birds never got
banded; right now they are in the nest in full feather, so when they are
fully fledged I will put on an open band for my own records.
Over this weekend I banded a couple
dozen baby Gouldians. That was a job! They were hatched on September 7th
and 8th; they gave me such a hard time to put the bands on. They were
twisting their heads back and biting my fingers when I tried to put the
band on. Would you believe that 10-12 day old Gouldians attempted to
bite me?
For all the fellow fanciers that breed
Red-Orange Colorbred, it is very important to have a fresh supply of
color enhancer before the birds at all times during their molt and after
the molt at least once or twice a week to maintain their luscious red
color. Uniform red coloration is very important for the exhibition
birds. A good uniform colored shiny, healthy looking plumage will make a
good impression to the judges.
We spray all our birds with cold water
mixed with one tablespoon of Listerine to 32 oz. of cold water. We mist
the birds every day. Misting the birds during their molt will facilitate
the completion of the molt. We also give a bath to all birds every day
using the method stated many times in my postings.
As I announced many times before, the
COM-USA will have their annual exhibition on November 10th, 11th, and
12th at the Knights of Columbus located in Dunellen, NJ. Only birds
wearing the current 2006 COM-USA issued bands will be able to compete
for the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. The executive board of director
of COM-USA has decided to accept birds from members in good standings
that have traceable closed bands issued by other clubs or associations.
However, those birds will only be allowed to receive Rosette and
Certificate of Award but will not be eligible to receive the Gold,
Silver, and Bronze medals. So exhibit with us, you will have lots of
fun. You can exhibit free of charge, no admission fee. Saturday and
Sunday you are welcome to view our beautiful birds.
Many of you perhaps are aware of the
scare spread all over the TV and newspaper about the E-coli
contamination of spinach and perhaps other vegetables. So many of you
that buy vegetables for your birds at the market, be very careful to
avoid bringing disease in your bird room. E-coli and other bacteria are
capable of killing people, so it will very easily kill birds. Rely
primarily on greens that are gathered from clean areas in the outdoors.
If you buy greens from the grocery store or gather from the outdoors,
always soak the same in a solution of a couple tablespoons of bleach per
gallon of water. Soak the greens and vegetables for about an hour, then
rinse thoroughly under running water, and feed the same to the birds.
Soaking the greens in a bleach-water solution will minimize the spread
of disease among your birds.
This is all for now. I will try to do
the best I can to post more. Please do your share to keep this
educational group alive and active.
If you are not a member of the following groups, please join and be
part of the learning experience.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABBASEEDBIRDSQANDA/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COM_USA/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ColorbredCanaries101Genetics/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EuropeanGoldFinch/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GPA101911/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/timbrado/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NFSS/?yguid=47202339
Best Regards,
G.A. Abbate in New Jersey—The Garden State
מגדלי
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