The Canary Room Season 7 Episode 4 – Breeding Season plans part 3

We meet the final cock birds for 2024 and see some of the early breeding success in the Canary room. Packed full of useful hints and tips for bird lover everywhere

[Applause] hi everyone welcome back season 7 it’s episode 4 of the canary room but it’s only episode 4 because we’ve spent the last three weekends or just over three weekends on the road so first off we went to see Sam Wilds Sam and Nigel um

And Sam’s lovely mom uh and that was a really enjoyable episode to do uh and create and fascinating to see all of Sam’s budgies and and learn so much about it so if you haven’t seen that one already have a a check out of that then of course the big announcement something

I’ve I’m not very good at keeping secrets to be fair but something that I have kept secret for a few months from you all now and I apologize for that that is of course the uh the formation of a new partnership for 2024 with the five canaries so Spencer and

ELD five canaries for 2024 Gerald and I will be breeding and showing in Partnership from now on um so we did an episode from Geralds thanks for all the lovely feedback on that and uh all the people who’ve liked and followed the Facebook page as well and then last up

The wonderful Brian Keenan um what a what a a whole host of fun that was to film um and you seem to have enjoyed it too so thank you for that I have already spoken to Brian we will be going back later in the year to see how he’s got on

So what do we have in store today well we will see the uh the final male birds this year so um the cinnamon cck birds or cinnamon line cck Birds they’re both carrier Birds uh and we will see uh the white line as well cuz we will be

Continuing the white line this year uh so a little bit more of that later on um we will have an update on the British native finches which you might be able to see behind me um a little bit of an update on them and and talk you about

Some plans for 202 with them hopefully you’ll enjoy that and uh a little bit of an update in what’s going on in the room because we have eggs everybody we have eggs we’ve had breeding we’ve had mating um it’s all systems go here uh and of course we’ve got question time as well

So we’ll catch up with a Norwich to um loads and loads and loads to get on with ah where’s my cuper there it is listen you know what to do everyone grab yourself a cuper sit back and enjoy the show there has been much progress since you

Were here last um so let me talk you through it back wall as many of you who are familiar with the canary room will know the back wall has four 8T flights in it okay so um in the top left hand corner um we’ve got a a lovely pair of

Native finches a little bit more on that later on and and then this cage here is uh another pair of uh wonderful red poles I can tell you what they are now and Below I’ve got the flight opened all the way up so I’ve got a full 8T run and

I’ve got a pair of British native gold uh bull finches in there um and then the two cages below that have got um red PES in as well now a slight change of plan this year because I’d hope to keep these open um and have some developments

Outside but we had to put that on hold for now but it is only temporarily on hold we will get that up and running at some stage so everything’s had a deep clean everything is singled off we are in the early throws of the 2024 breeding

Season um on the wall here you can see uh possibly just out of shot in the top cages I’ve got some red black gray wings um and I’ve got a uh cross um uh k Ary basically um with a red black gray Wing coock so so of three pairs up

There which I’ll use as feeders um and then I’ve got five straight pairs of Norwich here um that I’m running for 2024 so more on that in a moment if I look on the wall straight in front of me here this is the main five breeding wall

Um and I give you a little bit of an update about that now so um set up for this year relatively straightforward six Crocs AC six across the top and then the four cages underneath have all got single hens in so essentially the at the top has the four hens

Underneath now it doesn’t quite work out like that cinnamon carrying has got um uh three hens to mate with he’s already made it with two of them um there’s a clear or ticked yellow who’s got three hens and there’s a clear buff coock who’s actually

Got got six hens to cover he’s put two of them down already uh another four still to go um in this cage here I’ve got a heavily variegated buff coock he’s got one hand down um uh with another uh three to go um and then there’s a

Heavily variegated yellock in C5 and in cage six um there’s eight 10 there so essentially they’ve got four each but what I’ve done in the first round is run one of them over five birds so um all systems go all systems go Lots L of mating lots of treading lots of calling

Really delighted um so some eggs nothing set yet uh nothing um won’t be won’t be set for a few days I think I’ve got one hen that’s laid four eggs but um and another hen another couple of hens still laying so a nice steady start and and

There’s a couple of things I’m putting that down to um so many of you have seen certainly the Spencer and ELD uh site uh Facebook site and also um my own page uh the canary room page will know that this year I’ve been using top form Tomic

Which is from our friends at pet sauce um it’s a conditioning seed and you might not be able to hear in the room uh cuz I’m talking but there’s there’s quite a lot of noise and the birds are in a really good condition now I don’t think it’s just the conditioning seed

But I think the conditioning seed has a part to play in it so that’s top form Tomic from pet source that I’m using there’s two other things I’ve done slightly differently this year so the first thing is um always learning always openminded to things and um visiting

Matt dando on a couple of occasions and Matt has a uh it’s called ink bird I’ll put a link and I’ll put it on my Amazon shop as well um it’s basically a a a thermostat system with a detector which detects the air temperature and

You have two plugs attached to it one is a cooler one is a heat and what I’ve done is put an oil filled Radiator in one I haven’t put the cooler on yet cuz it’s not warm enough in the birdroom yet to use that but essentially what it does the temperature control

Picks up the temperature and then if it needs to it clicks the heating on and in the summer it will click a cooling fan on that’s the first thing I’ve done and honestly it’s been a game Cher for me because it’s kept a consistency of temperature in the room now in March the

Temperature in the UK Flo uat we’ve had a few hard frosts and that’s just kept it at a steady state and for me as well as the lighting that’s kept the birds in a really good constant flow so I’m delighted with that the second thing and

It was a visit to Bri Keenan and I’ve seen it I’ve had them in here before this is a massive industrial size one it was on offer in Amazon again I’ll put a link on um on my Amazon shop um is a uh uh an air purifier and I’ve changed

Changed my bedding mix in here to Gold chip this year um so dust free um mindful of when I you know when I went to Sam’s and seen the work that the Budgy guys do in terms of air quality mindful I didn’t feel I was doing enough

So bought this unit and it’s fabulous so it runs on a timer it runs on 8 hour timer it’s automatic so it detects the quality in the air it’s got a heer filter on it it’s got an ionizer on it it’s the whole N9 yards ladies and gents

The air quality in the canary room is better than it is in the house but don’t tell anyone um so it’s a real real real neat piece of Kit so bought that it wasn’t cheap uh I am going to say that it wasn’t cheap I got 50 Quid off it on

Amazon um and it was still expensive so but for my benefit most importantly for the bird’s benefit money well spent in my opinion that for me has help those the three things that three point combination has helped bring the birds into a really Place speaking of the

Birds let’s have a look now at the latest birds or final set of birds for this year it is our cinnamon carrying line and our white Line so three more birds to introduce you to um everyone so the first one is a um part of our cinnamon carrying line now there are two cinnamon carrying birds in the room this year um there are a couple of visual for hens there’s a cinnamon hen uh there’s a an

Alli to white blue hen as well so the first one is a heavily variegated cinnamon carrying buff coock uh bought in from Gerald earlier this year um I’ve seen what this bird is bred you’ve seen what it’s bred on the episode that we went to see Gerald’s I think some of the

Cinnamon that you saw there were magnificent and this is the father of those birds um so it’s bread some um really really nice Birds it’s going to run over three hens it’s not showing itself here particularly well it’s you know it’s in breeding Condition it’s not

In show condition um it’s got three hens uh that I am um looking to have it cover uh there is a a blue hen um which is a hen I got off Gerald which he put it to last year which bred some really nice Birds there is a cinnamon variegated

Yellow hen which is his daughter so I’m doing a father to daughter pairing there again bought that bird in from Gerald and it’s um bred some really nice Birds last year and then the final bird is a forn hen which I bred last year which is

The sister to the blue which is the second bird that we’re going to see here now this blue cot bird he is a cinamon carrier um he did very well for me on the show bench last year um and he is paired to a for uh hen um and the fa hen

Is the daughter of the heavily variegated buff coock so intentionally what I’ve done there is started to look to build a line of birds up um so I think across the stud across the two rooms and and that’s the you know the picture for me now as well it’s

Not know not just about what happens in this room it’s what happens in Gerald’s room as well that’s how we’re going to take the stud forward and hopefully compete on on the show bench um but I’ve got a little family line of cinnamons which has got a little bit of different

Blood in into Geralds but it’s got some of the same blood in as well and so you know we’ll be able to swap those birds across the room so the blue you’ve seen numerous times he still looks fantastic he was doing a bit of nest

Building before um so much so I got a bit concerned so I I caught him up blew him up he’s definitely a he can only be a the way he was bred um just out of shot now I can see uh the greywing mating with the uh the the

Mongrel Canary hen so that’s that’s always a good s and I can see a pair of Norwich mating to everyone so all good all good in here um so yeah that’s the uh the second of the cinnamon Birds he is just with one hen at the moment I did

Think about running him over a few more um I suspect at some stage he’ll take a trip over to barnesley uh and spend a little bit of time in Gerald shed with some of the birds there so I just got one hen for him um in here at the moment

So those are the two cinnamon carrying Birds no visual cinnamon birds in the shed this year there are only uh now three visual cinnamon hens although of course two of those are thns the other is a variegated cinnamon yellow so that’s the cinnamon birds or the carrier birds and then the white

Line viewers to the channel regular viewers to the channel will know I’ve been building a white line over a few years um certainly last year was the first year of it some good success I’ve been um what I always do when I think about building a line of birds is sort

Of Go Big to start with and then bring it in find out what I want from that and what I’ve done in there is um I’ve retained the uh the White Hen which is um was best Allied to White at North Wales she did very well on the showman

She won a class at the Midland as well uh I’ve retained her and I’ve retained the variegated white now the variegated white we can see him here um is in really Peak condition he is paired to a ticked yellow hen this year um she is the mother of some of the

Really strong clear Birds I’ve read so she’s a couple of years old this bird she’s just building a nest she’s an outstanding bird um he didn’t fill any eggs for me last year he was a really good parent and he reared really well but he didn’t fill any eggs so I’ve

Given him a second chance now make or break really with the white lime because the hen that I bred was a single Nester so I’ve got to be careful about the fertility of those birds now they are with unrelated birds so I’m trying to boost the fertility but there were birds

That I think visually match them quite strongly as well but I have got to be mindful of that the bird you can probably hear a bird whistling it it’s the white bird so he’s in bouncing condition at the moment he is looking um he’s looking really good he’s

Looking really strong so that’s our our white line of course there are other Allied birds in the shed the THS of course are here but I’ve got two Blue Hens as well and they’re both laying at the moment so one is with a cinnamon carrying which is at that end of

The shed and the other is here she’s laid a first egg today she’s with a heavily variegated yellow so there should be a strong sort of nature of uh of um of Allied Birds this year all being well right I tell you what it’s been a while ladies and gentlemen um I’m

Going to call this the red pole Diaries uh but I am going to give you an update on some of the Native British finches in the room as well and um what we will do um as the season progresses I will return the native Diaries show for a

Season two so something to look forward to or not you decide red pull diary All so welcome back to I’m going to call this section the red pole Diaries I will give up dates on the natives in the native Diaries and I I’ll probably give them up in the main show as well but the red pole diary is indebted to my friend

Shane at direct bird products for the red pool seed and Shane will be sponsoring this section of the show again this year so thank you mate appreciate that um cage is behind me here well let’s talk about the red poles firstly uh so there will be six pairs of

Red poles in the caner room this year um thank you to everyone Sammy um Matt chudley uh Matt um Russell um all the guys who uh who bought uh the red poles off me I took them to Stafford earlier this year uh earlier this year so thanks to all

Them I hope they’re all settling in well for you mine certainly are here and so what we’ve got in here is a a pi visual Pi bird with a uh an a gat um split pied hen or a silver split pied hen so that’s the pair in here these should

Produce pides for us um and then what we’ve got here is an original pair of pides that got off Kenny masterman last year touchwood these were an exceptional pair for me last year they produced an awful lot of young um and delighted to sort of work with them again I have seen

Them feeding I’ve seen them beaking each other and I will over the next few days be putting Nest sites in for them and then the third pair of Pies again is another visual pair of Pies um so this is a a pi hen who fortunately caught a

Foot in one of the um one of the branches on the cages and has damaged a foot so his has got one foot um and a uh a pi now you’ll notice with the pi birds that they are um quite dark uh and I’ve intentionally selected the sort of

Darker balanced 5050 Birds this year um to try and continue to breed that sort of that 50 50 Pi marking what I also like about the birds that I’ve retained is they’ve got white wings um so I like that visually it just it works for me so

Those are the first three pairs of poles I’ve then got two pairs of cobalt red poles um which are um from Alan H’s blood um and delighted to be able to take a bird back to Al really nice these are double Factor um Cobalts so um really really looking forward to to

Seeing what I can do with them and then the other thing which is another new addition and again inde deped to Rich wton um Rich has done incredibly well with his red poles uh he’s moving up to Champion this year we are going to film

An episode with Rich at some stage um so rich has done really well with his polls but I’m indebted to him he has let me have a um split Isabel carrier bird so this should produce Isabelle hens I’ve got another Little Hen to pick up

For it it won’t be in Isabel so that’s the sort of main stay in here there is something in the flight which is a little bit different and then in the room we’ve got um a pair of British native gold finches um so they are they’re not in breeding conditioners yet

You can see the beaks on them are still black but they are coming into condition and then we’ve got in the full 8T length here and you can see I’ve got natural purchase in this as well we’ve got the bullfinches um the native British bullfinches now these birds were

Separated off they were separated off all over winter with a wire divide as soon as I pulled the divide the hen called tread she squatted for the bird and I was just like w this is amazing brilliant and I’ve left them like this uh there’s no Nest sight in

There yet I have seen the hen picking up branches pulling branches from there so I don’t think it’s a million miles till she’ll want to go to nest what I might do is just single them off for a couple of days put a nest pan in and then pull

Back and let’s see how we get on with the bullies so native bull finches native gold finches in the room this year as well as our red pulse and something a little bit different in the flight you’ll have to stay tuned to see what that is that’s all from this week’s red pole Diaries one of the things that has um surprised me and surprised is probably the wrong way although I’m always constantly surprised in the world of canaries uh with the the um the Norwich this year is just how forward the hens are um now I move the

Hens in from the uh flight cages on St Patrick’s Day uh and I put them in the double breeding cages and then subsequently with uh dividers subsequently I’ve pulled the wire dividers out I saw bought all of the feeding all of the hens I’ve seen

The hens calling for tread and I have seen matings there’s no nests built yet it’s been a steady gradual introduction for them uh I’m not anticipating them going to Nest really until April time but they’re making all of the Right Moves and for me can’t ask for much more

Than that can’t ask for much more than that this for me is one of the most enjoyable times of the can Rec keeping calendar you know as I spend a little bit of time in the room here um and I’m able to film the show uh and I’m able to

Just admire the birds and see the birds and I’m not cleaning cages out you know you can see all of the different behaviors you can see birds calling to mate you can see birds mating all the things that you don’t see obviously when you’re when you’re not in the room and

The Norwich this year there are um five straight pairs of Norwich I do have a spare Norwich hen a White Hen uh more about that in a later episode as well such a tease aren’t I such a tease um but what we have here is we’ve got uh

A pair of birds over here which is um a bird that I bred last year from the Jones and Roberts partnership um and a bird that I’d got from Keith ferry so it’s a sort of Blended of my own blood with a hen there that I’d read a couple

Of years ago as well and then I’ve got four pairs here straight pairs of of birds from Keith um two here uh and two yellow hens and two um yellow and two buff hens in the cage behind me so um I have seen these birds

C Tre I’ve seen them mate they are they’re in good form uh I’m not going to say much more than that cuz I don’t want to put the mockers on it um I have got my rings I’ve got 20 Norwich Rings this year um you know if I can fill those

Rings I’ll be absolutely delighted um some of you may be wondering hang on a second Matt you said you weren’t going to have anything other than canaries in there you’re right and then I did say i’ have bull finches in there as well um I

Do have as you know a a spare facility with a lot of flight cages a couple of flights um and some other cages in it so when it comes to the young there are still significant numbers of empty cages in the canary room although it doesn’t

Look like it because they’re all at a lower level than I’m filming um so that’s where I’ll house this year’s young fingers crossed we get plenty of them it’ll be a nice problem to have so that’s on or notebook stay tuned for that uh coming up now it’s time for question Time I’m always indebted for people who take the time to contact me and particularly for this next section of the show it is of course question time uh lots and lots and lots and lots of question questions um some quick fire some not quick fire so going to start

With um well friend of the show Sam wild Sam we know Sam used to keep canaries maybe he’s thinking about it today so Sam’s question is what three tips would you give someone setting up with canaries brilliant brilliant question um I think I asked you the same one about

Budgies mate so first thing is get birds that you like um you know the canary is available in a mult multiplicity of different breeds colors sizes um get something you like get something that you’re going to be happy with because as we all know as bird Keepers um it’s a

Commitment uh it is you know this is a 365 um hobby there is no rest bite from it um if you’re not here you need to find somebody who can help you um so it’s a real commitment any livestock is a is a huge commitment so first thing

Get something you like secondly decide what you um what you want the birds for so is it for pleasure is it for exhibition purposes um make that decision early um you know you can uh learn and developer stood at the same time I know some people say oh get some

You know get some sort of mediocre birds get your eye in challenge with that and I’ll be brutally honest with you challenge with that you got mediocre Birds they are hard to move on um if you breede them you’re not going to get a a a stud of

Birds going quickly and then because we’re human beings we develop an affection to these things rightly so so you know you end up keeping birds that you like which are nowhere near the show standard so start with the best birds that you can um and you know and and

Start with good quality birds and and that’s really inter link with the third bit of advice which is um go to somebody who you can go back to um I’ve been very fortunate uh you know 25 years ago I had no idea in 25 years time i’ be in

Partnership with a man but um I have been able to pull birds back from Gerald pretty much every year for the last 25 years and it’s been nice that I’ve been able to send a few the other way as well so um go to go with somebody that you

Can that you can pull back on particular if you want a lime breed so thank you Sam for the question I hope that answers it sufficiently for you I am going to have to take my uh my glasses off here a couple of quick fire questions uh what

Can you tell us about Birds going light from Wayne McCarthy well Wayne um it’s known perhaps derogatory slow on the uh on the continent as the English disease um going light a bird going light essentially is um a bacterial buildup and the bird stops um stops eating or eats a lot

But is unable to gain weight it’s uh it’s hard when you see CU a canary is so small when you notice a bird go down it’s often too late now you know whether you run docks or cycling through it whatever you run through it at that

Stage to try and bring it back and I’ve I’ve tried on numerous occasions so for me um prevention is better than cure when it comes to Birds going light some birds are prone to it green finches in particular seem to be prone to it and I

Know a lot of the greeny lads will medicate the birds on a monthly basis as a preventative method um it’s you know it can be horrible um if you see a bird cuz essentially the bird is just wasting away so prevention um don’t over stock your shed don’t over stock your bird

Don’t overcrowd your cages hygiene good hygiene get rid of you know stale soft food all of the basic things keep your drinkers clean and all of those things can help form bacteria uh buildup so if you keep all those things you are preventing the likelihood of going light

It happens in every shed it will imagine happening mine again this year despite all of those things so the other key thing is don’t give up um so um uh another question from um Alvin vurst vurst I hope I’ve got that right Alvin alwin um so as a breeder I get

Sometimes in a situation that the female wants to start the second round when the chicks are only 14 days old baby cage doesn’t work when you have uh a male that doesn’t help feeding or the female feeds the Young on her own when she doesn’t feed anymore what options do we

Have it’s a really really good question this and there’s um again without feeling like I’m repeating myself prevention in here is is is almost better than cure so there is a real fine balance with overfit hens so overfit hens will race to go back to nest if you’ve got an overfit he’ll

Drive a back to Nest as well the reality is once a bird hits 14 days a young bird that hits 14 days it’s unlikely that any other bird will feed it so it’s very difficult to Foster it away you can you can try hand feeding now I have done

That with some degrees of success on occasion um the challenge is I’d always drop the pan so I put the pan in a clay bowl at the uh at the back of the cage so drop the pan in the first instance um put as much sort of you know green food

Everything else just to try and get an soak seed just to try and get the young birds pecking cuz they will naturally they’re inquisitive they’ll naturally Peck away whether it’ll be enough to sustain them it often isn’t in that Cas it is a crop feeder and you’ve got to

Try and keep them going yourself I hope that answers uh your question mate so listen thanks everyone for question time um keep them coming in I get multiplicities of messages on messenger and I do try and respond to all of them um that’s all we’ve got time for it’s

Been an epic I feel uh if you haven’t subscribed to the Channel please do um I create this content for you um and uh I really welcome your support and your subscription it’s not for for um any kind of financial benefit if you think about the hours and the time I put in

Putting the show together I can assure you um it is it is a negative balance but I don’t do it for the money I do it because I love this hobby I love the birds and I love creating content for you to watch if you haven’t subscribed please consider subscribing I am

Desperate to get over the 20,000 subscribers mark this year if I can I’m kind of sort of stumbling along around about 17,800 or so so uh if you haven’t subscribed please hit the Subscribe button notification bell every time we put a video out you’ll get a notification if you’ve loved the video

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