Java Sparrow Dairy

See my projects page to see how I built the breeding cages

Select a month below to see news for that month 2007

January <> February <> March <> April <> May <> June <> July <> August <> September <> October <> November <> December

January 2007

Meet Stuart Drury the man who started me up again with some Java's
See Stuart's website | link |

30/12/2006

A new-year and a new start for me, I did start with six java’s at the end of last year but sadly two died on the same night, I put the deaths down to the thunder storm we had that night, all my birds where showing no signs of any illness. Anyway I have now finished one of my breeding cages, which is now in the shed I will be converting into a bird room this year, I had a pair of java’s ready to go straight down for breeding, just over a week after pairing them up my first eggs started to arrive 26/12/06

Now breeding has begun I need to start keeping accurate breeding records for future pairings, this is where the bird tracker software plays a big part for me, it’s very easy to use, plus the more information I put in on each java the better program will perform.

Photos: 30/12/2006

See how I fill out my Bird Tracker Program.
Click on the numbers to see photo
I pick the bird from the flock information 1
Now I pick a partner for breeding and add them together 2
When eggs start I enter the eggs in to the program 3
With eggs entered I get an instant hatch date 4
As the month goes on all the chick ring numbers will be entered

31/12/2006

Only a small update today, my breeding pair have now got their third egg.
This is the first time these birds have bread and their eggs are not one every day, it seems to be a bit erratic.
The cock is only 8 months old the hen is 11 months old, if all goes well I will let them have a second round.

05/01/2007

I have just had a look into the nest box and there is still only three eggs, so I am sure this will be all the eggs she will be laying for this first round, just hope the are fertile!

07/01/2007

Excellent news today, I have just used a small mag-light to see if their eggs are fertile and guess what!! all three are fertile, I do have a hatch date of the 17th January 07 if she started incubating the eggs on 30/12/06 (18 days)

08/01/2007

With eggs now full I am going to send off for my 2007 rings, I use closed anodized aluminum rings with consecutive numbering plus I will have my initials (RWS) on each ring, the ring colour ring for 2007 is black. I have also sent for some blue and pink plastic split rings so I can put them on the cock (blue) and hen (pink) this way I can identify the sexes when in a large aviary. I use A.C. Hughes rings; they will ship all over the globe

14/01/2007

All my rings have arrived on Saturday, all I need now is some chicks to put them on! hopefully this will happen on the 17th fingers crossed. I will start trying the rings on the chicks when they get to ten days old. see more when the time arrives on my diary in Feb.

Breeding Cage Update!

Up to know the breeding cage design is working well, the seed on the bird room floor has stopped, the javas themselves have got nice clean feet, I just need to put a small box below the feeding bowls to collect the seed as
it falls through the mesh, this will stop it getting contaminated with the bird droppings, then I can recycle the seed.
The cleaning out of the cage is over in seconds. The mesh floor has not bothered the birds at all, they still
walk over it, I do like the breeding hole at the back of the cage it makes viewing the birds so much better,
the birds look less stressed when I enter the shed, the hen pops her head out of the hole to see what is going on,
then goes back in again

See a video of this cage in action | 8.20Mb mpg file | Download |

20/01/2007

Not very good news today, all three eggs did not develop properly

These eggs where to hatch on the 17th by the 20th I inspected the eggs closely only to fined the embryos had died inside, as you can see from all three photos each egg had a dark area plus they had large air space on the top, WHY! this happened I don't know, the hen did not start this round of eggs properly, maybe this could have something to do with it.

I have now removed these eggs to let them try one more round, usually the second round of eggs do better with a young hen.

27/01/2007

Over the last week the java's have been topping their nest up with extra grass and shredded paper, I looked in the nest box today to fined their first egg for the second round, I am hoping this round will be better than the last one, if this fails, I will not let them breed again until later in the year. I have got another pair to breed from soon the hen is only 8 months so she is not ready just yet! (April)