what is everyone's thoughts about colony breeding? I have ringnecks,cockatiels, green cheeks, & quakers & i kinda want to colony breed them all (obviously different cages for different species lol) . Would love to do more research and get different opinions tho?
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Colony breeding thoughts
- Thread starter casper23
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Your turn-a-phrase "cages" is what I believe that many people would find to be the biggest issue with your plan. In order to colony breed, you would need an aviary. For some of these species, it would need to be very large due to how territorial that they are.
well i guess you could say aviary because they are going to be massive im talking hugeeee
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In that case, the amount that you can have depends on the species and the exact size. Additionally, the individual birds' personalities plays a roll in it as well. It is also very important that your birds are good flyers in case they need to "escape" from an aggressive bird. You would also need more nest boxes, food dishes, and water dishes than you have pairs.
On top of this, it is important to note that this is a debated topic among some breeders.
All of those birds can be bred in colonies, though there are several drawbacks. Aggression and incest are the two big ones. You need to have an equal number of males and females, and at least one nest box for every pair. Each nest box has to be the exact same and the same height.
Most breeders claim that they get more chicks from isolating pairs in cages. But especially for docile and communal birds like cockatiels and quakers there are many advantages of colony breeding, too. Quakers will often make their own "apartment complex" of nests if given nesting material like twigs and small branches.
I had good luck colony breeding cockatiels but have no experience with the others. A fellow breeder said his female ringnecks were incredibly aggressive when put in with multiple males, to the point of killing several, so take what you will of that. I have no experience breeding ringnecks so I can't say for myself.
I started with a flock of around 45 in a large walk-in aviary. Out of the 45 birds, there were around 18 breeding pairs. The rest were older hens and males that had paired up together. There were a lot of chicks each year, but it also a lot of work to feed and clean daily. Today, the aviary is gone and I'm down to 12 cockatiels in 3 cages. I've had 4 chicks this year, and the plan is for the rest to be gone by the end of the summer.
I started with a flock of around 45 in a large walk-in aviary. Out of the 45 birds, there were around 18 breeding pairs. The rest were older hens and males that had paired up together. There were a lot of chicks each year, but it also a lot of work to feed and clean daily. Today, the aviary is gone and I'm down to 12 cockatiels in 3 cages. I've had 4 chicks this year, and the plan is for the rest to be gone by the end of the summer.
