Winter breeding.

All is not well. 13 pairs. 4 weeks for lights on cocks, (they need 4 weeks as their testicles retreat further in to their body winter time) 2 weeks hens on lights. Enough for them. December 10 eggs laid. 6 pair, then a few more pair. Some more laid then were deserted. Laid again. About 9 pairs sitting now. Never had this happen before. Usual year all are within few days. No matter, go with the flow. But puzzled!

good luck with the breeding hal..........

halcanada wrote:

All is not well. 13 pairs. 4 weeks for lights on cocks, (they need 4 weeks as their testicles retreat further in to their body winter time) 2 weeks hens on lights. Enough for them. December 10 eggs laid. 6 pair, then a few more pair. Some more laid then were deserted. Laid again. About 9 pairs sitting now. Never had this happen before. Usual year all are within few days. No matter, go with the flow. But puzzled!

Rodents....cant see anything else making them desert eggs

red mite, lice etc.......???

No lice or mites. DE looks after them. No rodents, rat bait under all lofts. Used to be eaten but not touched now. It did kill a lot of mice. Found a hole today in the ground near one loft. Now the snow has gone. Could be a chipmunk. But they have no way of getting in that I can see.

would the cold make them leave eggs hal...?

Think something my be disturbing them myself no lights shining in on them is their hal and is this the new loft you put up

Mice...might be living in the loft....
Hard to spot in deep litter
Wont touch bait if there anything else to eat...few dropped grains...

Well checked the loft again. Yes, new loft. Not mice, lights on a timer. Have to believe cause was overly aggressive cocks. Boxes are open, pick their own mates. 4 pairs are nesting on the floor in the straw and have been for 2 weeks. Assume cocks needed another nest box or tried to take one. Have extra boxes in there. 4 extra. But floor nesting has worked for me before so not too concerned.

halcanada wrote:

Well checked the loft again. Yes, new loft. Not mice, lights on a timer. Have to believe cause was overly aggressive cocks. Boxes are open, pick their own mates. 4 pairs are nesting on the floor in the straw and have been for 2 weeks. Assume cocks needed another nest box or  tried to take one. Have extra boxes in there. 4 extra. But floor nesting has worked for me before so not too concerned.

As you know Hal I know nothing etc       So I will just leave this issue alone & just hope you can sort it all out for the best as such.

Could be something hanging on the front during night, cat or some wild critter? Have you open wire mesh windows in front of the nest boxes where something can hang on and look-in on the birds?
I say this because we had a problem with cat hanging on mesh front of semi-aviary when had finches.

Pretty well closed up. Aviary not open lately. Will leave as is.

Starting to lay again. Days are getting longer. All seems well.

glad to hear your back on track hal.........

Looks like everything is going to be OK in the end hal

Put battery led lights on in stock loft yesterday...have to remember to turn them off in the morning,they last for about a week plus i made my stock loft face street lights in the back lane so never gets really dark anyway...
starting to itch abit with the decent weather....could be colder in february....

are you on allotments f/walker...?

Yeah but not far from where i live ne35 9hg
Im only about 100 yards away

ah right, that's handy........nice to be able to have peace and quiet without being too far from home.


have you got solar panels ...?

All looks fine. Sunshine coming up so eye pics next week. Cold though. Hatching 28th all going well.
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/ontario/st-thomas?wx_auto_reload=

Got 1 solar panel for the clock but only the suit case type inside the loft I charge a battery at the start off the season and it lasts

-30 F tonight. This will be the coldest my loft has been. It's getting colder by the hour. I put all the birds back on barley, but gave them a good bit of corn tonight. I'm glad I'm not breeding right now.

Thats cold....its unseasonally warm here hope it stays then same

Romedius wrote:

-30 F tonight.  This will be the coldest my loft has been.  It's getting colder by the hour.  I put all the birds back on barley, but gave them a good bit of corn tonight.  I'm glad I'm not breeding right now.

it appears     I spoke too soon here
Rom Just take it for what it is my intentions were of the highest order etc . Must say, thats one crap report above
-30F & if you dont mind I will just stick with my 22C for xmas as such.  
*****

Aye. I wish it was a bit warmer too. When I gave the birds a warm bath today, they stayed there for about 45 minutes!