Oh man! I'm so darn behind. This should be a daily log and I don't know why I can't keep up with it. ARG!

Ok I have found out that Thrust and Winger are a pair. Winger is amazing. I never thought he'd be able to mate with one wing but he has. They Hatched two babies yesterday January 15, 2009.

Pushy unfortunately seems to be lost again. I took her on a ten mile toss. She's had the bad habit of not staying with the flock. I don't think she'll come back this time. I fear a hawk finally got her.

There is an ultra agressive Cooper that is hanging around the yard. He's brazen and not afraid of me at all which isn't good. I'm hoping he's a migrant and will leave in the spring.

It's cold. We're under a cold front. I hope we get our warm weather back soon.

I have banded the two Yellow babies and they go Bands Au 2008 AA 14891, Au 2008 AA 14892.

I've been pairing up some of the birds with the males that lost their females. I'm being careful to not pair up any daddys and daughters. It seems the purple male took AU 2007 A 56135 Yellow who I now know is a female. But I worry because he is the unproven male from last year. He's the one of the four pairs that never produced anything because he could get his cloaca around to meet the female's. I hope he's figured it out now that he's a mature male or he's useless to me. I'm amazed how many of the babies that survived were from the orange pair. What a shame that female died as they were clearly my best producers. That really really sucks. I worry that orange and blue won't take any of these young hens I give them since they were so bonded to their last mate. Blue attacks any bird I put in his cage. Sigh. And I still don't know the genders of some of my birds. I'm even considering crossing some with Punkin even though she's not a ture white. I'm hoping I can breed out the blue feathers since she has so few. I don't know. All this is new and experimental for me. I just need a large crop of babies for sure. Looks like I definitely need some new blood too as I hate to inbreed.

This is my log for white babies for each year.

2008

Au 2008 AA 14889 Orange
Au 2008 AA 14881 Orange female
Au 2008 AA 14890 Yellow lost band Push female
AU 2007 A 56133 Orange female
AU 2007 A 56134 Orange male
AU 2007 A 56135 Yellow
Au 2008 AA 14887 Blue Winger

This is my log for the pairs I make each year for my whites. This post will be constantly updated.

2008 pairs

IPB B 2007 4720 Male Blue and IPB B 2007 16438 female Died
IPB B 2007 16421 the Male Orange and IPB B 2007 16439 female Died
IPB B 2007 4719 Male Purple and IPB B 2007 8497 Female Died
IPB B 2007 4712 Male Yellow and IPB B 2007 8448 Female

RE-PAIRS

IPB B 2007 4712 Yellow and IPB B 2007 8448 HATCHED a baby yesterday Sept 25, 2008 and their second today Sept 26, 2008.

And in the loft one pair escaped my notice. I found it today. It must have hatched yesterday or today. One parent is AU 2008 AA 14881 She I think it's a she is the offspring of IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007 16438.

Since I lost so many females I'll have to be careful to not cross her back to her father but possibly mate her out to the blue male. Though I was considering him with Pushy.

And I've decided to make Thrust and her brother a pair. I've brought them in so they are Pair AU 2007 A 56133 and AU 2007 A 56134 They are babies of the orange pair IPB B 2007 16421 the male and IPB B 2007 16439 female.

I'm going to have to make a post to log all pairs even the birds that have died because it's difficult looking up who's related to whom and such.

Oh my gosh! I can't believe this! I got up today to feed the outside lofts and I saw a white pigeon on the loft roof. My first thought was, "How'd he get out? Is there a hole in the loft? The landing board is closed." But then I realized it and I go, "Pushy??" I walked up to her and sure enough it was her. I grabbed her and instead of putting her with the others I brought her in the house for observation. Well now I KNOW somone has been finding my birds and fixing them up. But who? Her legs were messed up. I don't know if they were broken and reset or what. And her leg band had been cut off so I KNOW someone had to do that. I feel very indebted. I want to thank this person but I don't know who they are. I certainly don't want this to happen again but all my flyers now have their leg bands with phone numbers on them. So if it DOES happen again perhaps this person will call me. I'd love to talk to them. They must know more about medecine than I do. I just wish I had more money so I could take the birds to the vet and have the legs properly set. Checkers needs his leg rebroken and set right.

I think Push Pigeon is gone for good. It's been about three days now and I gave up waiting on her. But something amazing happened today! My blue checkered that I'd lost almost a month ago returned today. I got up and I see a pigeon on the aviary and think, "No great. How'd he get out?" But then I saw his checkers and realized he was my missing bird that I thought was dead. All these questions instantly filled me mind. Where has he been? What did he eat all this time? Did someone have him and fix him up? Did they know he was a homing pigeon because of the leg band and only just now let him go?

I managed to get him to come back into the loft. I caught him and saw his upper leg has been broken and set improperly. That is why he limps. I don't know how good of a flyer he'll ever be now. But I'm glad he came back. I just wish I knew more about what's happened all this time. A broken leg tells me it was definitely a hawk. I'd like to think someone kept him but didn't understand the leg band and once he looked well they let him go knowing he was a homing pigeon. I'm so glad I finally got those bands from silvolf that have my number on them. That way if this happens again and someone DOES find my bird it will be easier to get it back. I just wish I had put one on Push Pigeon sooner.

I need to get better at updating this thing. I've had a lousy day bird wise today. Not only did my budgie Gaus die but I think I've lost my favorite flyer Push Pigeon. The flock took off today and stayed out longer than normal. Push Pigeon and her brother are the rookies. Everyone came back except her. I've learned that pigeons take around 48 hours to come back when lost/hurt if they come back at all. After that there's no sense waiting around. Being the logical person that I am I'm TRYING to have some hope but I lost most of it when she didn't return with the others. She's the youngest and the weakest. What sucks is that I raised her from TWO DAYS old. I've never raised any other bird from that young and had it survive. Because of this she was extra sweet. She was the only one that would come over to me. Her name was perfect because even as a young adult she'd still come and push my hands hard when I was taking the bowls for cleaning. I loved that about her. All my other babies don't like to be touched and even though they are hand fed they won't come over to me anymore.

I've asked this question before and it may sound cold but that's how I am, "Why couldn't have it one of my blues or one I wasn't attached to?" None of my whites of course too. It's hard to not get attached. I knew going into this losses would happen but sometimes you get attached even if you don't want to. Especially hand fed babies. There's a chance she's lost and could return tomorrow. There's one day left but I think she's gone. I won't write her off as gone yet but with all the odds against her I think I know what happened. It's interesting that the birds that have been hit and escaped haven't been hit again. They must have learned the lesson that hawks are dangerous and become better fliers. I don't know. I haven't been doing this long enough to say for sure. Chris has been supportive trying to give me hope saying she may come back. She may be lost or out having fun. But really I know better. I'll go through the 48 hour protocol on this but I don't expect any miracles to happen.

I've been expecting Gaus to die for months now and I don't feel so bad about it anymore. I'm happy to have had such a wonderful little budgie. But losing Pusy Pigeon suddenly with no warning like that and not knowing what really happened (my mind always suspects hawk but it could have been anything) is much harder. This has been very hard on me. Being an NT type I don't deal with feelings well either. I haven't had a real cry yet. I want to, but I can't. I don't know how. My stupid tear glands work all wrong for me. They flow when I don't want or need them to, at really stupid times like in the bathroom. Sigh. But now when I want to and probably need to nothing's happening. I may just have to bust out the Neil Diamond songs or watch Jonathan Livingston Seagull. That will definitely send me over the edge.

This day has been rather crappy. Good things did happen too and I'll talk about those in my main journal. I'm done venting for now.

Oh one good thing. The wild conures are around still. They seem to live in my oak trees and are eating my peaches on the peach tree. Didn't feel like checing over twice for spelling and grammar. Sorry if there are a lot of mistakes.

Here's a video of Pushy when she was a baby.

I got my order in today from Seigel's. I got a bunch of pigeon perches that are much needed and I got a doormat that was also much needed.



Isn't this nice? I think I'm going to put this on the back patio since that's where most of the dirt is tracked in. Now I need to get two more for the garage and front door.




Here are all the perches I ordered. I wish I knew what kind of saw it takes to make those cuts because I probably could have saved a ton of money making them myself. But I have no idea how.




Here they are painted and installed with pigeons already on them. You can tell which ones are new since they are still clean.

The missing bird 148883 didn't come back. I consider him officially lost now. This sucks because I only have one young bird left that can fly. I do have two babies that will be fledging soon but it's always dangerous for new birds. There are predators and they can just get plain lost on training tosses as well. Those are the risk, but I hate the huge percentage of losses I've had this year. I still think I'm doing better than last year with the good birds I have but something still isn't right.

And today my birds did something odd. They stayed on the roof and didn't come in at night. Chris and I had to get on a ladder and bring them down. That was annoying. I think because the neighbor's kids were out playing. They weren't used to that and wanted to be safe up on the roof. Ok safe from the kids but come night fall they're sitting ducks for owls so I had to go up and catch them. So all eight were finally put in the loft. So my flying team currently consists of four blues and four whites.

My subscription for this account runs out at the end of the month. I need to find a way to scrounge up some cash to renew. I don't want to lose all the cool customization I've made.

I took the new birds out to their first one mile toss to the east. Well I don't know why my older ones led them FURTHER away. They were all empty, it wasn't far so they should have beat us home. But they took hours to come home and when they finally did one was missing. It was 14883 the youngest. I'm suspecting a hawk again. I hope I'm wrong, I hope he'll be back tomorrow morning. He was gone a whole day and night in the last hawk attack. 14881 is the last young bird I have left that flies and he seems to be learning to avoid enemies. I managed to coax all the birds in just as a pair of Cooper's hawks landed on the post across the street and mated loudly in plain sight for all to see. Oh swell that's all I need. New baby Coopers practicing on my birds. I wish the laws were more lenient and let you do something but even harassing the birds can land you in jail if someone tells. I think squirting them with water would be a good way to keep them out of the area. So I left the landing board open but don't have too high of hopes. I'm not as upset as I was when Winger got hurt. Probably because I didn't see this happen or the aftermath. But it still bugged me on some level and I was a bit grumpy today.

The sun is out today. It's been great weather. A little cold but not really cold and not hot. I took the birds out to the new 10 mile release point. Skies were blue. Chris stopped off at a TacoBell to get food. When we were about to turn onto our road we saw the three pigeons flying over the cow field to our house. I go, "There they are! Oh no, we're going to lose the race becasue we stopped for food." It was just so amazing to see. Actually it was like 11 miles and it took them around 15 minutes to get home so I say they were averaging around 50mph. That's sweet. We did beat them home by a few seconds. The rule of pigeon racing is you clock them once the land. We parked while they were still circling the house but they did get to the house first. I think the pigeons would argue THEY won.

I've banded two chicks that I need to report.


The chick that hatched from the Orange Pair hatched Feb 21, 2008 got leg band number AU 2008 AA 148889

The Yellow pair baby hatched Feb 23, 2008 got leg band number AU 2008 AA 14890

We finally got the loft divided today. We used soft chicken netting and wooden planks. Now we have a male and female side but some of the birds are still slipping through the net. I'm still fine tuning it.



Here is the loft from the outside. You can see the green divider.



Here it is from the inside. The males keep trying to get through.



This is where I get through by lifting that wood piece. Turbo here is the worst pigeon he's trying so darn hard to get over.

test

My new young birds are flying pretty well. They are learning to go on the roof. The young blue ones have learned to keep up with the flock so that's really cool to see seven birds flying together. My white babies seem more timid for some reason but did throw one as the flock flew over and he joined them! I'm hoping tomorrow he'll do better. I had one blue one stay out all night but he came back this morning. I'm so glad he didn't get lose. I was very worried. And my older birds are ready for their 10 mile training. I'm so proud of them but 10 miles is a lot and I'm a bit nervous. I hope they'll make it home safe and sound. Once they learn 10 miles from the south and the east then they'll go up in 10 mile increments. Twenty miles will be next and FINALLY at that point I think I can start advertising and looking into getting a business liscense. Wow I'm almost there. But this isn't something that can be rushed though I'm a bit impatient and wish my birds were there now. The other good thing is that once my birds are ready for their first training toss I can take them out with the older birds and they can follow the older birds that know the way home. I'll have fewer losses that way. I think establishing the first team is the hardest but after that they can show the younger ones the way and things move faster.

The yellows layed another Egg Feb 29,2008. I have taken their last baby because they over stuffed it. This time they were eating pellets only so he drained completely after 24 hours. But still that's wrong and my yellow pair have proven to be lousy parents. The baby I pulled has been fixed. I finally got his crop to drain. It took a few days. But then he developed splayed legs. So I rigged some skewers and tied his legs up under him for 12 hours. I also put towels under him instead of paper towels to keep his legs from going out. He seems much better now and I hope all the problems are finally over. I have the egg in there too. Don't expect it to do so well since it's not a true incubator and I can't be there to turn it every hour round the clock. But in five days I'll candle it and know for sure if I have to keep working with it of if I can throw it out. I'd love for it to hatch since I need more white pigeons but if it is good it's gonna be a lot of work. I separated the yellow pair and the breeding season is officially closed for this year. I need to find a way to separate the pairs in the aviary so they aren't breeding so much.

I'm behind on my dates again.

Fostered baby from the Orange pair hatched Feb 21 2008.
February 23 2008 two babies hatched from the yellow pair. But unfortunately one died and I found the other thrown out of the nest in time. I was pretty mad about this. They'd pecked and trampled one chick and the other was cold outside the nest. I put the baby back and threw out the dead one. The next day I handfed it in the morning. I've been watching them closely. Today in the afternoon I found the last baby thrown out again. So that's the last straw. I didn't want to hand feed such a little baby because it's difficult but he's got a better chance with me than with these parents that are only interested in the older baby. I was really mad for a few hours because they didn't have to kill that other baby. Shoot I would have taken it away if I had known. Also, little babies like this are hard to raise because they have to be fed every two hours round the clock. Oh gosh I'm not looking forward to this.



Look how little. It's only two days old. OY!



The stuffed animal is for him to snuggle with so he thinks there's a momma bird in there. Oh another thing hard about this is I don't have a real brooder. I have a make shift one that I made with a towel and a heating pad that only reaches 90°F. I think it has to be a minimum of 100°. So no I'm not very happy about this at the momment. I thought I was done with handfeeding for the year. Gosh I hope this one will make it.

The new team of babies is doing well. They've flown twice now. They haven't left the loft and my two whites because they are handfed won't go on the roof of the house on their own yet. But they are very well trained to come at the sound of the gourd and go through the bobs. We had a bad Cooper attack today. I chased the Cooper all the way down to the end of the street but amazingly my birds got away from him thank goodness. I was determined that if he had caught one I would have taken it away from him. This makes like the third or fourth predator attack now. I'm glad my birds are learning so well to avoid them. I checked them and no one had missing tail or wing feathers and no cuts or slashes. It was scary though. I got my excersize today.

I've been slacking here again. My pigeons are doing excellent. Holy Cow this year is way better than last. Last year sucked with the losses and fly aways. I think the babies I bought were too old and had no real love for where they lived...can't say I blame them. But these are loved hand fed babies. They have learned three miles from the North and East and five miles from the west. I need to train them from the South now. I put in the two oldest babies and Torque's two blue babies. They should have their first flight Sunday or Monday. I'm so excited. But I'm not sure how I'm going to handle two teams of birds now. I'm thinking to start I'll fly the older one so they get it out of their systems then fly the young ones before the older ones return to the loft. If they see the older ones sitting on the roof they might be encouraged to fly out.

My two babies I'm hand feeding are doing quite well. I think the older one will wean soon. I can't wait for them to be old enough to put in the loft. I'm looking forward to them learning to fly.

I banded the babies from Parents IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007. The got
band numbers
AU 2008 AA 14887
AU 2008 AA 14888

I will likely pull the for hand feeding on the 14th. They'll be two weeks old then.

A red-shouldered hawk attacked the flock two days ago. It was the first predation attempt. My birds avoided him beautifully. I ran to the front and scared off the hawk. It was a bit annoying because this was the first time all five birds were flying as a flock. The checkered blue one came back right away. He's always been shy and timid. I was worried the whites would take the little hen too far away since she wasn't as experienced. But she kept up with the flock. I was amazed. They stayed out for a half hour. They also split up which I've never seen them do. I don't know if was because of all the predators in the area. But I saw the blue and one white. The other two whites vanished. But finally they regrouped and returned home.

Yesterday we took the three whites to their first five mile toss. They did well for coming home from a new area. I'm quite proud of how well they are doing. They found a wild pigeon flying and they chased the poor bird. It was so funny. I could tell this bird was scared of mine.

I've had the crazy idea of perhaps getting an RC plane and flying it around first to scare away the hawks.

AU 2008 AA 14884 Died today Jan 30, 2008. I won't reuse his leg band. I'll be sending it to my friend in Irland that collects them. I didn't get as upset this time. I guess I'd already accepted that I wasn't going to be able to save this one even though I tired everything. It still sucks though, but good news is two babies hatched today.

Parents IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007 16438 HATCHED Two Babies today Jan 30.

They white flyers are doing very well. They flew one mile from the East today. I think they will soon be ready for three miles.

That last white baby I pulled isn't doing well. This really sucks. I don't think he's going to make it. I suctioned his crop today and gave him water to see if he could pass. He is passing water. It's a really strange form of sour crop this one has. This is a different baby than the one that had the seeds. It's almost as if the formula got stuck in the upper part of his crop under his neck. Well seeing as the water passed I tried to give him really runny formual. Now it's not passing and it was really thin. No poops have come out. I'm all out of ideas as I've tried all the same stuff as I did with the last baby. Gosh this really sucks. I wish I could take him to the vet but no money. At least the other three are doing quite well. I guess if I lose him I'll just pass his leg band on to someone else. I hate sour crops. It's a stupid disease that's so difficult to fix. Oh it also looks like crop burn because his crop is so red. But I didn't burn his crop. I always measure the temperature with a thermometer and none of the other babies got burned. It really makes no sense.

My pigeons returned at 10am today. I'm so glad they came back and think that they didn't like sleeping out in the cold. I released them again in the evening and this time they did return before the sun set. I think the lesson's been learned. Tomorrow I will take them out one mile East.

The blue pigeons were let out for the second day. They didn't do much but sit on the loft.



Unfortunately since I hand fed these late they didn't learn what the gourd means. They don't come when called and today was another close call. I was trying to coax them in with a food dish. They finally went onto the top of the aviary and under the roof. It's a good thing they did because not long after that I got buzzed by a Cooper's Hawk. Coopers are a pigeon's worst enemy in this area. My white ones were inside and they freaked too. He couldn't see the birds from the angle he came at so I have no idea why he buzzed me inches from my head. That's happened to Chris and now it's happened to me. He flew on across the street. He must have been chasing some other bird but gosh. Well my two blue pigeons were petrified. They wouldn't move even for food. I was able to reach up, pick them up and shove them through the bobs. I don't think I could have done that if they weren't afraid.

I'm having too much stress over these birds again. When I pulled the two babies for handfeeding each one had a pretty bad problem. The youngest got his foot caught and bent under him from the liner I was using. It's ironic I got the liner to prevent splayed legs and this did the opposite to his right leg. I knew it could be fixed since baby bird bones are soft and flexible. I didn't want to end up with another Randy. So I splinted it, but the was still being bad putting weight on it. So I rigged a little hamock for him to rest in. I used the very liner that hurt him to help him. The other chick had been stuffed full of seeds by the parents. At seven days that's not good. They are supposed to get soft crop milk and seeds can cause crop impaction. It wasn't passing. I'd gotten the tubes for just such and emergency but found that pumping his crop wasn't working. The seeds weren't going into the tube. So that was frustrating that it failed. I thought he would die because I've never had a chick survive this. I then remembered that last year when I gave my flyers the pig wormer they all threw up. So I mixed some up hoping this would cause the chick to throw everything up. He looked like he was going to but never did. Finally I decided to pump him. I'd squirt lots of water in his crop and flush everything out while holding him upside down. That didn't work because instead of coming back out the crop just got bigger and bigger. AAAAH!!! So I had to squeeze and suck some of the excess water and he kinda did start to throw up. All the stuff that hadn't worked before was now working. I gave up and just put him back in the brooder. I was all out of bright ideas.

The next morning I went to check on them. Amazingly his crop had emptied. I was thrilled!! Either the wormer softened everything up or the warm water I shot into his crop helped everything to pass. Whatever I'm glad it worked. This is the first chick I've had survive this and I'd like to think I finally did something right. As for the one with the leg...I took off the splint and his leg was normal. He was able to use it. WOO HOO!!! That one I know I definitely fixed and was proud of myself. They are doing very well.

I banded a few chicks. IPB B 2007 4712 Yellow and IPB B 2007 8448's baby got
Leg band number AU 2008 AA 14884

Torque and Radar's baby got leg bands numbers
AU 2008 AA 14885
AU 2008 AA 14886

The two blue babies flew for the first time. We had a bit of a scare as a bald eagle flew over. Everyone returned at the call of the gourd except for the blue check. He finally came in after MUCH coaxing. Today I took the three white babies to a near by church for their first toss. They were at 0.75 miles from the house. I let them go at 5PM. When I opened the basket the just hopped onto the grass and walked around. I had to chase them into the air. They circled a few times and I drove off. But they never came home. The sun set and now I'm worried because they never came home. It's cold out and they don't haved a roof over their heads. I wonder where they landed. I feel bad about it and I hope they'll come back in the morning. It really wasn't that far and I KNOW they could see the cow field that's a major land mark for them. I'm glad I didn't do a full mile but gosh I'm still sad about this. I don't want to lose any of them. They are all sweet babies. The birds are really stressing me out. Poor things.

Another baby from the yellow pair hatched January 22, 2008. But one of those two
Died January 25, 2008. I don't know which of the two. I got up yesterday morning and found the baby on the floor of the cage out of its nest. This morning I found a dead baby in the aviary. I don't know if it's the cold causing the parents to kick babies out. It's rather annoying especially to lose babies that are white.
Radar and Turbo have hatched two babies. I'm curious what color they will be and what they will look like since they are a mix of racing and wild pigeon. The last clutch failed. This is their second attempt so let's hope they are able to raise healthy chics.

I Pulled the orange baby yesterday because I thought three chicks were too much for that pair. He was the first to hatch this year from Pair IPB B 2007 16421 Orange and IPB B 2007 16439. He got the
Leg Band AU 2008 AA 14881

I had to pull the two babies that the Orange pair was fostering today as well. They weren't sitting on them anymore and I noticed the little one was't getting fed. I think I averted another disaster. The Parents are IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007 16438.
The Chicks got Leg bands
AU 2008 AA 14882
AU 2008 AA 14883

My older babies are doing extremely well. They are flying longer and staying in a flock better. I think they are ready for their first half mile toss. The only thing is the weather has not been good and it's been raining and cloudy too much. I like to fly my birds twice a day. In the morning and in the evening. The weather has been very strange. This is supposed to be our dry season and we've been having too much rain. So that's about everything that's been going on pigeon wise.

A baby hatched today January 21, 2008. It's the baby from the 2nd clutch of the yellow pair IPB B 2007 4712 Yellow and IPB B 2007 8448.
It's a pain writing these numbers and bolding them but to keep this proper, scientific and easy to find by tags I need to do that every time. I'm saying this mostly for myself since my brain is complaining about it right now. The other yellow baby was hatchING so hopefully we'll have the last baby tomorrow. I hope the parents can handle four chicks for a week at least.

Today was a great flying day. The three flew together away from the house about a two house radius. The only thing I got mad was that I was trying to film it. It would have been a great video excpet my camera somehow got rest to auto instead of video and I was snapping stills instead. AAARRRGGG!!!! I flew them again in the evening but this time they refused to leave the yard even when I threw them into the air.

Two more babies hatched today!!
On January 20, 2008 TWO babies hatched from the Blue Pair IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007 16438. They are being fostered by the yellow Pair IPB B 2007 4712 Yellow and IPB B 2007 8448. Unfortonately when I was marking them the mother pecked one of the babies and ripped the skin on his head. I felt aweful about it because I thought I had him cupped. The bite was meant for me. I put neosporin on him and put him back in the nest. A few hours later I checked and he seemed ok. Breeding these white pigeons has not been easy and I don't need them killed by me doing something stupid like that.

I got some baby food today because the Yellow's own eggs will hatch soon, likely tomorrow or the next day and four chicks are too much for one pair.

My three white babies flew well today. The two older ones made a huge circle around the house today. I was very proud. I have named the one ending in 33 Thrust. He is the friendliest coolest pigeon I've ever had. He's the only one that I can grab and pet and he follows me around and lands on my head. It's awesome. So all in all it's going quite well.

The weather has really sucked the last few days. It's been cloudy and rainy. This is supposed to be our dry season. What's going on? Gosh I wonder if the weather will be a big problem once I start doing outdoor weddings and stuff. So my birds haven't flown in three days.

But I do have good news to report. Yesterday Jan 18, 2008 a baby hatched from the Orange Pair IPB B 2007 16421 Orange and IPB B 2007 16439.
That makes the first baby of 2008!! I hope this little guy will be healthy and make it. It looks like a baby from the blue pair will hatch tonight or tomorrow. They are being fostered by the yellow pair. If all four eggs hatch then I'll have to handfeed some since I think four chicks is too much for the parents. Pigeons only have two babies per clutch.

AU 2007 A 56136 and AU 2007 A 56137 are trying to learn to fly. Turbo and Gorda are still feeding them, but they're learning to eat on their own too. I'm not sure when to incorporate them in with my white young birds. Also these guys aren't trained to the sound of the gourd and I'm not sure how to go about that yet without giving false alarms to the other birds.

And I took a picture of the new leg bands I got.



Aren't they pretty? Chris says they are for the birds not me. heh heh. Yeah but so far no birds can wear them so I will wear them and play with them until then. pppttuurrbb! I'm looking forward to giving this new baby the first band on the 24th. Have to remember that date.

Sigh I really suck at keeping track of things. Ok so

IPB B 2007 4720 Blue and IPB B 2007 16438 laid an egg Jan 12 and Jan 14, 2007.

IPB B 2007 4719 Purple and IPB B 2007 8497 laid an egg Jan 13, 2007.

Turbo and Gordas babies fledged yesterday and today.

I got my order in today from Seigel's. I got three perches and 20 AU leg bands for 2008. They are this pretty neon green. So much better than the ugly boring black and white of 2007. I can't wait to put the first one on a baby. I hope more babies will hatch this year. Since this year has been so screwed up breeding wise I'm going to start to separate pairs soon.