Breeding Question

[Sevristh]

Tried searching for this, but wasn't really sure what to search under...

I have heard mention of locking females into their nest boxes, and seen pictures of people using small feeders like what would be in a pet birds cage in a house inside the nest box. My question is, when is this neccessary? I have 5 birds and two of them have paired up and have been mating. I gave them a nest box to use, but as of yet, they seem content just to sit on top of it

[jbangelfish]

Originally Posted by Sevristh

Tried searching for this, but wasn't really sure what to search under...

I have heard mention of locking females into their nest boxes, and seen pictures of people using small feeders like what would be in a pet birds cage in a house inside the nest box. My question is, when is this neccessary? I have 5 birds and two of them have paired up and have been mating. I gave them a nest box to use, but as of yet, they seem content just to sit on top of it

People will use these types of boxes to pair off the birds that they plan to breed together. Many breeders separate males from females for a few months, usually over the winter.

Each pair should have two nest boxes and they are usually joined together. They will lay eggs when they have babies that are a couple weeks or a few weeks old and should have another adjoining nest box to use for the new eggs.

Bill

[Sevristh]

Yeah, I built a nest box after looking at some on here. It's 24"x16"x16" with wooden dowels for the bars on 2/3 of the front. Should be plenty big for two nests.

So the isolation thing is basically just for separating them and has nothing to do with getting them to lay or not then?

[DEEJAY7950]

Well the paring up box is just that, to pair up birds you would like to have young from, if the box is big enough and you can separate the male from the female and have it so they can still see each other the better for it, make sure no other birds can be seen by the couple you want to breed, then after a while (a few days) you can put them together and they should mate up very quickly! If they don't then do it all over again until they do!

[Sevristh]

Ok, but since I have seen the pair already courting and mating, this step shouldn't be required for the hen to lay, right? This would be more for birds that haven't gotten together that you are trying to coerce, correct?