End of the year

It has been a fairly quiet year in respect to the breeding of parrots for me. I bred one more Green Thighed Caique than last year but surprised to get all girls and no boys. Last year it was all boys. Very nearly had some baby Ruppells but they did not survive, and nothing from the Red Bellied parrots again.

I am now in the process  of moving all the small African parrots into their new house and today I moved in the older Ruppells pair. They were both cuddled up in the nest box so it was quite easy to take the box out the existing flight cover the nest box hole and transfer them to their new home. Mind you they looked a little surprised when they came out into the new house. Last year they laid in January-February so I am hopeful they will try again in 2011. Hopefully with less disturbance from other parrots this time.

The older breeding pairs of Eclectus did their normal share of babies, but sadly we did not have any babies from the newer pairs of Red Sided & Solomon Island. However it is still quite early days for them.

In general this year things seemed more subdued, I felt there has been a marked decrease in interest for pet parrots and for parrots as breeding stock. So I think the effect of the 2009 recession has finially had an effect on our hobby. However I did sell all the babies I produced in 2010 some as parent reared and some as hand reared. But perhaps it did take a little longer than previous years. There was a number of fellow breeders who decided to give up or retire this year, and feeling that for a number of years we had formed a small but close family of like minded breeders it was particularly sad for me to loose a number of close contacts.

So my hopes for 2011 are that eventually I will rear some Red Bellied & Ruppells parrots. And additionally I would like to have some Eclectus babies from the new breeding pairs.

Happy New year to everyone, and especially those other amature breeders of parrots who like me do our bit to enhance the understanding of parrots and their breeding success  in captivity.