Funny old sight.

[fireman 10,869]

I got a chaffie cock who has started to help feed a greenie mule fledgling,it's obviously not his chick nor has he had much to do with the red factor hen who's raised(she's a loose hen in my aviary and i've seen her with other cocks but not him)the chick.I have a few different fledglings at the moment in there so maybe with all the young un's calling out for food the urge to parent something was maybe to much to ignore for him,i know it's not something out of this world but it made me smile and we live and learn something new all the time.I will just add he only feeds the chick mealworms and nothing else and the chick with being raised by a canary hasn't eaten them before he started to feed it,still it seems to love them now and the chaffie cock can carry right on as far as i'm concerned .

[craigyboy 1,274]

nice one mate, i got a pair of chaffys off darcy on here a few yrs back and one year they was in the aviary tending to 4 young theyd hatched,when i put 5 young fledgling linnets that id been hand rearing into an adjoining aviary to the chaffys and after an hr or so i went to check on em and the cock chaffy was feeding the linnets through the mesh,and he carried on until they were eating for themselves

[night moocher 41]

nice one. its good to have the extra help off him to rear the mule .

[fireman 10,869]

He's still at it but like i say only feeds it meal worms and only feeds the smaller one of the two mules she's rearing.

[skycat 6,173]

Is it possible that he knows the small one needs building up? Could a bird really know something like that?

[fireman 10,869]

I don't know Penny,it is strange as like i say there's 3 redpoll,3 goldie and another greenie mule all about the same age give or take a few days and it's only the one he's feeding.The chick is just a bit smaller and thats just down to age rather than not being fed properly,so it is funny he's just chosen one and not others as well,just wish it was his own chicks really but thats the way it goes.As i'm typing this he's feeding it now but don't give myself much chance of a pic but i'll try.

[gnipper 6,426]

Next doors got 3 of my linnet mule chicks under a goldie mule hen and one of his bengalese is sitting in with them helping out.

[j j m 6,536]

its good when you have a bird doing that

[craigyboy 1,274]

Is it possible that he knows the small one needs building up? Could a bird really know something like that?

i think they can penny but what do i know

[craigyboy 1,274]

in my experience chaffys are totally dedicated when it comes to rearing young,my uncle(god rest his soul) once had a pair o chaffys and the hen was sitting on 5 eggs and one day he rushed into the house to answer the phone and didnt shut the aviary door properly and when he came back out,the chaffy cock was just flying out of the aviary and into a big hawthorn tree across the street,my uncle just sat on his bench with his head in his hands,next minute the chaffy cock was outside the aviary with a beak full of grubs wanting to get in,my uncle opened the door and the cock flew to the hen and fed her,the next couple of days the chaffy would wait near the door,so my uncle decided to put a small hatch in the mesh which he opened in the morning and closed at night,and the chaffy cock came and went as he pleased allday long fetching wildfoods in relentlessly,it saved my uncle a bob or two, he only used the hatch during breeding season cos ive no doubt it wouldnt come back any other time

[the_stig 6,614]

in my experience chaffys are totally dedicated when it comes to rearing young,my uncle(god rest his soul) once had a pair o chaffys and the hen was sitting on 5 eggs and one day he rushed into the house to answer the phone and didnt shut the aviary door properly and when he came back out,the chaffy cock was just flying out of the aviary and into a big hawthorn tree across the street,my uncle just sat on his bench with his head in his hands,next minute the chaffy cock was outside the aviary with a beak full of grubs wanting to get in,my uncle opened the door and the cock flew to the hen and fed her,the next couple of days the chaffy would wait near the door,so my uncle decided to put a small hatch in the mesh which he opened in the morning and closed at night,and the chaffy cock came and went as he pleased allday long fetching wildfoods in relentlessly,it saved my uncle a bob or two, he only used the hatch during breeding season cos ive no doubt it wouldnt come back any other time

when we whr kids used to visit a fella that kept show pigeons he had an open aviery caneries and budgies used to come and go as they pleased the trees round him whr full of em -- never seen anything like it since never gave it much thought at the time went back years later to see if any whr left but they`d all gone ..