Should I take the nestbox out

[ena]

Sorry put it in the wrong one, though here i go again. My babies want to go for their 3rd lot this season, should I take the nestbox out or leave them to it? They are happy, health,horny birds.

[fox]

as long as the summer heat want affect them, i would say let them go for it. the more young that they produce, the more you'll make there for letting you buy better birds next season.

[oaklee]

i would take it out. you may get another nest out of them now, but in the long term it will be no good for the hen to sit on a third clutch of eggs. i only give mine 2 clutches and take the boxes out. i believe the birds need 6 months to recover before they breed again next year. and secondly the babies from the third clutch won`t breed next season as they will be to young. the babies need at least 6 months to reach maturety. i always take my boxes away from the birds, so when i re introduce the box in august the birds are stimulated into breeding as opposed to leaving it in all year round.

[OpalineRedRump]

So when is a good time to put the nest in and take the nest out?

[fox]

depending on the weather paterns where you live, in sydney the time that i concider putting the box's in start from about the start of july (still to cold most years) through to early august. and the box's i would generally pull them most of the time after the second clutch or from the start of january to the end of january, opalineredrump. peronally if the pair of birds want to go down again i would let them. just think, in the wild if they wanted to what would or who would stop them. its like the wild budgie's if the season is crap, then they want produce many young. but if the season,eg. food supplies are good then they breed as much as they can. yes the babies probably be to young to breed next season, but then again they could. i have had a pair of birds that were exactly 6 months old when they layed there first egg of a clutch of 4 eggs. out of these eggs i got 3 lovely babies. now this was a exception i believe. really it up to yourself, if you fell that the pair are in good health and are willing to go down again then you'll have have a decision to make ena

[ena]

They are the best parents, I hate taking their babies. I still have to force myself to put rings on them to record. When mum is to hot she gets out of the nest which is good. I think I'll leave her and make this lot to put rings on. Any recommondations on the type,size and what age i put them on?

[fox]

i use split ring's, but if you go to a good bird shop, they should be able to give you the right size

[John]

I use split rings too fox and get them made, stamped with whatever information and colour I want. The person that makes them for me makes most of the leg rings used by bird clubs in NSW he is very good and his prices are reasonable. I order them in batches of 100 and put them on my birds when they are around 3 weeks old. I have always left my nest boxes in the aviary and just cleaned them out before adding fresh nesting material in July, perhaps I should rethink this habit.

John

[mallee1]

I would be pulling the nest box out because of the weather we are having in this neck of the woods.

Continuous tempatures in the high 30°C is just to hot for any birds and in the nest box I would hate to think how hot it is inside.

If you leave box in you could possibly find that you may loose the hen as she sounds like she is a good breeder and they are the ones that will sit through extremes of tempatures.

But from over a decade of breeding birds within ths same region as yourself, they are the ones you tend to loose. TToo HOT!!!!!!

[bubbles]

John- Where do you get your leg rings from as i always struggle to find ones that are the right size and dont get too tight or fall off etc. thanks

[John]

bubbles said:

John- Where do you get your leg rings from as i always struggle to find ones that are the right size and don't get too tight or fall off etc. thanks

The guy that owns Pet Care Direct here at Mortdale has a factory and he manufactures bird accessories, metal feeders and things like that. They are located at Boundary Road Mortdale and he can be contacted there or at the factory. The number of Pet Care is 95336581 ask for Bruce and tell him John told you to give him a call.

John

[Brendan]

i use closed metal rings.
size 8 for red rumps
and i put them on when they are 8 days old.
i get them from pet care direct aswell