I have very little discipline when it comes to pet birds. My bedroom as a kid was a bed shoved in the corner and then cages, flights and breeding boxes floor to ceiling. In fact, when I first moved to this home I had NO intention of urban homesteading. The shed and outside aviary were to house a variety of Australian finches and parakeets to start a small pet bird business. Alas, when an intruder broke in and stole birds, killed birds and trashed everything I was SO heartbroken I ended that plan before it really began.

However, with a lack of self control, I have been 'collecting' birds over the past couple of years. And they do offer a small income; I mean, homesteading is ALL about multiple revenue streams, right?! And it might not be from traditional veggie boxes or hen eggs. Things like breeding ornamental pheasants (a plan in my future) and also pet birds, can be included. In fact, the large auction I went to, I made more money selling a few finches than I did my hens!

Now, with winter approaching and the incubators turned off, unplugged and packed away until spring, my attention is on my pet birds.

Budgies

Outside I only house zebra finches and quail in the aviary. As you can imagine, I'm rather wary of putting anything with any value there because of the thieves. However, I kept budgies as a kid and when some came up at a local auction, I bought Pluto and Luna.

Pluto (blue) and Luna (grey).

It quickly became apparent that Luna had French moult and I couldn't use her for breeding. So I went out and bought Venus and Sunny as potential new wives, opting to pair Venus with Pluto.

New girl Sunny with friend Luna.

Everything looked postive. Venus started visiting the nestbox. She chewed branches, bonded with Pluto and after only a week began mating. BUT.....no eggs. It's been 6 months now and still no eggs!

Venus took immediate interest in the nestbox but no eggs have arrived.

In the meantime, feeling bad for Sunny, I bought Io at another auction. Positive signs here too; bonding, feeding, visiting nestbox but no mating or eggs.

Cages vs. Colony

Up to this point each pair was in a separate cage in different rooms. They could hear each other but not see the other pair. Now, budgies are gregarious birds and I began to realise that they really might need to be closer together if it was to stimulate laying.

I'd tried increasing greens, grating additional calcium onto their feed, leaving lights on to increase day length but nothing has worked.

New Plans

So today, after almost killing myself trying to get an old indoor flight up the stairs, Pluto, Venus, Sunny and Io are all in together. It's not what I'd planned or wanted as they're now in the spare room - somewhere I'd wanted to keep dust free and for guests only. But there are animals in every room and this is the only real space to put a large-ish indoor flight.

They should be happier. After all, they're now in a 'colony'. There are three nestboxes to help prevent fighting, there's lots of room to fly around and strengthen their wing muscles and I'm feeding them on the floor so they have to fly up and down - something I've heard can also promote nesting behaviour. There's something about flying up to a nestbox that can get those hens in the mood...

The two pairs are in together now, in the hopes it'll kick-start egg laying.

Here's hoping this kicks them into nesting behaviour; I'm not sure what to do otherwise! I want to see babies...mostly just because they're UBER cute (in a gross, naked bag of bones kind of way). :)

Have you bred budgies? Any tips?

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