Breeding Besults at the Keston Foreign Bird Farm



13



BREEDING RESULTS AT THE KESTON

FOREIGN BIRD FARM, SEASON 1932


By E. J. Boosey and Alec Brooksbank


The season which has just drawn to a close has been, on the whole,

a good one for aviculturists.


At the Keston Foreign Bird Farm breeding results have been well

up to standard, and there has, so far, been a welcome lack of mysterious

unpreventable diseases—such as septicaemia—even among the most

susceptible species of Parrakeets.


Our oldest pair of Browns again did very well, rearing eight young—

five in the first nest and three in the second. This pair of birds have

now produced twenty-five young ones in three years and their progeny

have been exported by us to France, Belgium, Germany, and California.

It would be interesting to know how many grandchildren they

possess !


A pair of Stanleys imported amongst other birds from Australia

in February and both exceedingly wild, were put into a secluded aviary

in April, and astonished us by promptly going to nest and rearing

five young instead of at once falling into a heavy moult, as one might

have expected. Stanleys are such beautiful little Parrakeets and,

from the aviculturist’s point of view, so desirable in every way, that

it seems a pity they have not, in the past, been more regularly and

carefully bred, making it more possible than it is at present to obtain

good, healthy stock birds.


One great advantage they possess over nearly all other Broadtails

is the striking and unmistakable difference in colour of the two sexes,

the cock’s breast being rich crimson and that of the hen brick red.

Thus, even a novice can pick out a true pair of adults at a glance,


A hen Barraband bred here two years ago and, mated to an imported

cock, produced a very fine family of five. A photograph of three of this

brood appeared in Cage Birds some time ago. Another pair reared

four young but the cock, who has the unpleasant and unnatural habit

of treating his sons as rivals in breeding condition as soon as they

leave the nest, murdered the first to emerge—a particularly brightly

coloured young cock—and had to be removed to prevent further



