The Highs/lows of 2014 and goals for 2015. Whats yours?

[finchbreeder]

Two expressions that can cause confusion of the distressing kind to non birdos. I'm going to cull my birds. I'm going to ring my birds. Both can be misunderstood as resulting in the death of the birds. While most birdos mean. I am going to sort out my birds and sell those I do not require for the comeing year. I am going to put identification rings on my birds so that I know their parentage.

Highs - Good year with the Ruddies and Painteds.

Low - Bad year with the Gouldians.

2015 Started with a mad pruning of my huge Lilac tree which had developed a split in a 15mtre section that went out over the avairys. Had to quickly put up a shade cloth to cover the avairys where they no longer had morning to midday sun protection. But the good old tree is still doing a great job from midday on. So now to do the cull and re sort within my small complex of 4 avairys. Breed even more of what I bred in 2014 and get better cooperation out of the Gouldians and others in 2015 No new species, time and space do not allow.
Talk real nice to hubby about avairy no's 5 and 6 ( and 7 and 8 )
LML

[gouldianpaul]

Two expressions that can cause confusion of the distressing kind to non birdos. I'm going to cull my birds. I'm going to ring my birds. Both can be misunderstood as resulting in the death of the birds. While most birdos mean. I am going to sort out my birds and sell those I do not require for the comeing year. I am going to put identification rings on my birds so that I know their parentage.

Highs - Good year with the Ruddies and Painteds.

Low - Bad year with the Gouldians.

2015 Started with a mad pruning of my huge Lilac tree which had developed a split in a 15mtre section that went out over the avairys. Had to quickly put up a shade cloth to cover the avairys where they no longer had morning to midday sun protection. But the good old tree is still doing a great job from midday on. So now to do the cull and re sort within my small complex of 4 avairys. Breed even more of what I bred in 2014 and get better cooperation out of the Gouldians and others in 2015 No new species, time and space do not allow.
Talk real nice to hubby about avairy no's 5 and 6 ( and 7 and 8 )
LML

Common fincho terms seem to upset non-finchos.....you should have seen the look on my wife's face when I took a call about my gouldians for sale whilst I was in the supermarket the other day....I was using terms like black head, blue cock, purple chest....the sideways look she gave me was enough to scare the bejesus out of me...I quickly took the call outside without non-fincho ears in sight

Cheers
Paul

[Tiaris]

Tell me about it, I just wrote an email to a mate regarding Gouldians & found myself describing an especially big cock with great head-shape.

[TomDeGraaff]

A family I was very close to in the 70s bred canaries.
A fellow breeder came to visit and they began reviewing the recent young stock show. The visitor was describing how his winner, a sizeable young bird, was bred from a small "petshop" hen.
"My goodness!" said Ethel, "you must have had a very big ..."
As soon as she said it, her face went red, we all laughed and the friend said "that's a rather personal observation, dear lady!"

TRUE STORY. I was there

[Rox]

Great thread!

Accomplishments:
1. Breeding 34 gouldians from 5 pairs in my first full season. I was rather proud of myself
2. Setting up the second aviary for breeding waxbills
3. Buying all the waxbills for the new aviary!

Challenges:
1. My BB Cordon Bleu's kept tossing chicks but I hopefully have the live food mix/ratio right now
2. Had my first winter experience with mice. Not to be repeated!
3. Keeping the live food and green seed supply constant

Goals:
1. Have at least 2 species of the new waxbills I have successfully produce young this season (2 out of 7 is a fair request I think, lol)
2. Another great season for my gouldians and look into setting up split-blues for 2016
3. Get the money and plans in place to extend my first aviary by a further 3m

Wishing you all a good and successful 2015 with your birds!

[Norse]

Highs:
1. Having a bumper Gouldian season
2. Getting new exciting combo's of zebies, some very unexpected ones


lows:
1. Goldfinches doing nothing last year
2. Stars not breeding well

Goals:
1. Getting Goldfinches to breed and Stars to do better
2. trying to work out why my zebra line spat out a few new colours after 6 years of controlled breeding
3. culling zebies to get back to acceptable numbers
4.Looking for a new house for the future, just finding the right one is the challenge
5' A new species for this year, just need to find one that doesn't mind the cold

[Dmitroid]

Haha guys I know plenty of birdos that are also linguists (myself included) that can't use the term cull in any sense when referring to their birds.

It's such a horrible word like genocide or extinction. Regardless of how it is intended, the connotations associated with its definition (when referring to 'stock' animals anyway) will never change.

All I am saying is I would rather use terms like "sort" or "sell on" etc.

In the 20 years or so of experience I have in breeding birds, I have never been comfortable with using the term... Don't let me stop you though!

[TomDeGraaff]

Well, if you have been in bird breeding that long, I'm sure you have heard the term before used just as we all say!!

When you are part of the bird breeding community, all sorts of jargon is used, just like other hobbies.

Tom

[Dmitroid]

Well, if you have been in bird breeding that long, I'm sure you have heard the term before used just as we all say!!

When you are part of the bird breeding community, all sorts of jargon is used, just like other hobbies.

Tom

I think its a continental thing Tom!!

I'm not Australian and I have found that there are a lot of terms that Australians use very loosely that people might not say very often where I come from!

I needed to find out if anyone should be reported to the RSPCA for bird murder...

Thanks everyone productive that had something to contribute!

Dmitri

[Wesley89]

wins:
completed my aviary project(still no sign of a rodent!)
got a new species(crimsons).
bred many more than were lost....
much reduced butcherbird harassment.
enjoyed the AFF and it's contributors.

challenges for 2015.
better management- regular roundup of young.
observe more.
enjoy what I have more!
find some pictorellas!
still trying to crack the redbrows

losses.
lost my 2 crimson cocks.
drought! hope 2015 is better.
can't think of many others so it was a good year overall.

Dam! Lost the Crimsons...