More than a dozen weanlings are in the walk-in flight now and another three weanlings went into the weaning cage yesterday. There are only three nests of chicks (14 in all) from the first round left to be weaned. Five will be ready in a couple of days, with another five following a day or so later... Four chicks are yet to leave the nest.

The first chick of the second round hatched two days ago. Four hens are sitting on second round eggs, two hens are currently laying eggs and another three are building nests.

Five to six week old babies in the flight are beginning to warble baby song, which sounds like gurgling and burbling.They are very enthusiastic about it! All of the little songsters look thrilled to be making noise  American Singers tend to begin singing very early as the drive to sing is heavily bred into them. This drive to sing also creates a lagre percentage of young female canaries that sing, so one cannot count all the little gurglers in the flight as males too soon. By six months or so, the males and the hens are much easier to sex.

All the babies are pecking at spray millet and receiving moist eggfood and couscous every day in addition to the dry commerical eggfood, rolled oats, pellets, and canary seed mix that is before them at all times. A number of breeders feel that chicks should not be offered seed too early as it is somehow harmful- I have never found this to be the case. The young birds cannot crack it and for the most part just roll it around in their mouths as though they are getting the feel of it. As I toss the babies in with the older hens in the big flight very early and the hens need the seed, I just leave the seed in after the babies are introduced.