Blue Gouldians

[Tiaris]

Nor do I. I love breeding Gouldians in large aviaries. All single pairs in mixed finch breeding aviaries outdoors & I know with absolute certainty the parents and genotype of every bird bred.

Why do you keep them as single pairs?

Is it only so you tell the genotype of the birds?

I find my goulds do really well in a small flock, just 6 pairs

I keep them as single pairs for several reasons:
Most importantly, I achieve far better breeding results per pair with single pairs compared to colonies. I have many times tried small colonies and the results per pair have NEVER matched the average per pair results of single pairs.
I am mainly interested in breeding Gouldians for the specific purpose of selectively improving them each year. To do this properly I need to breed with specific purpose with each pair to combine certain traits with all my pairing decisions. I need to know with certainty that the 2 birds I choose to pair up are the parents of any young they incubate & rear so I can see what they produce & hence see if my pairing choices are working to achieve the desired result. If I use anything other than single pairs, I cannot do this at all - I cannot breed to a specific goal with each pair and know exactly which parents produced which young birds.
In recent years I am also combining 2 head colour (black & yellow) in an attempt to ultimately produce yellow-headed birds which possess the same physical and plumage quality of my black-headed birds. To achieve this & know where I am up to every step of the way it is essential that I know the exact genotype of every bird in terms of head-colour. It is also essential to plan my pairings so I know the exact genotype of every young bird I breed. Only single pairs can achieve this.
In short, it is to breed more birds & to have control (know exactly what they are & who bred them).

[Tiaris]

If you like flock breeding and want to be sure of genotype. Put 3 identical sisters to 3 identical brothers in each avairy. You get to have the best of both worlds.
LML

I have never found 3 brothers or sisters to be identical. Usually there are obvious differences between them. I therefore prefer to keep the best of the 3 brothers and pair it to the best of the 3 sisters as a single pair and produce far better quality young then a mishmash of all 6 birds' relative qualities. This is the essence of selective breeding.

[werty]

Nor do I. I love breeding Gouldians in large aviaries. All single pairs in mixed finch breeding aviaries outdoors & I know with absolute certainty the parents and genotype of every bird bred.

Why do you keep them as single pairs?

Is it only so you tell the genotype of the birds?

I find my goulds do really well in a small flock, just 6 pairs

I keep them as single pairs for several reasons:
Most importantly, I achieve far better breeding results per pair with single pairs compared to colonies. I have many times tried small colonies and the results per pair have NEVER matched the average per pair results of single pairs.
I am mainly interested in breeding Gouldians for the specific purpose of selectively improving them each year. To do this properly I need to breed with specific purpose with each pair to combine certain traits with all my pairing decisions. I need to know with certainty that the 2 birds I choose to pair up are the parents of any young they incubate & rear so I can see what they produce & hence see if my pairing choices are working to achieve the desired result. If I use anything other than single pairs, I cannot do this at all - I cannot breed to a specific goal with each pair and know exactly which parents produced which young birds.
In recent years I am also combining 2 head colour (black & yellow) in an attempt to ultimately produce yellow-headed birds which possess the same physical and plumage quality of my black-headed birds. To achieve this & know where I am up to every step of the way it is essential that I know the exact genotype of every bird in terms of head-colour. It is also essential to plan my pairings so I know the exact genotype of every young bird I breed. Only single pairs can achieve this.
In short, it is to breed more birds & to have control (know exactly what they are & who bred them).

Breed more birds?

My goulds smallest clutch was five

But nearly every clutch was 7-8

How big are your clutches when you keep single pairs?

Personally I think 7-8 is pretty good

[vettepilot_6]

Breed more birds?

My goulds smallest clutch was five

But nearly every clutch was 7-8

How big are your clutches when you keep single pairs?

Personally I think 7-8 is pretty good

Might be couple of hens laying in same nest? you cant be sure when colony breeding..

[Tiaris]

Consistently 4-6 over many years with single pairs, less per clutch & far fewer clutches per pair as colonies. If they have more than 6 (which happens occasionally) I usually cull any runts at 3-4 days old so the majority of bigger young prevail.

[Tiaris]

My pairs don't often lay more than 6 eggs per clutch.

[werty]

Breed more birds?

My goulds smallest clutch was five

But nearly every clutch was 7-8

How big are your clutches when you keep single pairs?

Personally I think 7-8 is pretty good

Might be couple of hens laying in same nest? you cant be sure when colony breeding..

Nope 6 hens

All 6 hens with massive clutches in each nest

When I had a single hen only she layed 1 clutch 10 eggs all fertile all hatched and all fledged

One egg she layed in a zebra nest and zebs raised it

My gouldians are producing massive fertile clutches

[E Orix]

My Blacked Headed Normal Gouldians are all bred in outside aviaries.
In the large flight there are possibly 8 or 10 pairs with a fledging average of 3.
In other aviaries I run single pairs, nest average 5 and generally an extra nest per season.
For a so called peaceful bird they do an awful lot of bickering and are sticky beaks around other pairs nest.

[SamDavis]

I used to find reports of 7, 8 or more Gouldians per nest to be unbelievable. I used to breed heaps of Gouldians and always thought a nest of 5 fledged was pretty good, 4 was more usual and 6 rare. I'm not sure if I know you werty, but I have been to a few aviaries around Sydney in recent times and have witnessed nest after nest with 7, 8 and more Gouldian chicks. These were decent quality birds too - It is truly amazing and I congratulate you all. I know some of these breeders are now working with Blues so let's hope the magic/force is still strong and doesn't run out!

[elferoz777]

i had a blue x split blue pair that would consistently lay 8-9 eggs and hatch that many too.

i have a split pair that lay 7 and hatch 7 each time. The rest of mine are like most, 4-6 eggs with 3-4 young.