Meroman

Well done, its not been a great season for a lot of people I know including myself, a credit to you. Good luck with them.

Nice birds, they've got great colour in them.

Here's an article written by Paul Girvan a few years back. Every once in a while, a question from an eager novice or newcomer appears in Cage & Aviary Birds, asking how to breed mules from a Goldfinch or Siskin that they have just acquired. The limited space available means that the answer is usually restricted to basic hints on success in the art of muling. For many years now, i have taken great delight in trying to produce miniature mules. At first, i did so because i was fascinated by the idea of going against nature and breeding something both beautiful and uniq

What birds did you put in your new flight?

Good luck with them Gnipper, the goldie usually doesn't come into breeding condition until mid to late may so if you get an early round of blind eggs dont lose faith in the pair.

You've some nice birds there. Great to see goldies breeding in cages.

Tenbob I think its going to be one of those seasons, I've only bred three chicks from seven pairs (goldies,siskins and chaffies) so far and there's not that long left to turn it around so I'm not holding out much hope for the next few weeks.

Indeed Fireman I agree it has to be the weather... Good luck with the bullies, anyone I've spoken to here that's breeding them are not having much joy with them with one exception, a mate of mine is putting native bullie eggs under Siberian hens and they are rearing them for him...

My season so far has been bad to say the least. I have one chaffie and three siskins to the sticks at this point, I've had lots of clear eggs, hens jumping the nest because of thunderstorms at night (I assume) and nests being torn apart by cock birds in the same flight. I've also lost three birds since May which does not help. The clear eggs make me think I didn't get my birds into good breeding condition but I've done the same thing for years now with much better results. The joys of keeping Natives I suppose!!

Sorry to read that Keeper its always a challenge with natives......

Any success with the Goldie.siskin pairing Keeper?

Yes Neil, the South county show is one of the oldest cbs shows in Ireland and still going strong. The INBBS run their young stock show in conjunction with it the October bank holiday weekend and then have their main show the third weekend the following January every year... Both shows are well worth a visit...

Hope you get them to the sticks fireman....What livefood are you using?

A few photos of natives on the show bench at the South county show in Dublin & the INBBS show from a few years back...The last photo was taken at the London & home counties show the same year 2009 I think...

I've only ever met him once, a true gentleman and a top birdman is Alan...