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Hi all, I have a female that is on 3 eggs. They are well over past due. She still sits on them, she is very devoted.
The male I have with her it is his first time to be paired with a female. He is 7, she is 10 or 12. That is what I was told about her.
This is the second set of eggs..The first were infertile and these also must be. As I said they are well over due.
Well she leave the nest own her or should I remove the eggs and nest box this time and wait until a later date.
After the first removel she went right back to laying and I think she needs a good rest.

Also I have a camera on the nest. The other night I was watching them and the male came in and forced her of the nest.
She went out got a drink of water relieved herself and took a couple of bites of food and back in the box. He never once sat on the eggs but stood over them until she came back in. The same thing happened the next night. I had read that the males sit on the eggs to give the female a rest. He never once sat on the eggs. Is this the way they do?
Beings this is my second attempt at breeding and also his. He has not learned how to copulate as yet.
It is very exciting to see how much he is learning. He was a pet. From a pet to a monster. He would eat me up if he could get to me...

There are some practices in common:
If you have already had 2 infertile clutches in a row "this season" you should remove the nest
to get the birds out of nesting mode, and to rebuild the hen's store of nutrients, and possibly to
get them to mating rather than just nesting. Since this is still early, you might put the nest back,
around the end of Feb. You are still having a good start !

Thanks Alhee: I didn't know if I should remove the eggs now or let her decided when she wanted,
She came out this afternoon and he was feeding her. She soon went back in.
bjg78

Hi,

I have had your same exp with 2 of my pairs of Grey's. 2 clutches of clear eggs, which I removed
once I candled and went passed the hatch date.

What type of perches do you have? After removing the 2nd clutch of eggs I installed double perches.
Double meaning two 2 x 4" about 4 to 6 inches apart. This way the female can lean forward and support
herself better as the male mounts her.

Pet males take a while to learn what to do. I had a young male that didn't have a clue how to mate with
a nice little hen but I repaired her with a w/c male. I don't want to waste her resources with the young male.
The hen and her new mate are working the box now.

I also had a pair of Blue front amazons in the same area as the Grey's. My zons are loud and Grey's do not
like the noise so I moved the amazons out for now and I'm hoping that I will have fertile eggs soon?
I also have nestbox cameras and love them, But the dust from the greys becomes a pain as it will block the
view and I have to clean it off. Where are your cameras mounted? I use Z boxes and the camera is up by
the entance hole behind a plastic guard. That is what gets dusty.
Best of luck to you.

Lynell

Lynell, I too have the 2X4 perches. I put them up near the front of the nest box. I did have them lower but decided to move them up higher.
The male I am so amazed at how he has learned what he is suppose to do He was a pet and has learned so much in such a short time. He feeds her and cares for her.
He has tried but was afraid to mount her. She is very dominating.
It is great to be able to watch them, so I can learn abong with him. II will be glad when I can set them up to nest again.
I also have cameras on the out side of the cage. That helps a lot too.
The camera is a cheap Harbor freight survalance camera. Love it. it is night,day ,with sound. Sound helps almost as much as veiwing.
This pair are in a wooden nest box. My first experiance at building one turned out great. Then I went to a bird show and there was a booth where the lady was and she had a metal used nest box I asked her about it and she sold it to me for a cheap price. She told me it was left over when she went out of business. I asked what else she had and she said she had about 4 or 5 more used ones and they were even cheaper and in such good shape I bought them all and she brought them to me which was great for me.
I put the cameras at the oppsite end of the box looking down toward the lid. They nest away from the entrance.
I drill a hole the size of the lens put it in just where I can hot glue it to the box. When she first entered the box she inspected it but never bothered it. I don't have much trouble with the dust. Things are not real clear but clear enough I can see the eggs and watch her rotate them around.
I have 3 more pairs but I don't think they will ever go to nest. Two of the females have plucked them selves pretty bad.
One pair have started to bond. The male 10yrs the female 5yrs. I don't look for them to nest because she would need feathers to keep the eggs warm so guess I need to look for new females around 10yr of age.
Bobbie

Your plucked hens can reproduce just fine. I was worried about about that as well
but I checked with some good breeders that said the hen can incubate just fine if she
is plucked. I have 1 pucked hen but she wants me and not her mate...

your 2x4's are 2 boards paralle (sp?) with each other?

I love my cameras and I bought them where you did, are your black & wht or color? mine are b & w.

I bought the color camera's...It really doesn't matter black- white or color they show the same in the nest box.
If there isn't a lot of light color won't show,
Thanks for the info on the plucked babies. They aren't babies but I call them that. Both of them are 5yrs old. I have had one all her life except the first 4 months.
one I bought just this last Nov. I also bought a male breeder around the same time. In fact I bought two male breeders from the same person. They are not tame.
This pair I put together are starting to bond. I hope they continue on getting along.
The female is so fat I don't think she well care to nest.
I am so anxious to have babies. I know it takes time. The male I had with the other plucked female and she bit his toe off.
Out she went and I put Barbie as I call her in with Scooter. and I Put the other one with another male.
I got a great big surprise the other day. I turned the TV. on and she was in the nest box. She hasn't acted like she wants to nest.
I know I enjoy them so much and with out the camera's I would not know what was happening.
Do you give out your location? was wondering if you are in my area...
Bobbue

I'm sorry I forgot to ans. the question about the 2x4 perches. Yes I put 2 boards the same length stand side by side with around 2 1/2 to 3" apart. I got the metal strapping to hold them together and to the cages. They fit all the way across the cage,
They use them also for chewing.
Bobbie

I'm in the central valley, Fresno area of Ca. Where are you?

I was thinking that the color cameras wouldn't work well in the dark so I'm glad I bought
the cheaper b/w cameras?

Good deal on the 2x4's that will help in your fertility rate.

Do you have other loud birds in the area where your greys are?

Thanks, It seems we are neighbors. I too am in the valley just north of you.
about loud other birds the only others I have are cockatiels and they get loud when they want to eat.
How do you have your camera attached to the nest box?
Trying to get the lens just right took me a lot of trips back and forth to the box to the tv. until I had it lined up just right.
When I bought my plucked little female, the young man said he had his cages hanging. Do you know what type of cage they use and do they make their own.
I read some where about anoter person having theirs hanging,
How long have you been breeding grey's.?
Have you raised babies?
Bobbie

Just north? Where?

Suspended cages? is that what you mean? Mine are on legs. Not sure what your asking about here?
I put in a pic of my flights that are inside of a 3 run dog kennel that is completely covered. Keeps them
safe.

I pic of the camera I'm showing you is the very first I did for my amazons box. Works great for them
but not so great for the dusty little Grey's. I will change the Grey's camera location in the off season.
I need to redesign it so it's easy to clean without distrubing the birds, my current design you haved
to clean it often as the grey's will brush up agaisnt the clear plastic guard. I'll figure something better
out... I use Z-box so it maybe a bit harder?

No I haven't raised any Grey's as of yet. I have 4 pair that I got over the summer. 1 hen turned out to
be non-viable another hen turns out she wants me instead of her mate, so I only have 2 hens that are
even trying to reproduce. I have a pr of Blue fronts that are great breeders and have raised me a lot
of babies. My mistake was I placed the Grey's in the same area as my blue fronts. The 2 viable pair of
Grey's went to nest but gave me clear eggs, twice... So I moved my amazons out of the area and I'm
really hoping to have the Grey's go to nest one more time without the noise of the amazons to bother
the Grey's.

Figures cross... I repaired 1 of my pairs and I think I have heard them mating a couple of times? Hope
so and really hoping for fertile eggs from at least the new pair?

I guess I didn't get my reply posted. don't know what I did wrong.
Thanks for the pics. you have a great setup.
I live in Madera.
I noticed you didn't put up barriers between the cages. For Greys I was told they should not see one another. I have mine with tarps between. It doesn't seem to make any difference because the wild ones spare even though they can't see each other. I have cages that have the partion in between and I put up ply there. Was told and now I believe they would not be interested in mating only sparing while so close. Guess I am going to have to figure out some other way.
to set them up. I have one more big cage and I will put one pair in it. Or find out how to get or make cages to hang.
I wish I had hanging cages I think I would have a lot more room. My garage is crowded. I put the birds in the garage because of the weather and also just in case they got out of the cage they couldn't fly away. When they in cages by them selves some had gotten out. Now that they have been paired they haven't tried to get out.
Do you think that it would be better to have older hens. Beings the plucked ones are only 5.
The hen that has layed is 12 and her mate is 7.
Have another question. Who should be first to work the nest the male of female?
Bobbie

That pic was taken right after I got them all paired up in mid summer. Notice you don't see any nest boxes.
I do have barriers up now and once I put up the boxes the barriers went up. The barriers will come down in the
off season so the boys can man it up a bit for each other. You know protect the hens and such and get those
hormons raging for the up coming breeding season.

Madera... cool...

As far as a hen being 5 yrs old that is a bit young but look at it this way she can be a good breeder for a long time?
I'm thinking that hens are of laying age at about 6 to 8 yrs old but I could be wrong?

If you see a pair sparing it's a good sign of bonding. Have you heard of the "African Queen?" she is a breeder that
knows her stuff. Google "African Queen" and read her website tons of great info on there for you.

I have had both males and males check out the box first, so I'm not sure what to tell you about that question??? sorry

How many greys do you have? Pairs and spares? Where did you find your birds? Formers pets or did you buy breeders?

With my birds being inside a dog kennel incloser they fairly safe from escape. I keep all my birds in locked cages
inside the locked kennel... Doesn't your garage get pretty warm in the summer time? I have misters and fans I run
on the kennel which helps to keep them pretty cool during the hotter days...

Oh I forgot to add that I like to reduce the size of the nest box entrance hole so the pair has to work
and chew their way into the nest. All my metal Z boxes are lined with wood which makes them warmer in
the winter and cooler in the summer. So all I have to do is place a piece of wood (with a smaller opening)
inside the nest box. I usally just screw it on the inside of the box. I don't make the whole to small so they
don't have to work to hard but they have to work it and I believe it's a bonding thing for them to work on
getting into the box.

Just something I like to do...

I have a total of 10 greys. I have 4 pairs.
I bought all but one pair as pets. The pair I bought, the male was afraid of the female so I put a male I had gotten this last summer. I was on a trip and I got him in Ark.
I was looking for me a great talker. Seems like they didn't want to talk to me.
I must say I have two females that really surprises me with what they come up with.
I had never heard of z boxes until I bought my 2 males. The lady said all her birds liked them best.
How do you line the z boxes with wood? I don't see anyway to get into them to do that. I was wondering how they would like the metal boxes with no wood to chew on trying to fix the intrance,
The first pair I had they had a great time making the intrance big.
That is a great idea to put wood at the intrance. The thought had crossed my mind but I didn't know how,then I thought they make the metal boxes so maybe they don't need it. So I put in wooden blocks.
I have a 9yr old female but she is not interested in any of my males. I know she is female she has been surgically sexed.
I wish I could find 2 real good females to go with the 2 untamed males I have. I have this 9yr old with one of the new males. They are not interested in each other. Guess I will leave every thing like it is for another month or so to see how it goes.
Did you plurchase your birds as pairs or singles?
Do you feed any of your birds Zupreem pellets?
Thanks for all your info. I will put it to good use.
Bobbie