moving birds from old loft to new loft

2484 Views 14 Replies 4 Participants Last post by mmelloss, Mar 28, 2009

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · Mar 27, 2009

i have finished building my new loft but i was wondering on how i can move my birds when they have babies. i have 3 pairs that have young ones one pair has a young one that is 29 days old another pair has an 18 day old baby and the last pair has a 5 year old baby. the pair that has a 29 year old baby has just laid a pair of eggs yesterday, what should i do about moving my birds because i want to get them in the new loft because it has more room. Can i move the eggs and babies to the new loft and will the parents know that they are their babies if i move them from their nests or should i keep them in the old loft until they get old enough to move to the new loft. What about the birds with the eggs if i move the nest will they sit on the eggs if they are moved i need help on this because i need o move the birds to the new loft

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Charis

· #2 · Mar 27, 2009

Replace the eggs with wooden ones and don't move the couples with babies until the babies are weaned.

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #3 · Mar 27, 2009

new loft

Charis said:
Replace the eggs with wooden ones and don't move the couples with babies until the babies are weaned.

if i replace the eggs with wooden eggs what happens to the real eggs do i get rid of them because they are good breeders and i want to keep the eggs. If i get rid of them will they lay another set of eggs quickly in the new loft.

maryjane

· #4 · Mar 27, 2009

When I moved mine, I moved them all except the ones with babies, and let them stay until the babies were weaned.

You could leave the eggs, move most of your birds, let them settle in, and then switch the eggs in the next few days to a nesting pair of birds in the new loft. That depends on if they are nesting that soon or not. I don't know if this would work for sure (or if it's even a good idea) but others will let us know.

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #5 · Mar 27, 2009

maryjane said:
When I moved mine, I moved them all except the ones with babies, and let them stay until the babies were weaned.

You could leave the eggs, move most of your birds, let them settle in, and then switch the eggs in the next few days to a nesting pair of birds in the new loft. That depends on if they are nesting that soon or not. I don't know if this would work for sure (or if it's even a good idea) but others will let us know.

thanks for the feedback

Lovebirds

· #6 · Mar 27, 2009

mmelloss said:
i have finished building my new loft but i was wondering on how i can move my birds when they have babies. i have 3 pairs that have young ones one pair has a young one that is 29 days old another pair has an 18 day old baby and the last pair has a 5 year old baby. the pair that has a 29 year old baby has just laid a pair of eggs yesterday, what should i do about moving my birds because i want to get them in the new loft because it has more room. Can i move the eggs and babies to the new loft and will the parents know that they are their babies if i move them from their nests or should i keep them in the old loft until they get old enough to move to the new loft. What about the birds with the eggs if i move the nest will they sit on the eggs if they are moved i need help on this because i need o move the birds to the new loft

Your best bet is to replace ALL eggs with wooden eggs. Let ALL pairs finish raising the present babies.
Then, what I would do is move all the cocks to the new loft. Give them a few days to pick a box and settle down. Then move the hens over to the new loft. They'll pair up, go to the box that their mate has picked out and be down on eggs in no time.

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #7 · Mar 27, 2009

Lovebirds said:
Your best bet is to replace ALL eggs with wooden eggs. Let ALL pairs finish raising the present babies.
Then, what I would do is move all the cocks to the new loft. Give them a few days to pick a box and settle down. Then move the hens over to the new loft. They'll pair up, go to the box that their mate has picked out and be down on eggs in no time.

should i move the babies that are around 30 days old that can fly into the new loft to or should i wait

Lovebirds

· #8 · Mar 28, 2009

mmelloss said:
should i move the babies that are around 30 days old that can fly into the new loft to or should i wait

How many lofts do you have? Are you putting the new babies (30 day old ones) in the same loft as the breeders?

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #9 · Mar 28, 2009

Lovebirds said:
How many lofts do you have? Are you putting the new babies (30 day old ones) in the same loft as the breeders?

i only have one loft that is why i built the other one should they not be with the breeders

Lovebirds

· #10 · Mar 28, 2009

mmelloss said:
i only have one loft that is why i built the other one should they not be with the breeders

Well, I don't think it's a good idea. Why can't they just stay in the loft they're in now? And that can be your YB loft after all the breeders are moved out.

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 28, 2009

Lovebirds said:
Well, I don't think it's a good idea. Why can't they just stay in the loft they're in now? And that can be your YB loft after all the breeders are moved out.

i needed to big a bigger loft the other one i had was getting to small

Lovebirds

· #12 · Mar 28, 2009

mmelloss said:
i needed to big a bigger loft the other one i had was getting to small

Been there, done that.......LOL
Well, now you've got two lofts, so you really should house the breeders in one and the other birds in the other loft.
Which is which depends of course on how many birds you're talking about.

mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 28, 2009

Lovebirds said:
Been there, done that.......LOL
Well, now you've got two lofts, so you really should house the breeders in one and the other birds in the other loft.
Which is which depends of course on how many birds you're talking about.

i only have 13 birds 3 of them are babies 1 28 days old 1 14 days old and one 5 days old

Lovebirds

· #14 · Mar 28, 2009

mmelloss said:
i only have 13 birds 3 of them are babies 1 28 days old 1 14 days old and one 5 days old

OK. I've got to run for the night......got pictures of these lofts? What are the sizes?
I'm guessing that the new loft is set up for breeders. Nest boxes and all that. Would be kinda hard to change all that now.
So, you've got 5 pairs of breeders? And 3 babies.
I'll tell you real quick, what you DON'T want to do is move the one pair of breeders that have the grown baby. By the time you move the other pairs, that one pair will think the whole loft belongs to them and they'll raise hell with any new birds.
IMO, the best thing that you can do right now is replace all of your eggs with dummy eggs and go from there. Are the birds that have the 28 day old baby already on eggs again? If so, I expect they've been on them 10 days at least, which means you've got babies growing in the eggs already.............ummmm.
Have to think about this and unfortunately, I don't have time tonight.

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mmelloss

Discussion Starter · #15 · Mar 28, 2009

Lovebirds said:
OK. I've got to run for the night......got pictures of these lofts? What are the sizes?
I'm guessing that the new loft is set up for breeders. Nest boxes and all that. Would be kinda hard to change all that now.
So, you've got 5 pairs of breeders? And 3 babies.
I'll tell you real quick, what you DON'T want to do is move the one pair of breeders that have the grown baby. By the time you move the other pairs, that one pair will think the whole loft belongs to them and they'll raise hell with any new birds.
IMO, the best thing that you can do right now is replace all of your eggs with dummy eggs and go from there. Are the birds that have the 28 day old baby already on eggs again? If so, I expect they've been on them 10 days at least, which means you've got babies growing in the eggs already.............ummmm.
Have to think about this and unfortunately, I don't have time tonight.

thank you for all your advice it has been very helpful

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