Lots happening in the aviaries this year.

It's been a few months since I last posted anything but that doesn't mean life has come to a standstill in our aviaries.  Far from it in fact!   We haven't let the hens hatch any more chickens, although with the rooster in firm control of his six girls, there would have been lots of chickens!  But we take all the eggs from them the same day as they are laid, so there is no chance of them hatching.  Seven chooks are enough at the moment while we don't have a proper chicken coop for them.  The finch aviary is very safe and weatherproof, and fine at night while they are roosting, or sitting on eggs in the nest boxes, but during the day we let them out to free range over the back yard, even though they make a mess.  They are much happier out there than being cooped up in the aviary all day.

The canaries have had only one baby grow to maturity in spite of several lots of eggs.  The Gouldian finches haven't stopped breeding all year round; in fact Ken removes the eggs from the nest boxes now and then, just to give the females a break from sitting and looking after young ones.  For a time, many of the finches didn't seem to be recovering from their moult - the feathers on and around their head and neck weren't growing at all, and Ken finally took one to a specialist bird vet in Scoresby, a few miles from us.  The vet examined the finch thoroughly and said he was perfectly healthy, and his feathers would grow back eventually.  He sold Ken some vitamin mix to put in the finches' drinking water, which he did as soon as he got home, and within a month, all the finches had fully developed coloured feathers and they are all looking stunningly beautiful.

The Quails have also been busy, one mother in particular is a very good mother indeed.  She and her mate are very protective of their babies as soon as they hatch, and most of her broods live to maturity, whereas the quail hens in the other aviaries aren't quite so maternal, so they usually lose most of their brood after a few weeks, because they die of hunger or cold.  These baby silver quail hatched today and are just perfect!
In the first pic below, they all went under Mum as soon as I stepped into the aviary to take photos.

Mum got scared though, and hopped over the divider, leaving her chicks to follow.

 
Which they did.  Even at 24 hours old, they can jump up over this divider, although we have some brick pieces  at the other end, where the chickens ended up going, as it was easier for them to clamber over the bricks than jump over the divider.