Well it was about 16 months ago now that Daphne first hatched the first batch of chicks in the aviary, and over the last 4 weeks we have had batch number 4.  What is special about this batch is that aswell as Daphne giving birth Christina and Hyacinth have also given birth.

If fact Christina is something of a triumph.  Why?  Well she was a domestic pet when we first got her from a pet shop on the way to Southport.  Therefore as she always lived in the house up until the aviary arrived we are really pleased that she has gone on to produce a stunning chick, which we have named Inga.  The name came from our Swedish friends and it just so happens to be that Inga is yellow and blue, which are the Swedish colours!

Batch 3 of the baby budgies from this year are now almost ready to leave the comfort of Daphne’s rather well used box.  So before Roger, Maeve and Albert venture out into the big wide world of the aviary, I thought that we would get some photos of them first.

As you can see for some reason Maeve, at the moment anyway seems a little unsteady on her feet.  Perhaps it was all the Poo on them that has to be scraped off all the time!

Also Ewan was in the wars when we went into check the birds this morning.  He appeared to have been fighting with another bird as his head was a little blood red and he had lost some feathers on the top of his head.  Apart from that all is well and I am sure the babies will be out and about soon.

Yes, thats right Daphne is at it again.  She has hatched more baby budgies, this time there are three that have hatched and survived and appear to be doing well.

Helen was out in the aviary today taking some photographs of the birds and managed to get a hold of one of them.  I am not sure which is which at the moment but we have three names ready and waiting but we just hope that sex of the babies is right for the names.  They are going to be called Roger, Maeve and Albert.  Lets hope we get two boys and a girl.

I think Daphne must be tired out now.  This is three lots of chicks that she has hatched over the summer period and I think that once she has cared for this batch, she will have to be isolated and the other birds just can’t get enough of her.  If we don’t give her a rest I think she will be over exhausted and that could lead to serious health problems.

I will keep you posted as the the progress of batch number three!

Well it has been about two months since the birth of Bruce and Eddie the budgies and we now have two more baby budgies that are almost fully grown.  In fact they should be coming out of their box any time soon.  Yesterday we managed to get them out and take some photographs of them before they learnt how to fly off.

Ewan is green and yellow in colour.  We think that his dad must be Niles as he is a very similar colour to Ewan.  Joshua is a white and blue colour, which is unlike any other bird in the aviary, which is slightly strange.  At this stage we cannot tel whether they are boys or girls.  We will have to just wait and see.  What is for certain is that they are very small and very cute!

The weather was absolutely sweltering hot today in the garden.  In fact it must have been well over 30 degress C and working was particularly difficult.  Ticked off the list of things to do today was doing the electrics in the aviary, re-constructing the aviary and finishing off what my wife and I are now calling ‘Pets Corner’.

We have a south facing garden which is brilliant as it gets to sun all day long, but today it was relentless as the sun was high and very hot.  We started the day finishing off from yesterday with a quick trip to B&Q in order to buy an outside light and some wire.  We then finished connecting the electrics in the aviary as well as at the top of the garden on the new patio.  Hooray it all worked wonders.  So now the birds have a light in the aviary and one outside in the fly bit.

After cleaning all the aviary we then reconstructed it on the newly laid concrete slab that should make sweeping the floor much easier.  It went back together surprisingly easy and once the gate was changed to fit the new position of the aviary pets corner was finished.  Just a latch for the gate and some wood to go on top of the fence to prevent the rabbits from escaping.

Then at the end of the day, after a little pitch and put with the lob wedge from the golf bag (and 15 attempts to chip into the rabbit run without succeeding) we started to dig the footings (trenches) for the new shed to sit on when that arrives shortly.

After that it is a big tip run tomorrow to clear out all the rubbish and then on with the garage clean out ready for a conversion in the near future.

It has now been 4 long weeks since the budgies were born and this week as seen both of them venture out of their box for the first time.  Bruce (who may yet still be a girl!) is a lot more adventurous than Eddie as he has been out most of the time.

Eddie still seems a little unsteady on his feet although he is the most beautiful yellow and blue colours, not to dissimilar to Stanley.  He still stays sat in the box most of the time waiting for mum (or dad for that matter) to bring along the next meal.  He doesn’t seem to have developed as well as Bruce but I am sure he will catch up.  Bruce seems to rather large for a 4 – 5 week old baby budgie, in fact I think he is probably larger than Christina.  She has had to be isolated from the babies as she has been pecking them, causing a small cut on Eddie’s face.

Mum and Dad (Niles and Daphne) are still in true romance (see photo below).  They take it in turns to feed the little ones although I am sure that it will not be long until they are fending for themselves.

The new born Budgies were hatched nearly 2 weeks ago now and so we managed to get our first proper glimpse of them when Helen has a hold.

We have gone for the names Eddie and Bruce as we think that they are males, however it is hard to tell until they get their colouration on their beaks.  Eddie is shown in the photos above.