You can expect Normals and Fawns to develop most rapidly of all the varieties and so they are usually ringed younger than, say, Penguins and other non-standards which develop more slowly.


chicks being fostered than are with their own parents. In our experience, just because a hen behaves like a poor feeder with one nest of chicks, it does not necessarily mean she will be the same with her next brood. Sometimes a hen neglects her duties because she wants to start laying again. Dirty nestboxes are not easy to account for. The obvious reason would seem to be diet – particularly the softfood.However that does not begin to explainwhy you can have adjoining pairs, on the same diet, and one nest is dirty and the other oneis clean. Even so we have found that cutting back


20 BIRD SCENE


on the amount of softfood being given to a pair with a dirty nest can often overcome the problem. Whatever the cause, nestboxes should never be left dirty. They should be cleaned or replaced. We overcome this by using cardboard nestboxes replacing as necessary.


Another area where what the book says and what happens in reality can be in conflict is the timing of close ringing chicks – a must if you intend to exhibit the Zebra finches that you breed. Official rings can be obtained from the Zebra Finch Society. You may read that the Zebra finch


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