Hi.

I am sorry I left. People said Yahoo was closing its doors but it never has and I decided to come back at least unitl it does, and hopefully it wont.

I have a lot on my plate right now, and will come to talk about that. My mom is staying with Aine and I and she is dying of pancreatic cancer.

Breeding season is in full gear and I have one adoreable clutch, this being one of the three, and more on the way. (the eggs are fertile too)

Wish I could write more but I just dont know where to begin. take care.

B'Shalom.

Adelle

Here are all three of them, kind of tired of the whole piicture taking ordeal. Time to take them back to Mom and Dad.

This is Jonah, well, maybe. I really don't know if it is a hen or little boy, but if it is a male it will be Jonah. It hatched 2 days prematurely and survived, but its mother wouldn't feed it. I gave it to a foster mother who fed it minimally for two days and then tossed it from the nest. He was a fighter though. I caught him right after she did it and he was squirming and so I cupped him in my hand and I hadn't the slightest idea what to do with him. Last time I tried to hand feed a baby canary I ended up killing it myself because it is not easy to do with such a tiny bird, especially a newborn. Maybe an older chick that is abandoned or whose mother died or got sick I could manage.

Finally I decided the only two choices I had was the foster mother who threw him from the nest or the mother who wouldn't feed him. I chose the mother as she was still setting on eggs now due to hatch. The chick was 2 days old but the size of a newborn still. Although still pretty energetic. I gave him to her and she accepted him and fed him immediately right infront of me. As if to say, "Don't take Junior away again, I'll feed him" and it made me wonder if she didn't feed him because he was so tiny he needed to just rest and be nutured from his own yoke sac that he absorbed when hatching.

Anyway, his growth is stunted. He is small for his age. But he is strong. He can stand and walk and hop away from me. He hasn't fledged yet.

I think he is quite pretty. Delicately marked with yellow and black and brown, although of course these colors will change somewhat as he matures.

He is my little miracle chick and I really am proud of him for hanging on.

And I am glad I made the right decision about which mother to give him back to.

I am doing much better with my knee and am in physical therapy.

Sarge has a tumor on his side and we are taking him to the vet this afternoon to have him look at it. We are hoping it is another fatty tumor like he has on his chest. But I am still worried.

Otherwise I am fine.

Shalom and have a blessed day.

Adelle

Hatikvah is 16 days old about and last night s/he hopped down off the nest and ate out of the dish of soft food we kept down for the parents to feed to him or her.

I had David put him back in the nest before I turned out the light and this morning he was standing on the side of the nest waiting for me to bring some food in when I came in before David to test Ari and Zipporah's eggs for fertility (All three are--Hurray for that!) He hopped down to the floor when the food came and I took these photos a little later, after he'd eaten. I didn't want to bother him with the flash while he ate. Though he didn't seem too uspet by it. He's a very trusting and friendly little bird. Or she. It will be months until I know his or her gender for sure. I can make guesses now. Regardless, the name in this case is staying the same. When I name one Miriam and later it sings I change its name to a boys name. But Hatikvah, though it does have a feminine ending, could be for a boy or girl I think. I would like it to be a girl as it would then for sure stay in my ranks as a breeder. And it isn't banded. I didn't have bands for color bred canaries yet. Wasn't expecting any this soon. I may have bands by the time the three I'm expecting to hatch on the 4th are needing to banded. I will drive down to Oregon and pay my fees for the canary club membership and get the bands. It will be close though, and they may not get banded either.

The rest will be banded for sure. Daya is ready to lay an egg, probably already did. She was setting in an empty nest this morning around 7AM. She is a bronze mosaic opal, as is her mate, kind of reddish bronze anyway, Shlomo.

Well, peace and blessings to you all. It looks like I'm getting off to an early start this breeding season and it is nice to have babies in the midst of winter. It makes me feel like spring. A little touch of spring in my winter. How nice.

And in the words of my pagan life-partner,

"Blessed Be"