If they don't have a breeding box, will they stop breeding? I know nothing about breeding..... That's what I was told, if you don't put a breeding box in with the birds, they won't breed. I suppose it's different when they've already been actively breeding?
What do you do when you've got too many birds? Sell them?
I admired the finches at the bird shop the other day, thought I might like some one day. If I would end up with a finch explosion, maybe I should rethink that idea.
Removing the breeding box should work but you have to remove all of the boxes at the same time or all hell will break loose. So what do you do with the 30 eggs and 30 chicks that are already in the boxes. By the time the 30 chicks fledge the 30 eggs have hatched and you have 30 more eggs.
If you remove the eggs the hens will see the nest as unsafe so they will look for another nest that's proven safe which means the a different hens chicks are in danger of being attacked for the box. The only safe way i could think of would be to switch out the eggs to fakes but that's a very expensive fix. (no idea why they cost so much).
Best hope is during the hottest part of summer they will take a break for a month or two as this is the only time they seem to stop laying completely. Last year when they stopped we also had the snake problem so it might not have been the heat that stopped them so were not sure if they will stop this time.
Selling isn't a problem as we have 3 pet stores that we deal with. We don't like to deal with people so we do wholesale to the pet stores as its hassle free and based on head count. They love the quality of the birds as they are aviary birds so there feathers are in great condition unlike the ones that have been cage breed.
It causes a lot of stress to the birds to be removed them from the aviary unless its done at night and people want to pick and choose rather than buy what we have pulled so its easier to deal with a pet shop that can handle any amount that we bring them. He asked for buttons once so we brought him 80 he kept to his word and took all of them but boy he didn't look happy. Said he made a fortune but he wouldn't do it again as they required there cage cleaned every few hrs or they would start to smell...lol. Now we use a auction or we sell the group as a batch privately when we replace the buttons which we tend to do every 6 months. By replacing the buttons we get a few months off from having to deal with the eggs and we never have to deal with old age.
I love the finches but they will breed even if the nests are removed. Seed cups or anything they can build out of becomes a nest. Good thing is they are not aggressive to each other so pulling there eggs should get us to a point where we have nothing but adults then we can remove a bunch to get the numbers under control.
It seems that some birds require a certain flock number and at least one hen to get the ball rolling before everyone starts to breed. Our friend couldn't get budgies to breed for 8 months until we lent him our most prolific breeder that's constantly double clutching and gave him a bunch of birds to form a flock. Now 5 months on he's got chicks everywhere.
(except for the one who used to live inside with my other budgie who died. That bird's name is Miranda, but since he/she moved into the aviary, I'm pretty sure that Miranda is a boy)
