Colony sex configurations

Includes Species Profile.
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Shane Gowland
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These are really good arguments from everybody. I think I'll stick to keeping the sexes balanced.

Also, thanks Tiaris for the great advice. I actually have a situation where all my hens are siblings, but it's largely a coincidence. Cock birds seem to be so much easier (and cheaper) to get a hold of around here, so I've always just kept my own hens for future breeding and sourced cocks from elsewhere.
I find single prs per aviaries gives you far better results then colony breeding if possible.
Noted, however I care more about having an attractive display of different birds than optimum breeding results. I'm breeding well above replacement rate, and there's much less work involved when they'll all in one big aviary. (Well, two actually, I maintain a second mixed finch colony for young/old/spare/for sale birds)
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E Orix
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Joined: 29 May 2009, 23:30
Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
Location: Howlong NSW

Going back to the original question.
If both birds of a specie incubate then run pairs, Gouldian cockbirds incubate generally through the day
Both parents feed their brood so it is common sense to run them as pairs.
Adding odd birds can be done for other reasons, the most common is an extra cockbird in the colony
just in case a female is choosey.
From memory the only specie that I have kept that both sit and I have run an odd number of one gender
would be Blue Faced Parrot Finches. For awhile I ran 5 hens to 3 cockbirds. It kept the cockbirds busy
and this allowed the hens to feed with far less hassle.
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Tiaris
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gomer wrote:I find single prs per aviaries gives you far better results then colony breeding if possible. I have only read that having a extra cock is better in a colony situation.But due to the fact i prefer single pairing anyway the one aviary I have three pr in they are evenly matched. This aviary I change the pairing around after the season due to poor results and dont breed many more and in fact less then other single pr stocked aviaries.
I strongly agree Gomer. In recent years my average single pair produces more than my average 3 pair colony. Incidently, I find 2pr colonies quite productive & cohesive with Gouldians and have had a very good success rate with 2pr over many attempts. Not so with other species but definitely with Goulds.
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garyh
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Location: Montrose, Victoria

I breed my blues at two pr per aviary with good results,i breed with blue hens mainly because split cocks are cheap and easy to acquire,and i can run two or three splits to one blue,in the larger aviary i have a colony of normal's,paired evenly but the breeding results are nowhere near the same as the blues,garyh
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Brenton
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Location: Redcliffe QLD

I'm similar to Gary, I don't have the room to run a single pair per aviary. I run two pair per aviary. They breed with specific pairs to ensure that desired features are produced (such as coloured mutation cocks with split hens).

I'll only use a spare cock if the existing pairs aren't breeding. Otherwise, I use the same amount of hens and cocks in each breeding aviary. Similar to Tiaris, I like to know the genotype of my birds. I won't place an extra cock in there unless he is the same as the other cocks in the aviary.

Single pairs certainly have produced the best results for me, but two pairs still produce pretty well.
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