Heads up re seed.

For all your questions about diet and food for your finches
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finchbreeder
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Mother regularly does the long haul and buys individual seeds to mix. While I applaud our Premier for his diligence in protecting WA from the Virus, it has been a pain in that such trips have not been possible. Yes it is worth the effort.
LML
LML
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mr skeeter
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Te]] that to all the business that are going broke and might never open again. we will never travel to WA again when this is is over,
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finchbreeder
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Not travelling to WA would contribute to the economic failure of Tourism Business on both sides of the country that facilitate such travel. I am sure most would prefer to be broke than dead. My sister in England where the lock down has been much less, has not been able to risk her life by leaving the house in over 7 weeks. Yes she has only 2/3 normal lung capacity, but has been accessed as fitter than average for her age/sex. (accessment done in preperation for a double knee op.) Friends in America have made a decision that if she (Vet) is called into the hospital to work (little lock down has resulted in the call up of Vets to medical work in America, not public knowledge, but have American friends and you learn things) they will live seperately so he will protect their young children and she will risk death, not her family. Australia truly is the lucky country. Different people have greater risks to family and loved ones. End of Lecture. Admin feel free to move this to a different section if thought appropriate. Did not mean to hijack post.
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Shane Gowland
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finchbreeder wrote: 14 Jun 2020, 10:57 Admin feel free to move this to a different section if thought appropriate. Did not mean to hijack post.
LML
All good. I'm in general agreement that the less-affected states (NT, WA, SA) were right to close their borders to the eastern states. We can bail out small businesses, but we can't raise the dead.
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finchbreeder
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Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
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My feelings exactly. And my chief income has been from small business for most of the past 34yrs. Though it has been miserable since the last mining downturn. (we were one of the 3 most affected mining towns in Aust. - B of stats fact sheet)
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E Orix
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Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
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Following a call from my Doctor, I experienced 8 weeks of home isolation.
Because of the birds I was occupied and quite comfortable.
The hard part was adapting back after that period,basically it took my decision to do a
1500 km round trip in 2 days with limited contact with people to actually get back to feeling
normal again.
The point I am getting is that keeping the borders closed(which I am against) is only impacting
the problems socially, mentally and economically.
I do agree with denying people to travel overseas and stop people from entering but the Qld and WA
leaders need to at least soften their stance.
It will be interesting when it finally happens to see how much extra money those states will plead for
to assist in their re build.
I am at a severe risk personally,but with common sense practices I am quite comfortable.
I must admit without my birds I would have most likely turned stir crazy,we are lucky to
have such a great hobby.
By the way the trip was to pick up seed as mentioned earlier.
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E Orix
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Location: Howlong on NSW/Vic Border 30km from Albury
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I have been asked by a couple of Forum members if I feed individual seeds or mix.
These days I have no choice but to make things easier so I feed mixed blend.
My seed is stored in large recycled chest freezers(absolute vermin proof)
I buy a finch mix from a local grower.
This is what I use as my soaked seed mix as well as part of my dry mix
Each bin holds just over 250 kg of seed.
The last lot of seed was mixed in a wheel barrow then put in the bin.
1 bag of White Millet (20kg bag)
1 bag Canary(20kg bag)
2 bags of mix (20kg bags) the mix is high in white millet
3 bags of Red Pannicum (25kg bags) not Dakota
3 bags of Yellow Pannicum (25kg bags) not Panorama.
I was fortunate to be given the name of a Qld grower who had the true Yellow Panicum
available. Sadly few are keen to grow it as other similar seeds can be harvested quicker.
Personally i thought the effort was worth it.
I should point out ALL my seed is fresh, at the moment I advise all when buying seed, bulk or one bag to ask
is it fresh Aust. grown or older imported grain. Apparently there is still a large amount of imported grain being held.
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finchbreeder
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I think the hard part for many will be adapting back to "normal" life. If there is to be normal life - some things are likely to change permanently, like being more inclined to nod hello instead of shaking hands on first meeting a stranger. And many businesses will continue to use far more working from home on computers than in the past. I have missed socialising with my old school friends on a monthly basis "Girl therapy." Been able to do a lot of business maintainence, but no increasing the business income has been possible so = more output no change in input. Bad on the budget, but good on the "keeping it normal." I have an allergy cough which make me prone to lung infections so am also slightly higher than average risk - that is how my sister lost 1/3 of her lung capacity, allergy cough, inhaled the wrong spores = big problem. So I am still extremely grateful to be an Aussie in Australia, when I see the news reports of deaths in other countries.
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finchbreeder
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Joined: 27 Jun 2009, 20:00
Location: Midwest of West. Aust. Coast
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I have spent my entire life with the folks buying seed in bulk and mixing it. But Mum buys 1 - 5 bags at a time. Stored in the old 44 gallon fuel drums that have been arround the seed shed for the past 50+ years (they have their own lids, some came with the bins, some were made by dad out of tin, to exclude rodents but allow air circulation ) and bucketed out, sometimes half in the drum to get to the bottom. Her mix is calculated per bucket into rubish bin size bins in the breeding rooms, learnt to tip them so the breeze blows off any dust when I was rather younger. Then hand mixed, arms in the seed. The dust from that probably has not helped the lungs either. She has always done her best to get the freshest she could from local sources too. Not always sucessfully as my reference to dust proves.
LML
LML
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mr skeeter
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i just got hold of some large x plastic olive drums to put my seed in. had to clean them out as they still had the smell of the olives in them, getting to the bottom like you have said might be a problem for a old fella like me,
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