True Experience With Birds

Helpful Hints About Caged Birds

All Rights Reserved G.A. Abbate Sr., PhD

Yesterday, June 21^st, is said to be the first day of summer and is the longest day of the year. I worked on my small farm here in Warren, NJ and I cultivated all the Kales, Escarole, Chicory, and other vegetables that I use to feed to all the birds and we use in producing all the ABBA bird food. It was a long day! I quit working around 9:00 PM and it was almost dark. We had lots of rain previously so the weeds were growing rapidly. Thank God for my roto-tiller that I was able to destroy the weeds in about 40 rows of plants and vegetables. If the weather remains dry for a couple of days the plants will be able to grow and produce? There has been crazy weather here in Union County so far. The plants as well as the birds are growing very slowly. The birds outdoors are singing their hearts out. So far I haven't seen any wild bird youngsters hoping around outdoors, not even Sparrows. I have seen Robins, Cardinals, Mocking birds, looking for food through my cultivated area. Maybe they are feeding their first set of youngsters? What happened to the spring this year? It has been crazy all over the world, so fellow fanciers have been telling me.

Because of the abundance of rain and crazy climate as well, wild grasses and wild weeds are growing well and are still plentifully available here in Union County. Yesterday afternoon before it got dark I was able to pick up Chickweed in the milky stage, some Dandelions, and lots of seeding grass. The Gouldians, Carduelans, and all my birds in my bird room had a feast today devouring all these nature bounties. Actually, my Gouldians rushed to the front wire of the cage anticipating receiving the seeding grass. As soon as I put it on the bottom of the cage they all rushed to it. The rest of the birds too, they all seem to appreciate all these natural foods.

My Perilla plants as well as my Bella di Notte plants (Evening Primrose) are growing very well. Hopefully I will be able to produce a considerable amount of these two seeds for my mixture for the rest of the year. This year I have been trying my hand on Niger seed, unfortunately the Niger seed heads don't mature at the same time. It is tidiest work to harvest the seed head by hand whenever they are mature. I tried to Niger seed in my Florida property; it has been a lot of work to produce just a couple pounds of seed out of a lot of plants. Ironically, no wild birds have touched the Niger seed in Florida. I am curious to see what happens here in New Jersey when the Niger seed begins to mature. I suspect that the American Goldfinch as well as other seedeaters will have a convention on my property when all the seeds mature.

As soon as we have a chance, we will be posting in the photo album on the Abba website of all of the above mentioned seeds and wild seeds. Click on Photo Album @ www.abbaseed.com and enjoy the photos we have posted now and will post in the future. If any one of you would like us to post a photo of your birds or any other bird related photos, e-mail them to us in JPEG format only please with a clear description, and we would be glad to include them in our photo album. A photo without a description is like a day without sun.

Some Gouldian Finches in my bird room are showing signs of molting, some of them seem like they are coming out of the molt, however, all the Canaries as well as the Carduelans and the rest of the birds, none of them have begun to molt. No feathers are visible on the floor. All the Red-Orange Ground Canaries, young and old, receive daily a small amount of soft food with the addition of color enhancer. All the Red-Orange Ground Canaries will continue on receiving the red food everyday until the completion of the molt and after the molt, they will receive it at last twice a week to maintain their luscious red color.

This year I will be grouping some baby European Goldfinches, some accidentally produced European Goldfinch Mules together with some young Timbrados Canaries and some adult European Goldfinch males and Chaffinch males. My curiosity of doing so is what kind of song they will develop. A couple of years ago some Timbrados Canaries raised by European Goldfinches their songs were almost like European Goldfinches. At this time, we have in our office two accidentally crossed males that mimic songs of European Goldfinches, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, etc. They sing continuously from daylight to dark. 

It is a good idea to give all birds baths, if possible even everyday. All birds enjoy bathing. We add to each gallon of bathing water a tablespoon of bleach (to prevent spreading diseases from one bird to another in groups of birds), one or two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and at least twice a month we put a tablespoon of Epson Salt. Occasionally we also add a tablespoon of Listerine. Listerine will help alleviate the infestation of avian parasites. 

We religiously spray the bird room at this time of the year with a good Pyrethrum/Petroleum spray every ten days. With a fine mist from a distance of three or four feet we spray directly onto the birds and we also concentrate the spray in crevices and cracks. Remember, whenever birds are present, so are avian parasites, which can be there by the million. All avian parasites can destroy the breeding season and the health of the bird as well.