nest box heights for Gouldians

[lardles]

Hi All,
I have a colony of Gouldians and last season had nest boxes at varying heights, albeit only slightly from each other (say 15-20cm), up as high as possible.

Last season out of 4 pr, two pair had multiple clutches (using boxes at opposite ends of the flight) with the remaining 2 pr not doing much at all. There are 10 boxes in the aviary, no other birds, only Gouldians in a 3.5m x 1.0 m wide aviary.

Question to other breeders is, when varying the height of nest boxes, should the next boxes be positioned at greatly varying heights, say 500mm or more ? - so that less dominant pairs have a chance to bred as well?

As another idea, I have screwed 300x300mm partions to the sides of some of the nest boxes so that the pairs cant see each other, so will see how this goes when the boxes go in over the next few weeks.

thanks Lyle

[KENTUCKY]

I have all my Nest Boxes hung at the same hight, because they will fight for the box that hangs the highest
and the squabbling my go on for too long before all is sorted out and settled.

[Norse]

I agree with kentucky, mine are all at same height about 150mm apart, i do how ever put more in then needed to allow for less fighting too
Norse

[E Orix]

Changing your nest box layout may not solve the problem as that may not be the reason for your breeding results
In a general rule you can find that if you have 4 or 5 pairs of Gouldian Finches in a smallish aviary the following may be experienced.
Dominant(apex) pair, will pick the prime nest box and breed well, the next strongest pair will breed reasonably well if it has space away from the apex pair.
the third pair will try and create space and may produce. The final 4 and/or 5th pair will struggle and most likely fail to produce.
I tried to counter act the pair aggression by fixing 350mmx250mm panels between the boxes and using the MF designed nest boxes with the front porch.
The birds couldn't see the box next to each other. It worked better but there were still issues. It comes down to space and MF is an advocate for boxes at
varying heights. You may find the less dominant pairs nesting in a box very low to the floor.
last season I had 2 pair of Gouldians in separate aviaries along with a mixed collection. Those 2 pair continued to breed and had 4 clutches each.
The smallest clutch was 4 and the largest was 9 with the majority being 5. They out bred two colonies with 5 pairs in each.
I am not a specialist Gouldian breeder and these are my observations from my collection. I have seen MF layout and seen how he staggers the height
of the nest boxes. I am sure our Gouldian group will be able to assist as they are pretty switched on.

[Craig52]

Imo your aviary is too small to house and breed 4prs of gouldians,2prs or maybe three at the most.The more prs the more aggression for nest sites so if you have two prs in the aviary they will breed well and produce as many or more than your four prs will,in other words cut back and breed more. Craig

[KENTUCKY]

Solid advice

[lardles]

Thanks for all the advice, sounds like I need to cut back numbers.

[finchbreeder]

I have a better idea. Build another avairy.
LML