BBBQ and getting them to survive

[Trilobite]

Hi all,
I would like to hear from members who have successfully bred BBBQ and got the chicks raised to independance . I have a delema and it is: parents in well planted avairy, maggots 24/7, mealies, bushies and even termites supplied daily along with finch mix and access to soft food mix containing sprouted seeds. Hen mates with male , lays 3-5 eggs, male incubates , female taken away a few days pioir to hatching, chicks hatch , male sits for a few extra days all quite and good, day 3-4 chicks start sit with eyes closed and rather listless and calling to dad, then they start to die off one by one . They have not been attacked as evidenced in the photos . Gross inspection reveals no damage but it is apparent that the chicks crops are empty. I am not sure if there are other environmental factors like: the avairy is too dry or too wet. It is in my opinion too short a period of time for worms to be the causal agent. This is now the third batch with the same male and same result. Have now swapped the hen to new male and see if that will make a difference. Could it be a bad parental care on dads behalf?? they are in the parents are in their second year and supposedly bred in their first year (but I didnt ask if they raised them at that time, my ignornace)
Any information on them really appreciated

[Lukec]

How far away is the hen?

Can he see her

[Craig52]

From the first day of hatching the cock should running around teaching them to eat by picking up little bits of this and that and dropping it in front of them and pecking at it to encourage them to eat it.If he is not doing this,they do not know what to eat and they will starve to death.Sounds like the cock is the problem as the young will only survive 2-3 days with whats left of the egg yolk inside of them. Craig

[garymc]

How high are the "lips" of the feedbowls? Can the chicks get into the bowls so that dad can teach them the feed source?

[d ferguson]

place a very shallow tray covered with small pebbles an top up with toltravet should re new daily for 3-5 days.
see ya
spider

[desertbirds]

I think the problem i had was humidity. Not sure but i started wetting around the nest site most days , sometimes twice and this seemed to help. Theory was that the chicks were struggling to get out of the egg and hatching very weak . The other thing i did was to spray small crickets with a fine mist then apply insectivore mix . This also seemed to increase survival rate. Not very scientific but i did start out loosing a heap of chicks as you are.
Gary`s idea on low lipped feed bowls has some merit, i used to collect a heap of leaf litter with slaters in it and throw a bucket of that in each day. Fairly natural for dad to be scratching around rather than just feeding from a bowl, might wake him up to what hes supposed to be doing.
The other thing i found was that mutiple cock birds would share chicks , having the cocks separated and rotating the hen is a great idea but i found 3 cocks worked ok as she would put two down in quick succession and then i would remove her.I dont think one of the cocks ever hatched young but played a part in rearing the others.

[tarred and feathered]

Wow so sad that you are getting them hatched and then losing them. I had reasonably good success. You don't sound like you are doing anything wrong however. Things I did were; remove the hen as soon as I saw the cock was down, put small visual barriers along the wire between the cages so they couldn't see each other, throw live food on the ground to prompt the cock to teach the chicks what to eat, as already mentioned - low water dish (sunken to ground level with pebbles), a lot of grass clumps for cover and the ability for them to get into a shed for protection if they needed. I only ever ran one cock per aviary and just moved the hens around as required. Could there be another aviary occupant disturbing the cock?

[Trilobite]

HI all,
Thanks for all your responses - alas I am none the wiser.
Lukec:the hen is removed to another avairy so unless he has xray vision to look through colorbond and fruit trees he cant see didly squat.
Conchas: - immediately after hatching then male sits with chicks for about a day and then occassionally walking around, certainly not picking food up and showing chicks - having said that they are hard to find in amongst the shrubbery. However I can hear noises like he is trying to entice the chicks, much like when the hen and male are foraging and they call each other. So given the survival time I agree they are surviving on the precocial yolk remenants and then fading shortly thereafter.
Garymc: the feed tray conatining the live food (maggots) is partially dug into the ground so that one end is at soil level to allow quial chicks in/out but also keep the larva in at the same time.
Spider: I am not sure why Totravet would be any better or worse then baycox and given they are perishing within 2-3 days I am doubtful that worms or coccidia would be the causal agent so early on.
Desertbirds: I have tried the avairy both ways, left in the relatively dry natural state previously and with this last batch spraying the front open and planted half of the avairy each day so that there is higher humidity - they can also access the back dryer area if they need. In addition to maggots very young mealies and bushies are broadcast into the humus and schrubbery as well as hand fulls of termites morning and night - that is as much free range small food as possible is made available. Have removed other cocks as they just kept fighting even in the 6*8m planted avairy.
Tarred and Feathered: hen removed before hatching at first sitting and also just prior to hatching - no difference, when separated they just cant see each other unless they have xray vision. Have as above broadcast heaps of live food. The avairy is planted and at times I struggle to see the quails unless I flush them out. The only other bird that could be disturbing them is a pair of bleeding heart pigions, but as one is sitting and the other is waiting I am doubful they are being disruptive and are very passive birds.

Anyway phase 4 will be swap the male and avairy combinations to see if this male is a dud.

Happy to hear any other little pearls of wisdom.

[VR1Ton]

Think your on the right track in trying the new cock, one of my breeding cocks has done three clutches this season as well, (although one clutch was my fault, didn't get the hen out before they hatched), the other cock, who was not as good a farther last season, is about to start on his 4th clutch for the season, already raised 8 so far. If the new cock is successful, give the other one another couple of attempts, if no luck, might be time to move him on.

[spanna]

Agree with vr1ton. My birds are all first year breeders, one cock has been a great parent, the other one rubbish (vr1ton, the good cock is one of yours hahaha). The bad cock is doing exactly the same as yours, so far he's lost a clutch of 3, 5 and 4. I even tried leaving the hen in to see if she was a wonder mum, but that didn't work at all. Again I agree with the changing of pairs, give him more of a chance, and hope for the best. If you can move both males at the same time to a new enclosure, you may have more success running them together? One final last ditch effort may be to confine them to a rabbit hutch on the aviary floor so the dad has no choice but to be next to feed all day long?