Now is the time to get ready to act in the garden. Time to sow the grasses that will get you into the early summer.
Again, sow seed in trays for an early start. I always find that a seedling 75-100 mm high sown into the garden bed will always get ahead of the weeds and weeds in the summer are not as friendly to the bird keeper as the weeds in the winter. Freshly picked half ripe millet heads (WFM or red panicum) are better than anything you can give your birds.
Most birds enjoy the change in weather from cold to warm and the arrival of spring triggers the Siskins and canary type birds into breeding.
For the red and yellow Siskins both adults and young – these have been in the holding cage since Mar-April – and are now showing signs that they are getting ready to be moved out into the breeding aviaries. The first signs in the Siskins are usually the cocks start sparring up to each other. The Siskins when paired and placed out in the breeding aviary if a small bed of dry chick weed is placed in the fork of the brush they will nearly always build their nest on top of this. Supply plenty of cut and teased hessian.
Blue caps that have been spelled in the same way through the winter are ready to be put back out into the breeding cages.
Young Blue caps have been housed with cocks and hens separate and when paired up and put out into the breeding cage there follows a very intense display by both the cock and the hen as they bow to each other and tails twitching towards each other.
This way by separating the cocks and hens pairing is almost instant and within a few days nest building will begin.
EDIT: We are in the process of getting together some photos and video of the Siskin sorting process. If you sign up for our newsletter, we will show you some picture as soon as they are ready!