Not exactly the welcome home I expected...

[Mickp]

Sorry to hear about your loss Jay.
No matter how hard it feels righ now though, given time you'll replace the lost birds and continue with the hobby.
And if I hear that you have put zeb's in that aviary I will come visit & kick your backside.
Zebs = a new aviary.

[HARVEY123456789]

mate i know how u feel i lost 6 pairs of zebs out of 7 in my 1st week away due to bad bird sitter dont know how u can kill of 6 pair of zebs in 5 days but o well in the past now . u will just have to keep ya chin up and slowly build a new collection , were are u located ?

[Jayburd]

@ mick it would be what I deserve too
I have complete faith in my bird sitter, just unfortunate circumstances I had not prepared her for adequately.
I'm in Canberra

[venetta]

So sorry to hear about your poor birdies

I hope in time you will be able to re-stock and keep going!!

[Jayburd]

Thanks Venetta I'm just trying to decide with what to re stock.... I'll have to see how I go monetarily with my new planting-of-the-aviary ideas before I choose species I think.

[flap]

Hi Jay, so sorry to hear about your birds. As the others have said, loosing birds comes with the territory and hurts at the best of times, but when you lose more than half your collection in one go it is devastating. Don't give up on your birds, you are amazing in terms of your knowledge and there is no reason for you to go back to basics! I hope you are able to rebuild your collection before too long.

[Jayburd]

Thanks Flap that means a lot
Might go and trawl through my library for planting ideas

[finchbreeder]

Jay my boy, it is time to do what all bird keepers do at least once in their lives. Have a good cry or yell depending on your nature. Chill out and fix what needs fixing in the avairy. Then get mates for your singles and enjoy what you have for a bit before decideing to expand and into what. Sorry to here the bad news by the way. But at least you know you have a tough pair each of Jacarini's and Tri's
LML

[GregH]

I just read your post and I can sympathize. I remember loosing about 50% of my birds once while my father looked after them during the week while I was at University and only coming home on the weekends - apparently husks look a lot like seeds to those that are't actually into birds. That was the final straw for me and I gave up for 20 years because I was waiting for the right opportunity to start again. In retrospect I now know that the right time to start is always "now". I'm currently without birds, a house or even a job now that I'm back in Australia but I won't repeat the mistake of waiting again for the "perfect" oppotunity. I can tell birds are part of your "soul" and you won't be complete without them. You've learned a lesson and can build on that to make yourself stronger. Natural selection isn't a genteel art - it's ruthless and heartless but very effective. What's left is not a collection (let there be no collectors on this forum) it's the core of your new stock. I know it still hurts but you've got the resources to turn this into an opportunity (lower stock density makes for better breeding and more hens) and the Autumn breeding season is still to come so it's time to get busy.

[Danny]

We have all done it Jay -be it a storm or a snake, losses are inevitable evils. I came back from a weeks holiday to find that the sitter didn't realise that no less than 6 snakes had noticed some change in security (i believe he may have turned off th electric fence as is was making a clicking noise) and I lost 63 birds in 6 days. Its taken a few years but I'm almost restocked now. You will kick yourself if you give up now. There's a pair of red faced parrot finches or javan munias here with your name on them if you want them.