Here all the highs and lows direct from the birdroom.

I did hope to hit the 100 mark again but again I did sadly lose a handful of fledgling young and so I fell a little short of my usual annual target but this is not an issue for me, I was particularly pleased with some of my Normals and the 3 first pairs of Normals I have put down today are all birds with my own rings on and so I am hopeful of some good young from these pairs. Also out of the 4 Fawns placed down to breed today 3 are bred by myself so my own bloodlines are now developing nicely here too.

I have spent the last couple of weekends finishing the painting of the birdroom breeding cages and then moving onto selecting the birds I will be trying to breed with initially in 2010. Once this was done I placed all the cocks and hens of each colour in a cage on their own and have also over the last few weeks been slowly increasing the birds food stuffs etc. to I hope bring them into condition.

Below you can see the birdroom as it is today with 9 breeding cages all set up and running. I have not yet placed the baths on the cages because they need a good wash and this will be a job for tomorrow, I also did not want to unsettle the pairs any more today as they have been in a busy and at sometimes noisy birdroom with me in their getting things all sorted out for them.

The top row, cages 1 to 3 has in it a pair of Normals and 2 pairs of Fawns, the middle row, cages 4 to 6 has in it from left to right 2 pairs of Normals and a pair of Agates, the bottom row, cages 7 to 9, has a pair of Silvers in cages 7 and 8 with the last pair of Agates in cage 9.

I took a few photos, as usual when in the birdroom and for something different I thought I would post a photo of wash of the colour's I am attempting to breed with this year, the photos will have in them a true pair with the cock being on the left. You will not only be able to study the beak and eye differences in the 4 images but also in 3 of the 4 the feather differences too. The cocks in all but the photo showing the Normal pair have got noticeably darker skull caps.

x2 2009 bred Nesbitt Normals - cock is on left.	n	x2 Fawns, again both Nesbitt bred in 2009 - cock on left.
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x2 Silvers, bred by Norman Chapman - cock on the left.		x2 of the Agates given to me by good pal Stuart - cock on left.

When selecting the bird to put down to breed first it is always a good idea to check up on the state of the claws on all birds and as you can see from the image below I had to do some manicuring work too, the image is of an Agate cock bird whose claws were a bit long to say the least!

What damage would these claws have done to any future eggs?

I hope the next posts will be my the beginning of my journey breeding more Javas in 2010, we will see, I cannot decide this the Javas will!

To close I can update you on Paddy 'n' Max the 2 hand tame Javas we have in the house, as you can see from the images below they are colouring up nicely and are also becoming more confident when leaving their cage to venture into our from room, quite often if they are out an done of us is on the PC they will land on either the back of the hand while you are trying to type or the keyboard itself to see what's happening, these birds are great pets, if you get the chance get one or two you will not be disappointed!

Max 'n' Paddy checking out my laptop while working from home due to bad weather in my area last week.

A nice shot of Max, a few pin feathers left on his head but looking well.

January 17

Good news on the 9 breeding pairs, 7 of those put down last week began to nest within 2 hours of being put down, good news in itself but it does not necessarily mean fertile eggs will follow. The photo below shows 2 nestboxes and just how much nesting activity has taken place in 6 days, the lids on all 9 nestboxes were flat as you can see if you refer to the large image posted on January 10 and now these 2 particular nests belonging to 2 pairs of Normals are showing positive signs along with the majority of other to differing degrees.

I have got eggs appearing in 2 nests of Normals and a pair of Fawns, the first 2 pairs to lay can be seen below, first was my best pair of Javas (Normals) put down to breed this year, I am hoping for some very good birds to come from this pairing, they are both first time breeders as they were bred in 2009 by myself. Cock to the front and hen at the back on this image below, can you see the difference in the birds?

This Fawn pairing below is today on 2 eggs and is made up of again of 2 2009 Nesbitt bred Javas the hen is on the right.

I do see signs in other hens, low and swollen vents becoming more apparent so hopefully more eggs to follow in other nest soon.

January 20
A brief update on the 9 breeding pairs I have down, I have a total of 19 eggs in 5 different nests, the eggs are under all 3 pairs of Normals, 1 pair of Fawns and 1 pair of Agates. I am sure more eggs will follow in other pairs soon looking at the hens and their swollen vents.

January 27
Things are moving on with 7 pairs now on eggs, sadly 2 pairs are looking likely to be split up this weekend, a pair each of Agates and Silvers. In total today I have got 24 fertile eggs under 4 pairs, all 3 pairs of Normals have got 7 fertile from 7 - 7 fertile from 8 and 4 fertile from 9 with some more fertile ones to come from a couple of these pairs I hope. The 2 pairs of Fawns are doing ok with one pair on all 6 eggs in their clutch being fertile and the first egg being laid today by the second pairing. One pair of Silvers are now on their 3rd egg but there was a couple of day gap between egg 1 and 2 so we will see how this goes. The final pair on eggs are Agates, 6 eggs laid and all looking clear at the moment, hope this changes but I do not think it will, I hope I am incorrect!

Above 7 fertile from 7 laid from my best pair of Normals.

Clear evidence of fertility - check out the pearly white appearance of the egg shells.

Above you can you just about see the veins forming in this fertile Normal Java egg.

February 1
As stated before 2 pairs of Javas were split up due to not being matched, fit and ready to breed, the pairs of Silvers and Agates have now been replaced by a pair of Fawns and an Agate cock to a Normal hen. You can see the new pairings below and already nesting activity has taken place so maybe more will follow leading to eggs and then chicks, I do hope so.

Above, a 2009 bred Nesbitt hen on left to a Eric Michie 2007 cock bird.

Above, a '09 Normal hen bred by a friend Stuart from Nesbitt bloodlines to a '07 Stuart Drury Agate cock.

Fertile eggs in the nests are growing in number and I hope to see some chicks appear on February 6th of my calculations are correct, I will of course keep you posted on this and any other news from my Java birdroom. The other pair of Agates I feel will be producing a clutch of clear eggs and if this is the case I will look at changing the cock bird and try the new pairing from this point, I can swap this colour around a little as all birds are unrelated.

February 7
Chicks are now appearing as expected and yet again the first chick to hatch was from a Fawn pairing, please see image below of the first Java of 2010 to hatch.

A blur from a distance but click above image to see larger photo.

There are now a total of 4 chicks in this nest as of today with the possibility of 2 more to follow. The first Normal of 2010 has hatched out today and this is from my best pairing so I hope there are more to follow and that they survive so this good bloodline is carried on.

Sadly I am not having much luck with the Agates with the remaining pair of visual Agate to visual Agate clutch of 6 eggs being removed today due to infertility. I will let them have one more go to see if the cock mates with the hen. This is frustrating to me as this pairs behaviour is matching what you would expect from a fully bonded couple of Javas.

February 9
More good news and sadly some bad news to report today, I have had a good number of chicks hatch as expected but have also lost 2 in 2 separate nests, one each Normal and Fawn. You can see from the 4 photos below the progress some of the 9 breeding pairs are making to date.

Above 6 Normal healthy chicks from a 7 egg clutch.	nn	Above 7 Normal chicks from a total of 9 laid ~ this nest is the one with the dead bird shown below.
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4 Fawn babies with sadly the latest to hatch apparently being crushed on the same day it emerged from the egg.	nn	Looking through the nestbox entrance hole you can see just how far the newly hatched Java had been dragged away from its siblings in the nest bowl.
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I thought I would show you just how I track the progress of my breeding pairs. The image below shows 2 active breeding cages at different stages of progress. The top cage (number 3) has got chicks and once they appear in the nest I change the cage drinker to a larger one and also the seed tray is changed to one that is able to hold at least double the amount of seed in it.

You will also notice the close rings hanging from the nestbox, as each chick hatches I mark this on the nestbox sheet and place the correct numbered ring onto the nestbox. Also on the nestbox sheet I mark when I should be looking to look and check for actually fitting the ring onto the baby Javas leg.

All these act as visual reminders to me as to the stage each of my breeding pairs are at and the notes on the nestbox sheets act as a reminder for me not to forget to put on the close rings.

So if today you could see all my breeding cages you would see 4 with large drinkers on the outside of the cages and 5 with smaller ones and looking into the cages themselves you would see 4 large seed trays and 5 small oval ones. I am then immediately able to tell which cages have young birds in and thus need attending to first for feeding, watering and later close ringing etc.

February 21
I have had some unusual occurrences in my birdroom lately, yet another newly hatched chick, the 4th this year had died today. This time it was one of 5 Silvers. This is not unusual in the fact of loosing the odd chick in the nest, especially the larger clutches of 7 and above but more the fact that my birds have had 4 die in 4 nests in such close proximity to one another. I will be posting a couple of images of more unusual occurrences for me and my Javas in the next few days, I will not tell you exactly what yet but will get something posted here by the end of the coming week, Curious? please keep coming back to justjavas.co.uk to find out more!

I have got a total of 31 chicks in the nest counting after today's sad Silver death and I hope more Fawns will hatch soon in a nest full of fertile eggs.

I did have to split up a pair today, the Agate cock was always in the nest but the Normal hen was doing exactly the opposite, not going anyway near it! I am already thinking that I will not be too successful in rearing any Agates as was hoped, we will see though a rest and pairings later on in the year may prove me wrong, I do hope so.

February 24
Here is the surprise update for you that I mentioned on the 21st, I have had an unusual occurrence in a couple of areas this week that have become more and more apparent. One is the 4 Fawns that I told you had hatched on February 7th are NOT 4 Fawns, they are 2 Fawns and most probably 2 Opal Isabels! It may be possible the 2 birds are red eyed whites but as I see the birds now the immature feathering has a light silvery colouration so leads me to the Opal Isabel mutation, click here to see a photo of the 4 siblings and witness the difference. The parent birds were both bred by me in 2009 from mainly Fawns from outside sources and so it seems they are carrying hidden genes! Also in my best visual pair of Normals a pied has appeared in the nest of 6, click here to witness the young Java with white primary flight feathers, this particular Java baby had 2010 JSSUK ring number 13 fitted a few days ago, maybe this is the problem, unlucky for some!

The Fawn pair on 7 fertile eggs are sitting tightly and I hope that these hatch out ok and this should begin around the 26th of February. I am also hoping that the Agate to Agate pairing that is now on 7 eggs will produce fertile eggs, I will let you know when I am able to inform you with confidence. All other young are doing ok with the majority now being successfully close rung.

My Java news from July to December will continue on another page ~ link to follow in July!