The Phenomenal Egg-laying Machine- Part 2

Day 1 - 27th August 2008
All the 5 eggs from Icon's 6th nest hatched by 7 a.m. today. The last chick must have emerged from its shell sometime during the night as the mother has still to remove the egg-shell. Here are the 5 chicks:


The Icon pair have now had 25 chicks from 6 nests so far in the 2008 season. With the 12 chicks that they had from 4 nests in 2007, they have had 37 chicks in 2 years. Both parents still look in top breeding condition and I will probably let them continue to nest if they want as I am interested to see how many chicks a healthy pair can have in one season.

Apart from the Icon pair, I intend to stop all shama breeding for this year. Max's chicks are due today and after this nest I will separate the pair. I just have too many chicks this year to properly care for all of them.

As someone who line-breeds, I am always on the lookout to ensure that my breeding program is on the right track. One of the first indications that things are going wrong with a breeding program is reducing fertility. The abundant fertility of this 4th generation pair of Icon and his mate show that all is mostly well with the program.

From the 5th nest I have spotted a chick that has the potential to be outstanding. He has an upright posture and he flicks his tails well over his head. He is DDS152. Why did I band this chick DDS152 when my other chicks are being banded DDS220+? What happened was that I had forgotten to band the chicks from the 5th nest until last Sunday when I had taken out the chicks to show to Michael and his friend Dennis. It was only then that I realised that the chicks had not been banded. The usual bands were by then too tight to fit 2 of the 4 chicks but I found slightly larger bands that I had purchased but not used because they were too large. I had no alternative but to use the slightly larger bands and the two largest chicks were banded DDS152 and DDS153.

Day 2 - 28th August 2008
The chicks look almost the same but they have grown much larger. Their bodies have filled out and now occupy more of the nest.


Day 3 - 29th August 2008
By Day 3, the chicks are starting to feather out. The growth starts with the wings and the sprouting feathers can be seen. The chicks also respond more readily to stimuli such as a tap on the nest-box. This is all it takes to get them to gape for food. The mother has continued to brood the chicks but she spends more and more time outside the nest and is kept busy feeding the chicks. The chicks are now big enough to generate their own warmth and it is no longer critical for them to receive their mother's warmth. I expect that tonight, the mother will roost outside the nest-box but close to it.

As can be seen, the mother is looking after the chicks well. I only mention the mother as Icon has never himself fed the chicks or removed their droppings. He is the ultimate macho male and only uses the hen to satisfy his needs. He does look into the nest sometimes and he can be aggressive if other shamas are brought close to his aviary but on the whole he leaves the care of the chicks to his mate. This is unlike some of my other males who take a great part in bringing up the young. Some of my males will even brood the eggs when the hen is outside.



Day 4 - 30th August 2008
Last night, the mother did not brood the chicks as they are sufficiently feathered to provide their required warmth. I removed the chicks today for hand-feeding as the mother is feeding the chicks less and seems to want to nest again. Also, with 5 chicks in the nest, it is becoming a bit over-crowded.

Compare the photo below with the Day 3 photo and it will be seen that there has been substantial growth in one day. BTW, to have a good comparison of growth, I have taken all the photographs at about 7.30 am each morning.


Day 5 - 31st August 2008
Its 5 days since the last egg hatched. However, the eldest chick was hatched about a day earlier and it is about 6 days old. The eyes open at about 6 days. The wings are continuing to feather and so is the ridge along the back.


Day 6 - 1st September 2008
This is what shama chicks look like 6 to 7 days after hatching. The wing feathers are still in their sheaths. The chicks will probably start to preen to open up the sheaths tomorrow or the day after. It will be seen that the youngest chick (lower, left) looks like the eldest chick in the Day 5 photo and this suggests that he is a day younger.

The Icon pair are still in top breeding condition but I have decided to stop all my shama breeding for this year as my helper is finding it difficult to manage so many birds. I have separated all the breeding pairs in preparation for the molt.

Next year, I intend to do little or no breeding in my home and to reduce the number of adult shamas that I have in my home so that that I can concentrate on their training which I find more enjoyable than breeding at this stage.

Day 7 - 2nd September 2008


Day 8 - 3rd September 2008


Day 9 - 4th September 2008

By the 9th/10th day the feathers have developed in their sheaths and the ends of the feathers are emerging. The chicks are almost fully grown. The bulging eyes that we saw at birth and the first few days have become almost normal as the head has grown. Also, the wide beaks are narrowing.


The eldest chick was placed on scales. An egg is about 6 grams. About 20% of the weight is lost during incubation and at hatching, a chick will on average weigh less than 5 grams. By the time it is ready to leave the nest it is almost 5 times the weight at hatching. The white stuff that you see on the scale are bits of the sheath from the wing feathers that have sloughed. The chick will preen its feathers to remove the sheath and open up its feathers.


Day 10 - 5th September 2008


By the morning of day 10/11, the eldest chick is fully feathered. That's him at the top left of the photo. The wide beak has continued to narrow. Always, the last part of the chick to fully feather is the head. Often, even when the chick leaves the nest, the head has not fully feathered.

To show the extent of growth, I placed an egg beside the eldest chick in the photo below.


This is the 2nd eldest chick. The eldest chick (in the photo with the egg) is actually about .3 grams lighter. By the 10th day, the chicks are starting to slim down as they lose body mass. They still continue to eat ravenously but the growth is mainly in the feathers.


The 2 eldest chicks emerged from the nest today. The older in the morning and the younger in the afternoon. The remaining 3 chicks are expected out tomorrow.


Day 11 - 6th September 2008
All the chicks were out of their nest by 11 am this morning.


Day 12 - 7th September 2008
The chicks were banded today.

The Phenomenal Egg-laying Machine

How many nests of chicks can a pair of shamas raise in a breeding season? In a scientific study of wild shamas on the island of Oahu in Hawaii, it was found that pairs would have 1 to 2 nests. The pairs with 2 nests were the more matured birds. I have also seen advertisements in Indonesian cage birds’ magazines proclaiming that 6 nests can be had from one pair each season. These advertisements are meant to lure people into buying and breeding shamas with the advertiser promising to buy the chicks. These advertisements are much like those many years ago inviting people to breed ostrich and dangling untold riches as bait.

My own experience over many years suggests that mature shamas in captivity that are provided with plentiful live food and a suitable environment, can raise 3 to 4 nests successfully each season. Captive shamas can raise more nests than those in the wild probably because they have a plentiful supply of live food and do not need to expend time and energy to hunt.

If the female is bred in her first year after she has completed her molt from juvenile, she will probably have only 1, or at the most, 2 nests. This is because a first year female will only be in breeding condition after she is more than 8 months of age and she can be expected to have a full or partial molt by the time she is a year old.

In my many years of shama breeding, I had not taken efforts to test the maximum number of nests that a pair can have under ideal conditions. This is because, I usually separate a pair after they have had 1 to 3 nests as I am not a commercial breeder and have no wish to be inundated with chicks.

Last year, I bred the pair of Icon and DDS139 for the first time. They had a total of 12 chicks from 4 nests of which 6 were male. The quality of the males ranged from very good to excellent with one of them, Longbow, being one of the best males I have ever bred.

I was curious to know how many chicks a pair can have under the conditions in which I breed shamas i.e. without any vitamin or mineral supplementation except for vitamin B. At the start of the breeding season this year, I decided to have a repeat mating of the exceptional pairing of Icon and DDS139 and to let them have as many nests as they can manage without detriment to their health or that of their offspring.

It would be most unsatisfactory to write about a Phenomenal Egg Laying Machine without showing readers a photograph of her. This is what she looks like today. I took the photo when she left the nest for a few minutes to stretch her muscles:


First Nest
The pair was placed in my indoor aviary at the end of April. The size of the aviary is 3’ x 5’ x 7'(H). On 16th April, the hen commenced sitting on 6 eggs. Five eggs hatched. The remaining egg was infertile. Because the hen had commenced sitting only when all the eggs were laid, the chicks hatched within a day and all were more or less the same size.

I should mention that this pair had also been bred in my indoor aviary last year and they were used to human traffic. They also did not mind if I occasionally checked the nest.

Only 2 of the 5 chicks from the first nest were male. Their bands were DDS206 and DDS207. DDS207 went to Jeffrey Low. This is DDS207:



DDS207 has very good structure and exceptional character. His drawback (if it can be regarded as a drawback) is that his primary tails are only about 5". My taimongs with short tails can be expected to have tails exceeding 10" after the first molt and more than 12" by the 3rd molt. For example, SuperModel's taimong tails were only 4 3/4" and he had tails exceeding 12" by the third molt.

The other male, DDS206 went to Taufik. This is what he looks like:


Jeffrey happened to choose first and his choice was DDS207. Justin and I would have chosen DDS206 as the chick that showed more potential. In fact, because DDS206 was my preference, I had given more care to him (by way of taking him out for car rides etc)than DDS207.

Jeffrey says that he chose DDS207 because he likes his posture and his aggressiveness and because there is something in him which Jeffrey's experience with shamas tells him will result in an exceptional bird. Jeffrey showed DDS207's aggressiveness recently, by placing an adult singing male on each side of him. Unlike most taimongs which would tend to keep still in such company, DDS207 displayed and sang his loud song.

DDS206 is also aggressive and, as I have mentioned, Justin and I would have chosen him. However, both chicks have their good points and it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Anyway, I am happy that both Jeffrey and Taufik are happy with their chicks and I know that they are well able to care for and develop them to their full potential. Already these 2 chicks have attracted much favourable comment and I am glad that they went to my friends.

Second Nest
In the 2nd nest, the hen commenced sitting after laying 4 eggs but she did not sit at night so I suspected she would lay a fifth egg. She did and after doing so commenced to brood. I should mention that in the early days of brooding, the hen tends to emerge from the nest-box more often than towards the time of hatching. All the 5 eggs were fertile and 5 chicks hatched. Three of the chicks were large, 1 slightly smaller and 1 very small reflecting a difference of 2 days between the eldest chicks and the youngest.

I usually do not offer earthworms to my chicks but I did for those of the 2nd nest. On the evening of the 3rd day after hatching, I could hear the chicks calling to be fed when neither of the parents was at the box. This was a sure indication that the parents were not feeding the chicks or the chicks were not being fed enough. I removed the nest box and discovered that the chicks were suffering from diarrhoea. The cause was probably contaminated earthworms. I removed the chicks for hand-feeding. The youngest chick died 2 days later but the other 4 were fine by the end of May.

Third Nest
The third clutch of eggs was laid at the end of May. With this clutch, the female sat during the day from the laying of the third egg but emerged from the box and roosted alongside her mate until all the 5 eggs were laid when she commenced sitting in earnest. Four eggs hatched and the fifth egg was infertile.
DDS216 from the 3rd nest:


Fourth Nest
Towards the end of June, the female laid her 4th clutch of eggs. There were only 4 eggs in this clutch. Three hatched and the last egg was infertile. I was considering separating the pair as the number of eggs being laid seemed to be reducing. However, the hen started to mend her nest so I left the couple together.

Here is DDS225 from the 4th nest. He is 43 days old.


Fifth Nest
There were 5 eggs. Four hatched and 1 was infertile. Here are the 4 chicks together with 2 chicks from Max:


Sixth Nest
Today, 15th August, the hen commenced sitting on her 6th nest below:


The pair seem to still be in peak condition with no sign of molt.

From the 5 nests of chicks so far, I have banded 20 chicks for an average of 4 chicks per nest. About half of the chicks are male. I have parted with only 2 of the male chicks so far. I intend to keep the remaining chicks until after their first molt so that I can assess how they turn out.

Just as last year, all the offspring from Icon and his mate seem to have plenty of potential. None of them should be overlooked. Last year, I did not train the chicks and only separated them when they were about to molt. My friend Willima Kwa wanted one for his good friend. I caught one at random with a net for him from the third nest. The taimong tails were only 5.6" but it had 13" tails after the first molt. Longbow, from the same nest, had taimong tails that were shorter. After the first molt the tails were 11 1/4". It is now completing its 2 molt and the tails are already about 13" as shown in the photo taken below: