Friday, December 25, 2009

Breeding Jambuls Pt.4

Gave up breeding Jambuls yesterday. Firstly, the nest was placed too high for me to see the inside. Even with a 5 steps ladder, I couldn't peek into the nest to determine whether there are chicks or eggs. Bad design, bad layout ......sigh!

Then came the task of taking the birds out. The female got no problem hopping out from the aviary to an open Shama cage placed outside the door. The male is a little tricky. I tried luring him out with food (mealworms), another male and the female. He just refused to come out and preferred to perch high and sing his heart out. As a last resort, I went inside the aviary and caught him with a net.

Then, surprise, surprise! there are 2 eggs in the nest when I took it down.



I have read about candling and all that, but when comes to practical, I can't tell whether its fertile or not. Anyway, I decided to lower down the nest so that the small tree will actually block it from view, but when I peek from higher up, i could see the inside. Now, the challenge is whether the pair would mind after the nest has been shifted and they have been harassed (taken out of the aviary) ;)

......glad to report that on Christmas Day today, the female Jambul is spotted using the nest and continued incubating the eggs. Since I do not know when the eggs were laid, I would take yesterday as day 1 and start counting to determine whether the eggs are fertile or not. That is me, the amateur weekend breeder hehehe!

2 comments:

Newbie Birdkeeper said...

Wah! Best lah! You are a real sifu in Jambul! Must meet you one day!

Btw, I saw the opictures of your jambuls being hung high up like merboks, do they perform better? Is that part of the training?

dance4rain said...

Jambuls being hung high is not part of their training. Its just that the poles are there and I just use it.

I am no sifu, just an ordinary joe :)