how frustrating can this hobby be

[STUART WHITING]

my wrens father bred for the last 2yrs in the same aviary with no sign of aggression, so until I find a body or witness some aggressive behavior the wrens have the benefit of the doubt. Besides its hard to be suspicious of such a beautiful little bird , he is a delight to watch. even the hen is enjoyable to watch not as flashy but constantly busy.

Arh well all I can say is that you've then been very lucky for the last couple of years but until now, sooner or later somethings gonna give as you've just experienced, coincidence maybe but also possibly not

End of the day it's obviously each to their own shnapper but don't say that yer haven't been warned, just trying to help and advice me freind

[shnapper20]

well one of my grenadier hens colored up and has been displaying, as he is still reasonably young hes not as boisterous as his missing predecessor . Ive noticed no aggression toward it from the wren.

[STUART WHITING]

well one of my grenadier hens colored up and has been displaying, as he is still reasonably young hes not as boisterous as his missing predecessor . Ive noticed no aggression toward it from the wren.

All sounds good mate but always just keep that watchful eye on the wren as they are naturally territorial

[E Orix]

Unless your aviary is too small and over crowding is a problem I really can't see your Wren being any sort of
problem for your Grenadiers. They can look after them selves quite well. Maybe if they were blue!!!.
Also the weavers will tend to spend most of their time in the open where the wrens are more retiring.
Having bred weavers for quite some time I found the Grenadier the most frustrating of all the species I have kept.
I do not know why but I have always done better with other species.

[shnapper20]

Having bred weavers for quite some time I found the Grenadier the most frustrating of all the species I have kept.
I do not know why but I have always done better with other species.

thanks david, so its not just me. I feel a bit better, at any rate, with or without good breeding success they are a great bird to keep.

[shnapper20]

possible culprit blue wren

When I first joined the forum, I warned, indeed harped on the dangers of housing wrens with ANY species

This advice was 'pooh-poohed' by so many that I stopped pushing . .




Here we go again . .

Take heed . . if you are keeping ANY wren species with other birds, sooner or later you will wish that you hadn't done so

Hi Arthur , I think I may concede defeat ie I believe you were right, just because I didnt see the hostility it appears to have been there. I recently got rid
of my wrens and weavers. So yesterday I caught up the remaining birds to organise my breeding colonies , My 4 pair of diamonds had reduced to 4birds, my 3pr of tri nuns to 4 birds, my 10owls to 10owls mind they bred, my 2pr of cubans to one pr. These are possibly my worst loses i've endured in this aviary but there were 5 wrens in there, which is also the largest number i've kept there. My other aviary across the yard experienced next to no loses and the couple it did were due to age (i think) So I have restocked im now running 4pr of diamonds 4pr of tri nuns 1pr cuban and 14owls ( i find it very hard to sex these so I figure the more the merrier) It will be interesting to see what the numbers are next yr.
mind I still enjoyed keeping them, the flash of blue darting about the aviary set it off. I may go back to them one day and leave them on their own.

[finchbreeder]

Hope this is a bumper season all round for you.

[arthur]

Sorry to hear of your losses but do hope that others will take something from your experience

I reiterate that sooner or later wrens in mixed company will adopt such behaviour

"Advice is one of the few things that can be given without being taken"

[arthur]

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arthur
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30 Jan 2010, 09:52

Any and all wrens . . . One pair only per aviary and NO other bird species at all . . . They might be fine for 6 months, they might be fine for 12 months, BUT one day for whatever reason they will become killers . . . one factor that will trigger this behaviour is a prolonged cold period (3 or 4 days) which will cause any "natural" insect life to go to ground thus prompting the wrens to decide that any opposition has to be dispensed with

If you think that this will not happen in your aviary (and I hope that it does not) . . one day you will say, "Well old Arthur may have been right after all!"







Not an "I told you so" but a reply to Pete Sara I think from many moons ago. . .I was surprised at the Date . . Nearly 12 years ago

This is my last post . . Scout's Honour . . on this topic