(BEFORE
I FORGET--BE SURE TO CHECK OUT JILL'S WEB SITE--WWW.CONURES &
MORE.PROBOARDS.COM--A LOT OF INFORMATION, TALK AND FUN FOR BIRD LOVERS
AND THOSE WHO WANT TO LEARN MORE!)

Mother
Nature never stops astounding me with what she is capable of doing!
Giving birth is one of the most amazing feats in the world and when it
comes to birds I experienced it for the first time when Jill decided to
breed her budgie with the one her mother had. I was to go through it a
couple of years later having success--TOO MUCH!!--with my zebra finches.

On
September 20, 2003, Jill's budgie laid 7 eggs. I had told her I would
like two and she said as soon as they were weaned and knew how to fly I
could get them. On the 21st two had hatched but from what I can tell in
the pictures one of the eggs didn't survive.  I honestly don't remember
how many did survive but by October there seems to be only 3. My two,
which I would eventually call Leader  (male) and Spitfire (female), did
okay from the beginning. Leader was hatched September 19 and made his
first flight October 20 while Spitfire was hatched on September 23rd and
took her first flight on October 23rd.

I
went out on September 28th to a bird show and bought an extra large
cage. I had heard/read stories about birds being territorial, fighting
over perches, food cups and where they rested so I decided on the extra
big cage and not putting Butch and Sky in there until I got Leader and
Spitfire and would put all 4 in at the same time. On November 15, 2003,
Jill brought the 2 eight week old babies over. I put all 4 in the new
cage and there weren't any problems. All 4 got along, flew around
together and seemed to have bonded without any blood shed which made me
happy!

I
did a lot of things one wasn't suppose to do with birds such as putting
their cage in front of a window but that never caused a problem.

The
one thing I had been worried about when I first got Butch and Sky was
the problem of them waking me up in the morning as birds do get up
early--whether there was a worm to catch or not! From the very beginning
I would cover their cage when I went to sleep and not uncover it until I
got up and they both followed my routine not making a peep (sorry for
the pun) until I would get up and take the cover off. Both Spitfire and
Leader fell into the routine from day one!

It
looked like the birds and I would have a new home in the new year as I
got notice from the office that a larger one bedroom on the top floor of
building D would be available as soon as it was cleaned up, painted and
made ready. I would be moving in on January 23, 2004 and my Leap Year
birthday was coming up the next month. All things looked good!