Category Archives: Breeding

Hand Feeding Baby Seraphim

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Seraphim are often inattentive parents. They usually feed only one baby, they feed lightly, and they leave the baby to themself most of the day by the time they are ten days old. There are exceptions, but it’s the norm. Daily checks on any two newly hatched youngsters should begin on day two to make sure they are both being fed. If the parents always ignore the second hatchling and let it die, you may want to be prepared to have a baby fostered by a pair of another breed, hand-reared in the house, or supplemented in the nest with baby bird formula. If you don’t want to deal with any of the consequences of inadequate parenting, you can candle the eggs at one week and, if both are fertile, simply discard one (or put it under another pair of another breed) so the parents have just one baby to manage.

Thankfully, if it is necessary to hand-rear a baby it is remarkably easy to manage for the few weeks it takes to grow it up to weaning size. Here are the steps: 1. Keep some Kaytee Baby Bird Formula on hand. You can order it from Amazon. 2. Make sure you have a Toomey Syringe (50-70cc’s with a large tapered-tip, or an equivalent device) to feed it, as this will work for all babies from age 3 days and up. 3. Decide if the threatened baby can stay in the nest or needs to be fully managed in the house. If it is secure where it is and is just being underfed, the best option is to leave it in the nest and supplement it twice daily with formula. The parents won’t care – just make it a quick in and out visit.

If you’ve left the neglected baby with its parents, keep an eye on the crop when you go out daily to give formula, as sometimes the parents will start feeding the baby. If so, that’s great, but keep a watchful eye and check it daily. They are never as attentive to the second one as the first if they start with that pattern and may stop feeding it again at any time.

In the house it’s easiest to keep the babies in a regular pigeon nest bowl in a small pet carrier. I put a coconut fiber pad down, a paper towel, and then put the baby on top of it, pack Kleenex snugly around it, and then cover it lightly with fluffed Kleenex. If the baby is just three – five days old it may need some supplemental heat, but after five days they generate enough on their own that simply keeping them covered is enough. They DO need to be touched, handled, and stimulated in order to grow up without neurologic deficits, as all babies do, so don’t just feed them and otherwise completely ignore them. Rub their heads and backs when you walk by and talk to them. A small soft furry stuffed animal can be put on top of small babies so they can burrow into something that feels vaguely soft and alive. Make sure they are tucked in snugly for the first two to three weeks to avoid splayed legs; never put them on a smooth surface where their legs can slide off to the sides – they will grow like that and get stuck. Splayed legs can be treated by tying them together with twine for several days so they are tucked back under the baby and remain straight, but if it’s bad enough and uncorrectable your baby will have to be euthanized. Once they are 8-10 days old, they can be left uncovered but snugly tucked in on the sides with nesting material of your choice. They begin to get pretty lively and generate a lot of heat once their quills start coming in, so you have to keep expanding their space as they grow.

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The babies above have just been fed. Both babies are very alert and content, and their crops are stuffed full. Below is a video of the same two babies at about three weeks of age demonstrating how quick and easy it is to feed baby Seraphim:

Once they are approaching a month old it’s time to start weaning. Leave a small bowl in their cage with a typical seed mix in it. They will automatically start pecking at it little by little, especially if you let them get hungrier between feedings. Continue to feed formula as needed, as it’s a gradual process. By five to six weeks of age they can be put out into the loft with the other pigeons. Put them in a box in the corner, tipped on its side so they can run in and out. A bowl of food and water is placed just outside the box. Check them twice a day and feel their crop to make sure they are eating and drinking. They may still need a formula schedule for a few days, so just keep a close eye on them.

If one is attending to an incubator hatched Seraph, special nutritional issues can arise due to the baby having no source for pigeon crop milk, the high protein, high fat fluid that comes from the parents’ crops for the first 7-10 days. It is always better to have newly hatched squabs fed by parents for a week or so if that is possible. Using foster parents if you have them is the best way to go. 

However, if you do have tiny 1-to-3-day-old babies to attend to which likely didn’t get enough crop milk from the parents (or none, if hatched in an incubator) it can get a bit tricky. Here’s some advice from Pearlie Guerzo of Little Beaks Loft in Wisconsin: “Ideally, you have a bird or pair feeding and raising the baby at least for the first 10 days. In cases of absence of parents or rejection of the baby, the following may be of benefit. 1. First of all, use supplemental heat, gradually turning the temperature down to room temperature by age ten days. As hatchlings, keep them in the incubator unless feeding. The formula for feeding should be warm. If the babies get chilled, they get crop slowdown and food may not pass out of the crop. 2. Although Kaytee Baby Bird Formula is used successfully, it is really made for hookbill type birds which have different nutritional requirements for the first two weeks of life than pigeons and doves. The company Roudybush makes a Squab Formula specifically for pigeons in the first two weeks of life. In my opinion newly hatched babies seem to do better on it. The only downside I notice is that there are tiny pieces of grit in it and unless you sift it out, it gets stuck in the tiny syringe tip used to feed them for the first five days. After ten days one may switch to Kaytee Baby Bird Formula if desired as nutritional requirements change. 3. Once the babies are 7-10 days old, it is extremely beneficial to switch them to regular pigeon feed that has been soaked for four days, with a pinch of tiny grit added once a day. They will practically eat by themselves by age 10-15 days. It is extremely important to switch to seeds after ten days or they don’t grow as well. Soaking the seeds for four days increases the nutritional value of the seed as they are almost beginning to sprout. Also, having them see the seeds and eat them so early makes weaning a non-issue. If you syringe feed for too long you end up with a two-month-old bird that still won’t eat on its own.”

I have no doubt there are many other ways to handle the feeding of orphaned babies, but the above two definitely work. If the reader has additional experience that may be helpful, please drop me a line at cozmd@aol.com!  

David Coster

 

Sorting Your Seraphim

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The best time to photograph young birds is during the annual sorting. Photographs allow buyers of your Seraphim to have a clear vision of the quality of your birds.

Whether you breed your Seraphim year-round or establish a “season” for breeding, you will at some point need to stop and evaluate the result of your efforts. For your own sake, and that of your breeding birds, it is most advisable to designate a period of months for reproduction followed by a period of rest and evaluation. The period of rest is a great time to evaluate and finally sort your birds.

As you know by now, Seraphim and all other Fancy breeds have an annual molt at the end of the summer, generally beginning in late August in the Northern hemisphere and ending at the latest by mid-November. The winter period after the molt (October and on) is thus riddled with show schedules, culminating in the big national show in January, since the birds look their best during that period of time.

Because of the timing of the annual molt as well as the annual show schedules, most breeders will set up their mating pairs between January and March and terminate the breeding season by August. Your birds will never look better than they do for the few months after the molt, and will never look worse than they do during the breeding season attending to messy little babies day in and day out, so there is a definite method to this scheduling madness.

If there is a special annual show or two where you always like to attend and show your birds, it’s important to work around them with your breeding schedule so that your adults all look their best for the show and the annual young have had the chance to molt into adult plumage as well. It’s also important to keep in mind that feeding youngsters and molting simultaneously is pretty tough on the adults nutritionally. Either the parent or offspring can suffer from protein malnutrition under such circumstances, so additional protein in the diet will be needed, along with more fat and vitamins.

Most breeders split up the pairs at the end of the breeding season and separate the cocks and the hens. This forces the hens to stop laying eggs and makes it easier to re-pair with different mates the next year if desired. If you keep your pairs together year-round, removing the next boxes will minimize nesting attempts. If a pair goes to nest during the annual rest-period, replace the new eggs laid with wooden eggs. This will keep the pair occupied and prevent them from laying eggs immediately again after removal. Seraph hens have a limited number of egg follicles and by age seven will typically stop laying. Controlling the rate of egg laying can extend fertility. Starting breeding control just before the molt in August will allow them to hold on to that pure white magnificence you want for show purposes, and all the babies hatched before August will almost always be in top form for show by December at the height of the show season. Nearly all of the birds in your loft will be potentially show-able using this schedule.

The other thing such a schedule does for the loft manager is give them a break from the work intensity of the breeding schedule and an opportunity to study and thoroughly evaluate their birds. Obviously, every loft owner will manage their flock as they please since their birds can and will breed year around if given the chance, but it doesn’t hurt to maintain a reasonable and healthy schedule for all parties involved.

When it comes time for sorting the fruits of my labor each year, this is how I do it: I breed from a few pairs each year, and each pair is assigned a color to designate that family line. For instance, the SeaHorse line is pink, the James line is blue, etc. (I name my birds.) At banding time, each chick is given a numbered band on one leg and a colored family line band on the other. In this manner I can watch and study the offspring as they grow up, maintain a pedigree, and easily record changes that help me identify them later.

In mid-October I go out late one night with a flashlight and pick all the birds up and put them in travel carriers. The next morning, they are all placed in show cages, with the parents heading up their line of offspring for the year. The youngsters are divided by gender, and the most superior cock and hen in the line-up is moved ahead to the two cages nearest the parents; these will be part of my show team and/or kept for my own breeding program as long as they are at least High Standard quality. The rest are marked for sale or re-homing, even if they too are high quality and intended for show. I do the same thing with the next line, and the next until I have located the best cock and best hen from each line. If any birds are identified that have faults that make them useless as breeding pairs, those birds are marked for placement in a free flock that I keep out at the farm or give to people who want something pretty just to watch in an outdoor aviary. Some people euthanize birds that don’t advance the show-quality nature of their lofts – it’s a common practice in fact – but I find it to be terribly distasteful and always look for other options.

I then line up the best young cocks from all lines, and the best young hens from all lines. I again compare.  I then make the final decision about which will be kept for my breeding program, depending upon the family lines and how they should be interbred and whether or not there are birds present that can advance a particular characteristic in the flock that needs improvement. Finally, I decide how to make pairs from the young birds I’ve decided to keep based on their attributes and deficiencies; when the next breeding season arrives, the chosen pairs are placed together in small cages for a week or so until they are bonded.

Having now decided which birds you are keeping for your own loft and which you want for show competition, the “For Sale” birds are identified (the “for show” categories and “for sale” categories will always overlap, as will the “to keep” and “for show” categories) by band number in a ledger. Already you need to begin thinking about how to pair them to fill orders, taking into account the strengths and weaknesses of each bird. It’s important to know when filling orders whether the buyer is a serious breeder who will show birds, wants them for a backyard aviary, or will be flying them in a free flock. The most exceptional birds adhering to the Show Standard should be reserved for serious breeders. Poor quality birds should simply not be sold, unless they will be functioning in a non-breeding situation. Of the “For Sale” birds, you should always pair family lines that are compatible genetically and will likely result in exceptional or outstanding offspring, and the good qualities of one bird or family line should offset any less than superior qualities in the other bird or family line.

Ultimately, this sorting process will also answer another necessary question: Are you producing top-quality birds with your current mated pairs? If you discover that the birds from one line are all inferior to the others, you must decide whether or not to continue that line, split the parents and pair them with different mates, or completely take those parents out of the breeding program. Sorting in the manner described can help answer that question and assure that you are constantly improving quality from year to year.

Finally, it’s important to keep and maintain your foundation birds. As the years go by you will rotate your older birds out of the breeding schedule to some degree. Nevertheless, if you have exceptional older birds that are the genetic foundation for your entire program, birds from which you can retrieve qualities that might be lost due to unexpected complications from breeding younger birds, you will always be okay.

David Coster

Breeding Seraphim Pigeons

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THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY OF BREEDING SPECIALTY ANIMALS

A Seraph cock out of the loft of Anya Ellis. This fine bird demonstrates the exquisite qualities of Seraphim created in a carefully planned breeding program. Outstanding features of this bird include the strong skull, downturned beak, needle-point peak, very deep unbroken mane, wonderfully full chest frill, prominent wing-butts held out from the chest, long beautiful line, finely feathered legs and toes, and overall angelic aura. This is a near perfect Seraph from the 2009 Show Standard. 

If a choice is made to breed Seraphim, the fancier should always make every effort to breed from the best birds they have (or can get) and breed with a clear eye toward the Standard of the Breed. (Please refer to the article on The Show Standard.) This is true regardless of the purpose for maintaining ownership of Seraphim, and regardless of the number of Seraphim kept.

“Why?” you might ask. Good question. Let’s talk about it.

A visual of the modern Classic Oriental Frill Show Standard by Diane Jacky, as drawn for the National Classic Oriental Frill Club, Est 2003.

The only reason Seraphim exist is that an experienced Fancy Pigeon breeder noticed an unusual mutation in her loft and focused on it. Ten years of careful husbandry and genetic study finally led to the recognition of Seraphim as a separate breed or variety due to their particular combination of expressed genetic traits. Developed from the Old-Fashioned (Classic) Oriental Frill of the 1930’s type, Seraphim are substantially different in appearance and behavior from the Classic Oriental Frill of today due to the consolidation of their specific genetic traits by careful breeding. Like any designer domestic animal, Seraphim will vanish if their particular genetic characteristics are not kept and maintained within their gene pool. This is thanks to nearly forty years of painstaking work to refine and concentrate the genetic expression of their particular traits. In spite of the passage of so much time, the Seraph remains a Rare Breed. It is one of the newest recognized Fancy Pigeon varieties in existence and is not widely available. Thus, great care must be taken with the population in existence.

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The 2017 Seraphim Standard of Perfection as depicted in the NPA Book of Standards.

The message is simple. If you love the beauty of Seraphim, you simply must properly maintain the genetic pool to be able to continue to see and enjoy them. Otherwise they will vanish.

By definition, all Seraphim are related. None exist that did not originate from the original two males that hatched in 1986. The color genetics are set and well understood today, but the details that make the perfect Seraph structurally – like the enlarged skull, downturned pink beak, upright stance, curvy figure, long feathering, finely feathered toes, wing carriage, deep swoop and mane, huge frill, and personality are genetic traits inherited and expressed in more subtle ways that require constant care to maintain the breed. One must pay attention to all of these traits at once and carefully match up their birds to get babies that are as close as possible to the Show Standard. Always working toward that goal reinforces the inheritance and stabilization of genetic traits in the pool of breeding birds.

Breeding to The Show Standard can be very difficult, and sometimes it doesn’t work as expected. Seraphim are genetically complicated. How genes go together and are expressed can be very hard to predict. One must be prepared for failure as well as unexpected good luck. One must also be willing to experiment at times just to see what will happen if they try something new.

BEST METHOD FOR PAIRING YOUR SERAPHIM FOR BREEDING (To be read in conjunction with the article entitled “Sorting Your Seraphim.”)

The Purist Approach. This could also be called “Breeding Strictly to the Standard,” “Breeding to Win,” “Breeding for Show,” “Scientific Breeding,” “Pedigree Breeding,” or “Objective Breeding.”  It is a process of strictly pairing best to best or pairing to eliminate flaws and enhance perfection. This is the gold standard. For those who are emotionally attached to their birds it can seem unappealing. Seraphim will self-pair if given the chance, and Seraphim pairs act as if they are in love and are generally monogamous. Splitting them up and assigning them to a different mate for the purpose of creating Seraphim closer to the show standard may therefore seem cruel. However, they are highly adaptable and will typically mate with the assigned partner regardless. 

In an ideal loft, one has various rooms and compartments for their Seraphim. There is a room for Old Cocks, a room for Young Cocks, a room for Old Hens, a room for Young Hens, a room for Juveniles too young yet to be sexed, and one or more Breeding Rooms. After careful study and observation, the breeder will decide which birds he/she wants to cross each year in their attempt to create Seraphim that are as close as possible to the Standard. Those pairs will – usually in January or February, or early Spring if the loft is unheated – be taken to the Breeding Room where each pair will be temporarily locked into a breeding cage but separated by a see-through wire divider until their behavior indicates they have accepted each other and will bond to each other. The divider is removed, and once mating has occurred and eggs are laid, the breeding cage is opened so they can fly about in the Breeding Room and outside if there is an attached aviary. This technique assures precise parentage of the offspring, exact pedigrees (lineage of the young), and a relatively calm experience for the breeding parents. The breeder will soon see which pairs produce the finest specimens, and the next year the finest specimens will be used for the next breeding season. This approach constantly concentrates the best characteristics of the Seraphim flock. Many birds that are not used for the breeding program may be very fine specimens of show quality. Such birds often carry the necessary qualities to produce outstanding offspring and can be sent to other pigeon fanciers to work with. Such choices can be very difficult and might even prove to be wrong, but the advantage to a fancier looking for a pair or more of Seraphim is that the breeder with such a controlled program will choose the best birds from their non-breeders for sale, and with careful technique the new owner can expect to bring out the same superior show characteristics as the original breeder.

What if you don’t have space to separate your birds into categories in various pens as described above, yet you want to breed for Show and constantly improve your flock? “The Purist Approach can still be used in a single small room by using breeding cages for every pair for every round of breeding you allow. By carefully sorting your young birds every year (See the article on “Sorting Your Seraphim”) you can maintain your small flock for both show and breeding and personal enjoyment and provide high quality birds for other fanciers at the same time.

The main thing is to be thoughtful about controlling the breeding process. Even if you have no intention of showing your Seraphim, they should still be bred as if you do. Thus, the breed can constantly be improved and standardized. Don’t create lots of birds you don’t have room for or don’t know what to do with. You can control populations in various ways, such as limiting artificial light (Seraphim will cease laying eggs in the winter during short days), replacing eggs with faux wooden eggs and selling extra Seraphim, or giving them away to others who want some for their back yard dove cote.

THE BREEDING PROCESS: How it works, and what to expect.
Seraphim can successfully breed as early as eight months of age, though when starting so early they may have a couple of sterile clutches before finally having success. Most breeders would recommend waiting until 10 months of age to assure that maturation has been reached and one can expect a healthy reproductive cycle. Young cocks will generally declare their gender by four months of age when they become more aggressive and begin the classic courtship dance of pigeons everywhere, cooing loudly, standing very tall with neck feathers fluffed out, fanning their tail, and puffing up their crop. The hens, for their part, at about the same age may softly coo in response and even demonstrate a little dance themselves, bobbing their heads and lightly flicking their long flight feathers, puffing up, and fanning their tails; but their display is dramatically subdued compared to the male. It can be very difficult to determine the sex of young Seraphim up to even eight months, as both sexes will demonstrate some of the same behaviors up to that point and the cock’s cooing and dance may be a little pathetic until the full force of testosterone hits. Hens may even mount cocks at this age and seemingly go through the mating act while the cock allows it. This is why juveniles are, when possible, housed in separate quarters until it can be deduced who is whom. Adults are often very nearly the same size, so one cannot use size to determine the sex of the bird, except that the male head is usually larger and wider. Hens may become very impatient with other hens at maturity, pecking them and yanking out a feather or two and knocking them off the perches when given a chance, all of them vying for attention from the cocks.

A Seraph cock dancing in full courtship display.

A winning dance, apparently. The Seraph cock with daytime nest duties.

If you purchase a single pair, they may essentially be strangers to each other, and it will take a few days for them to settle into their new home. They will explore it carefully, as they are quite inquisitive little creatures. Very quickly they (almost always) will be bonded and be looking for a nest site, so if you intend to control the location of the breeding area in the loft, be prepared to place a nest bowl, box, or breeding cage within a week of the pair’s arrival, or they’ll pick their own spot someplace and begin building a nest on a secluded portion of a ledge. Also be sure there is plenty of grit and oyster shell calcium available at this time during the breeding cycle, and that you are using a high protein breeder mix for feed, at least 18% with added peas and safflower throughout the entire time period.

Seraphim, being a bit shy, prefer more privacy in their nest sites than some other breeds; a dark nest cavity that can be crept into is preferred, no larger than a 12-inch cube. Clay nest bowls can be obtained from Foy’s Supplies; they have air holes in the bottom to prevent condensation and are heavy so they can’t tip over. Add a coconut fiber pad to the bowl. As soon as the nest bowl is placed, the cock will fly over to inspect it and begin a dramatic display, calling the hen over to take a look. If she likes it, she’ll begin making low-pitched sounds, puff her feathers, and slink into the nest bowl on crouched feet, flicking her flight feathers. She may crawl right under the cock and remain there cuddled with him. The two of them will spend many hours cooing and billing while sitting there together. This will go on for a few days, and then the cock will begin loading up the nest with sticks and twigs while the hen stays put. She will spend longer and longer periods of time in the nest bowl.

About this time, you may notice some other behaviors. The cock will stay beside the hen closely, no matter what is going on in the loft. At feeding time, he will chase her around, pecking lightly but urgently at her back, barely letting her eat. He will aggressively chase any other suitors away from the hen. The hen will start taking more calcium.  The pair will begin to spend more time away from the prepared nest and the rest of the flock, seeking a space of solitude where they cannot be interrupted. They will find a secluded place on a ledge or in a corner on the floor. Here there will be a lot of billing and posturing. The cock will walk repeatedly around the hen. The hen may crouch intermittently, flicking her wing lightly on one side. At some point, the cock will stand tall, turn his head, and reach over his back and repeatedly comb one of his long primary flight feathers. This is the sign that mating is desired and about to occur. Critically, though, the hen has to respond with precisely the same combing motion, or the invitation to mate will be deemed a failure by the cock, and he’ll once again begin walking around the hen, bowing and cooing and attempting to get her in the mood. When the hen responds back to the cock with the same head over the back combing motion, they will alternate the motion back and forth for a few seconds, and then the hen will abruptly crouch very low to the ground, head down and tail slightly up. This is the invitation to mount (tread) that the cock has been waiting for. He will carefully step up, and with a brief flapping of wings touch his cloacal opening to hers, and the deed will be done. He will then prance around like the king of the universe while she first puffs up and shakes out her feathers (much like straightening a dress, comically). The cock will then loudly fly up to the nest, wings popping against each other, and the hen will follow. A few such matings will occur in the days leading up to egg laying.

Once the hen has laid her first egg, you will notice the cock sitting – alone and unmoving – in the nest bowl during the day, even if you walk close to the nest. Don’t go any closer. He will just stare at you. You don’t want him to bolt, as his stillness is evidence that an egg is present. Mark the date, as it will hatch in 18 days, and you will need to be ready to check the youngsters soon after hatching to make sure all is going well. You can assume there will be another egg the next day, as pigeons almost always lay two eggs one day apart. Once the clutch is complete, the cock alone will incubate the eggs during the daylight hours and the hen will incubate during the night.

At seven days you may carefully flush the cock off the nest to see what is going on. By then the cock is strongly attached to the nest and will return immediately when you leave. The eggs can be examined to check for fertility. Shine a penlight through them or use the flashlight app on your cell phone. If fertile, you’ll see the embryo surrounded by blood vessels overlying the yolk sac. Put them back and don’t bother them again. If they are not fertile, they can be removed to stimulate another round of egg laying within a couple of weeks. If one egg is fertile, leave them both. On the last day or two of the incubation cycle, you might notice that the hen is sometimes on the nest during the day. She knows the eggs are about to hatch.  Don’t bother the nest or parents at all at this stage.

A very sleepy 5 day old Seraph chick.

The same little twerp @ 4 weeks, nearly ready to leave the nest.

With any luck the eggs will hatch at 18 days. The babies are tiny and covered with a light golden down. It doesn’t seem possible that they could be strong enough even to eat with assistance, but miraculously they do. You don’t have to check the nest right away. If you watch the parent for a while, you will notice him/her checking underneath periodically; you may hear peeping, and you may notice the parent shifting position fairly frequently. You might even see a little head pop up. Both parents will feed the babies a mix of “crop milk” the first couple of days, followed by crop milk and seeds they regurgitate into the babies’ beaks, and eventually just seed mixed with water. The hen will sit very tight on the young the first day or two, and then she’ll finally let the cock take over with intermittent breaks. If there is still an infertile egg in the nest, this is the time to remove it. You will need to walk carefully to the nest and flush the parent off, as you need to check the health of the baby within two days of hatching. Its little crop should be full. If it is thin and peeping hysterically, then it is not being fed. If there is an unhatched egg beside it, remove the egg now. If the baby looks fine, then leave it alone for the next week while the parents are attending to it. Within ten days both parents will check on the young periodically, but they otherwise will leave them alone except for feeding or sitting next to them in the nest at night. The young grow insanely rapidly. What was a mere fluff on day one is a big fat squab at six days and is ready to be closed banded with a size 9 or 10 band by day 9 or 10. One can order bands from the National Pigeon Association as well as other sources. Show Pigeons are to be closed banded, i.e., the band is circular and without a seam; it has to be slid over the squab’s foot onto the portion of the leg just above the foot before the foot is too large. Otherwise, the band simply won’t fit, and the bird can only be banded with a seamless band. Birds without seamless bands can generally not be shown in competition.

By four weeks the young are nearly fully feathered and almost ready to leave the nest. In an ideal world they will stay in the nest until they are five weeks old and truly fully feathered, but they often leave the nest in a controlled loft a bit early. By this same time, the cock has often already scouted out a new nest site if one is available and is encouraging the hen to lay another clutch. Once the new clutch is laid, the cock again resumes his daytime incubation duties but also attends to the older chicks which may now be running around on the floor of the loft, feeding them and teaching them to use the feeder and water source, which they learn quickly. He will do double duty until the next chicks hatch, and by then the older ones are already up on a roost and managing on their own.

Youngsters can be left with their parents for many months as more and more offspring are added. The parents tend to be tolerant of their own until they reach full maturity at eight months or more of age. As long as there are plenty of perches and the older juveniles stay away from the parental nest box, a large family of Seraphim will get along quite well. If space is tight or squabbles are noted, it is best to move the older youngsters out to their own pen so the parents can have some peace.