A Beginner's Guide to Canaries - Including Chapters on Food, Rearing and Care for Canaries

By Anon Anon

This vintage book contains a novice-friendly guide to breeding canaries, including information on feeding, rearing, production for profit, diseases and ailments, and more. This volume is recommended for anyone interested in breeding canaries, and it will be of considerable value to those with little previous experience in the practice. The chapters of this volume include: “Canary Breeding”, “Failures in Canary Breeding”, “Hartz Mountain Canaries”, “Fundamental Principles in Canary Breeding”, “Gas Injurious to Canaries”, “Canary Breeding for Profit”, “Food for Canaries”, “Egg Food”, “Inga Seed”, etcetera. Many antiquarian books such as this are increasingly hard to come by and expensive, and it is with this in mind that we are republishing this book now in an affordable, modern, high quality edition. It comes complete with a specially commissioned introduction on aviculture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781473380523

Book preview

CANARIES.

Canary Breeding—Breeding High-class Canaries—Food for Canaries—Egg Food—Inga Seed—The Coppy—Lizard Canaries—Mortality of Nestlings—Ill Treatment of Young by Parent Birds—Canaries as Song Birds—Parasites—Canaries Past and Present.

CANARY BREEDING.

CANARIES are no favourites of ours; they are too noisy, and in a mixed aviary are troublesome and inquisitive, interfering with other birds, and too frequently neglecting and starving their own young. We are aware that this has been warmly denied by admirers of the yellow birds, but facts are stubborn things, and we have stated them as we have found them. Other amateurs have, no doubt, been more fortunate in their experience; so much the better for them, but that does not alter our opinion.

The correspondence on canary breeding is immense. To give it in extenso is impossible; we are forced consequently to make a selection, and in doing so have been solely influenced by a desire to interest our readers. We therefore hope that those of our contributors whose letters have been omitted here will not be offended, but write again, and very probably their communications will appear in our next volume.

The success of breeding invariably depends, in the first place, on the management, beginning with selecting your birds. I should almost lay down the rule that birds to be bred with should be in the hands of the person who wishes to breed in the autumn at least, so that he can have the management of them during the winter. It is advisable that birds which are to be put up for breeding should be good tempered, which you can only learn by having them in your possession some time beforehand. The next thing to consider is the health of the birds—to ascertain, which, again, it is well to have them in your possession some time previous, as it is impossible to judge in a few days by the appearances of birds whether they are in good condition to breed with. The great mischief-worker is feeding birds largely upon hemp seed during the winter. In such case they are totally unfit to be put up for breeding purposes. This I lay down emphatically as as a rule for all amateurs.

I will now refer to the food and treatment of birds which it is intended to breed with. You should choose your cock bird in the autumn. It should be put in a small cage about 10in. square. This cage should be inclosed on all sides, only open in front, hung it in a quiet place, warm, if possible, and taken care there are no hens near, as it tends to excite too much and bring the birds forward before time. The cock now should be fed upon good fresh German rape seed, a teaspoonful of hard boiled egg, with the egg shell broken up and mixed with a small quantity of bread or the unsweetened biscuits commonly called lunch biscuits, once a week, and occasionally a few oat grits, which should be whole. If you find your bird costive, feed with oat grits more freely; particularly avoid hempseed. For the bottom of the cage use coarse river sand; give no green food whatever—in fact, do not give any canary green food. In the winter a small piece of apple once a week may be given. Hens to be selected at the same time, and you can always keep three or four together or even more, if the cage be large enough, but avoid crowding. I keep six hens during the winter in a cage 2ft. long, 13in. deep, and 15in. high. I feed them on German rape, and give them occasionally a little canary seed; eggshell, broken fine, should be provided during the winter. A week before putting up in the breeding cage I feed them upon egg every day, and you will find about the middle of February that both hens and cock will show signs that they are ready for pairing, by being more fidgety and spreading their wings slightly in hopping about the cage. When they have arrived at this stage bring your cock in the same room and hang him so that he can see the hens. You will find, after two or three days they are ready for pairing; then you can put them together in the breeding cage.

Before going further I must say a few words upon breeding cages: The cage for two hens and one cock should not be less than 2ft. long, 14in. high, 12in. deep. The cage should be closed on all sides except the front, which should be wired closely to prevent mice entering, as they tend to worry the birds and spoil their food. The size of the cage given should not be partitioned off, but nest boxes should hang on the outside, so that they are easy to handle, and also have a small cage to keep the young in for a few days after being taken from the parents. Coarse river sand mixed with mortar broken up should form the bottom of the cage. After the breeding season is over, a cage so constructed, by taking the boxes away can be used as a fly cage for the young, it being necessary to keep