Gouldians attempting to breed early

28 Dec 2014, 18:52

Is any one experiencing their gouldians attempting to breed now ( late December ) ? my previous experience was that they go to nest in mid February. I live in the Riverina NSW. After the moult I continued to feed sprouted seed and, egg and biscuit sprinkled, this has never mattered before. There are no nests in the aviary, but they are courting, fighting a bit and forming nests in the brushing. Any ideas as to how to dis courage them short of separating them, and to ensure they will still have the drive in Mid February?

thanks James

28 Dec 2014, 19:09

Most of mine would happily go to nest now but I tend to hold them off to late Jan - Early Feb. I found sometimes letting them go to early meant some where more ready than others and fertility was sometimes and issue. E.g. cock in breeding condition but hen not. But that is just what I have found, I'm sure a lot of guys on this forum would already have birds sitting on young with great success.

29 Dec 2014, 07:14

I have eggs being laid in seed trays at the moment. That's not a normal occurrence for my birds. I usually wait till mid Feb before putting the boxes in due to the sometimes week long heat waves we can get here in Adelaide.

29 Dec 2014, 11:32

I have several birds wanting to start now. Lets hope its a good season. I start in early January.
cheers, John

31 Dec 2014, 18:33

I bought some off a breeder in the Hunter Valley and he puts his nest boxes on Christmas day and has done that for years and breeds plenty and some that i bought off him are starting to look in the nest boxes now.

03 Jan 2015, 22:27

I was in the aviary this afternoon and i noticed a hen coming out of a coconut i had put in there for a pair of spice finches. I put 4 coconuts in there as the guy i bought the nutmegs off said they had preference for them, now i find a gouldian with eggs in one them, She has totally ignored all the u beaut gouldian next boxes i bought lol. I put a small bit of winter grass in all the coconuts but was not expecting this.

05 Jan 2015, 10:54

Due to mixed avairys I always have nests in the avairys and the birds decide for themselves when to go down. If some early/late nests contain infertile eggs so be it. 2014 was lousy, 2013 was great. Hoping for another great one.
LML

05 Jan 2015, 21:25

I put nests in at end of January, and half fill with grass, had great success with this method last season, while the season before i had nests in from december onwards and all pairs had clear eggs first time round, might have been the weather but if it worked last year ill try same way this year again
cheers Norse

11 Jan 2015, 08:50

I left 2 wicker baskets in my communal aviary which the painted finches and cordons preferred but found my gouldians fighting over them so I put the gouldian breeding boxes in that aviary on Boxing Day. Gouldians went straight to work and 3 pairs laid eggs, one within days. Done a nest check thismorning and first clutch is hatching. Done my best to candle all eggs with a pen light and so far it looks like 13 out of 15 eggs are all fertile.

Cheers
Ron

werty · 14 Jul 2015, 15:35

Krebsj wrote:Is any one experiencing their gouldians attempting to breed now ( late December ) ? my previous experience was that they go to nest in mid February. I live in the Riverina NSW. After the moult I continued to feed sprouted seed and, egg and biscuit sprinkled, this has never mattered before. There are no nests in the aviary, but they are courting, fighting a bit and forming nests in the brushing. Any ideas as to how to dis courage them short of separating them, and to ensure they will still have the drive in Mid February?

thanks James

how did your breeding season go this year?