THEORY:
As many of you know, I breed these giant Zebs. My theory is that increased protein in the devleopmental stages increases the growth rate and overall size. (ie 5% protein vs 15% proteins). For this I remove 50% of the eggs from each clutch and myself and my assistant hand feed them. There are many other elements to the study involving the type of protein (animal or plant based, etc). So far my results have been frankly amazing!
SETUP:
I have many breeder enclosures in stacks, but I also have one aviary setup (it was a bird cage project).
It contains 2 males and 3 females. with 4 nests.
The aviary setup worked fie the last few times.
PROBLEM: But NOW it has all gone to hell. Currently there is 2 males and three females and there are a few fledglings which will be removed in the nest few days.
Day 1: 1 egg showed up in nest 1
Day 2: 1 egg showed up in nest 4
Day 3: 2 eggs in nest 1,1 in nest 2, 1 in 3 and another in nest 4. WTH!
... the following days are chaos.
Currently there are eggs in every nest (but one egg is not being laid in each nest per day- it is random)- and each pair SWITCHES NESTS DAILY or hourly even. There is no way 2 pairs can incubate eggs in 4 nests. It is a total disaster- an expensive disaster!
ANOTHER ISSUE: I am photographing each color mutation in various stages of development to add a new section to my website. This is a very tedious process- but now it is made even more difficult as I will not know which parents have which eggs!
It will double or triple my paperwork.
TO TOP IT OFF: My 'foster parents' (society finches) are overloaded as currently there are two females and one male in 1 nest- sitting on 11 eggs! What is going on!
SOLUTION: Combine eggs in the nest when they start to incubate. But thats just it- they usualy start incubating at 4 eggs, no one is incubating much as it is so hot, they are rarely on the nests. And when they do go to the nests- they choose a different nest each time!
I just needed to post my frustration for the avian persuasion at the moment.
This is the aviary setup that has gone crazy:
As it stands, egg laying commenced on May 6th. There is currently:
Nest 1: 4 eggs
Nest 2: 2 eggs
Nest 3: 1 egg
Nest 4: 3 eggs
As many of you know, I breed these giant Zebs. My theory is that increased protein in the devleopmental stages increases the growth rate and overall size. (ie 5% protein vs 15% proteins). For this I remove 50% of the eggs from each clutch and myself and my assistant hand feed them. There are many other elements to the study involving the type of protein (animal or plant based, etc). So far my results have been frankly amazing!
SETUP:
I have many breeder enclosures in stacks, but I also have one aviary setup (it was a bird cage project).
It contains 2 males and 3 females. with 4 nests.
The aviary setup worked fie the last few times.
PROBLEM: But NOW it has all gone to hell. Currently there is 2 males and three females and there are a few fledglings which will be removed in the nest few days.
Day 1: 1 egg showed up in nest 1
Day 2: 1 egg showed up in nest 4
Day 3: 2 eggs in nest 1,1 in nest 2, 1 in 3 and another in nest 4. WTH!
... the following days are chaos.
Currently there are eggs in every nest (but one egg is not being laid in each nest per day- it is random)- and each pair SWITCHES NESTS DAILY or hourly even. There is no way 2 pairs can incubate eggs in 4 nests. It is a total disaster- an expensive disaster!
ANOTHER ISSUE: I am photographing each color mutation in various stages of development to add a new section to my website. This is a very tedious process- but now it is made even more difficult as I will not know which parents have which eggs!
It will double or triple my paperwork.
TO TOP IT OFF: My 'foster parents' (society finches) are overloaded as currently there are two females and one male in 1 nest- sitting on 11 eggs! What is going on!
SOLUTION: Combine eggs in the nest when they start to incubate. But thats just it- they usualy start incubating at 4 eggs, no one is incubating much as it is so hot, they are rarely on the nests. And when they do go to the nests- they choose a different nest each time!
I just needed to post my frustration for the avian persuasion at the moment.
This is the aviary setup that has gone crazy:
As it stands, egg laying commenced on May 6th. There is currently:
Nest 1: 4 eggs
Nest 2: 2 eggs
Nest 3: 1 egg
Nest 4: 3 eggs
