Question re: Aviaries and Breeding

[Astrid660]

I have always wondered, say you have a whole bunch of budgies/other birds and put them in an aviary for part of the year... or if you already have outdoor aviaries and don't want to breed - how do you keep it under control ? Do you have to make sure only females are in one aviary, males in another?

In the future I would like to have outside aviaries for part of the year (it gets too cold here in the winter.) but I wonder how others handle this aspect of it?

[LovelySydney]

I think the only way you COULD successfully do it would be to separate male and female, otherwise you could end up with LOTS of baby birds on your hands!

[Abby]

I don't have boxes in. Any eggs they decide to lay get dropped on the ground. When I decide to breed my budgies and 'tiels then I take into consideration who's hanging with who, best possible mutation outcomes then pair those birds up in breeding aviaries for the 'tiels and breeding cages for the budgies. I then know who is related to who and don't have any in breeding. I also can make sure that the birds aren't over breeding because I'm the one who is going, ok look you 2 can go for it now, nah you 2 need 6 months off, that type of thing. I made sure I had the space to do this and deliberately set up a couple of spare aviaries for the 'tiels for this reason.

With no boxes in it's never been an issue. I had one pair decide to sit on the ground but that became too hard for them in the end and they gave up.

[Ashling]

Yeah it's simple- take out boxes and if they lay eggs elsewhere, boil or shake the eggs and put them back for them to sit on as they please :)

[Astrid660]

oh okay... so they would still be allowed to form pairs and bond, they would just never produce any actual babies. The females will lay less eggs if they don't have a nest ?
It's one of those possible silly questions I never knew the answer to.

[tielfan]

Laying useless eggs puts an unnecessary strain on the hen's health so it's best to prevent that if you can. It's easier said than done though because some females may lay eggs even if you keep them completely segregated from the males. But the odds of egglaying do go up if they're getting it on with the boys.

[Abby]

Female birds will generally (as in not always) lay eggs at some point in their lives. With some it may be one in their entire life time with others they become habitual layers and then you have problems with their body getting trashed. The habitual layers are the problem and even inside without a mate they'll still lay.

With 10 cockatiels and 12 budgies I get maybe a total of 6-12 eggs a year that are just layed for the hey of it. So that's say 12 eggs between 10 females. Not too bad over a year. Obviously someone is laying a few more and I have my suspicions who it is so that girl I keep an eye on. Regardless I make sure that even whilst in community living I add calcium just in case and so birds are prepared and have their levels up before I set the individual pairs up for breeding.