Blue Gouldian young 2016

[Blue Cuban]

Well although the season isn't over yet with more eggs to hatch and young to fledge I thought I would share some footage that I collected with the trusty old iPhone 6.
I Must say I'm pretty happy with my results so far but anyone that breeds Blues knows we only count them until after they make it through the moult and are still standing but I'm feeling confident.
To date I have only lost 1 Blue (Pastel Blue Hen) and its split sibling's due to a attack from another cock bird. With 5 pairs breeding of which 3 pair are splits I have 7 blues (pastel blue hens/cocks, normal blues) with more to hatch and fledge soon.
The previous season wasn't good, in fact it was terrible with many losses young and mature. All dead/sick birds were taken to a specialist vet with no defined explanation as to what the reason was for my losses.
Sense last year I have made some big changes. Firstly I have built a new aviary and sourced some quality stock sold off all my parrot finches (I love those little guys) and maintained a simple but healthy feeding programme. My feeding programme is a little different to most as for it only allows me to be home 6 days out of 14.
The 8 days that I'm away my wife looks after them but with a toddler under 2 and another boy on the way plus the wife working 3 days a week I must be fair to all and keep it simple with the vitals of fresh water and dry seed being available until I return. When I return for the 6 days I feed them plenty of green seed, soak seed/sprouted seed with some supplements (D Nutrical & Solaminovit) and random greens from the veggie patch. All birds are medication free and are outdoor bred in a full open front aviary.

I document an excessive amount with what I experience/see with my birds (Gouldian's only) with lots of photos and text and I never enter the aviary with out a camera.

Any way here is a link to some of my birds that I have breed this year, hope you enjoy.
https://youtu.be/oBuovXY9PuU (720p for best viewing)

Rich.

[finchbreeder]

Thats the green seed mine are fed constantly too. Are your black heads moulting or do they have Australian yellow blood in them, because there seems a lot of white flecking on their faces. Great looking birds.
LML

[Blue Cuban]

The flecking you can see on the blue cock and green hen is from a incomplete moult.
Some of these birds are 3rd generation and although there is no signs of Australia yellow it's been known to surprise people at random, touch wood I won't be surprised.

Rich.