Aussie Finch Forum

G'day everyone
I am just wondering how many pairs of Aberdeens will go into a aviary 3m long x 1.5 wide and 2.1m high
Thanks
Noah Till

Will they have it to themselves?
LML

Yes, purely just for aberdeens, and possibly a random pair of quails

How big is your budget?
Possibly 3 to 5 pair if your nest boxes are well apart and at random heights.
Then watch them closely and you should be able to work out the apex pair and so on.
Each bird should have a highly visible coloured ring.
If you find a pair or two being pushed around remove them to another aviary.
The more pairs you put in the one aviary the more conscious you must be with regard soaked seed
and live food.

I will have 2 live food and seeding grasses stations of course
I will start off with 1 pair due to my limited budget and as I breed more I will purchase more pairs to breed from
Thanks
Noah Till

Initially I thought that Orix's 3 to 5 pairs was a bit high . .

But I remember breeding Aberdeens in the early '70's in a similarly sized, typical beginner's, Noah's Ark Aviary = One pair of everything . . (and no pun intended) . . which certainly held more than 5 pair of birds, though only one pair were Abs

Aberdeens are no harder to breed than Cutties . . but the problem with the young from my pair was that they had deformed beaks . . an obvious sign of consanguinity

So if they were too inbred in the '70's . .

Perhaps they may be a bit more vigorous these days for whatever reason . . and this is not intended to besmirch genuine breeders of these rareties

If I had a lazy $600, I would put it on something in the Melbourne Cup, rather than invest in Aberdeens




PS . . Many of my posts seem to be negative, these days . . probably getting old and grumpy

But I would not want to see keen youngsters being driven from our wonderful hobby by negative experiences, without all of the arguments being available for their consideration

After that it is their decision . .

Noah, i agree with your last post. Start with one pr and work from there. When i had them many years ago they bred better as one pr on their own or with a more boisterous pr of finches like diamonds that build a nest in brush not in a box like aberdeens do.
Make sure your boxes are very ventilated as they are filthy nest makers in particular when they have young as they don't remove droppings which they can't as it's usually green slim and stinks like hell but don't let that put you off as young emurge surprisingly clean.
Regards Craig.

arthur wrote: 16 Oct 2019, 20:29
Aberdeens are no harder to breed than Cutties . .

Then why are they so much rarer and expensive?

Then why are they so much rarer and expensive?
They are the less attractive of the two. And suffer from LBJ syndrome. (LBJ = little brown jobs) Plain brown birds will always suffer from lower interest than the pretties. Hence gouldians high popularity.
LML

What FB said . .

And probably for that same reason, fewer would have been imported in the first place, thus creating an ominous, shallower gene pool

In the early 70's Aus Avic Socy price-list had Aberdeens @ $20 & Cutthroats @ $10 . . Sydney dealers agreed at about $28/ $14 . . a reflection of their availability

The price disparity has greatly widened since then . .

And thereby hangs a tale . .





PS . . Overseas bird dealers 'talk up' the Aberdeen, by giving it the soubriquet of "Paradise Sparrow"