Leng Lim's Border Canaries

March 26, 2010

The three fertilized eggs all hatched and 2 chicks are now 17 days old and 1 chick is 13 days old.  They are growing well but last night, to my horror, I found mites on the rim of the nest pan holding the single chick.  I immediately made a new nest by spraying the new nest pan with Pestex before putting the nest pad and nesting material on top. I Sprayed every single tray and I sprayed the entire cages that were empty.  I also treated every bird individually. When I saw the mites the first thing that came to mind was when someone told me "You have to treat your birdroom like you have mites".  I think it was Paul Dee who said that.  The lesson learned here is no matter how clean you keep your birdroom, you have to treat your birds and birdroom for mites before the breeding season.  I did spray my birdroom in the winter but I didn't treat each bird individually like I did last year.  Bad mistake.  Hopefullly I have caught the mites early enough and it won't ruin the breeding season.

I took the pictures below about 3 days ago and there were no signs of mites at that time.

There were no signs of mites 3 days ago but last night there were small clusters of black mites on the rim of the nest pan, yuck!  They would have been visible in the picture if they were there.  This poor chick has made it to 13 days without a nest mate and now it has to deal with mites.  Usually single chicks do not have a good survival rate because they don't have nest mates to help beg for food.  They also get squashed by the hen when they are on their own.  When this chick was 2 or 3 days old it was very weak and didn't raise its head much.  I think this chick survived because of the hen.  She would call the chick until it raised its head to feed.

To my surprise there were no mites in the nest pan holding the two chicks but I made a new mite-treated nest and replaced the dirty nest (pictured above) anyway.  Their cage is right beside the one with the mites.

March 6, 2010

My 4 border hens have all laid eggs and only 3 eggs are fertilized.  It's not great but that's a lot better than last year.  Last year it took 4 rounds of egg laying before I got any chicks.  It looks like better preparation and feeding the soybean mix is making a difference.  Also, having a little more experience helps.  It's still early but I am happy to see a few fertilized eggs in the first round.

I noticed something about the hens a few days before and on the days that they lay eggs.  They seem to nibble on the cuttle bone a lot more often than usual.  It is almost like they know that they need more calcium for producing eggs.  To make sure that they get enough calcium, I add water soluble powder calcium to their water on a regular basis at a recommended amount or less.

February 19, 2010

 I was late in renewing my North American Border Club membership this year and the bands that I ordered have just arrived in the mail, phew!  I was nervous that I wouldn't get the bands in time but now that they are here I still have plenty of time before the first chicks hatch.

The North American Border Club Bands are turquoise blue this year.

I am trying out the soybean/cauliflower/broccoli mix this year to condition the borders.  After talking to Donald Saunders of South Africa, I took his advice and started the cocks on the soybean veggie mix and vitamin E three weeks ahead of the hens instead of 2 weeks.  Linda Hogan was the person who came up with the original soybean veggie mix to improve border vent development and Donald added cauliflower to the mix.  Here is an article about the mix on her site http://canarytales.blogspot.com/2009/02/tuesdays-tipster-border-veggies.html. We will see in a few weeks if I have prepared my borders properly this season *fingers crossed*. 

 January 24, 2010

The kraft paper is ripped to the same length as the cage tray with the dull edge on the dispenser.

Kraft paper serving its purpose in the cages.