Large clutch issues

[GregH]

I peeked inside the aviary with the Javas today as I suspected something was going on and found two of the six available nests occupied. One pair had 4 eggs, which was what I expected from last years effort but the other nest had 9 eggs! I'm used to my cut-throats laying like chickens but do I have a problem? Is this large clutch within norrmal range or are they double clutching for some reason - will the first lot still hatch and if they are so much more advanced won't the second clutch just die? Occasionally you hear of birds raising large clutches but it can't result in good stock or can it?

[finchbreeder]

By co incidence when I took the daily greens into my main avairy today. Didn't like the smell, so followed my nose. To the Java's nest. Have let Dad put his daughter down to nest. Sure firest way to find out what sex the only chick that was bred last year was. Mum died. Didn't know how old she was. Back to my story. Opened the nest to find that my little 1st time mum had layed 7 eggs, hatched 6 and 2 now dead. Removed and left the 4 healthy chicks to get on with it. Have added some Safflour seed in lieu of rice. Anyone know if this will work? Just as per last year, absolutely no noise from chicks to indicate their presence. Only Dad's insicent demands for greens give the game away. Do you do anything special Greg? Good luck with them. I suspect I will need to remove the chicks, half empty the nest and return them soon. As instead of using the 30cm square job she was hatched in the little lady has used a box about a third of the size. And it is half full of grass.
LML

[Matt]

Quite normal for Javas Greg. I hve had up to nine fertile eggs with 7 fledglings in the past . For Javas I would consider 6-7 fledglings more common then 3-4.

[GregH]

Perhaps my first season was not the bumper crop it could have been since my 3 clutches were 2 of 4 eggs and 1 of 2 eggs.

My "secret" to breeding Javas was to put 6 in a cage and hope they bred. Two pairs formed one raised 2 clutches and the other just one. My diet is a bit of an unknown since they share the aviary with some fruit eaters (a pair of hanging parrots & a yellow-vented bul bul). So in addition to the dry mix the birds get an assortment of green seed (rice, Panicum, Setaria, Echinochloa, Sorghum) but have access to fruit, dry lorikeet mix, boiled egg, mashed vegetables, sprouted finch mix and meal worms). I don't think they actially touch the fruit, egg, meal worms or lorikeet mix and when I occasionally think to put some leafy greens in the aviaries no birds ever go for it, so I don't do it very often. Green rice is a favourite as their scientific name (Padda oryzivora) attests. These wild caught munias seem to maintain their seasonal breeding to coinside with the maturation of the wet-season rice even in captivity. I'm not sure what the breeding que is but it's not the availability of rice as my bird's diet doesn't change much thougout the year because I work for the Rice Research Institute!

[southy]

This post brought back memories .A lot of years ago I use to have Java sparrows (fawn ).This time they bred in a budgie nest box.
When I checked in the nest box after about a week after I could hear young to my suprise there were 11& the nest was a real mess so I removed all 11 young put in a bucket cleaned nest replaced young & continued this every day untill all 11 left nest.

That was probably 20 years ago & it still remains as 1 of the highlights of my bird keeping.

[E Orix]

Big nests are common with Java Sparrows. Generally expect 5 chicks to fledge per nest(normals) but I do not pull anything dead from their nest. The reason is if the parents find an old dead mouse body or a finch body they will generally take it back to the nest.In general they have dirty nests,not just dropping etc.
I guess it is built in to the genes that a dirty nest may tell a preditor that there is nothing worth eating in it.
Javas are tough birds compared to the smaller finches

[finchbreeder]

Unfortunately the parents reacted badly to my intrusion and stopped feeding. As this happened overnight I lost the lot. Oh well. They are young and healthy. Better luck next time and I can possibly do some swapping localy for unrelated.
LML

[GregH]

My Java's didn't mind me poking around last year and I don't think I could come at leaving rotting corpses in the nest even if they are normally filthy. YEEECHHHHHHHH

[finchbreeder]

Yep tooo smelly for my liking. Oh well, just settle for what I get. And keep being nice to everyone in the hope that some of these other nests round the place result in some late season results.
LML

[GregH]

Well hatching has begun. the nest with 9 eggs has four nestlings and I don't think any more will hatch so I'm convinced that it was a double clutch because the first lot was sterile. There is only a single newly hatched chick in the second nest so there may be more to come. Interesting to see that these wild sourced birds have lower fertility than the domesticated strain in Australia. My other good news is a nest of 3 cut-throats fledged today - almost making up for the 3 double bars that died recently.